Can you connect a high voltage amplifier to the hybrid battery?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by zoeboi954, Aug 28, 2025 at 1:57 PM.

  1. zoeboi954

    zoeboi954 Junior Member

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    What will happen if you connect a high voltage amplifier to the hv hybrid battery? Will it throw error codes. Amplifiers like stetsom high force 40k or taramp high voltage 80k... will it work fine or will it strain the battery too much
     
    #1 zoeboi954, Aug 28, 2025 at 1:57 PM
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2025 at 3:07 PM
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    only if you want to see magic smoke...
     
  3. zoeboi954

    zoeboi954 Junior Member

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    From the amplifier or the battery?... ive seen this was successfully done in a fiat that has a high voltage battery. Just curious about the prius
     
  4. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Can you supply us with the input power specs for those amps?

    We could probably all duplicate the work of googling it, but as it's your question, after all....
     
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  5. zoeboi954

    zoeboi954 Junior Member

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    For my subwoofers application I need 16,000 watts so if i went with a taramp hv40.000
    Its voltage range is 140 - 275vdc
    Its idle consumption is 110mA
    Max musical consumption @0.5 Ohm is 91.5A
    Max sinusoidal consumption @0.5 Ohm (100Hz) is 183A
    Input impedance Is 27K Ohms
    My subwoofers will be wire down to 1 Ohm so my demand from the amp will be less
     

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  6. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    If the application is something like: the Prius is a rolling amplifier that you bring to a venue for a gig and park and attach to speakers ...

    The max musical consumption of 91.5 A is within the fuse rating of the battery. It would fully discharge the battery in a few minutes, so the car would have to be in READY mode to keep it charged.

    91.5 A at nominal 201.6 V is about 18 kW.

    The car's powertrain can easily produce 18 kW, but it won't when it's just sitting parked and READY. A gen 3 liftback will generate about 3 kW in that condition (as determined by Randy Bryan, who has offered high-input-voltage inverters for using a Prius to supply home loads).

    By holding the brake and go pedal, you can force a charge mode that may produce more than 3 kW.

    You would want an OBD-II device to monitor the MG and electronics and battery temperatures, at least at first.
     
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  7. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    Hate to ask a question that was an original question on your post but how many drivers and size of
    subwoofer box can you possibly fit in a turd gen Prius that will take up 40,000 watts? I have a 5 cubic Ft sub box and can only see thru the top half
    Of the hatch back window, good thing mine has a rear back up
    Cam.

    An 18” sub will need the entire hatch area to be boxed for best sound. A pair of 18s will need the backseats removed and the subs boxes will have to be built all the way to the back of the front seats.

    There’s not enough cabin space to build an effective and efficient sub box for 40,000 Watts let alone 10,000 Watts. You want a big suv to reap the best of a 40,000 watt capable amp
     
  8. zoeboi954

    zoeboi954 Junior Member

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    Its 4 fi q 12s. yes the box is on the smaller size I cant remember the dimensions cause the box was built about 10 years. Im not going to be using the full 40,000 Watts i just want at least 16,000 the most. I used to have this setup in a different vehicle on a 15k amplifier. But in the prius there only so much you can pull from the 12v system since the car doesnt have a alternator. At one point I had 4 amps that put out 8,000 watts in total in the prius but trying to sustain them in a prius was hard. And i pick the 40,000 watt amp because I dont want the amp working max power. I prefer to get an over power amp than dial it back so its not working at max load.
     
    #8 zoeboi954, Aug 29, 2025 at 10:59 AM
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2025 at 11:29 AM
  9. Paul Gregory

    Paul Gregory Senior Member

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    The hybrid battery voltage is quite variable, making it more difficult to use. If this notion comes from the idea that you can produce an earth-shaking audio system from that, good luck. I don't think this is the best approach.
     
  10. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Post #5 provided the amp's supply voltage range, 140 - 275vdc, which I think exceeds on both ends the voltage excursions of a gen 3 HEV battery.
     
  11. Paul Gregory

    Paul Gregory Senior Member

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    Personally, I don't see the need to tap into the hybrid battery to run a mega wall-shaker sound system, if that's what you're into. I think you could probably get enough power from the DC-DC converter; I think it puts out 100 amps.
     
