Can I put my home sub in my car?

neokeelo

ok, so I just installed some Infinity reference speakers in my car.

(2) 4 inch and (2) 6.5 inch. I am not satisfied with the bass output of this setup.

I have 2 home theater subs.
One is a 10" 100 watt passive Kenwood The other is a Jensen 12" 100watt powered sub.

Instead of buying a car subwoofer and an amp. Can I just buy a DC to AC converter and use the powered sub?

Here is what the powered sub looks like except it is front firing.
http://cgi.ebay.com/JENSEN-JS-1000A-12-100-WATT-DOWN-FIRING-SUB-LIKE-NEW_W0QQitemZ250068709896QQihZ015QQcategoryZ3275QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


what should I do?

vawakemonster

I hate the hijack the thread but is there any way to hook a car sub up in my room?

BaggedLancer

Person A - neokeelo
Person B - vawakmonster

Person A. Send your home sub to Person B
Person B. Send your car sub to Person A.

Problem Solved. That was easy.

MacLeod

I suppose you could do that, although it would be a lot easier and less time consuming to just buy a sub and amp for your car.

As for the car sub in the home, sure. Just make sure the amp youre using to power it can handle a 4 ohm mono load. Most home audio gear is 8 ohm.

ntculenuff

at one point in my life i found myself with a ton of car audio gear and no car.
i built some tower enclosures for my speakers and purchased a nice 120 to 12v convertor and had one hell of a 2 channel car audio system in my house(wish i had pics)

and at one point before i had nice car audio gear i ran some home speakers cabinets and all in my truck off an alphasonic 50 watt amp

as far as using a dc convertor to run the home amp you might run into some problems with the convertor shutting off with the demand for power. but hey give it a try you never know it might just get you by and create conversation (maybe a headache or 2 )

i'm with Macleod it might be easier to just get a sub and amp designed for car

BaggedLancer

No one likes my solution

beardog03

very clevr BL, very clevr..!!


and quick response too...gotta get points for that !

I thought it made sense.....the `ol switcheroo

lpreston

BL has the easy method.

On the power converter (as previously mentioned), unless you get a big one, you will exceed whats its capable of providing. You are talking at least $200-400 for a decent one. Would be cheaper to get an amp and sub for a car.

BaggedLancer

beardog03 wrote:

very clevr BL, very clevr..!!


and quick response too...gotta get points for that !

I thought it made sense.....the `ol switcheroo

i thought it was pretty clever myself

Now if they did that it would be amazing lol:D

Jstas

lpreston wrote:

BL has the easy method.

On the power converter (as previously mentioned), unless you get a big one, you will exceed whats its capable of providing. You are talking at least $200-400 for a decent one. Would be cheaper to get an amp and sub for a car.

Honestly, to run most car audio gear, you will need a power supply that is capable of handling at least a 30 amp constant draw with double the peak amperage. Yes, you can get bench power supplies that will do that kind of power but you are talking about...literally, a small welding power supply.

Also, it is insanely inefficient. Speakers are speakers fundametally and if you want to put car speakers in enclosures and use them in your home, it can be a successful venture. However, it is best to get an amp wired to run off of the 120v outlet in your house. A simple 100 watt per channel stereo amp for your home will use less than 1/4 of the power the DC power supply and car amp would use.

lpreston

Jstas wrote:

Also, it is insanely inefficient. Speakers are speakers fundametally and if you want to put car speakers in enclosures and use them in your home, it can be a successful venture.

The only thing you need to look at is your ohm load. Most home drivers will be 8 ohm and car normally is 4...but some car subs will vary anywhere from 2 ohm up depending on how you will wire with (series or parallel) and with how many will be used. A car amp will vary tremendiously in its output based on the ohm load of the sub array.

bobman1235

You could always follow this guy's lead.

If you have extra home audio subs and not enough car audio subs.... why not sell the one you have extra of for money to buy the one you want more of..?

Jstas

lpreston wrote:

The only thing you need to look at is your ohm load. Most home drivers will be 8 ohm and car normally is 4...but some car subs will vary anywhere from 2 ohm up depending on how you will wire with (series or parallel) and with how many will be used. A car amp will vary tremendiously in its output based on the ohm load of the sub array.

Amplification is amplification, fundamentally. If you see a home amp that is 8-4 ohm capable but it has the same power output at any impedance, it has a regulated power supply. Any non-regulated power supply should almost double in power output if you cut the impedance in half.

