Archive through February 09, 2004

 

Anonymous
I have a 12'' sub hooked to my home stereo along with some other car speakers. They all work fine but i want more kick out of my sub, so i got an amp from a friend and i cant figure out if it will even hook up to my home stereo. Does anyone have and helpful advice for my situation?
 

Derek
Car subs work fine as long as you have enough power. Car subs, in order to produce a relatively flat response in small enclosures, are terribly inefficient. As an example The MTX 10" 8000 has a sensitivity of 83.4 db/watt. A passive home sub with that kind of effitiency would not sell well. 87 db would be a minumum. That's why so many car systems have more power than home systems. 500 to 1000 watts is common.

Sound re-enforcement equipment used in clubs and concerts can easily produce 105 db/watt. A 1000 watt amp can produce a HUGE amount of sound.

To make matters worse, most car speakers are unusually efficient - typically in the 90+ db range. This is to produce the most output from the typical 11 watt head unit. To create a flat response requires a sub amp with about 10 times the power of the rest of the system.

You can do it but make sure it's in an optimum size box and the receiver you have has a subwoofer preamp output. Run that line to the new amp and connect the sub to the amp.

Hope this helps.
 

First of all you will need an AC to DC converter to power your car amp then the rest depends on the recievers available outputs, the amps available inputs and the power you need. I don't recommend it but it may be able to be worked to fit your needs. List the specs of your amp, sub and reciever and we might figure it out.
 

Knowing all this new information on how i could connect my car amp to my home Receiver. I just got two 12 inch sony Xplods at 1200 watts peak power and 350 watts rated power, and a 1000 watt sony Xplod amp given 165 wats * 2. I was wondering if you could help me hook it up the best way possible.
Thanks, James
 

Wzup Fellas,

I am a college student who enjoys extremely loud music. I'm in a similar situation, I trying to hook up 4 Additional subs to my desktop stereo. Which is a panasonic SA-AK29 that puts out a total wattage of 260-280. Now I have the four additional subs hooked up but, when I reach a certain volume level the the stereo cutts off, which of course mean I need more wattage. The following four subs are as follows: Two Alpine 12-inch subs with a peak of 1200 total, a 10-inch jensen XS with a total wattage of 400 and a 10-inch Kicker VR don't know the wattage on that particular sub. I want to hook up a car stereo amplifier to the stereo. The stereo is equipped with a left and right subwoofer outputs. If some could tell me how to this, it would be greatly appreciated. I need to know stuff like, how to convert home electrical power to Amp power. Where to hook up the remote wire from the amp to the stereo.

Any help would be appreciated!!!
Thanks, Byron
 

Yo Bryan I am in a situation like that to u just returened my Sony AMP and got a RockFord Fosgate Amplifier cause my friend told me it was better. It seems like you got it pretty easy because you got a left and right subwoofer output i only have one. All you have to really do is hook up a power cord to your Amplifier which might be a litle tricky follow te directions on the amplifier directions and i belive you will be able to figure out where which cord goes where
 

First of all you may want to get a more efficient power supply to give some juice to your car amp. A rectifier that puts out at least 13.4 volts (the power requirement in the vehicle, not 12 volts as some people believe). You need at least a 65 ampere rating on said rectifier (or converter) and a set of stiffening capacitors to supply the necessary juice to the demands of the subwoofer specially if it eats up power as you stated at 4 or even 2 ohm rating, auto speakers suck up a lot of juice. Hence the problem of speakers cutting off as Byron stated...its not not the wattage that's killing you it's the amperes. You need a more effecient power supply, something that can supply a lot amperes. You'll notice that high powered sound systems in vehicles are equipped with alternators that produce a higher ampere rating than the stock version, they also state the need for "stiffening caps" these are used to supply power to the subs when they are playing an intense bass passage....hope it helps
 

Anonymous
Stiffening caps don't help as much as you think, they just help flatten the voltage across the play times... (But surges in demand would still leave you without volume and have blips of silence when the bass hits) You will need a HUGE maybe 10 times the rated 1 farad / 1000 watts formula to support constant strain to the current... Might need to get a digital cap worthy of 40 farad or something to play maybe a whole song...

