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Amplifying PC Audio
bryan1945:
Hiub- asked my dad about car amps since he plays with 'em a bit, and they use a 12 volt power source. So if your computer's power supply can provide the 12v power without exceeding it's rated limit, then you'll be ok powering the amp from the computer. However, due to the transient nature of sound (lots of quick peaks rather than a constant norm) I would go with a separate power supply if you can.
As an electrical engineer, putting power supplies in series- pretty much a bad idea. Fires, explosions, chaos, cats & dogs living together will result.
An alternative is a home stereo amp. They tend to be bigger, though cheaper. If you have an old receiver/stereo, you can power your speakers through that.
Hope that helps.
B
Hiub:
Man, I was reading on some random car audio forum how some guy had a 12 volt battery hooked up to a charger in his room, and that's how he powered his amp and speakers. Not a smart kid by any means. Thats the same place where they mentioned wiring the power supplies in series too, I guess I'm not going around there any more. I have a couple of power supplies laying around, I am going to get my hands on a cheap amp and give it a try. Also, like I said, I am going to scrounge up a home stereo amp, and see how that goes.
Thanks again for the heads up, Fred.
seibu:
Two pieces of advice here:
1) Powering an amp from your PC's power supply can very often result in a ground loop. Several electrical people have told me that this is impossible, but I know what a ground loop sounds like! Any amp I power from my PC and then connect to the PC's sound card gives the classic ground loop buzz, which goes away when I put the PC sound signal through an external amp, or an external audio signal through the internal amp. Draw your own conclusions.
2) Remember that speakers depend on the resonance of the cabinet to make bass frequencies. At first I thought my speakers sounded weak and thin, because they were not screwed into anything. When screwed into the cab they sounded a lot better, and with the top fastened down (it's a cocktail) they sounded awesome!
gap:
I used one of the amp kits mentioned above.
More info here:
http://www.mamegap.com/audio.htm
Minwah:
Not neccessarily of use in this case, but SoundBlaster 16PCI's have a (small) built-in amp which outputs through the black 3.5mm jack - I just use this to power my (Happ) speakers. Obviously not audiophile quality, but for old arcade games it does a great job :)