There are also quite a few stereo amplifiers for your home that will handle 4 ohm speakers without a problem. Most car speakers are marked with thier ratings and only the drivers designed for extreme SPL will have 2 ohm examples. Those are not recommended for any system that would be used for critical listening. They make noise and alot of it. That's it. However, if you had two 2 ohm load subs, they can be wired to present a 4 ohm load. You can wire two 8 ohm subs to present a 4 ohm load also. When speaking of circuits, speakers are resistors and all the rules of circuits apply.


Officially, I am going to go on the record as saying this is not such a great idea. I am using a car sub at home but it's powered with a home based amp running off of standard 120V out of the wall. The DC power supply idea is not exactly the safest, generates a good deal of heat and in a few cases, has exposed power leads which can be shorted and start fires. For teh car, a home sub would not be ideal by far. The enclosures are not built sturdy enough to handle the abuse a car can dish out and thier amps will draw a good deal of current on a power inverter. That creates alot of heat and can starve teh amplifier of power which would then make it clip and start destroying stuff.

I'd just get a sub and amp for the car and call it a day.

neokeelo

Success!

I did not spend one penny and I got exactly what I wanted.

I used the powered Jensen sub and my inverter to rig this up. The Inverter is running off the cigarette adaptor. The back of the inverter says to connect directly to the battery when using over 150 watts, but since this is only a 100 watt sub I think it will be ok. After letting it play for maybe 15 mins, I touched it and it was not even warm. I wired the sub into the front pre outs using 2 RCA cables. These pics are from tonight. I will eventually get these wires hidden and out of sight. Now I just need to get something to hold the sub in place. It sounds totally different now. The sub does not blow you away by any means but it does complete the sound stage nicely. Thanks for your help everyone.

Jstas

The wattage of the amp's output has nothing to do with the wattage it uses for input. Just because the sub's amp is rated at putting out 100 watts doesn't mean it's draw is 100 watts. The speaker uses DC power, the amp uses AC power as input and outputs DC power. There are transformers that step up voltage and step down voltage inside that amplifier plus it's own inverter circuit to convert the 120V AC house current to DC current.

audiobliss

Is that a 90's Camry?

neokeelo

Yea it is a 93

MacLeod

LMAO!!!

Dude, that is the most ghetto thing Ive ever seen.

BaggedLancer

haha that looks hilarious, hide the wires and your good to go.

I think im gonna try and put some velodynes in my g35

Red230SX

Turn the sub around so the driver faces the rear, that way the wires are hidden and if anyone asks why you have a home theater sub in your car you can say "I'm on my way home from Best buy"

disneyjoe7

BaggedLancer wrote:

Person A - neokeelo
Person B - vawakmonster

Person A. Send your home sub to Person B
Person B. Send your car sub to Person A.

Problem Solved. That was easy.

Love IT Funny You got 100% on this reply.

disneyjoe7

neokeelo wrote:

Success!

I did not spend one penny and I got exactly what I wanted.

I used the powered Jensen sub and my inverter to rig this up. The Inverter is running off the cigarette adaptor. The back of the inverter says to connect directly to the battery when using over 150 watts, but since this is only a 100 watt sub I think it will be ok. After letting it play for maybe 15 mins, I touched it and it was not even warm. I wired the sub into the front pre outs using 2 RCA cables. These pics are from tonight. I will eventually get these wires hidden and out of sight. Now I just need to get something to hold the sub in place. It sounds totally different now. The sub does not blow you away by any means but it does complete the sound stage nicely. Thanks for your help everyone.

The inverter on the cigarette adapter is ok if it is working ok right now. The 150 watts over will draw more then 15amps, the cigarette fuse would blow if it drawn over 150 watts.

Jstas

Now that I can see the pictures, I agree with MacLeod. Ghetto. With a capital hetto.

1996blackmax

If you try hard enough you could have this setup....

ntculenuff

wow are all those wires actually going some where? it looks like a wire spewed in the trunk

BaggedLancer

haha blackmax i hope that isn't your car

That looks rediculous and is COMPLETELY unsafe. Look at all the exposed wires

1996blackmax

I am afraid that it is................

























j/k ... While that car is a Maxima, it is not one of the Maximas I own. This was the gear I had in my 4th Gen Maxima .

Not as nice as the install with all those wires showing though.....

neokeelo

I'm not that big into car audio. I'm a home theater guy myself. :cool:

This setup works and sounds great for a poor college student like me.

1996blackmax

You may want to give the advice that was given about turning the sub around a shot. Many times in a car's trunk you get better bass response with the subwoofer pointed towards the back of the car.

black magic

niiiice, blackmax. What is your opinion on those amps?

1996blackmax

Very nice amplifiers, I highly recommend them.