I have not found a good solution to this but was wondering if anyone has done any wiring for good guys, best buy, walmart, circut city, any hardware place that demos car audio... How do they do it and if you can find a source, maybe that'll be the best answer...

Also, you need to provide a seperate low votage line to the remote in on the amp to turn the amp on... This is easy to bypass since you can just wire a small battery to it when you want the amp on... But this MUST be connected in order to turn on the amp... I have no clue how the grounding would work though... (please check the sensitivity of your amp's remote lead before hooking up excessive voltages to this sensitive input)
 

chaz the MIT guy
For the guy who has tons of car speakers on the desktop computer. If your speakers are in series there is too much of a load on the amp. It is probably rated 8-16 ohms. If it's in parallel then your basically shorting it out. There is no way around this, unless you "get a new amp". Your best bet is to have the original speakers and hook on sub per channel in parallel to the circuit. You'll have a little bit better response but not much, and as far as stiffening caps they are garbage. It's a case of too much speaker not enough amp. They are like a short ride battery they just assist the power supply not the amp, and in the case of home stereos where power drain is not an issue because of the wall power they just add cost and take up space, but they look cool.
 

Anonymous
is 15 volts enough for my amp?
 

marcus R.
would it reaally matter if i had different brand subs hooked up 2 an amp the two brands are audio pipe and sony xplod the xplodsare 900 watts peak and the audio pipes are 750 watts peak wut would be the beak type of amp and how much power
 

Anonymous
My Bose passive sub doesn't produce much bass.
So I am trying to learn about crossovers and amps and stuff to fix this.
I learned that my Sony recevier has a two subwoofer outputs that are already crossed over.Why there are two who knows..I'll flip a coin.Anyway so I grabbed a few sub-woofer speakers from an auction, I can make a box for one later if this works...and a friend of mine gave me an amp (for a car).
I'll figure out how to convert AC to DC on my own time..but what has me now is this car amp.
It has two inputs marked "low", a weird square plug marked "Hi Level" then another weird round plug marked "din input" then I have some screws marked output left and right ..I know what those are for.
Any help on how to wire the amp is greatly appreciated.
 

I NEED HELP DESPERATLY!!!
ok when i unplug my subs the needle on my amp starts to jump up and down alot, but when i plug them in they dont bounce, and when i plug my subs in with no amp its louder than when my amp is pluged in
AND ADVISE WILL BE TRYED.....THANX!
 

EVIL BASSMASTER
I ALREADY HAVE A AMP HOOKED UP IN MY CAR. COULD I ADD ENOTHER AMP TO THE ONE THAT I HAVE BY BY CONNECTING THE SECOND ONE TO THE FIRST WITH RCA CABLES? AND DO THE TWO AMPS NEED BE THE SAME WATTAGES
 

evil bassmaster
i forgot to mention that i have two 15" subs and wanted to hook a amp to each sub
 

EVIL BASSMASTER - I have two amps in my car also. If your amp has a signal output RCA (or line output) you can use that to run a signal to the second amp. You can also splice into the power and remote cables to get power to your second amp, but it is recommended that you put a fuse somewhere between the splice and the second amp. Go ahead and run another line for the second amps ground just to be safe.

My question goes out to all the people who want to hook up a car stereo amp in their house. How can I get the 120V AC wall power into 13.8V DC power required for the amp's main power? This is the only thing that I'm concerned with, the rest I can figure out once the amp gets turned on.
 

/\/\/\/6
I found an Astron power supply on Ebay for $130. It produces 37 amps 13.8V DC continuous, and 50 amps max (people use it to power ham radios and such). The amplifier that I'm going to use has a fuse rating of 35 amps. So I figure that giving it at least 35 amps would be enough. Because if it pulls more then that, it will blow the fuse.

I've done a lot of searching and figuring, and the main thing to be concerned about is getting enough Amps to your amplifier.

When my power supply comes in within the next couple days (next week) I'll let you know how it goes. :D
 

Nathan
Hello everyone, in regards to car audio connected to home audio. Has anyone been concerned with the ohms? A car sub operates at 2 or 4 ohms signal and home audio works on 8 ohms signal (average). Has anyone solved this?
 

