Voltage. AA and AAA are 1.5 volts. A 9volt has essentially 6 AAAA batteries in them ran together in series to provide 9-volts. It's a common standard, and has the snap terminals which is good for things that are moving around instead of a spring loaded compartment.
this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2025
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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/9V_innards_3_different_cells.jpg
Cool picture showing the various cells making up the typical 9v battery.
Thank you for your answer.
Is there some advantage to having 9 volts instead of 1.5?
Some of the components typically used (e.g. op-amps) in audio gear like active pickups & pedals typically need at least 5-10V to work.
If you used AA for those scenarios you're either going to need a load of batteries or you're gonna have a short battery life.
9V batteries are just a better fit for the use case basically and mean things like active pickups & pedals can be kept small
Honestly, if I were designing active guitar gear, I might just try to push 24v phantom power and XLR cables. Have a little power box at the amp or pedalboard and ditch the onboard battery entirely.
But I loathe alkaline batteries...
Great idea.
Or a rechargeable battery pack.
Fascinating. I had no idea, but this is starting to make sense.
Thank you.
+4dBu is 3.472 V peak to peak. You'd need 3 batteries to hit full line level, before you even get into the 0.7v silicon junction losses.
Remember that you're making an AC signal from a DC power supply. The output is centered at half the battery voltage. It's exactly the same as a class A amplifier.
People already use 9V for their pedals too.
The AA cell typically provides 1.5V, so to get the equivalent output you'd need 6 of them which would add a noticeable amount of weight and bulk, plus cost more money and generate more waste.
Interesting stuff. Thanks for the explanation.