Despite a very early exposure to a switcher back in the '60s I blissfully avoided them for most of my adult life.
As a learning experience a linear (non switching) pass regulator that dumps as much power as it supplies is probably acceptable, but you will still be investing time and effort to deal with dissipating even those few watts. Spending perhaps a little more time and a little different effort you could come up with a more elegant switching solution (energy wise).
I don't want to overstate the important of wasting a few watts, but heat is the enemy of reliability in electronics. I think MTBF something like doubles for every 10'C lower operating temperature. That extra few watts, might be welcome during the winter months. In the summer, not so much.
Switchers are pretty easy in concept, and easy if you don't care about noise. That said I am inclined to say KISS and analog for a low noise audio application. If you must DIY a switcher, using a standard off the shelf 24V supply for the higher current circuitry and then roll your own step up switcher for the much lower current 48V will be easier to manage the noise.
Another consideration for low power step up is to consider a charge pump.
http://www.maxim-ic.com/appnotes.cfm/an_pk/725/
This is just the first example I found, several people make these.
The nice thing about charge pumps is there is less magnetic field to worry about. This is often done to make low voltages from even lower, so you probably won't find a canned 24 to 48V solution, but this could be another learning experience. FWIW a charge pump is almost identical to the popular cap doubler circuit but operates at higher frequency so smaller caps are needed for a given amount of current.
Sorry to throw out more confusing options.. It is the nature of internet discussion for people to tell you what they know, rather than what you need to know. Your work is to sift out the wheat from the chaff... good luck
JR
As a learning experience a linear (non switching) pass regulator that dumps as much power as it supplies is probably acceptable, but you will still be investing time and effort to deal with dissipating even those few watts. Spending perhaps a little more time and a little different effort you could come up with a more elegant switching solution (energy wise).
I don't want to overstate the important of wasting a few watts, but heat is the enemy of reliability in electronics. I think MTBF something like doubles for every 10'C lower operating temperature. That extra few watts, might be welcome during the winter months. In the summer, not so much.
Switchers are pretty easy in concept, and easy if you don't care about noise. That said I am inclined to say KISS and analog for a low noise audio application. If you must DIY a switcher, using a standard off the shelf 24V supply for the higher current circuitry and then roll your own step up switcher for the much lower current 48V will be easier to manage the noise.
Another consideration for low power step up is to consider a charge pump.
http://www.maxim-ic.com/appnotes.cfm/an_pk/725/
This is just the first example I found, several people make these.
The nice thing about charge pumps is there is less magnetic field to worry about. This is often done to make low voltages from even lower, so you probably won't find a canned 24 to 48V solution, but this could be another learning experience. FWIW a charge pump is almost identical to the popular cap doubler circuit but operates at higher frequency so smaller caps are needed for a given amount of current.
Sorry to throw out more confusing options.. It is the nature of internet discussion for people to tell you what they know, rather than what you need to know. Your work is to sift out the wheat from the chaff... good luck
JR