I believe CHAZ the MIT guy was on target. Total circuit impeadence (Z) is going to be your main problem after you solve all of your power (AC to DC issues). being that P=IE current is directly proportional to your total power, wattage is the unit of measurement for power so the argument over ampres (=current(I)) and watts (=power(P)) is pointless, also the nominal Z of your home amplifier is going to play a part on all those big boom subs your talking about, you see Z=IR no amplifier can operate at 0 ohms most not below 2 this is where the Ohms of your subs the number of and the whether they are in series or paralell play a part. they all impact total Circuit Impedence which cannot exceed the limitations of your Amplifier.
 

/\/\/\/6
Scott is right on the whole Ohms discussion. You need to be carefull on matching the Ohm load of the speaker to the Ohm output of the home amplifier.
In my case, I plan on using the Subwoofer RCA preouts of my theater reciever. I will hook those up to my car amplifier's RCA inputs, and supply the amp with power from a DC power supply.
The car amplifier I will use is bridged mono 4 ohm stable. And the speaker I'm using is a 4 ohm speaker.
No worries here :D
 

Anonymous
I once eat a a$$ out for a nickle
 

How dose the remote wire work on car amplifiers. I want to hook my sub up 2 my home system and it won't even fire up without it. Is it just a continus 12 volts or is there more too it than that
 

/\/\0/\/60
Yeah Chris, the remote wire on car amplifiers turns on the amp when it gets 12v. You can just run a little jumper wire from the power terminal on the amp to the remote terminal.
:D
 

Hey guys, I'm new in this site, I work at Technotronix SA... for those of you who dont know, we specialize in audio fittment for vehicles. some of these problems are really easy to fix. Anyway If you need any help on sound, you can contact me at my e-mail address teamaudiobahnsa@yahoo.com I just wanted to people to let me know if you any1 is selling any audio equipment because I buy and sell stuff as well...
see ya... thanx...
 

/\/\0/\/60
Vishal, could you shed some light on how car audio retailers create their displays for car radios and car amplifiers? How do they supply power to the amplifiers and head units on display? Do they use racks of batteries with a charger? Or is it by some other means?
Thanks
:D
 

DJ Phrenik
whats up everyone, i'm a dj from san diego and i was inquiring about many questions, first i have 2 10"s ( MTX and a rockford fosgate) hooked up to a rather weak home stereo (only bout 100 watts total) its sounds decent but i was wondering if box size really makes a difference because i have one in an old bazooka tube and the other in a rather small truck box... i was considering buyin a box that can fit two tens but didnt want to waste my money if it wouldnt make much difference, can someone drop some knowledge on box size for me?
 

stevo
hey can anyone tell me how i can hook up my car amp inside my house? what do i use for rem and ground and power....please IM me at stevo43usc .thanks
 

/\/\0/\/60
To let you all know, I just got my DC power supply in on Friday. And man does my home theater kick a55!!
I got an Astron rs50m that puts out 37 amps continuous 13.8 volt DC. It has a positive (power) lug, and a negative (ground) lug on the back.
I took my USAcoustics USA2150 amp rated with a 35A fuse, and hooked the power to the power and ground to the ground. I got a tiny (16 gauge I think) wire and connected the REM connector on my amp to the Power connector on my amp.
When the Astron comes on line, the amp powers up just like it did in my car.
I used the Subwoofer RCA preouts on my Kenwood home reciever. I bought a Y adapter (from single RCA to dual) and plugged this in to the RCA inputs on my car amp.
Now I have a 500 watt 15" solobaric as my home theater powered subwoofer!!!
I cannot explain how much this kicks a55!!!
 

Whats up guys, i am working on doing the same thing as some of you guys with the whole car subwoofer in the home theater thing. I work for Ultimate Electronics and we used to have a those dumb PT Bruisers in our showroom and the way that they were connected was by Cascade power invertors....Im sure if you do a web search you can find these somewhere, but you shouldnt connect car speakers to home receivers without a car amplifier because of the impedience, it wont sound good and youll end up breaking your subs or your home reciever, i dont care how good it sounds when you hook it up.....
 

