Subwoofer for Home

[petethedog 10+ year member]

I was looking to upgrade my little 8" home theater sub(100w rms) to something a lot more probably 400-500. I started looking on ebay for one and they are expensive. I was wondering If could get some car audio stuff and hook it up in my house. I would like it to be fairly inexpensive, probably just a single 12" and get a cheap amp to run it.

The sub would be used for primarily music with some movies (75/25)

Can this be done? or should i just bite the bullet and get a prebuilt home theater sub????

Click to read more...

 

[Scoobydoo 5,000+ posts]

you can use a car sub, but not a car amp unless you mod a computer power supply and by the time you buy a good enough PS for the job you could just buy a plate amp

 

[wccoug21 10+ year member]

Just buy a bic h-100 off of ebay... that is the best for the money you will find about $260... it sounds great on movies and music and can shake your house down.

 

[petethedog 10+ year member]

could i bridge a small stereo receiver and use that on a car sub. just use rca cables from my subout to the new reiever? or should i spend the cash on one of these: http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-450-WATT-SUBWOOFER-AMPLIFIER_W0QQitemZ180271777645QQihZ008QQcategoryZ3276QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

my ultimate goal is more power but i don't really have much money to spend

thanks.

 

[bonesninja 5,000+ posts]

why don't you just use stuff made for home audio?

 

[da box king 10+ year member]

im also curious about this...what would you use to power the sub's, or how?....any good links of how to do a setup?

 

[bonesninja 5,000+ posts]

im also curious about this...what would you use to power the sub's, or how?....any good links of how to do a setup?

if you have a receiver that has subwoofer speaker terminals....you use that. Lots of receivers also have rca outs for subs, then you need a seperate amp

 

[petethedog 10+ year member]

why don't you just use stuff made for home audio?

I was under the impression that car audio stuff has a much better power to $ value

that's all

 

[WildcatNate 10+ year member]

Sounds like you need to do a little research. Home audio is not about power. Sorry, but keep reading, I've heard 200 watt subs that sound better and louder than 1000 watt, its all about efficiency. Home Audio is a completely different ballgame, and honestly, this is the wrong place to get advice. Try avsforum or something like that.

 

[bonesninja 5,000+ posts]

I was under the impression that car audio stuff has a much better power to $ valuethat's all

no.....in the end, you usually end up spending more money to get the same or worse results than if you just woulda bought the good shit to begin with

 

[Bass Addict 10+ year member]

I was under the impression that car audio stuff has a much better power to $ valuethat's all

i'll throw this at you and you can take it from there.i have a yamaha home reciever and at the time i bought it,i allso bought a cheap *** 8"welton powered subwoofer.well needless to say it didnt take much to distort.just out of curiosity,i took the 8" out and plugged up a sony explode up to it and was impressed.so i proceeded to build about a 1.75 cube box for it mounting the amp(the kind you plug into a wall and use one rca to hook up to the back of the receiver) on the back.works really really well.and believe it or not,that amp runs cooler with the 12 4 ohm speaker than it did with the crappy 8.i allready had the sony explode sitting in the closet,so it only cost me about 40 bucks.so if the 8 you speak of is powered by an amp on the back.you should consider this.you definately wont be dissappointed. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

I was under the impression that car audio stuff has a much better power to $ valuethat's all

Power is irrelevant...

 

[Bass Addict 10+ year member]

Power is irrelevant...

the amp on the 12" sub is 100w but it sounds like 500w

 

[fuster 10+ year member]

Whut Wildcatnate says. Try a home audio dedicated forum. You can get a better fund of knowledge about what you are asking regarding choices that are cheap in the home audio sub category, and a plethora of opinion.

Also, if you are limited in budget, I think you can get away with something from Radio Shack (maybe they no longer sell subs) or a less expensive unit for home use from some place like Best Buy. Sub woofers only reproduce sub sonic and barely audible low frequency signals, which the human ear is very poor at discerning distortion in these frequency ranges. Therefore, cheap is not necessarily going to be bad, it more depends on whether you like how it sounds (and how much you can spend).

 

[petethedog 10+ year member]

Whut Wildcatnate says. Try a home audio dedicated forum. You can get a better fund of knowledge about what you are asking regarding choices that are cheap in the home audio sub category, and a plethora of opinion.
Also, if you are limited in budget, I think you can get away with something from Radio Shack (maybe they no longer sell subs) or a less expensive unit for home use from some place like Best Buy. Sub woofers only reproduce sub sonic and barely audible low frequency signals, which the human ear is very poor at discerning distortion in these frequency ranges. Therefore, cheap is not necessarily going to be bad, it more depends on whether you like how it sounds (and how much you can spend).

I already have a cheap sub from radio shack ( 100w rms 8") I want to upgrade it is bad it distorts terribly around 3/4 volume and gets stinky.

I figure i can put together a cheap 12" car audio sub at about 300 -400 w for about the same price as a 150w home theater sub. I was also thinking that the car audio sub would be better soundin especially because it will primarily be used for music. Perhaps my current radioshack sub is pooched but there is no reason for that it's pretty new.