car stereo in house???????

[Grinder1989 5,000+ posts]

Huh?

To ground everything....

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

They use a really big potato...

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

To ground everything....

Where is he getting the +12volts?

 

[azbass 5,000+ posts]

They use a really big potato...

gah secret!

 

[Mugen 10+ year member]

I use an Antec computer power supply and ran my kenwood amp on it just fine. The amp was rated at 300rms. I currently use that same PSU on an older profile amp and run my IDQ with it. More than enough output for me. I also used to run a Kenwood headunit that powered two front speakers off of the same PSU. It worked great and nothing ever headed up or blew up.

Would you mind elaborating please. I currently have a 550w Antec TPII and I'm about to overhaul my system. How exactly would I convert my PSU to power a 500w amp (which I could run say two MAW-12's with //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/naughty.gif.94359f346c0f1259df8038d60b41863e.gif )?

 

[casey87 10+ year member]

Where is he getting the +12volts?

12 volt ac to dc power adaptor.

 

[casey87 10+ year member]

or two one for the cd player one for the amp

 

[casey87 10+ year member]

i may use a 15 volt ac to dc power adaptor for the amp. but im not sure i dont want to burn his house down lol

 

[headless 10+ year member]

You can't use your 550w computer PS to power 500w of amplifiers, because your PC power supply has different rails - 3.3v, 5v and 12v. The 12v is likely only capable of ~300watts maximum, and that's ONLY if you also load the 3.3v and 5v to some extent.

If you to really do it, get a 12v power supply from surplus industrial equipment. I paid about 75$ for mine and it's rated for 70amps output at ~13.8volts. The outputs from your bigass 12v power supply would then act just like the posts on your car battery as far as +/- goes. Radio shack sells lower end 20-30amp supplies @ 12v for considerably more cash if you want to do it the 'just buy some shit at a retail store' way..

Most 12v AC/DC transformers that you see 'bricks' that plug into the wall are only rated at 1-3 amps maximum which is all of 30-45watts. You need a power supply, not a little wall-wart transformer. Unless you intend to run 10w RMS to a couple of 5.25's //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

12 volt ac to dc power adaptor.

Duh....

It is a stupid idea... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

 

[Mugen 10+ year member]

Well, it has dual 12v rails (it's made for SLI) rated at 19 amps per rail max. Watts = V * Amps right? Shouldn't that give me (12*19)*2? If so, that's like 450w, not to shabby IMO. Of course, that is assuming I can join the two rails together, which I don't know because this is all new to me.

I understand PC hardware and Car Audio hardware, but I have no clue how to mix them, lol.

EDIT:

Also, how would I connect my power cables to the PSU? Would that require opening it up or doing major modifications? I think it might be better for me to just buy a plate amp =/

 

[casey87 10+ year member]

Duh....

It is a stupid idea... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

i kno it is lmao but he wants it done.

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

Well, it has dual 12v rails (it's made for SLI) rated at 19 amps per rail max. Watts = V * Amps right? Shouldn't that give me (12*19)*2? If so, that's like 450w, not to shabby IMO. Of course, that is assuming I can join the two rails together, which I don't know because this is all new to me.
I understand PC hardware and Car Audio hardware, but I have no clue how to mix them, lol.

EDIT:

Also, how would I connect my power cables to the PSU? Would that require opening it up or doing major modifications? I think it might be better for me to just buy a plate amp =/

A plate amp is a good idea if the setup is permanent. I'm way too cheap for that and I'm only running low power stuff. My profile amp is rated at like 100rms so it's no big deal to power it from the PSU. I'm sure you could use your PSU to power your amp but you're not going to get full power from it.

The way I wired mine, I made it so that I could still use it later if I needed it. I used some adapters for the PSU that came with some older video cards. I connected two rails in parallel by splicing into the adapters and connecting them to the power supply. I then wired them together and daisy chained the +12v rail to the power and remote on the amp. Then I did the same with the grounds.

I use the PSU without a computer so to turn it on, you have to short a connection to ground on the main line that connects to the MB. I used a staple to do this. If I remember correctly, it's a green wire that needs to be shorted to one of the black wires. When you do this, the power supply will turn on when you flip the switch on the back of it.

Mine works very well and is completely silent. I have no need for it at the moment so it's working out perfectly right now. It doesn't get hot and my amp doesn't get hot either and everything is pretty **** loud.

 

[Mugen 10+ year member]

Yea, that's to rigged for me. I was thinking i'd be able to just snip the wires and plug 'em in. Plate amp definitely sounds like the winner for me.

Thanks for the info though, I may find a use for this one day...

[saves]

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

Yea, that's to rigged for me. I was thinking i'd be able to just snip the wires and plug 'em in. Plate amp definitely sounds like the winner for me.
Thanks for the info though, I may find a use for this one day...

[saves]

You could just snip the wires and plug them in but that is more ghetto than what I said. My PSU is completely normal and usable when I remove the adapters.

This is how you short it to turn on when you flip the switch. I have a staple where the red V is in this picture:

You actually can't even see the staple and it works perfectly.

This is a picture of what I mean by the adapters.

I have those attached and they are what I spliced into. That kept the PSU in it's stock state.