Bipolar Power Supply - when can I use it ?

[Phorhas]

Hello... the tube driver, amongst others, use a bi-polar PS, which as I under stand gives it about twice the headroom. can I use this "trick" whenever I want whereever I want?

On what IC can't I ust it? Can I add commercial effects a Bi-polar PS?

Regards,
Dan.

[sir_modulus]

No.1 Why? It's more work. Usually you can have a PS that has a + and a - voltage in most circuits depending on the application. - can act as a ground. Feed positive as normal and negative as ground. You gain nothing and is a bit more work than wiring batteries in parallel to gain longer life.

[Yuan Han]

i'm not sure what kinda benefits a bipolar power supply will give, but from my limited knowledge, the only thing i can think of is that biasing opamps will be simpler ? since there's no need to add like 4.5V (in a unipolar 9v)  to the signal. i think biasing BBD chips will be too. actually maybe all things that the ac audio signal will "enter" will be biased easier.

mmmm, think i'm missing some pieces !

Han

[Phorhas]

well... as I understood it, if you have an OA qith say a bipolar PS going from 9V to -9V, the you have 18v of total headroom. well, if it's that simple, it certainly is better than using a MAX1044 or the like to have 18v out of a 9v batt. or, you could have a 36v oparation out of a 9v batt and 1044 chip, and a Bi-polar PS...

am I making any sense here?