A Glance At Power Supplies In Wireless Surround Sound Products

By Mike Heller


When putting in rear loudspeakers in your home entertainment system, you have several choices. Most people will just hard-wire the speakers to the surround receiver. But, some people choose to eliminate the speaker cable mess by employing wireless broadcast. Various suppliers are offering wireless loudspeaker sets that can change nearly any loudspeaker into a cordless speaker. The cordless receiver of these types of sets includes a sound power amp which needs to be powered. The power supplies for the cordless receiver must meet specific requirements. Within this editorial, I will spotlight several of the most crucial prerequisites.

The lengthy speaker cable from the front to the back of your space is eradicated through these products. On the other hand, there will still be wires. Since both the cordless transmitter as well as receiver need energy, you will see a power cable in between each one of these parts and the mains outlet. A number of models include an exterior AC adapter while others have a built-in power source. Both choices have advantages and disadvantages.

One particular advantage of a wallwart is that the receiver itself will be small sized. A lot of AC adapters are direct-plug-in kinds. Other types connect to the mains wall socket through a cord. A lot of today's laptops utilize a similar wallwart. From the perspective of a supplier, bundling a ac adapter offers a few positive aspects compared to a built-in power source. Firstly, based on what region the wireless kit will be sold in, a different AC adapter will be included which is compatible with the native mains voltage and power plug. Next, ac adapters are less difficult and significantly less expensive to safety approve in comparison with complete kits. Also, when a power supply becomes defective, it is actually easier and less costly to exchange only the power source as compared to the complete product. If the power source is integrated into the wireless receiver, the product will certainly become a little more bulky. But, the power cord of the receiver can be directly attached to a power outlet. As a result the installation becomes a little easier.

Now, I'll speak about which prerequisites the power supply needs to meet. Safety factors are key. Consequently, the power supply must conform to the safety standards that relate to each and every country that the system is distributed in. You'll find various safety requirements in various nations around the world. Then again, all of these regulations were created with the safety of the user at heart. One factor covered in nearly all standards is how effectively the user is protected from potential electric shock. Furthermore, the power supply mustn't overheat during typical function and also possess enough protection in the case of an overload. Power supplies which have passed safety assessments generally bear a UL or CE symbol. When the power supply is integrated into the cordless receiver then the receiver carries this logo.

The power source must supply ample power to the RF receiver as well as audio amp component. The RF receiver component decodes the wireless music transmission. The power source has to be dimensioned big enough to offer the audio amp with adequate current to drive a connected speaker at the specified RMS wattage level for at least 10 minutes. The RMS way of measuring is not very practical though. It is a lot more essential for the power supply to sustain quick bursts of high current. These bursts take place during peaks in the audio signal. The audio performance of the wireless receiver also is dependent upon how clean the power is which is provided by the power source. A large amount of voltage noise as well as ripple can cause the audio performance to diminish. Consequently voltage noise and ripple are a few more vital requirements. Some high-end music gear uses linear power sources in spite of their weight plus dimensions mainly because of the good noise behavior. The internal parts typically work from different supply voltages. Switched-mode power supplies normally offer a number of supply voltages and possess a number of protection mechanisms such as heat plus overload protection.




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