I am really shocked at how little attention this subject gets. I am even more surprised when I consider that power is one of the top contributors to a great sounding system, or perhaps I should say that poor power is a certain road to a bad sounding system. There’s so many threads dealing with dedicated power lines and variations in system sound depending on what time of the day it is, yet so few people consider getting off the grid. There must be a reason that a battery powered system is not considered
What About LiFePO4 Batteries and Pure Sine Wave Inverters?
Lots of threads on dedicated AC circuits, but not much information regarding DC to AC battery driven systems. I never considered this as a power option because I assumed that the inverter would be noisy, but is this true? The setup is pretty simple where an AC/DC charger has the negative lead attached to the battery and the positive passes through an appropriate fuse on the way to the positive terminal. The on/off function can be a simple removal of the plug from the wall, or a smart wall plug. The charge state can be read from the charger, or you can add a wired, or Bluetooth battery monitor. The battery then feeds the inverter with a much larger fuse on the positive line to the input of the inverter. Your system is then plugged directly into the inverter, or at least your power conditioner is plugged into the inverter. Depending on battery capacity and system power usage, you can then run off the grid for many, or not so many hours. The problem is that it is difficult to find advice on such a power arrangement here on Audiogon. I’m just now putting together a system and I’m thinking that for better lithium battery life and shorter charge times, I want a larger capacity battery that I charge to 80%. I might also want an inverter that is oversize compared to the load that it experiences, in that most inverters turn on their fans when they reach 40% of their max power, or reach thermal trigger levels. The latter makes me think that mounting to a large aluminum surface might be thermally advantageous. Perhaps, someone that actually has some experience with this subject could offer some pointers.
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I was introduced to this topic by someone with a system much higher end than my system. He has a better ear for small changes. So, I was impressed when he told me that getting off the grid made a noticeable difference. So, when posting this topic, I thought that other closet DC members would contribute, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. Regardless, I’m moving forward with putting together such a system. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, manufacturers don’t make inverters for high end audio, but some do claim low EMF radiation. All inverters seem to be rated at less than 3% THD. Nobody reviews, or compares inverters for high end audio. So, getting the right inverter is probably critical. I have yet to receive all the components. I do have all the electronics, and a giant cable cutter, so I’ll be getting out my soldering iron and drill this week and should be up and running.. oh.. I’ll be using a Synergistic Research A/C Power Performance Enhancer plugged into the inverter and a Shunyata Everest 8000 will handle power distribution. Gary |
The learning curve when putting your own battery/inverter system together is pretty steep. The main goal is to not burn down your house and don’t fry your electronics. To that end, understanding how cable gauge is determined is very important. Also, it is pretty tough determining input power for components, but luckily power amps generally pull high power levels for short lived peaks. Other than @whart suggesting Living Voice, inverter selection for audio appears to be uncharted territory. I’ll be using both Synergistic Research power treatment via Juan @blisshifi which plugs into an open power socket on the inverter and my Shunyata Research Everest 8000 to hopefully tame any digital hash that comes along with the “pure sign wave”. Now waiting on cables. |
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