84'fxrupr

I know this doesnt really fit the topic, but no one has been able to help me so far so i thought I'd post the question to the genious' on here! I completely do not understand home audio... in particular subwoofers. I dont get the difference between a home sub and a car audio sub. I went to a couple of stores and most powered subwoofers (for home) run about $150 for like and 80 watt 8 inch sub. I'm in college now and my roomate has a stereo setup, it even has a sub output, just no sub. We need some bass, but man, i dont have the money to spend on a decent home sub(im in college, im poor). So my question is... could i take an old car amp, get an ac to dc 13-14 volt converter, and hook it up to a car sub and then to the home stereo and have a homeade sub? I cant find home audio components very easily and car audio seem to be more powerful anyway(are the wattages changed or are car audio amps higher output because of roadnoise...etc.?) So i was thinkin if i got an old two channel amp and built a box... i could have a decent sub setup for under $100. Tell me what you guys think...
Thanks
Jared(84'fxrupr)

Blade

I've had a 10 inch Alpine sub in a ported box for a "home stereo sub" for a while. It works very well. The MOST important thing is the amount of power you can feed the amp that's going to drive this sub. The "converter" you talk about. I have 30 AMP 12 Volt power supply powering my 500 W amp and it's enough to shake the room. If you have a Fry's nearby try visiting their power supply isle... or you could look online and buy the most powerful 12 Volt supply you can afford :P

NEEDAZ

The biggest thing is going to be the current that the power supply (AC to DC converter) can put out. If you're not going to do this with a high current supply DON'T DO IT. Look at the fuse on the amp, if there's is more then one add them together. You need a power supply capable of suppling at least that much current. Other wise you risk damage to the power supply or amp. The other thing to consider is you would want to use a 4 ohm sub, then the box.
If i can find the transformer I have an old HP liner supply that will put out 80A all day long. I also need to fix the posts and front panel. I melted the posts on a "dead" PPI amp, then the B+ post hit the case, melted a half inch by 4 inch hole down the front (as gravity pulled the line down). Bad day, vary bad day. Any way, if I can still get the parts I'll sell if for $300.00 & S+H.
Getting the idea that a high current supply isn't going to be cheap. If you don't have one it's probably cheaper to just buy the "home sub".
If you look you can find a 150W "home sub woofer amp module" for under $100.00, you supply the sub and box. If you can get you're hands on a home sub with a bad amp this is a cheap way to go.

This will probably get locked.............

84'fxrupr

Thanks guys... yeah i figured it might get locked... anyways my grandpa and i used to do radio (ham and cb) and i've got all the equipment at my house... I'm pretty sure I remember the conveter being 30amps. Once i remembered that i got it all figured out. I'm gonna go to a pawn shop i know of and get a semi decent 2 channell amp (150 watts or so) and then a 12 and build a ported box. It's fall break so I'm gonna do all this when i go home this weekend. If i get it all working and this thread isnt locked.... I'll post some pictures if anyone is interested!

P.S. On a sad note... my camaro got sold last week and the LT1 package will probably be gone today

NEEDAZ

30A should work for a small amp. What was your call sign? My CS is N3NXL. Haven't done allot of HF stuff (most time on 2M and 440) but may have heard you.

KEVIN G.

I also belong to the home theater forum, and many people ask if they can use an old car sub in an HT application, and is never reccommended.
(something about the distance the sub travels, and the wave it produces are different in a home and car environment.)
Sorry mods, just trying to help th kid out...
Here's a link to a fantastic sub on a budget LINKY THINGY
Don't let the price fool you... IT SMOKES most brick and mortar brand subs for less than half the price.
Sometimes it's even on sale for 99 bucks!!!!

junkyarddog

I once used a 12" Pioneer IMPP sub (4 ohm) and ran a wire to my old Audio Source SW4 150 self powered sub. The SW4 had a bad driver, the amp inside is what I used to power the sub. I knew it was 4 ohms because the amp powered a DVC 8 ohm sub.

