Battery-Powered Audio System Buzzing?

It's very common for devices such as yours to have a noisy inverter. They're really not made for audio.

@cleeds

+1

To follow on the already correct advice from @cleeds , it's a lot cheaper to provide a square wave output UPS than a sine wave.  Unless it specifically says "sine wave output" it probably is not.  

The square waves produce a lot of higher frequency harmonics (relative to 60 Hz) that make it through the power supplies.  Also make sure you don't have your system grounded through some other means, like using 1 device which is not battery powered but some that are.  It could do weird things in terms of the ground voltage.  This includes coaxial and USB connections. 

Quality batteries with the correct match up can deliver clean power. In case your case, your system is putting too much demand on your small battery. No chance of delivering consistent clean power at any point. I have hooked up my Yeti Goal Zero 1500 with my Accuuphase and streamer with good results. Being a class a/b amp its putting very little demand on inverter. Drawing about 100 watts. With your system being demanding for power, even the Yeti 1500 will not get you there. Also, not all batteries inverters are equal. In my opinion, a battery to meet your clean power needs is cost prohibit. Cost benefit does not pencil out. 

Thanks to everyone for the input. I confirmed that my Anker battery creates a pure sine wave. It also has a maximum output of 1800 W, and my system on average draws about 175 W. @erik_squires thanks for the suggestion, I had not put everything in the system on the battery. Once I did the buzz basically went away. Thanks again!

@sid-hoff-frenchman , do you hear an improvement when using the battery versus plugging into the wall?

If you are going to use a battery in hopes of hearing the effect of quieter power, it makes sense to try to use the batteries power directly without interposing an inverter. What I mean is that a battery supplies direct current. The interior circuits of all hi-fi equipment Use direct current. Why bother changing to alternate current only to have to convert it back to direct current? The easiest way to do this is to use hi-fi components that employ an external DC power source (the infamous wall wart) generally, these will be less expensive but nonetheless high-quality sources, Dacs , and amps such as a raspberry pi based streamers, topping dacs, and Fosi amplifier just as one set of examples. You will need to find separate lithium ion batteries for each component that match. It’s voltage and amperage requirements, but this is not too hard to do and considerably less expensive than the large battery solutions already discussed. I have done this and have been very pleased with the results.

@immatthewj I am trying this setup with both my upstairs and downstairs systems, the difference being the downstairs setup has the Schiit Aegir going into Tekton Impact monitors. For the downstairs setup, yes it is a dramatic improvement. The sounds was great to begin with, but on battery there is a wider soundstage, more holographic presentation and for lack of a more clinical term - an intoxicating musicality. On the upstairs system with the Tyrs and the Encore towers the difference is harder to tell. Now that I have it setup on battery I will try A-B ing between battery and wall-power to listen more critically for differences. 

While I appreciate the other suggestions, this experiment is already into as deep technical waters as I feel comfortable wading through.

And yes, originally when I posted I still had 2 subs and the DAC going through wall power. Once I put everything on the battery the buzz disappeared.

Glad I could help.  :) 

As far as I remember these issues arise due to the generator neutral and the house neutral not being bonded to the same reference point setting up a neutral/ground differential which causes current flow through the ground... or something like that.  At least this will point you in the right direction of explaining why. 

The solution besides putting everything on the battery would be to use transformer based isolators to anything not on the battery. 

@sid-hoff-frenchman I'm not sure if I'm tracking. Are you testing or horsing around with the battery? Or will you be integrating with your system for mid-term or long-term use? If it's a mid- or long-term route, I would advise against taking that road. No matter what benefit or perceived benefit  you are getting from using it, forgo it. There may be unknown or unseen risks that could emerge later, potentially damaging your audio gear. I'm sure the designers of battery manufacturers do not have home audio gear in mind.  Based on my experiences and observations, even the most well-planned designs and tested products can still fail at some point. Nuclear power plants, aircraft, vehicles, motors, and batteries are good examples.

Forgot to add Tesla

@immatthewj After A/B-ing with the upstairs system (Schiit Tyrs/Tekton Encores) I've come to the conclusion that while there is a difference between battery and wall power, it is very slight. One is not better than the other. Not worth the annoyance of dealing with the batteries. I will A/B more extensively with the downstairs system (Schiit Aegir/Tekton Impacts) and report back. It was on that system that I originally noticed the big difference I described above. We'll see if that holds under more scrutiny.

@goldenways I definitely don't want to harm my equipment. I'll reach out to the manufacturers of all my gear and see what they think about powering their stuff with batteries.

Sounds like a good plan. My guess is the manufactures are not going to stake their reputation on batteries. They will stick with the tried and true way that is normally done. Even if they say go for it, most likely there will be a large asterisk to the statement. My asterisk to my opinion “I might be wrong”

Sounds like a good plan. My guess is the manufactures are not going to stake their reputation on batteries. They will stick with the tried and true way that is normally done. Even if they say go for it, most likely there will be a large asterisk to the statement. My asterisk to my opinion. “I might be wrong”

@goldenways

Strictly, the OP is not using batteries to directly feed his equipment.  He is using an inverter to convert the battery DC to mains-like AC.  Almost certainly the inverter will contain a switched mode power supply, especially as it is a "pure sine-wave" inverter.

I have a set up like this in my motorhome.  Interestingly the 2000-Watt sine-wave inverter I use will synchronize to mains frequency within a couple of cycles if mains is connected.

My lithium batteries are nominally 12-Volt but the actual voltage ranges anywhere from 14.7 if the sun is shining on my solar panels to about 11 just before the batteries shut themselves down.  I hate to think how many switched mode power supplies are used inside my components to deliver the various voltages actually needed!

An update for any who are interested - I heard back from all the manufacturers of my gear.

- Don Sachs said no concerns for the preamp. It draws at most 150 W. Only issue would be if voltage drops. "You won't hurt the preamp. The preamp will run on 100 volts, but the regulated supplies will not regulate and it will not sound good.  As long as it sees 113 volts or more then it is fine."

- Schiit said that in theory their gear should work without issue to use battery power, as long as the batteries are supplying the recommended power. But they can't officially endorse it.

- Rythmik said "Keep the voltage within spec. For instance, 120V 60hz is better than 120V 50hz for the transformer." 

So my takeaway is that with a quality battery that provides appropriate power, there is no concern about using it to power audio gear.

Additional update: My basement system indeed does sound better on battery power. However, since my Yggdrasil OG DAC remains powered on all the time, the nervosa of constantly watching and recharging the continually draining batteries got to be overly annoying and not worth it to me. I'm now back to wall power both up and down.

Hi OP:

I'm curious if you watch your incoming house power.  Do you find the voltage keeps fluctuating or do you think it's more of a noise issue?

Best,

Erik 

@erik_squires That's a great question. I don't watch my incoming house power. I'm not sure how to do so, but that would be interesting to learn.

OP:
 

You can get any Kill-A-Watt type of meters.  Just plug them into a nearby outlet or get one of these.  

I like the latter as the N-E measurements are sometimes useful. 

Well the wall AC power seems pretty stable here at 120V. The differences I'm hearing could be other things on the circuit potentially. I mean it sounds fantastic as it is with wall AC, and I only preferred the battery sound on one of my two systems. But not worth the constant battery maintenance attention. 

Paul McGowan, PS Audio just came out with a YouTube video yesterday. Subject “Battery Powered Preamps”