  12. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    100 amps at 12 volts is 1200 watts.

    91.5 amps at 201.6 volts is 18446 watts.

    The OP wants something closer to the second number, for some reason.

    This discussion seems that could be an appropriate amplifier capacity for a show in a venue of moderate size.
     
  13. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    Gotcha, use an amp but not push it to the max for sub power for optimum efficiency. There’s some people here that had used refrigerators with the hv battery directly. The fridges have a relatively constant current draw except fridge initial start up but subs have various current draw due to music peaks and silences. On paper the amp and battery should work together but keeping the hv battery above 40% SOC at all times will be my concern.
     
    #13 Grit, Aug 30, 2025 at 12:10 AM
    Last edited: Aug 30, 2025 at 12:16 AM
  14. zoeboi954

    zoeboi954 Junior Member

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    I've already tried using the 12volt system. In my old 2010 3gen prius. I had at one point 4 2000 watts amps 1 for each subwoofer inside of the prius 8,000 watts total. along with 3 xs power agm batteries and ultra capacitor. It was a struggle knowing that all i was getting was a 100amp from charging system. I would literally plug in my 12 battery charger every day i came home. There were certain songs that I could only play that wouldn't drain the batteries instantly. At most time I could only play at a certain level. Depending on the car charging system was a struggle for my system at that time. That prius came to an end after it was totaled by a deer.

    I moved my system onto a Lexus rx330 suv which was great cause i had a 320 amp alternator and a custom lithium batteries bank which is funny because the batteries were the prototype that were going to use for the newer prius but toyota end up going a different route. These lithium batteries had stop being produced and sold off. It ended up being highly sought after for due to its performance in the car audio world. I was charging at 15.8v with a 15k amplifier and was barely dropping voltage it was amazing until someone hit me and totaled that vehicle. 20250522_105926.jpg

    I've came back and bought another 3gen prius because it was a good deal at the time. It was lvl 5 with the dual projector headlight and adaptive cruise control for 5k. I still have the sound system but I've been reluctant on putting back in the prius due the charging system. I end up swapping out the engine with a gen 4 engine when the headgasket gave out and i kept the old 3gen engine cause I figured I could find someone to build me a custom metal bracket for it. Which seem more complicated cause the a/c would have to be moved and maybe the air intake box too. Also I had 4 cylinder honda engine struggle with high output 320amp alternator in the past. The engine would start to jerk from the load of the alt. So that was another thing that could be a potential problem if i place a high output alt on a prius engine.

    Than ive seen someone on youtube by the name of barevids
    talk about the future of extreme car audio builds in electric cars. And he stated it would be more efficient for the amplifiers to use the high voltage batteries from the electric cars due how much energy is wasted in a 12v system. He explained energy is wasted on the engine converting gas to power the alternator and then the amplifier have to convert the 12 v up to a higher voltage so it can use it to convert the sounds signal to ac. And thats the reason why some amplifier are so big is mainly due to the power section the has to convert the 12volt. So it is extremely more efficient to use a high voltage system compare to a 12v system for car audio.
    I also seen another person on youtube by the name of loudfiat who took an all electric fiat 500 and use the high voltage batteries to power his high voltage amplifier for his sound system which reach up to 400v. With 2 hv amplifier 180,000 rms watt thats 360,000 watts it can potentially put out . He has 6 12s so im not 100% sure why he need that much power
    [​IMG]

    So that idea dawn on me if I can use the prius hybrid battery with a hv amplifier that would eliminate the need having to get a custom alternator bracket, then having to use a separate lithium battery and a huge amplifier where alot of energy would be wasted on. Compare that to if I used a high voltage hybrid battery all I would need is some safety electrical components and a smaller size amplifier that would deliver more power, that will be way more efficient and be cheaper too.

    Im still playing around with this idea. Im taking notes from the youtuber loudfiat from all the safety measures he did for his build and trying to see how I can incorporate it in my system. I dont need the full 40,000 Watts, i just need 16,000 and im not gonna be able to get that from using the stock 12v system