so the trend for everything these days is to make gadgets smaller lighter and
more portable i mean we even have smart watches because we decided that checking
your already pocket-sized phone when you get a text was simply
too much work but there's one rather fat fly in the
ointment when it comes to portability those huge power bricks that still
accompany many of our electronic devices now
many of them have gotten a fair bit smaller since the days of the original
xbox 360 ac adapter like i'm sure you could use that thing as a murder weapon
but the question remains as to why we need them at all
even those relatively small wall warts for mobile phones can still be
inconvenient due to how much they stick out of the wall or how they can block
other outlets well the basic reason for these clunky
boxes is that our modern electronics cannot use the raw ac power that comes
directly from the wall instead it has to be converted to direct
current or dc you can learn more about the differences
between ac and dc right up here but the important thing to know is that unlike
dc ac power uses a current that is
constantly switching direction so because the transistors that lie at
the heart of contemporary electronics need the current to flow one way only in
order to work properly they need extra equipment to convert or rectify ac power
into one way dc this is why simpler electrical devices
like a desk lamp work just fine without a space hogging adapter
but that doesn't explain why they need to be
so big and why they can't just be built into our electronics
well as it turns out a fair bit of equipment is actually needed for this
simple ac to dc conversion now back in
the day many electronics used linear adapters which could turn the 110 or 220
volts from the wall into a specific smaller voltage that the electronics
needed but their drawback was that they gave off a great deal of waste heat i
mean i guess that's no problem when the number of people on your city's power
grid is measured in thousands but in the modern world the more efficiently that
we can perform these operations the better
also all that waste heat would have been really bad to have inside the same
chassis as a bunch of sensitive electronic components
so nowadays most power bricks are switching adapters which means that they
themselves use fancier electronics to switch voltages and current depending on
what exactly is coming out of the wall and what the device specifically needs
not only does this allow your electronics to work in countries with
different voltages as long as you've got a simple plug adapter it's also a lot
more efficient than the older linear power bricks which is why some devices
do have integrated power supplies like some monitors
with that said switching adapters still give off a fair bit of heat because they
aren't nearly 100 efficient and the
electronics inside them can create interference meaning that it can be
helpful to separate the adapter itself from whatever it's trying to power if
it's susceptible to that kind of interference on top of that they often include rf
shielding which can add still more weight and bulk
making matters worse even though modern electronics tend to be a lot more
efficient than what we had a couple of decades ago some gadgets still do need
lots of power and generally speaking the more power a device needs the larger its
adapter will be as larger components and wires are needed to safely carry the
additional current the thinner smaller components just have too much resistance
and can't handle all of that juice this is also part of the reason that
internal power supplies for desktop pcs which can consume hundreds or even over
a thousand watts are bulky and heavy
with often large cooling fans in them
back to our mobile electronics for a moment though these two have a lot going
on but in a much smaller space and building power delivery directly into
something like a phone or a gaming laptop would not only add undesirable
bulk but possibly make the whole system too hot to function and increase the
price of replacing the power adapter in the event of a failure so the good news
is that while we won't be getting rid of them outright anytime soon as
electronics continue to get more efficient with processors becoming more
powerful while simultaneously needing less energy ac adapters should generally
keep shrinking or at least stay smaller
and lighter than they used to be good thing too because
i never have enough room in my suitcase speaking of room in your suitcase i'm
sure you could make some room for mass drops sennheiser hd 6xx headphones these
things sound fantastic and they are one of massdrop's all-time best sellers with
over 50 000 units sold and no wonder
they've got an unchanged driver and sound structure compared to the hd 650s
which are a modern classic delivering balanced mid-range and natural sounding
bass and they've got a couple of improvements including a detachable six
six-foot cable instead of a 10-foot cable so you don't have quite as much
wire to manage it comes with an eighth inch plug that's versatile for everyday
use and a quarter-inch adapter and includes sennheiser's long-term support
so check out the link below to join the drop today
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