This setup rocked until my gf blew it up again..., not her fault though....blame the tech (me) I replaced two output transistors and a couple caps to resurect this wonderful amp. It was a great home sub and retailed for $400 way back when. I left it behing when I moved so I've been without bass in my home.

My sister bought me a cheapie RCA bookshelf unit with the 5 disc and all the 'hig tech' looking stuff. It did sound ok, even though I would never buy one for myself. I needed just a little more so bought the cheapest self powered sub I could for the money (impulse buy) It's a sony SAWM250 watts? 8" driver I think...ported, most importantly....high level crossover, with x-over point and level controls. This improves the highs as well as the lows because it divides the duties of lows and everything else proportionatly. Just like in car audio, except with less equipment. I spent $100 on it and I was kind of regreting it, but I finally tuned it using the digital 'sample' tracks from the DEMO funtion...and all has been well. It's cheap to go with cheap...good enough for now. It really brings this budget system to life!

With the money spent there, a great computer speaker system can be had from Altech lansing or similar brands..these don't deliver the heavy thunder but they can sound decent.

The best bang for the buck I know of is Audio Source. I have no idea if thier quality is the same as before because the prices have come way down, but 250w 12" units can be had for $150. If it performs anything like the SW4 I had, then that's a deal. Beware of cheap electronics though...I've already looked inside my Sony....MADE IN MALAYSIA....skimpy stuff.

The next time I spend serious money on a home sub, I'm building it myself, completly from scratch. I have yet to study the science of box building, but I see no reason why I can't use an old IMPP or one of the RF punch subs I have lying around. As I said before, I used the IMPP indoors in a sealed 3/4" MDF box....it sounded great. In general, I think a sub is a sub, meaning indoor/outdoor, car, it will get the job done if it's configured right.

84'fxrupr

whats up guys... just got back from story of the year/lost prophets/my chemical romamce/anberlin concert... i want home stereo system like that... forget surround sound.... anyways my call sign i believe was kc0crz (not sure... i havent done it for about 6 years!) I'm officially on break tonite so when i go home tommorrow ill see if i have the convertor.... if not ill find another soution... thanks for the other suggestions as well guys... since people seem interested ill keep it posted!
Jared
(84'fxrupr)
P.S. Why do little people feel the need to fight... Hint Of The Day- Don't **** off a big kid at a concert! Fat people rule!

Gummie

I'm personally a fan of Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1's (currently listening to them right now) and they sound pretty good for a $400 complete system (review quotes on their site, user reviews, The Tech Zone review). They're a really well liked setup and can pound pretty hard for their size.

The only downside is that they do sound better when plugged into a computer (after all, that is what they're made for), but on the other hand they do work well with an xbox or anything else that can encode to 5.1 (you will need to spend $80 more for them to be able to decode 5.1). If you cant encode to 5.1 then you’re going to have a hard time sending the speakers a useable multi channel signal other than stereo since they have either digital in or three sets of minijacks for front, rear, and center/sub. Another plus of using a computer is this: computers typically mirror front l/r to rear l/r in all stereo applications (ie listening to music) - 2.1 music is more boring than mirrored 4.1 music IMO. Also - some sound cards will generate a center channel for 5.1. This sounds a TON better than a home receiver trying to generate a center/rear channels with stupid effects which just distort music and create weird sounding rear channels.

I was looking into doing something along these lines for kicks and giggles since I'm between cars and have two 12's and an amp sitting right behind me. Then I realized how much a power supply would cost and I decided not to try it. If you have the hardware available, it is a good cheap way to get some bass. The only other thing you're going to have to worry about is turning on the amp through the remote (most people just bridge the 12v input to the remote via a 16-18 gauge wire).

One final note: wattages on car equipment are much higher than home because of how inefficient most car components are as compared to a home speakers.

Edit: I'm not sure how your concert compaired to skate and surf 2k4, but I can say that skate and surf sounded AMAZING. I was really impressed what the punk crowd put together for audio. It defantly kicked the *** of the Metallica show I saw back in 2001.