Another thing too, when hooking up car amps and subwoofers in general make sure you hook up the speaker wiring correctly and that the impedience (ohms) match from the speakers to the amp, this is hugely important to make sure you are getting the sound you paid for, if you dont know exactly how to do this go to Rockfordfosgate.com and click on rftechs and then click on woofer wiring wizard, this is the easiest way to do it until you can remember in your head without a diagram.....
NOT ALL AMPS WORK WITH ALL SUBWOOFERS, AND WATTS ARE NO EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO THINK ABOUT
 

Vishal
Well depends on what type of display our customers want, usually we build simple displays ourself, we ask our customers what style they want,and buy the neccesary materials. But when it comes to things like re styling the entire dashboard, we usually make the measurements and send it to the engineers.
The power suply is usually connected straight from the battery, for things like a standard head unit and maybe four speakers and a sub, but for very powerful amplifiers, what we do is, (depending on what type of car you got) we split the charge from the altenator and often put more tha 1 alternator and higher voltage batteries.
 

my friend just got 2 10 or 8. and a 8in tube sub. they all are rated at 300 watts. they are car speakers. i am woundering how can i set them up in a house for temp use? i need help right away because we need them for a party and it is in a little bit. thanks
 

Anonymous
Hey guys, I am a college student and I did a project in high-school dealing with connecting car audio to home theatre. I found that an easy way to convert 120V AC to 12V DC is to use a car battery charger. Just connect the ground to negative and the positive and remote to positive. You can turn the charger on and off as you please. Another thing is that just like Josh Overkamp said, you NEED a car amp to connect the sub. It may cost some money but it saves both the home reciever and the sub. If you have any other ?'s, feel free to e-mail me at foothills_rocks@yahoo.ca.
 

For hooking a car amp to a home system the Astron rs50m ($290) looks like the cleanest option to me, next would be the battery and charger if you don't mind the clutter. Looking at my computers ATX power converter, it will do 10 amps @ 12 volts. this a little low for an amplifier, so connecting 3 computer power supplies to a 1 farad capacitor (for increasing voltage and taking strain off the power supply) would probably give you enough power to run an amplifier(with a 30amp fuse) pretty well. its not as practical as the Astron rs50m, but it is just an idea. dejongbd@yahoo.com
 

Anonymous
Chris ur BIH wazup guess who this is?
y don't u just hire the sound for the party...
 

M0N60
I agree with "White Stallion".
Just buying a power supply that is designed to produce 12VDC is the best way to go. My rs50m is very powerfull and very stable. It even has meters to tell you how much amps are being drawn. It has internal protection from over-voltage and stuff too, which the computer supplies and car chargers don't have.
To tell you the truth, it is capable of producing a whole lot more amps than my amplifier can draw. I probably should have went with something a little smaller....
Live and learn they say.
 

Hey everyone,
Maybe I'm stupid and I've missed this but how do you actually hook the amp to the power supply? I'm talking I want you to explain it like I'm a retard...details... Any help would be appreciated greatly, Thanks.
Contact me at miller_eric_2006@yahoo.com If you can help as I can't check this too often. Thanks again.
 

hey if someone can please help me on how to convert AC-DC. i have the converter but no idea how to hook it up to the car amp. theres only 1 outlet screw for power.. how do i connect the 2 wires?
 

i got a power amp from a friend the other day and i dont know how it works. is there any way to test it? i am not gona hook it up to a car though, it will be hooked up to a 250 watt home stereo. can any one help me how to do that? i have 2 8 inch subs that are rated at 200 watts a piece. so that is 400w total and the power amp is 400 watts. i need help a.s.a.p. thanks
 

Hi

I got 2 15" MTX Subs and a 1000W Sony Xplod Amplifier and I need to plug them on my Home Stereo. Any one knows how I could do so.
I know I need a AC DC converter but dont know how powerfull.

Thank a lot
 

Robert Neal Alexander
How do I ground my amp and get the remote to power on?
 

M0N60
Pete,
A 15 amp power supply would be a good place to start. I wouldn't go lower than that.

Robert,
When you get a dc power supply, there is a power terminal and a ground terminal. Hook power to power and ground to ground on the amp. For the remote, just run a small wire from the remote terminal on the amp to the power terminal on the amp. So whenever you give power to the amp, it will trick the remote into turning on.
 

thanks
 

chris s
well the parties is over... everyone got completely drunk, and all the subs blew.......
 

