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TechTalk: Plugging in the power into a power amplifier
Our Amp2, Amp100 and Beocreate amplifiers are not powered by 5V, but with a power power supply that can provide much more power than the usual 5V UBS-C power supplies.
These amplifiers also contain capacitors with relatively high capacitance to make sure there’s always enough power on the amplifier. This is especially important when listening to very dynamic music, as the power needed to reproduce this is also very dynamic. When plugging in the power supply to the board, you might see a small spark. Why does this happen? On one side (the power supply), you have a power supply that is running at full voltage with output capacitors charged. On the other side (the amplifier), the voltage is 0V and the capacitors are fully discharged. If you now connect these to parts, there will be a very short, but high current from the power supply to the Amp. As the barrel jack isn’t a connector that will perfectly connect these 2 devices when plugging in, there will be short on/off cycles (we’re talking about microseconds here) during the plugging process. This can result in these sparks.
The good thing: This shows that your power supply can provide a high peak current which is important. On the other hand doing this very often might damage the connectors.
We therefore recommend not to plug in the barrel jack when the power supply is already powered. It’s best to turn on/off the system using a switch on the primaries (mains) side instead of the low-voltage secondary.
June 27, 2022