Props for your taste in music

84'fxrupr

The audio at Story sucked but the subs pounded... I'm in college.... no money, and no care for sound... when youre partyin not many people stop to tell yah how your speakers sound, only if the musics good IMOA. Anyways, when i went home i found my power supply and it puts out 12 amps consistantly witha 20 amp max... not enough to really push an amp worth it. Anyways a friend of mine has a kenwood excelon receiver that broke and if i pay to fix it i can have it so i might lean towards that... i mean my car subs are runnin on 1/2-1 volt now so i wonder what would happen if i raised it to 4 volts with a sub level control and my amps sub level control The grand am would be rockin!
Thanks for the idea folks...
lata
jared (84'fxrupr)

Gummie

I'm not sure a home receiver would be the greatest idea because it probably wouldn't be able to take the load of a car sub (subs?). Most home audio is a TON more efficient than car (hence a 200 watt home sub being considered large where it would only be average/small in a car wattage wise). Not to mention that, but ohms loads tend to be harsher in a car environment. Your average car sub is 4 ohm or less while your average home speaker is upwards of 8, if not more.

You really don’t have anything to lose by trying it though; the worst that happens is you blow the already junk receiver.

84'fxrupr

No... you took it wrong.... I dont have great amounts of money .My friends Kenwood excelllon kdc 817 (or somethin like that ) broke. I told her i would buy it from her if i could get it working for decently cheap (its an awesome deck). I took it to a shop and they wanted $325 to fix it.... so i started working on it, used some scotch tape... and it works like new! But now since I'm payin her for a new car stereo, i think im givin up on the hole sub idea... My convertor wasnt a high enough power and it's not worth it to buy a convertor... besides christmas is coming!
lata guys
jared (84'fxrupr)

junkyarddog

That's the first thing I notice if I'm at a bar or wherever...that and the ladies ofcourse.

If the home reciever is 8 ohms per channel, two 4 ohm subs can be connected in series, one channel will be unloaded though, unless you have two more subs. DVCs, would come in handy here!

200 watts is PLENTY in most cars, but thirdgens are noisy cars, sometimes more is needed to 'drown out' all of that extra road noise. That or spend lots of time and money to deaden the entire car.

84'fxrupr

Currently i have the "new" kenwood excelon kdc-x817 as a head unit. The i have a power acoustik 2400 amp, and two 12" power acoustik fubr series subs in a ported box i built. Its ran by two dry cell batteries in my trunk (of course with isolator, circuit breaker and fuses). I built the box a little big so when the speakers get goin theres a little to much movement, but im gonna use pollyfill to fix that. Anyways, I know power acoustik is definately considered top of the line( )! But it still hits pretty hard and it sounds a lot better than most of the best buy installs around! Its my first system and if i get my monte carlo back Ill start workin on an even better one for that!
Jared (84'fxeupr)

ScrapMaker

I wonder if you could buy a $30 car jumpstarter/charger and install a cooling fan inside it and call that your convertor?

junkyarddog

Considering $30 wouldn't even buy a decent high current bench supply, it would be great!

Unfortunately, these aren't designed to supply a constant high current at 12 volts, it's for charging/starting only.

84'fxrupr

Ive been thinkin about this. The reciever i have is an old 4cahnnel that i believe is 8 ohm, could i bridge it and still run 8 ohms worth of subs or would it be different because of bridging it? Would it be safe to run car subs off of a home audio reciever?

ScrapMaker

if you mean it's an AC-powered amplifier... than there's almost no way you can bridge connections on it...

if you have "extra" stereo outputs on the amp, like many amps do, then maybe you could find a dual voice-coil sub and feed each voice coil enough power... but also you need to get a good crossover, which is the hardest part, since the bass/treble ***** are horrible at this...

NEEDAZ

:no: :no: :no: (i love some of the new smilies)
You CAN'T bridge a non-bridgeable amp. Home amps are NOT bridgeable. Well you could try, but it wouldn't be any louder and you'd be cutting the life span of that amp down quite a bit.