# Portable Sub-woofer amplifier, battery operated?



## humandrummachine (May 17, 2010)

Are there any battery-run portable amplifiers out there that will work well with woofers?


The Dayton DTA-1 Class T, which runs off "8 AA batteries" is just about perfect but some of the comments say that there won't be that much bass from this amplifier.

The Dayton amp:
Dayton Audio DTA-1 Class T Digital AC/DC Amplifier 15 Watts Per Channel - Parts Express 300-380

Thanks a lot if someone can show me an amp that works on batteries, with bass!

My idea is to have a 10" or 12" in my backpack.


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## Spyke (Apr 20, 2012)

humandrummachine said:


> Are there any battery-run portable amplifiers out there that will work well with woofers?
> 
> 
> The Dayton DTA-1 Class T, which runs off "8 AA batteries" is just about perfect but some of the comments say that there won't be that much bass from this amplifier.
> ...


Not gonna work depending on the volume or duration you expect to achieve. AA batteries do not have nearly enough amperage to drive anything besides headphones. Throw a deepcycle 12v in your backpack and you might have something. Save yourself some trouble and forget it. Just being honest.


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## humandrummachine (May 17, 2010)

Yeah I figured so. I'm not strictly set on AA batteries or set on a certain volume or duration. One hour might be nice.

You're giving me ideas.


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## Spyke (Apr 20, 2012)

I don't know how crazy you want to go with this. If I were to do something like this I would get a very small car amplifier a 4" - 5.25" full range in a small ported enc.(I have a 4" that will work optimally in a .11 cu ft box) and a small 12v deep cycle battery. I'm talking about maybe a 26ah battery dimensions would be roughly 6Lx4Wx5H. Run it off of an ipod or something like that. All the stuff you need to make this work is out there. I think a 10" might be a little over zealous You would prob get more bass out of a ported 5.25 than a 10 stuffed in a box that is way way too small.


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## humandrummachine (May 17, 2010)

Alright I'll take all that into consideration. Might end up going with an 8" or something, whatever is cheap and fast.

I see what you mean about the AA batteries and the A.H.

I think the look of a 10" or even a 12" making up part of a backpack would be great. Walking around with a speaker on your back.


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## stopdrpnro (May 15, 2008)

Yes I would say your goal is a little ambitious. I'd say go with a. Smaller sub and you definitely want to run on something you can recharge. And. Disposable. I say look into the lionbattery packs on ebay they start at around 35$ for a 14ah


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## MarkZ (Dec 5, 2005)

Haha you're crazy. You're going to carry a subwoofer enclosure on your back? Or you're just going to have the speaker sitting there free air making some noise? You're going to have a hard time generating bass, if the latter.

Assuming the former, you see small powered subwoofers in the computer speaker arena all the time. They operate on small amounts of power, but usually want 110v. One simple approach might be to haul around a couple of 6v lantern batteries feeding a small power inverter driving a computer speaker system... um... in your backpack.

A more efficient approach (although probably more complicated one) might be to try to bypass the power inverter by using a couple of large batteries to power a chip amp. For example, you see these types of amps all over ebay:

DIY AMP Board TDA8920 D-AMP 2*100W TDA8920BTH Chip D-Class Amplifier Board | eBay

The problem with this particular one is that it wants an AC input (it does the rectification on board). If you can find one that wants a DC input, I think it will be a better option than lugging around a car amp.


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## Ray21 (Oct 19, 2009)

I'd use a bass shaker if you want portable bass. I can't imagine getting any effective output carrying around a sub on your back... not to mention it would be a PITA carrying a sub enclosure around lol.


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## The A Train (Jun 26, 2007)

I would not use a subwoofer for portable use for several reasons...

Its large
Itll require alot of power
Itll require a large enclosure (not so much portable friendly)
Last and most important, sub frequencies are lost outdoors.

I would look a woofer in an enclosure thatll have an f3 of about 80-100, not to mention efficient! Maybe try something with pro audio drivers.


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## daveds50 (Jun 10, 2011)

stopdrpnro said:


> I say look into the lionbattery packs on ebay they start at around 35$ for a 14ah


 i did something like that not too long ago. 

took a old Rockford Fosgate 4 ohm 8 inch Punch sub i had laying around and made a .24 cu/ft sealed box for it, mounted a tiny Soundstream Angina amp inside of it. ( 100 watts RMS at 4 ohms ) bought 4 sets ( on sale for $6.99 each ) of 6 cell 1500mAh NiCads from Tower Hobbies. ( took them apart and made two 8 cell packs and paralleled them ) 

not enough to get the full 100 watts available, and would not run for a full hour... ( i knew that beforehand ) but, it worked. 

of course, the box was built before i decided to mount everything inside, so that .24 was reduced a bit. only a power switch, charging plug, and a pair of RCA's were on the outside of the box. not optimal, but worked pretty good. 

why did i do it ? because i could. no other reason besides that. 

i took the batteries and put them back to 6 cell packs, and now my older son is using them in his RC car. 

the box and sub is now on my younger sons Powerwheel truck with a JL 250/1. 

the Soundstream Angina is back hanging on my office wall.


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