[sdiy] Operating voltages questions about synthesizers

[cheater cheater]

A lot of analog chips have a range of voltages they can work off of.
They can work at 12V, 15V, 9V, 5V... depending on what you have
available. Usually they work the best at the maximum rails voltage.
The best meaning: less through-zero noise, less self-noise, more
linearity, better current output (= better at reproducing bass
frequencies), etc. You don't want to burn the circuits out, though.
Chips in the circuit might be limited to say 14V, so if you plug in
16V, that'll be too much and something might get damaged. On the other
hand, thermal considerations are also a thing. If a circuit was built
for 9V, it might have components meant for the specific power
dissipation that it'll do when supplied with 9V. At 12V it might
dissipate more power, slowly burning out chips or resistors or
capacitors. You want to look into that. The best you can do in this
case, for an old mass produced circuit like that, is to find a group
of users focused around this item, and ask them if anyone uses higher
voltage power supply units, and how that fared over the years. Maybe
you can find a tech who specializes in those, and can politely ask
them without wasting too much of their time.

On Mon, Sep 5, 2022 at 9:37 AM Logan Mitchell Sr via Synth-diy
<synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
>
> I am finally working on completing modifying my Electro-Harmonix EH 0400 mini synthesizer that I purchased brand new around 1979/1980.
>
> Its original factory power supply was two 9-volt batteries connected in parallel with no external power supply adapter jack installed so I installed one some years ago to use a 9 volt DC power supply.
>
> Last night I connected a 12 volt DC power supply & noticed that the synthesizer sounded a little better than when operating from the 9 volt battery or from the 9 volt DC power supply.
>
> I'm thinking about adding a 7812 or 7815 voltage regulator circuit to connect to the power connection of this synthesizer since I have some 18 volts DC power supplies (wall warts) that I've used on some other electronic music devices.
>
> My question is this - does an electronic music circuit that works fine from a 9 volt DC supply work even better at 12 or 15 volts DC & why is that so ?
>
> Logan
>
>
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