[KingStyles]

Would you ever make a power regenerator? If you take one of your great black lightning battery packs and then have a way to convert that dc back to a perfect ac wave for output, I would buy one for each one of my components.

[Tommy123]

Great idea!

[Vinnie R.]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your posts. 

The short answer is "no" - I have no plans to offer DC-to-AC regeneration equipment.

The longer answer and explanation why (which is my opinion and I'm not looking to turn this into a debate):

Converting from pure DC back to AC, and then feeding AC powered components (which internally convert back to DC) is cumbersome, inefficient, and if not implemented very well, could be: Of little benefit, no benefit, or actually be worse than AC from your wall outlet.

In the case of power inverters (typically, these take a 12V car battery and output 120Vac or 240Vac), the output under load is far from clean sine wave.  There is a lot of high frequency switching noise as well.  Lots of hash, harmonics, etc.  So this would be a case where you would end up with output that is most likely worse than your wall outlet. 

Even in "cleaner" DC-to-AC designs (which could get very expensive), there is still the choking of instantaneous current under load due to the DC-to-AC conversion process, and other issues to deal with (the need for large and heavy batteries in order to feed power-hungry AC products like power amps, music servers, etc.).  Your wall outlet will have more power available (most home outlets have at least 15amp at 120Vac).  Getting that from a DC-to-AC converter would require BIG current draw on 12Vdc or 24Vdc batteries, or the use of a high voltage battery string (>100Vdc, which is very dangerous if one goes inside to tweak around with special tuning fuses or whatever ).

But even if perfect AC could be generated (a pure 50Hz or 60Hz sine wave, which all the current you could ever use), you still have the AC-to-DC conversion process inside your components (no matter if they use linear power supplies or switch-mode power supplies) because audio components run on DC.  In this internal conversion process, there are step-down transformers (or step-ups in the case of tube amps), rectification stages, regulation stages, etc. and they choke instantaneous current [which is why large storage caps are found in power hungry devices like power amps - in order to reduce voltage sag], and there is noise in the AC/DC conversion process - especially with switch-mode power supplies.  Transformers induce hum if not well shielded, diodes and regulators are limited in how much power they can provide.

This topic can go on and on, but I much prefer the "DC Direct" approach of using high-current LiFePO4 battery power to feed directly to the my components (even their tube stages and tube heaters) - no switching DC/DC converters, no tube or solid-state rectifiers, no transformers.  So there is NO internal AC to DC conversion process... high current DC is fed directly to our components.  I strongly believe in this approach and the results that it achieves. 

Cheers!

Vinnie

[KingStyles]

Thanks for the reply. Your post was very informative.

[Tommy123]

Thanks for the reply. Your post was very informative.

+1. Thanks for the thorough explanation.

[Vinnie R.]

+1. Thanks for the thorough explanation.

Sure thing!  I could have gone on and on - but I figured this was a decent "backgrounder." 

[Tommy123]

Sure thing!  I could have gone on and on - but I figured this was a decent "backgrounder." 

Do you think a TV or blu-ray player will benefit from a AC regenerator with battery?

[Vinnie R.]

Do you think a TV or blu-ray player will benefit from a AC regenerator with battery?

Well, it all goes back to what I wrote above about the quality of the AC regenerator, and the AC-to-DC conversion in the unit.

Inside TVs and Blu-Ray players these days are almost always switch-mode power supplies (especially with them needing to be "energy star" compliant").  They are also much cheaper and lighter - but they radiate high frequency hash and even with filtering to the circuitry, you can still see this when you scope the voltage rails.  So the noise is also conducted.

Feeding them with clean AC is still better than dirty AC (as dirty AC will still make its way into the unit), but my point is that there is still radiated and conducted noise INSIDE the unit in the AC-to-DC conversion process of these players.

Blu-Ray players run on many different voltages (e.g. 1.8V, 2.5V, 3.3V, 5V, 8V, +/-12V, and with the florescent displays [vs. LED], you'll find something like -28V or something like that).

Clean power does make a big difference.  A while back I converted a DVD player (720p) all on battery (it was a high end Denon player at the time) just as an experiment with a friend who is a "videophile."  The battery power conversion with linear regulation made a very noticeable improvement (and at the time, he was using component video).  The image was much cleaner and more focused.  Even the "splash screen" when you turn on the player that displays the logo was more crisp.  It was immediate - getting rid of the SMPS and going DC direct was much better.  But it was a lot of work and not something that was easy or practical to offer. 

Vinnie

[Tommy123]

Thanks Vinnie.

The DVD player conversion part is very interesting to me. I understand you can't offer it as a product, but do you do this kind of modification on an individual basis? (I am planning to buy a blu-ray player next year and am looking at different mod options).

[Vinnie R.]

Thanks Vinnie.

The DVD player conversion part is very interesting to me. I understand you can't offer it as a product, but do you do this kind of modification on an individual basis? (I am planning to buy a blu-ray player next year and am looking at different mod options).

Hi Tommy123,

Yes - its definitely possible

Look me up when the time comes...

Vinnie

[Tommy123]

Hi Tommy123,

Yes - its definitely possible

Look me up when the time comes...

Vinnie

Fantastic!