Low power hifi amp?

[Conachair]

Raspberry Pi as a media centre!
http://www.raspbmc.com/

Works well, perfect playback into a sumsung SA330 monitor, watched an MP4 on a pendrive straight into the Pi last night, just with a mouse, no keyboard needed. Monitor pulls 0.8A, haven't measured the Pi current draw yet, hoopefully 0.5a or less.

So is it worth installing a little amp to use instead of the car hifi unit. It draws 0.8a, would a little 12v amp pull much less?

If so any suggestions? Or a kit?


TIA from geeky PiLand

 

[prv]

If you search ebay for "tripath" or "class T" you'll get a slew of cheapo 12v amplifiers. The amplification is done by a digital chip which is the same for everybody, so the cheapness of these versions doesn't particularly affect the sound quality (not claiming it's audiophile kit, but seemed entirely acceptable to me). I used one of these on Kindred Spirit until replacing it with a Fusion head unit (which would be another option) for a more polished appearance.

Pete

 

[BruceDanforth]

The tripath amps are pretty good. You can get them on ebay.

 

[causeway]

ta2020 'arjen helder' makes very good ones. 60 milliamps draw while idle. 2 amps full tilt, or close to it.

 

[Conachair]

Cheers guys, forum at its' best

Just ordered one of these..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007VMA6OU/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Idle draw from over 0.7A to hardly anything will be nice

back to the Pi then, let's see of rasbnc will do iplayer...