Hi, I have a 10" subwoofer, a car amp, a 12v car battery, and a head unit. I want it to be formed and put them for home use as sub unit. Can I do so? What do I need and how do I connect them up? As the major problem are due to the 'Remote' system and 'ignition switch' issue. I wish I can overcome this and put it as for home use and put in the car as needed. Please help...
 

earl Parker
What can i ground my car amp to in my house ... i understand how to hook the power supply ...
anyone ?
 

Naughtybynatur84
Ya, i am new to this site but have a question maybe someone can answer me...if the amplifier can only supply what it takes in, but the Aston 25 amp power supply puts out more power than the amp can put out, is this power overload bad for the amp? might b a stupid question but i really don't know..can someone clue me in? thankx ppl
 

naughtybynatur84
nevermind i think i answered my own question...
i have 2 Audiobahn Flame Q's with a Boss 4000 Watt amp with 4x 30 amp fuses...with a Astron 25 amp power supply...now here comes the hook up...
 

hey how do you hook a car radio up the house or is if possible?


any advice will be appreciated........
 

dwp
hey patrick i'm dwp im 20 been experimenting with radio's since i was 12 first of all what size amp
cause all you really need is a battery charger 12v
or bigger but i hook up 2 12in prowler comp to a 1500 watt amp to two different house stereo's
all you do is connect both remote and pos+ pow supply for the amp to the pos+ on battery charger
and neg- you know to ground i've done it for yrs'
just don't leave it on or buy some kind of switch
hook the amp up to a stereo that has an input or aux . dwp holla at cha!!!!! you should be beatin soon hook it up as it would be in a ride
 

hey man thanks in fact i have a brand new one in the garage and i think i can do what u r tellin me too. but one question can u hook the omp up to it too?
 

Darnell Harold
I have a 300 watt amp in my car and 15 inch alpine...the power light on the amp comes on and everything but when i connect the Aux wires to the deck the sub dosent hit with the bass not at all..im thinking my deck is broken but i havent done anything to mess it up ...ne help would be great thanks all
 

dark child
I have a problem ....when ever my bass hits hard my amp goes into protect mode or whatever...does neone know what is causing this ...i would appericate ne help
 

hey dwp i have hooked up a car stareo to the battery charger but can u rounn the amp off of the same one or do i have to get another battery charger?? one more thing i got the radio hooked up but the battery charger does not put out enough juice can u hook two battery chargers up to the radio and to the amp??
 

Anonymous
This is for chris s. I know how your subs "blew". What happened was your subs were the same watts as the amp. For future reference, you should always have the subs more watts (at least 100 watts) than the amp. So in your situation your speakers are 400 watts total, so your amp should be like 300 watts to push the subs comfortibly. But dont let the amp be too low of watts.
 

ineedhelp
Is there any way in the world that I can hook up my amp inside my house without a converter or battery, battery charger. HELP!!!!!
 

Anonymous
dark child. How many watts is your amp & subs. If your subs are alot more watts than the amp, that could be why.
 

Anonymous
RE:INEEDHELP
You cant hook up a car amp in a house without a converter or battery. THe power supply is totally different!
 

RHINO
Chris C
The subs at the party probably blew because the ohms were different or the receiver shut down. 4 ohm car speakers have to be run parrell( hooked together ) to make 8 ohms. Most home receivers run at 8-16 ohms. Why? because it is cheaper for the manufacturer to do it that way(something in the power supply). It would be cool if home and car audio were interchangable!!!
 

Ok, if ou need an easy solution to the problem of running car subwoofers and amps in your house, do this. Get yourself a car battery, a battery charger, and some particle board. Build a box for the battery with the particle board, leaving holes in the top of the box for the charger cords and enough clearence on the roof of the box for the connectors to fit. Placte the charger on the box and conncet it to the battery.

Once you've done that, connect the amp to the battery the same way you would in your car. Make sure you DON'T connect the amp's auto turn on though, you'll need to use a smaller battery for that.

Once your amp is connected, plug in the charger. You'll be getting power from the battery but it will always be recharging so you won't run it dry. Make sure you unplug the charger and disconnect the amp when you're done using it.
 

Bmac
You know what, a friend just told me you can skip the battery and go straight from the charger, try it.
 

