I have two subwoofers and two tweeters that I am driving using two different audio amplifiers.
Im using the adafruit MAX9744 (approx 20W output per channel) for the woofers and the PAM8610 (max 10W output per channel) for the tweeters.
I am just worried about the power supply. I am trying to drive both using a 12Vdc, 6A power supply. Should I wire the two amps in parallel? If so, does that mean connecting the positive supply of one to the negative terminal on the other?
Want to be sure before I start since Im scared to ruin one of the amps.
I am just worried about the power supply. I am trying to drive both using a 12Vdc, 6A power supply. Should I wire the two amps in parallel? If so, does that mean connecting the positive supply of one to the negative terminal on the other?
Yes. You should be OK with "normal audio". 12V x 6A is 62 Watts 72 Watts ("Never do math in public!"'), and both amps can run from 12V.
...Everything in plugged into the wall in your house is wired in parallel (through several separate circuit breakers) and everything in your car is wired in parallel to the same battery/alternator (through several different fuses).
The amplifiers won't be 100% efficient so with continuous test tones you could theoretically over-tax the power supply (consuming more than 60W), but real-world audio has about a 10-to-1 peak-to-average ratio, so you'll probably be consuming about 6W (average) at full-volume. Also with real-world audio, power to the tweeters will probably be less than half of the woofer power (depending on the crossover frequency).
You are using a crossover to block highs from the woofer and to block lows from the tweeter, right? (It's easy to fry a tweeter with full-range audio... A "10W" tweeter is rated the handle only the high frequencies from a 10W amp and you can fry it with continuous 10W test-tones or 10W of bass.) ...If you don't have a full-crossover, at least put a capacitor in series with the tweeters, and you can research how to calculate the value depending on the crossover frequency and speaker impedance.
Jabz:
If so, does that mean connecting the positive supply of one to the negative terminal on the other?
I hope you don't mean what that sounds like! Parallel means connecting the two positive wires from each amp together to the positive output of the supply and the two negative wires from each amp to the negative output of the power supply.
I hope you don't mean what that sounds like! Parallel means connecting the two positive wires from each amp together to the positive output of the supply and the two negative wires from each amp to the negative output of the power supply.
There's nothing wrong with powering two or more amplifiers from the same power supply! Just for example, the stereo in my van is tri-amped. And of course, the bass amp, mid-amp, and high-amp are all powered together from the same 12V. And of course, the head unit and active crossover are also powered in parallel... There is only one electrical-power source in the van!
DVDdoug: There's nothing wrong with powering two or more amplifiers from the same power supply!
And I didn't say there was. I've done it often myself.
But look again at what the OP actually said. "connecting the positive supply of one (amp?) to the negative terminal on the other". I may be misreading something but does that really sound like someone who understands what a parallel connection involves? Or does it sound like more like someone trying to describe a series connection?
Thanks for your helpful replies, especially DVDdoug. Steve I had a feeling it was positive to positive- my bad, someone had told me otherwise.
Instead of even wiring them in parallel, cant I just direct the power supply to them individually anyway? Not sure why I was advised to wire the amps in parallel.
Jabz:
Not sure why I was advised to wire the amps in parallel.
That's because they're supposed to be wired in parallel, right?
Just review some electronics theory, about parallel connections. Devices having two terminals will have.... well... 2 terminals .... eg.. terminal A and terminal B. Terminal A of some devices might sometimes be even labelled 'positive' or something. All devices with a '+' symbol could be terminal A. The other terminal will be terminal B.
If components are to be connected in parallel....then all the terminal A's of these devices are to be connected together. And then, take all the B terminals, and connect them all together as well. For parallel connections, terminal A and terminal B are not connected together for any device.
When the amplifiers are wired in parallel, and provided they both have the same operating voltage, then the '+' terminals (eg. terminal A) of both devices are connected to the positive voltage terminal of the power supply, while the other terminals (eg. terminal B) are connected to the OTHER terminal of the power supply.
The method you use to achieve your parallel combination probably doesn't matter. Whether you connect one of your amplifiers to your power supply first (in parallel), and then connect the other one in parallel later..... does not matter. Or you could connect both your amplifiers in parallel first, before connecting that combination to the power supply (in parallel). As long as the result is a parallel combination, then ok.
