Subs in Home Audio Use

[swimfreak26 10+ year member]

Allright, this subject has been tossed around many times recently I've noticed but nobody ever gets the help they need before the thread gets over-run and out of sight. The subject is using car audio equipment in your home/dorm/apartment/not in a car!

The basic questions I see floating around are:

Can it be done?

What's the best way to provide power to the amp?

Do PC power supplies work?

What about using a car battery and battery charger?

If you use a car battery and charger, how long will your sub run before the battery is dead (how fast does the charger charge)?

What about using a home amp?

Where can you find them?

Why are more of them more expensive than even car amps?

What I'm asking for, is a thread where people post anything they've actually done or seen done that has worked. I would like to see how many of these questions we can get answered for everybody that would like to do it, so they can have some closure on their issues. Please guys, post anything that you've done or any real things that you KNOW work so that these and similar questions can be killed for a while.

Also, if you have any questions that I missed in the list, let me know in this thread and I will edit it so that they come up when people first read it and they all get equal viewing time.

Click to read more...

 

[RattlinStratus 10+ year member]

Yes it is possible. Two ways basically you can get a power converter that drops the 110V or whatever to 12-14 volts. Second way is just to use your subs/speakers. Just remember most car speakers are 4 ohms, and most Home stereos are 8 ohms.

What's the best way to provide power to the amp?

Do PC power supplies work?

I would not use a pc power supply!!!

It is basically just a power converter that will "adjust" the voltage down to car voltage.

What about using a car battery and battery charger?

Bad...You dont need either of those. Power converters work great, and I never had a problem with mine.

If you use a car battery and charger, how long will your sub run before the battery is dead (how fast does the charger charge)?

Depends on batter size, wattage of stereo, and how loud you are running it. I would say anyhwere from a couple minutes to 3 hours or so. IMO.

What about using a home amp?

You can get a large receiver like I have, and use that to power, but remember the ohm loads. I had my 10 inch infinitys running off of my Pioneer/Denon receivers.

Where can you find them?

Ebay is the way.

Why are more of them more expensive than even car amps?

I dont really know, I have some ideas, but not sure.

]

 

[Tribal_Sounds 10+ year member]

ahh yea swims right if you use a pc supply you dont need a battery because your pc plugs into your normal house outlet. just some food for thought. In my store like I posted before we have a 40 amp power supply plug into the wall and the other side feeds a 12v demand. i have a volfenhag 1600 amp that is hooked up to it. the amp pushed many subs to thier limit. ex: 2(10) kicker c10s, 2(12) kenwoods, 1(12) audiobhan awc12t, 1(12) performance tek 600w. yea is gives some decent power but many times we hookep up a smaller amp that takes more power draw and when you turn it up the lights dim, the amp dims, the stereo dims, and ive had the power supply even shut off on me b4. im just not sure i want a thing like that in my room w/all the wires out, plus i was wondering if there was an alternative tat was bettter but i guess not ie. car battery in house lol

 

[blade44 10+ year member]

This is something that I have alot of experience with. It can provide alot more bass at a cheaper price. My advice if you want lots of bass for cheap: Get a professional power amplifier and any car subs you want. Speakers are speakers, just because they say car on them dosent mean you cant use them in your house. Just becareful of impedance issues. You obviously cant put a 4 ohm sub on any normal home reciever because they are 8 ohm most of the time. Theres not enough power for most subs anyway. You can get decent pro amps with lots of wattage(1000 easy) for around $200-300. Get a pair of dvc 12's or 15's and wire them for the load you want. Most decent pro amps can handle at least 4 ohm loads with many going as low as 2 or even 1 in some rare cases. This is a lot better than $500 for an ok 12 @ 500w rms in a small enclosure, doomed to never play both loud and low. With home premades you will never get both, only one or the other. Just like in car audio, stay away from pyramid and pyle when buying an amp.

As far as using your car amp indoors, its not cheap or easy. You need to have a DC power supply to do this. These do not come cheap. My 25 amp model was $125 online. To get the 80 amps or more that most amps need to run these days you would have to pay alot more, at least $300. And then you still need to buy the amp. And if you have a really power hungry amp think more in the $500 range. Not to metion the fact that its not easy to track down a company that even makes such a massive power supply.

Someone said that you could use a pc power supply. It is true that it produces 12v constant power, but its only around 5-7 amps at best. It could power cd players but thats it. It makes a great little benchtop power supply if you only use it for head units.

Its alot of fun to mess around with this stuff and get crazy bass in home theater systems. I go over to friends houses and they brag about there little 10 inch 100 watt sub. Then I show them my two 12" audiobahn alum Q 1000 watt subs.

There is no point to use any other car audio component really, unless you just have it laying around not doing anything. Just look at the power reqs for it and adjust accordingly.

 

[Hydrastas 10+ year member]

could you just make a homemade power converter to drop the voltage from the wall to 12 volts? i got a spare car amp and a sub, with plenty of copper wire sitting in the garage, could i just ghetto rig a power converter, how many times do i gotta wrap the wire around to drop from 110 to 14~?

 

[Hydrastas 10+ year member]

oh yea almost forgot theres the issue of going from ac to dc LOL, i wouldn't want 60 hz buzzing from the sub while trying to watch a movie

 

[Hydrastas 10+ year member]

alright so i could use this bad boy for 15$ http://www.frozencpu.com/products/6084/bus-107/AC_to_DC_Adapter_-_110v_AC_to_12v_DC_Converter_w_4-Pin_Molex.html#blank

but it only puts out 2 amps at 12v lol so i'd have to crack this bish open and add a couple winds of copper wire? i'd be wanting at least the 80 amps at 12v.

 

[Hydrastas 10+ year member]

i've got one of those food saver vacuum things for the plastic bags, how hard would it be to rig that up to make a vacuum tube and make a homemade rectifier to get the ac to dc from the wall socket, and once i did would it be 120v dc? so i'd have to throw in a transformer afterwards, im too lazy to look up how many amps you can get from 10 amps at 120v ac to 12v dc, i wouldn't wanna be trippin my circuit breaker while watching an action movie or anything.

 

[fshanda 10+ year member]

Much easier to get a pro audio amp, QSC. Crown etc. Run the sub out from the receiver or preamp to the amplifier and hook up some subs. Very simple and will get you heaps of power depending on the amp you get. I run my subs @ 2400 watts w/ amp bridged on my setup.

But I guess if you have stuff lying about and want to play around you should go for it.

 

[F3RR3T 10+ year member]

alright so i could use this bad boy for 15$ http://www.frozencpu.com/products/6084/bus-107/AC_to_DC_Adapter_-_110v_AC_to_12v_DC_Converter_w_4-Pin_Molex.html#blank
but it only puts out 2 amps at 12v lol so i'd have to crack this bish open and add a couple winds of copper wire? i'd be wanting at least the 80 amps at 12v.

i cant wait till your banned

 

[slim2fattycake 10+ year member]

how do you go about wiring a car sub to a one line subwoofer output of a receiver?