Home theater sub in a car! would it work?

[aweir 10+ year member]

I have an old front firing ported 75 watt 10" sub from my home stereo that I don't use anymore. Would it be possible to buy a DC to AC converter and use this sub along with the sub outputs of my HU? In other words be using line level of the sub. Would the ohms be incompatible and cause damage to the sub's internal amp?

And as far as remote turn on,

I could use my cigarette lighter instead of a remote turn on wire because the cigarette lighter only receives power when the car is running, very useful.

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[spike_e 10+ year member]

i just put some 8" midbasses from a home stero in my car and they sound great

 

[jdawg 5,000+ posts]

the power inverter to run it would be as much as a cheap amp

 

[aweir 10+ year member]

But what I was wondering is if RCA line level outputs 4 ohms and is it safe to use an 8 ohm sub in a car?

this seems a hell of a lot cheaper than an amp. http://www.crutchfield.com/S-1g5ErFiw3MD/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?search=dc+to+ac&i=539XP175P

 

[jdawg 5,000+ posts]

well go for it then

 

[nosaj070 10+ year member]

But what I was wondering is if RCA line level outputs 4 ohms and is it safe to use an 8 ohm sub in a car?
this seems a hell of a lot cheaper than an amp. http://www.crutchfield.com/S-1g5ErFiw3MD/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?search=dc+to+ac&i=539XP175P

The resistance of the speaker has nothing to do with the RCA resistance. That will work, I'd hate to even try and call it ideal, but knock yourself out. HT subs tend to be tuned quite a bit lower, and really aren't designed for use in a car so don't expect high output. In short it won't cause problems.

 

[aweir 10+ year member]

"HT subs tend to be tuned quite a bit lower:

This sub has adjustable crossover 40-180Hz and has rugged carpeted encore and heavy duty handles and metal speaker grill. you'd think it was a car sub if you saw it, that's why I was considering. It's built pretty sturdy for a HT sub.

 

[nosaj070 10+ year member]

"HT subs tend to be tuned quite a bit lower:
This sub has adjustable crossover 40-180Hz and has rugged carpeted encore and heavy duty handles and metal speaker grill. you'd think it was a car sub if you saw it, that's why I was considering. It's built pretty sturdy for a HT sub.

I'm not exactly sure what you think HT subs are, but they are very rarely less sturdy than a typical car enlcosure, and most of the time are as sturdy as a house.

When I say tuning, I don't mean the crossover, it means the tuning of the actual enclosure which is determined by the volume and length and size of the port. It will work, I suggest you educate yourself an awful lot more to understand what you are trying to say.

 

[ARSkemp 10+ year member]

I did basically just that when I was bringing all my stuff home from college. The ht was going to be in my car anyways. I already had a adapter for the cigarette lighter i had gotten for like $40 (used it for my laptop). The adapter had a max of like 100 watts so i couldn't turn the sub up to its max but it still worked. It however sounded much more muddy in my car than it does in my room.

If it was a permanent thing I wouldn't recommend it. If its only temporary to give you some bass to your subless car for a small amount of time(like i did) then i would say it may be worth it if you already have the stuff to do it.

 

[XanderMoser 10+ year member]

The main problem is efficiency. The efficiency of an inverter is less than that of a car amplifier, plus there is an amp on top of that which is not totally efficient.

The impedance of the driver in the subwoofer and zilch to do with the RCA signal line level. In a home theater sub like you have, the amp is built into the box. You don't have to worry about incompatibility between the amp and the impedance of the subwoofer.

But remember that the juice that the HT sub amp is pulling will be running through your cigarette lighter...and thus it will be pulled through the tiny little wires, and fuse, that are run to that lighter. You're asking for a blown fuse.

I have to admit. I did that exact same thing when I got my car and didn't have a decent job for about a month and a half. Did it work? Yes. Was it smart? No, now that I think back on it.