Sorry, this is rather long. But I want to provide detail which may help people make suggestions.
I have the original SLIMP3. It came with a 5v 1600ma power supply. I had been using it with a Carver M400 cube amplifier, with the RCA outputs of the SLIMP3 plugged into the Carver, and some KEF CODA 70's (speakers) being driven by the carver. I had two pairs of speakers on the Carver, providing a relatively low impedance to the amplifier. As a result, it didn't take much volume output on the part of the SLIMP3 to get rather loud output from the speakers. That was my old setup. I decided it took too much room. So I build a subwoofer with a built-in 2.1 amp. I got the amp, a Keiga, from Madisound. This one: http://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/keiga-amplifiers/keiga-kg3100-2.1-media-amplifier-50w-2x-25w/ I am using a single pair of satellite speakers made by Boston Acoustics (the Micro 110x). I connected the RCA outputs of the SLIMP3 to the RCA inputs of the Keiga, and was very unimpressed by the sound. I couldn't get much volume. Turning the SLIMP3 up beyond about 50 or 60% had little to no effect on what I'd get from the speakers. Having been getting terrific sound from the previous setup with the Carver and KEF, I assumed the problem was with the Keiga amp. I tested each of the speakers individually, they tested fine, and so I got the amp swapped. 2nd amp had the same problem. So I thought, "well, maybe this is all a little 2.1 amp can do." I was posting over at the Parts Express Techtalk forum, and someone mentioned that the input sensitivity of the Keiga amp was 80mV on the RCA inputs, and 3.5V on the phone jack input. They suggested I get a different cable, and connect the SLIMP3 there. Here is that thread: http://techtalk.parts-express.com/showthread.php?237547-Sinewave-2-1-amplifier I did, and what a difference THAT made. Now I could get the full range of volume control from the SLIMP3, it was louder, less distorted, just way better. BUT, it still wasn't quite what I was hoping for. During certain passages, I could detect a breathy quality. At lower volume levels, it was fine. Turning the SLIMP3 up to achieve louder levels (but not deafening), there were times when it seemed a lot of bass in the source material would cause the midrange frequencies to modulate (quiet) a tiny bit. So I did what I should have done a long time ago, and transferred a song to my phone, connected the cable to the Keiga, and use my phone to play that track back. What a difference! The bass was substantially stronger, but it didn't effect what was going on in the rest of the material. It was night/day. Doing a little research via Google brought me back to this forum, and discussions of power supplies. I read a bunch of stuff, and then found a 5V 2.2A (I think it is 2.2A, it is around there) power supply on a spare D-Link router, and it had the same barrel connector. So I plugged that into the SLIMP3, and again, what a difference. Now the SLIMP3 sounded more or less just like the output of my phone. But I plan on keeping that AC adapter with the router, and I would like to source a new power supply to work with the SLIMP3. Most of the talk here on power supplies seems to concentrate on newer units than the original SLIMP3, but I imagine some of the issues are the same. For example, I can find power supplies on Digikey that are 5V 3A for only $17.81 that say they are SWITCHING power supplies. But people here seem to talk quite a bit about linear power supplies. I've also found quite a few power supplies on eBay, but I'm not sure if they're linear, or switching, or regulated, or what. What should I be looking for in a power supply for my SLIMP3? Will a switching power supply work, and just not be as optimum as a linear power supply? Can a good switching power supply be as good as a linear power supply, when it comes to audio? Finally, I've run into a lot of motherboards with bad (leaky) caps, which I repair. I have never taken my SLIMP3 apart, but I wonder, is there any change there are caps inside the SLIMP3 that will eventually need to be replaced? Thanks for reading all this, and any comments. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ cgallery's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8925 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=98779 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
