Running a car subwoofer on home hifi

[m4rkw]

Hi

In my car I have a JL Audio CS112g subwoofer box, 600w @ 2ohm, powered by a 1000w xfire amp.

At home I have an Exposure 2010s2 hifi amp which does 75w per channel @ 8ohm.

I'd like to be able to run the sub indoors but I suspect it would strain the hifi amp to death and kill it. What's the best way to go about this? The hifi amp has a preout, not sure if that's active at the same time as the speaker outputs but if it is then I could run that to the xfire amp to power the sub. Assuming that's doable, is there anything ready-made I can buy to run power to the xfire amp? What about controlling the bass, there's no subwoofer control on the hifi amp so I'd need some way to adjust it, I suppose I could just use the gain on the xfire amp but I'd prefer to leave that set so it's correct when it goes back in the car.

Any tips on doing this appreciated.

Cheers,
Mark

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[Jski1990]

You could use a computer power supply, but unless you have a 1000watts+ psu just laying around you’d probly be better off just buying a powered sub. There is an ad under your post as I’m typing this for a 10” Polk powered sub on amazon prime for $99.99 lol 

 

[m4rkw]

A $99 sub isn't gonna sound like a $1200 one though ?

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

A $99 sub isn't gonna sound like a $1200 one though ?

Might sound better for home theater application.

Home theater subs (generally) are designed totally different than the stuff we have in cars.   They are typically far more efficient but like a much bigger box.   Modern car audio woofers sacrifice efficiency for being able to perform well in small box, and all things being equal a properly engineered car audio sub is built around the idea that it'll be played in a car and not a large room (ideally effecting actual real-world response). 

Nothing wrong with throwing a 1000W sub on a 100W amp, and <80hz you might not even notice a difference at all but it will probably be inefficient and may not perform as well in your living room as in your trunk. 

IMO for the price of a 12V power supply that'll really handle a 1000W car amp properly you could just buy a plate amp at PartsExpress, and for 150$ you can buy a Dayton Reference 12" there that'll probably outperform your JL sub in every way for home theater application. 

 

[Jski1990]

Might sound better for home theater application.

Home theater subs (generally) are designed totally different than the stuff we have in cars.   They are typically far more efficient but like a much bigger box.   Modern car audio woofers sacrifice efficiency for being able to perform well in small box, and all things being equal a properly engineered car audio sub is built around the idea that it'll be played in a car and not a large room (ideally effecting actual real-world response). 

Nothing wrong with throwing a 1000W sub on a 100W amp, and <80hz you might not even notice a difference at all but it will probably be inefficient and may not perform as well in your living room as in your trunk. 

IMO for the price of a 12V power supply that'll really handle a 1000W car amp properly you could just buy a plate amp at PartsExpress, and for 150$ you can buy a Dayton Reference 12" there that'll probably outperform your JL sub in every way for home theater application. 

Yes, all of that.

I got a 250w Dayton plate amp off eBay for like 80 bucks

 

[m4rkw]

Hey

Thanks for all the replies, I'm sure you guys know about this stuff a lot better than I do but I'd just like to clarify a few things:

1) The box for this sub isn't small, it's roughly the same size as a fairly high-end home theatre subwoofer box that I used to own. Also it weighs a ton - there's a pretty hefty magnet base on the driver

2) Home theatre isn't my target application, I'm planning to use it for occasional (once in a blue moon when the family are away) parties, so it'll be music rather than movies

3) The JL box is effing powerful - at full tilt it makes the bones in my ears vibrate, and before it was dropped into the car I had it demo'd in the shop which is roughly equivalent in size to my living room and it sounded pretty good there too.

4) The monoblock is 1000W but the sub only draws 600W max I think, so I probably only need a 750W PSU to drive it effectively.

Given how awesome it sounds in the car and how expensive the rig was just for the sub box and the monoblock, I'm still very skeptical that I can get similar performance indoors for only $100 or so.. but I'll defer to people who know better

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Hey

Thanks for all the replies, I'm sure you guys know about this stuff a lot better than I do but I'd just like to clarify a few things:

1) The box for this sub isn't small, it's roughly the same size as a fairly high-end home theatre subwoofer box that I used to own. Also it weighs a ton - there's a pretty hefty magnet base on the driver

2) Home theatre isn't my target application, I'm planning to use it for occasional (once in a blue moon when the family are away) parties, so it'll be music rather than movies

3) The JL box is effing powerful - at full tilt it makes the bones in my ears vibrate, and before it was dropped into the car I had it demo'd in the shop which is roughly equivalent in size to my living room and it sounded pretty good there too.

4) The monoblock is 1000W but the sub only draws 600W max I think, so I probably only need a 750W PSU to drive it effectively.

Given how awesome it sounds in the car and how expensive the rig was just for the sub box and the monoblock, I'm still very skeptical that I can get similar performance indoors for only $100 or so.. but I'll defer to people who know better

If you're dead set on using the JL in the house just buy a 500W plate amp and roll with it on that.  Trying to rig up a car amp in the house is extremely impractical so unless you want to do it just for the sake of a DIY project, just keep it in the car.    And yes, those Dayton subs are very well regarded, you'd be surprised.  

And by home theater, I imply music as well.  The point is a car has different acoustics than a large room and a subwoofer system's frequency response will be effected by the room's acoustics.   Many manufacturers of car audio count on this when designing their subwoofers and enclosures.