At the risk of starting another "cheap POS!" thread

jcaut

I picked up one of those little Sonic Impact Tripath amps. I thought I'd use it to drive some computer speakers, and if possible, I'd like to power IT from the PS in my computer. I read about this somewhere, but I can't find it now.

The wiring looks easy enough: I just thought I'd grab a spare 12V lead off the supply, fuse it and run it to a jack on the back panel of the PC. From there, I can build a cord to go to the amp. Is this a bad idea? In the write-up that I remember reading, but can't find, I think a cap was used in there somehow, but I don't remember how, or what value, etc.. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Sure I could just get a wall-wart PS and plug it in, but that'd be too easy...:)

Jason

unc2701

I assume that you're talking about the packaged 15w class T amp:
http://www.si-5.com/frontEnd/cm_productDetail.jsp?productID=18


In which case, yep you can do it if your power supply is beefy enough, no capacitors needed. Usually you'll see the amperage on each line (3.3v 5v, 12v, etc) printed on the side of the PS. According to the webpage above you need 2A, which isn't too bad, but I wouldn't try it on less than a 450watt PS.

If you're talking about the tripath module out of one of these, that's a whole new can of worms... and I'd just fork over the $39 rather than dealing with that.