StuartM
This seems very interesting!
Few things I've heard ... If using a battery in the house does it not leak some sort of hydrogen gas which is not good for your health?
Also does a car batttery charger really work? On an average car battery charger how much AMPS does it output? Does it act the same as that aston power supply?
 

p diddle
all this is just so ghetto, you guys live in the projects or something??? Holy crap, why don't you sell all that car audio $hit and get your self a decent receiver or amp so you don't have to worry about power supplies.
Sounds like a high school project and juveniles trying to build something so they can show it off to friends, but in the long run it's just not that cool.
 

Anonymous
do i need an amp to hook up a sub even if it is small like 2 6's
 

G-Man
If it is a self-powered subwoofer you only need a receiver or a pre-amp to hook it up through the LFE cable into your system. If it is not self-powered (which means it has no amplifier in its speaker box)then you need to power it off a receiver or amplifier.

The reason why people with receivers (which are a combination of an amplifiers,pre-amplifier, and a tuner in one enclosure)like self-powered subwoofers is that subwoofer speakers drain a lot of power from a receiver and they are most often better operated by their own amplification.
 

Anonymous
guy this is basically the end all message to what would be IDEAL for hookinga car sub and amp up to a home stereo reciever

lets say that naturally, on your reciever you have a switched/unswitched power source, good. Start out by connecting either a 12v or 15v transformer "brick" (you know the things you hooked up to your old yamaha keyboards and computer speakers?) into an extention cord of the sort that will plug into the power on your reciever.

Cut the wire before the end that normally terminates in the round dc plug - it should have a denotation for positive and negative wires

Plug the positive end into the power on the amp, also run an extra wire from the 'remote' on the amp to the 'power'

Run the negative wire to the ground on the amp

Hook up the audio throught the LFE output on the reciever to the low level in on the amp

Now when you turn your reciever on the whole system is powered - bling!
 

Anonymous
there are home system taht will put out moer than enough bass n power for a home let alone a room and by what you are tring to do with the speakers and amps you are going to need ac to dc converters and plus a home system is going to have a better look in a home than a car system and keep in mind its not always the system its the way you hook it up and the wiring you use
 

subs are 4 ohms right so hook 2 subs up in series to use them on a home stereo thus creating an 8 ohm channel, amp doesnt cut out and they pump
 

Car Amp to Bose Lifestyle CD Player.
My buddy and I moved away from home 3 months ago for college. His dad gave us his 8 year old Bose Lifestyle surriound system. It is awesome for movies but I want to put a set of speakers outside for music.

The back of the Bose unit has a set of A and B speaker outputs. I tried hooking these up and figured out by reading that the speakers need to be powered, either by an amp or seperate powreed speakers. Instead of buying an amp, can I use a Car amp to power 2 floor standing speakers, about 2.5 feet tall. They are old RSL speakers, no clue on power they require. I had them hoked to an Onkyo reciever about 3 years ago and they were great.

I dont need crazy power because the Bose already powers its own sub. I just need to know if I can convert a DC amp to AC and if the Bose will connect to it.

Thanks
Ryan
 

Scott
Once again I feel compelled to clear a few things up. #1 Rhino equivelant Resistance in a parallel circuit is Resistance over the Number of resistors. Not sure how you came up with 8 ohm impeadance for two 4 ohm speakers in parallel. #2 Anonymous (dont blame you) you want to cut the DC plug off a 12 or 15 VDC Transformer. are you aware that those little transformers typically put out less than 1 amp, not sure how well they will power a large audio amp rated at as low as 25 amps. #3 Before somebody gets hurt please do not hook two battery chargers up to one amp, head unit or anything. If the Voltages are not the exact same between the two battery chargers you will create a difference of potential and run the risk of exploding one of the chargers. On a final note you do not need to invent the light bulb it has already been invented, if you really want to use audio equipment that requires a 12 volt input and speakers of less than 8 ohms there are simple formulas for all of it everything from Rectifying and Regulating AC to DC and Matching Total ciruit impeadence to an amplifer, just do the research and quit trying to Sanford and Son your way through it.
 

