Battery Efficiency

[superlew]

Last weekend (Memorial Day) I took a camping trip to NH with some close friends. It turned into the camping trip from Hell (I'm not a big "camper" to begin with), but we did have tunes via the TDK 3 Speaker.
I loaded it with 12 D's and put it to work on a freezing, rainy, snowy Saturday. The volume difference on battery power is quite noticeable. At 40%-50% volume, we sqeezed just under 3 hrs. of run time on Aux.
As I recall, last summer my 10 D's in the Conion C-100 lasted pretty much the whole season, as I don't use the decks very often (I also admit to really babying my baby).

I honestly believed I could squeeze the same life or better out of a modern blaster, but I was sadly mistaken.

I find that my most efficient box on batteries in my modest collection is my Sanyo M9990. I'm still on the same set I picked up last 4th of July, but I do remove them when it goes back on the shelf.

What do you guys find to be the most efficient boxes on battery power?

BTW: The trip ended early with a snowman, falling trees, loss of heat and power, and an expensive night in a suite at a Hampton Inn.

*I'm sure this topic has been posted before, but I couldn't find anything in a search. ...So here's a fresh thread.

 

[Gluecifer]

Wow, those TDK's are HUNGRY for power!

My most efficient radio, of the big boomers, is the Lasonic TRC-975.
Nothing comes close to this in my collection for battery life.

Going down a size, the M-70 does really well off it's batteries, but a lot
of my midsize boxes are pretty comparable. The big boxes though, different story.



Rock On.

 

[Beosystem10]

My JVC PC-11 is incredibly efficient in its use of the 8 Ds that it uses. This is as much a result of JVC's effective use of a good VR chip that makes sure that the motor and other high-drain areas are fed with the correct amount of electrickery even when the Ds are down to around 1.1 Volts each.
My Technics, on the other hand, with its 10 Ds and similar current consumption to the JVC, can eat that 10 inside an hour of tape play and it has always behaved that way. Annoyingly, the Technics has virtually no regulation on its supply rail so the tape will slow down during playback as soon as each cell is down to a shade under 1.3V, then it'll grind to a halt soon after that point has been reached.

Far and away the most effective machine in my collection when it comes to eeking the best from its battery is the Hacker RPC1 cassette Sovereign. Its battery (8 Ds) can drop as low as 0.9V per cell and still it plays at the correct speed, fast winds in both directions and only loses the very slightest bit of sensitivity on radio play. Hacker's Sovereign product line was known for its economical use of batteries and every one of mine, with or without the cassette deck, lives up to that reputation.

It's still the JVC that I'd take to the beach when there's a party though, as it has the best battery life to noise ratio!

 

[jimmyjimmy19702010]

15 volt boxes with only moderate power output like my GF-9292 & Hitachi TRK-9150 offer very good battery efficiency. Both units also don't loose output when running on batteries compared with AC operation.

James

 

[Superduper]

I already chimed in on a Lasonic thread regarding batteries but my response here is similar. Part of the problem with the modern digital stuff is that digital circuitry requires a minimum voltage threshold to operate. Even if the batteries are not 100% consumed, when the voltage drops to a certain point, the circuitry will refuse to power up. Analog circuitry will pretty much run the batteries down to almost nothing although lower voltage will result in lower output and the tuner might begin performing poorly. However, on tape or line-in, analog boomboxes will extract almost every last bit out of the batteries.

It is possible that the batteries in the TDK might still have enough juice to power up your older boomboxes.... try it. Anyhow, you also need to consider the subwoofer factor in the TDK, and subwoofers are highly inefficient in terms of converting juice into percieved volume. If you can turn off the sub or dial it way down, you can probably get a lot more operating time.

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

Very interesting that the TDK did so bad, but what Superduper said totally makes sense.

Choke up another one for Analog!

I agree with Gluecifer, the M70 is amazing on batteries.

This weekend I blasted my M70 for HOURS and then switched over to my Lasonic TRC-935 using the same batteries and never ran out of power!

The biggest PIG I own is the Lasonic TRC-920. Gets LOUD, but eats batteries for lunch

 

[Beosystem10]

Uh-oh, I'm reading about another good reason to buy an M70. This forum could become really expensive. Much more so than a few extra dozen D cells!

 

[JustCruisin]

A few weeks ago I was working outside on a building and brought my JVC RC-550JW along to provide the tunes..
A set of fresh D cells provided outdoor blasting volume for a week straight M-F 8-5pm, and also some monday of the following week crankin.. It wasn't until after that week I noticed some power loss when pushing the volume slider higher..

 

[baddboybill]

Another new unit is Altec Lansing that goes forever on 8d cells and sounds amazing

 

[superlew]

I'm heading to NH this holiday weekend, and I'll be bringing the M70. Strictly battery power. This should be a good "real-world" test of battery efficiency. I'm sure it can't do any worse than the TDK.
This is the the "rain check" on the trip that started this thread. I'm not expecting any snow.
I'll let you guys in on my findings next week.

 

[JustCruisin]

After reading what I posted, and what others posted.. I understand why the batteries in my Philips Elephant went so quick, because the tuner and everything is digital..
and the batteries in my JVC 550 are still going! I listen to it for 8hr days at work, looks like I posted about it back in June! Same batteries!

 

[superlew]

I promised I'd report back about the M70's battery efficiency. A few of you guys have mentioned in this thread and others how great they are on batteries.

Well, here's how I broke it down:
10-12 hrs. at 20%-30% volume, 3 hrs. at that volume on cassette.
8-10 hrs. at 50%-70% volume, all line in.
I just checked the 10 Energizers on the Fluke and they are outputting about 1.454 V.

So, long story short: Yeah they're efficient.

If anyone's looking for me, I'll be sitting on the stairs trying to kill the Energizers. This could take a while.

 

[trippy1313]

Same batteries for all that huh? Nice. My 1st Gen Lasonic I checked the batteries over the weekend, Duracells, they're at 1.368 volts, I've had them in for about 20 hours, probably 17 of them line in, 30-50%, radio the other 3, still sounds good!!!

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

I promised I'd report back about the M70's battery efficiency. A few of you guys have mentioned in this thread and others how great they are on batteries.

Well, here's how I broke it down:
10-12 hrs. at 20%-30% volume, 3 hrs. at that volume on cassette.
8-10 hrs. at 50%-70% volume, all line in.
I just checked the 10 Energizers on the Fluke and they are outputting about 1.454 V.

So, long story short: Yeah they're efficient.

If anyone's looking for me, I'll be sitting on the stairs trying to kill the Energizers. This could take a while.

Thanks for the update....Yeah, the M70 is amazing on batteries and you still have all the power volume wise. You give up NOTHING with that radio! But like Superduper mentioned before, the analog stuff just runs and runs.

Here's a side note battery update:
I put a 9V in my Lasonic TRC-935 to run the digital clock back in the first week of July....it's still working! ! ! I also still have all my camping batteries that I bought at the beginning of summer (20 Duracells). All of them are still good and I can through them in any radio! AMAZING!

 

[Ken]

Well, here's how I broke it down:
10-12 hrs. at 20%-30% volume, 3 hrs. at that volume on cassette.
8-10 hrs. at 50%-70% volume, all line in.
I just checked the 10 Energizers on the Fluke and they are outputting about 1.454 V.

Edited.

 

[BoomboxLover48]

After 1978.................. Trust me...I've never used batteries on my boomboxes! Those springs and doors were always just for looks.

I feel like I am losing the KICK...the PUNCH..the THROW...the overall QUALITY..when I go with batteries......