what kind of amp should i use to power my home made sub??

ward91

I have made a home cinema subwoofer it is quite large about 3.3ft2, i have a 12" sub to go in it that has 400wrms per coil and each coil is 4ohm (dual coil sub) what amplifier for about £80 to £160 ($140 to $280 preferably below $200 ?)
What would you recommend??

PolkThug

Have you looked at plate amps on partsexpress.com yet?

ward91

ive just had a quick look at postage they use ups to deliver to the uk but i couldnt see a price.

ward91

yes your right but I don’t know of any, may maplins cpc or farnell I don’t really have a clue , I typed it into Google for uk results only and there wasn’t allot of help at all .

just looked cpc dont sell them niether do farnell or maplins others are a bit over expensive.

even if i got a plate amp from the us what would i use to power it .

230v to 110v

ward91

would it be ok to run the sub of the rear center channel ?
use the 6ch power amp input on the back of my avr, put L/R to L/R and put SL/SR to SL/SR and also put center to center but wire the surround center up to the sub, i know this is impractical as all i could listen to in 5.1 is the pc that is pluged into the 6.1 direct inputs. but would the sound be better or does the sub need more than 80w to get the lower end going? (the subs sencitivity 1w/1m 89dB)

unc2701

Using the rear center channel is not very practical. Can you get an Adcom 545 there? Does the marantz have a subwoofer output that's crossed over?

run the sub out to a y cable to the l&r on the Adcom. Hook one channel to each voice coil (read the subwoofer's documentation to make sure you get the phase correct. That'll get you ~400 watts total (200 to each coil) for about $200 US. You'll have to use the bass management on your AVR (assuming it has it), but the watts per dollar will be hard to beat.

BIZILL

don't do it. get yourself a sub amp.

ward91

my amp has a crossed over subwoofer output that is low level. and whats a
Adcom 545 is it some kind of power amp?

http://www.marantz.com/new/index.cfm?fuseaction=Products.ProdSpecs&cont=eu&bus=hf&prod_id=2485&type=avr&arch=1

unc2701

BIZILL wrote:

don't do it. get yourself a sub amp.

???? was that vs the Adcom or vs the rear center channel?

ward91

a sub amp from where ?

i can find almoast nothing in the uk under £200 that is my preferd power so that must be about $350

unc2701

ward91 wrote:

my amp has a crossed over subwoofer output that is low level. and whats a
Adcom 545 is it some kind of power amp?

Yes, it's a power amp. Versus a subwoofer plate amp, you'll get more clean wattage, class AB design (instead of digital or class G), very solid specs and a great sound. The drawback is that yuo won't have the nice knobs to twist- you'll have to rely on the bass management in your AVR, which might not work how you want it to and if you need to reverse the phase you'll have to unhook everything.

ward91

does the adcom run of 110v or 230v?
i dont think i will find any in the uk so postage may be high.

unc2701

I've seen dual voltage Adcoms in the same line (535, 545, 555), but not all of them are. You'll have to check on that. Regardless, you don't have to go the subwoofer plate amp route... Any power amp will do, so shop around.

ward91

power amps seem to cost new i may get one of ebay i can't seem to find a good plate amp in the uk.