 |
I was recently given an iPod docking station which was supplied with a 'power brick' type of power supply. As I also had a
redundant switched mode power supply from a defunct router, I thought I'd compare the two. They were both rated at 12 volts DC, 1 A so both should be able to supply the docking station. In the 'Standby' test, the supplies were plugged into the docking station which was switched to Standby. For the 'In Use' test, both supplies were driven fairly hard by using the same (heavy rock) music from the MP3 player. I couldn't detect any difference in audio quality between the two. The MP3 player used its own internal battery in both tests. The table below shows the Power Factor, current and power consumed on the 245v AC side. |
| Usage | PowerFactor | mA | Watts | |
| Brick | Not Connected | 20 | 68 | 3.9 |
| Standby | 26 | 70 | 4.2 | |
| In Use | 41 | 70 | 6.9 | |
| Switched Mode | Not Connected | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Standby | 41 | 9 | 1.4 | |
| In Use | 41 | 22 | 2.8 |