Audio Systems: I need a computer power supply to power my audio amp., computer power supply, audio amp

Question
I read a q & a from 2006 that said an audio amp can be powered by a computer power watt supply. I have a 500 watt BOSS audio amp with a five pin connector located at the back of the amp. My question is does the power supply box come with that type of 5 pin connector and wiring? If so, where can I get one? Finally, is using the power supply going to work and have you done this before. Please give me some insight. Thank you

Answer
Hi Priest,

Yup, a power supply is a power supply is a power supply... but you've got the gist of the problem, which is to figure out what the five pins of the power supply are and how they map to the input of your Boss amp.  Even if they both have 5 pin connectors, you can't be sure that the wires match, and if you hook up a "hot" wire (one with power) to one in the amp that's a negative or ground you can fry the power supply and/or the amp.  The only way to be sure is to research what the computer power supply you're going to buy puts out, and find a manual or contact the amp manufacturer to find out the specs for its five pin connector.

If you're a betting person, if the Boss amp takes a computer-style plug, and if there's some kind of color scheme that would indicate that they match, personally, I'd go for it. But that's unlikely.

So you'll have to research it carefully, and make sure you buy a computer power supply that's at least 1000 watts - the Boss amp rating of 500 watts is likely the PGM (or "normal") rating but there will be times when it needs more power than that, almost always double, so the 1000 watt supply should have enough extra power for the overhead the amp will occasionally need.  Otherwise you might overheat and fry the computer power supply.  Good luck!  Cheers, Wink