I am trying to hook up a 15 inch xplod in my room i have got power to the amp thru a car battery charger but dont want that in my room, then i took a battery charger for a remote controll car, tha6 gave it power but not much juice. now i found a computer in the garbage so i am taking the power supply out of that to hook up to my amp but dont know what wires go where. if any body knows the color scheme or wat the different colors mean on the wiring harnes's please tell me!!
 

Chris
ok im tring to make a guitar amp out of a car amp and im wondering how to get power to the amp what do i do just get a transformer of 13.4 volts with 50 or so amps ?? or what is it suppose to be ac or dc im confused plz help
 

jamie canesa
my cousin has an old car amplifier and i was wondering if i would be able to hook it up to the stereo in my house because i need more wats
 

ive been looking for a good power supply for my 200W MTX Thunder amp for awhile now. i found an old computer in my attic and i heard that u can use the power supply to power the amp, so basicly i have the same question that Brain has, wat the hell do all the colours mean??? itd be amazing if someone could help us out
 

Please help me - i am trying to connect an amplifier to my car radio but don't know how. The radio is working and has these wires -

white - left speaker (+)
grey - right speaker (+)
black - earth and left and right speaker negative (-)
yellow - memory
red - ignition

The amp has these connections:

Low RCA input
High input - left and right positive and negative
Speaker output

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS:

Amp instructions say never connect the negative loudspeaker leads with each other and never connect them to earth.

Radio instructions show a diagram of the two negative speaker terminals connected to each other and to the earth.

What do I do?
 

CoolFX
hello!! my car radio has been stolen!! can i connect a simple portable cd player, to the rca's on the amplifiers?? what about the remote cable?? how can i do that for at least hear a few cds minewhile i earn some money to get a new car radio!!
 

Ken
I need some advice on building a entry level high end system. I'm looking at some used NAD seperates: pre-amps and amplifers and also Rotel. What would be a good match. I need some nice sounding speakers that wil go well with these type of amps. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 

Anonymous
i in the same boat, i got to get me a car amp to connect to my small self system. i got 2 speakers hooked up to it, a 10in 500watt sub and a 12 which i don't know the wattage. but i need to get a ac/ dc yeah. but if u gots any info for me let me know asap
 

I got a quick question... will a home stereo subs work in a car, i got some sick 12" subs i dont even use anymore how sick would it be if i could hook that up in a car
 

chris s
ok, i didnt get the help on how to hook up the car power amps to my home stereo. but it worked good. yea i blew the shitty one. and got piss drunk and did a few girls but hey its all good!!!!!!!! well if ne one wants tog et back on how to hook it up i will exchange tips on how to get a girl how to you know faster "hit the g spot!!" really! well write back soon!
 

Sulli
ok I'v followed most Peoples instructions n have got power to the amp, but how come it sounds crap all crackeld, why is it doing this? how do i fix it?
 

i have a sub wired to my home stereo, when i realy turn it up i cuts of due the lack of power, i cant use an amp coz there is one built in, this produces 110 watts per channel and there is 2 channels. so to the point can i use crossovers to stop the stereo cutting out when i turn it up please email back tomsutton529@hotmail.com

thanks
 

JohnnyMidknte
is there any way to just boost the amps on a power supply
 

Ok, what recomendations do any of you have about amps for a 13.8V power supply? is 30amps too much, should I be lloking for lower or higher amps? is it cheaper to build my own working power supply, or to just go out and purchase one? for the guys who do have in home working car audio systems, what else besides a power supply and an amp, do you have hooked up? I have a pre amp output on my stereo, so i can hook up RCA wires for cleaner crisper sound. Should I be worried of anything else that can be harsh for the amp or the stereo? you can reply to my e-mail, or via this page. would rather recieve e-mails though.

also, on another note, One of my friends is sponsored by Digital Audio, makers or Audiobahn. How can I become a sponsor like this? I love car audio and I am an extreemiest when it comes to performance and quality. Any insights, please contact me via the e-mail address ncosgr@bellatlantic.net.

K, thanks
 

GangstaCoz
Alright, another idea poped into my head today. What about using car batteries hooked up to a charger? it is cheaper and easier, plus it will supply the whole system with enough cold cranking amps. tell me what you think
 

WaWaKid
Boosting amps on a power supply will cause the power supply to overheat, thus frying the power supply. unless you like to spend money, I would not recomend it.
 

