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so the trend for everything these days is to make gadgets smaller lighter and

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more portable i mean we even have smart watches because we decided that checking

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your already pocket-sized phone when you get a text was simply

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too much work but there's one rather fat fly in the

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ointment when it comes to portability those huge power bricks that still

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accompany many of our electronic devices now

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many of them have gotten a fair bit smaller since the days of the original

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xbox 360 ac adapter like i'm sure you could use that thing as a murder weapon

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but the question remains as to why we need them at all

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even those relatively small wall warts for mobile phones can still be

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inconvenient due to how much they stick out of the wall or how they can block

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other outlets well the basic reason for these clunky

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boxes is that our modern electronics cannot use the raw ac power that comes

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directly from the wall instead it has to be converted to direct

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current or dc you can learn more about the differences

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between ac and dc right up here but the important thing to know is that unlike

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dc ac power uses a current that is

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constantly switching direction so because the transistors that lie at

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the heart of contemporary electronics need the current to flow one way only in

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order to work properly they need extra equipment to convert or rectify ac power

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into one way dc this is why simpler electrical devices

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like a desk lamp work just fine without a space hogging adapter

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but that doesn't explain why they need to be

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so big and why they can't just be built into our electronics

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well as it turns out a fair bit of equipment is actually needed for this

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simple ac to dc conversion now back in

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the day many electronics used linear adapters which could turn the 110 or 220

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volts from the wall into a specific smaller voltage that the electronics

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needed but their drawback was that they gave off a great deal of waste heat i

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mean i guess that's no problem when the number of people on your city's power

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grid is measured in thousands but in the modern world the more efficiently that

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we can perform these operations the better

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also all that waste heat would have been really bad to have inside the same

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chassis as a bunch of sensitive electronic components

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so nowadays most power bricks are switching adapters which means that they

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themselves use fancier electronics to switch voltages and current depending on

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what exactly is coming out of the wall and what the device specifically needs

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not only does this allow your electronics to work in countries with

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different voltages as long as you've got a simple plug adapter it's also a lot

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more efficient than the older linear power bricks which is why some devices

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do have integrated power supplies like some monitors

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with that said switching adapters still give off a fair bit of heat because they

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aren't nearly 100 efficient and the

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electronics inside them can create interference meaning that it can be

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helpful to separate the adapter itself from whatever it's trying to power if

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it's susceptible to that kind of interference on top of that they often include rf

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shielding which can add still more weight and bulk

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making matters worse even though modern electronics tend to be a lot more

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efficient than what we had a couple of decades ago some gadgets still do need

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lots of power and generally speaking the more power a device needs the larger its

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adapter will be as larger components and wires are needed to safely carry the

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additional current the thinner smaller components just have too much resistance

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and can't handle all of that juice this is also part of the reason that

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internal power supplies for desktop pcs which can consume hundreds or even over

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a thousand watts are bulky and heavy

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with often large cooling fans in them

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back to our mobile electronics for a moment though these two have a lot going

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on but in a much smaller space and building power delivery directly into

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something like a phone or a gaming laptop would not only add undesirable

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bulk but possibly make the whole system too hot to function and increase the

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price of replacing the power adapter in the event of a failure so the good news

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is that while we won't be getting rid of them outright anytime soon as

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electronics continue to get more efficient with processors becoming more

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powerful while simultaneously needing less energy ac adapters should generally

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keep shrinking or at least stay smaller

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and lighter than they used to be good thing too because

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i never have enough room in my suitcase speaking of room in your suitcase i'm

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sure you could make some room for mass drops sennheiser hd 6xx headphones these

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things sound fantastic and they are one of massdrop's all-time best sellers with

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over 50 000 units sold and no wonder

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they've got an unchanged driver and sound structure compared to the hd 650s

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which are a modern classic delivering balanced mid-range and natural sounding

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bass and they've got a couple of improvements including a detachable six

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six-foot cable instead of a 10-foot cable so you don't have quite as much

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wire to manage it comes with an eighth inch plug that's versatile for everyday

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use and a quarter-inch adapter and includes sennheiser's long-term support

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so check out the link below to join the drop today

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so thanks for watching guys like dislike check out our other videos if you have a

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comment please do leave one especially if you have a suggestion for a future

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video you'd like to see covered and don't forget to subscribe and follow so

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you never miss a Techquickie never not

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even once not even if you were like you had food

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poisoning and you were throwing up you'd be like you'd be there on your phone like

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i'm wiping off the screen i gotta watch my Techquickie

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that sounds very awful maybe don't throw up on my face