JuanPabloEscobar
I have a Coustic 400SE (car amp), it has two 35A fuses in it so I assume that it is rated for 35A max, otherwise it blows the fuses. So will a 20-30Amp or so AC/DC converter be enough? It seems like it because this thing never really draws that many amps, I've maxed it before and nothing has ever blown or shorted. Just looking for some advice on Amperes, thanks.
 

Many of you guys dont know what your talking about. I would love to use my car audio stuff in my house too. But the electrical current in your house and car are different. Nothing cheap will make it sound good if your pushing anything upwards of 15 amps(you all are with theese high power set ups) or even 70 AMPS! You need a converter that will change the current for you. Ive heard they are pricey( upwards of $300) just ask your local stereo shop which model untis they use to power all of thier demo car amps in the store, and they will be able to help.
 

Anonymous
how do you tell if a home sterio is brigebal
 

M0NG0
Ok guys, I've posted on here before what I have, but I guess you might have missed it.
I bought an Astron Rs50m (look it up) power supply on Ebay for $160 shipped. It has a meter that tells me how many amps it produces (up to 50 amps max). I have a USAcoustics 2150 (car amp) that has a fuse rating of 35A. It is powering a Kicker Solobaric S15c (yes the round one). This is hooked up via RCA outputs coming out of my Kenwood 705s home theater reciever. It is a channel designed specifically for LFE (low frequency effects).
This system is FANTASTIC!
The only reason I used this was I had the car amp and speaker just sitting around. You hook up the car amp just like you would in your car. Power wire (WITH AN IN-LINE FUSE very important) hooked up to the power lug on the power supply, Negative hooked up to negative. Hook RCA's like you would in a car. The only thing different is you have to run a "jumper" wire for the remote turn on for the amp. I just ran about two inches of very small gauge wire from the positive screw on the car amp, to the REM screw on the amp. Whenever you turn on the Astron, the REM senses it and turns on the car amp.
As far as how powerful of a power supply to buy: If you have a car amp around 500 watts (what mine is) YOU WILL NOT NEED MORE THAN 20 AMPS. I have had my stereo turned up as loud as I would ever care to have it. My front door was shaking, and the patio door/widow was about to break, and the Astron only showed a ~15amp draw. So you could probably get away with a 10 amp power supply, if your car amp is not that powerful, or if your subwoofers aren't that big.

On another note, I tried to get a power supply from Radio Shack, but to no avail. The only thing they had was a cheap 10amp SWITCHING DC power supply. The Astron I bought is a LINEAR DC power supply. Do some internet research and read up about the differences. Linear power supplies are a lot more sturdy, and produce a more "stable" amperage.
I would recommend Astron to anyone. You can usually find good prices on them on Ebay.

Please post on this page again if you have any questions. I check it fairly frequently.
To put it plainly:
YOU CAN HAVE A CAR STEREO IN YOUR HOUSE AND HAVE IT SOUND GOOD.
(only if you have the right equipment, and know what you are doing) :)
 

Jerry
If you guys all ready have this car audio stuff lying around then I can understand wanting to put it to good use, but don't go out of your way to make it work. I too use a pair of car subs in my home theater but only because they were just "Lying around." There is nothing that the car audio industry knows that the home and professional audio industry hasn't figured out. There are plenty of professional audio amps that will give you alot of power for not much money. Musician's Friend online has a Nady amp rated 300wpc@4ohm for $179. 750wpc@4ohm is $349. I love my car stereo but believe me, I love my home stereo alot more!
 

Master DeJong
As previous posts have stated, using car audio equipment in your house is really not cost effective unless you already have a lot of car audio equipment. Here is about what it would cost to connect a basic car sub to a home theater system: 250watt amp-$200, 15amp Astron 120volt ac/13.8volt dc converter-$150, 12" car sub-$80, 12" car sub box-$60. Total=$490

This would give some decent bass, but in the car audio world, this is less than spectacular. You could get a way better home audio sub for considerably less.

I to have considered hooking some car audio equipment up to my home entertainment system. My plan was to use my MTX 6152 amp (190watts x 2 @2ohms) to hit 4 ported 10" subs. I wanted to put two sub boxes (2 subs per box) standing up-right like floor standing speakers. This would look awsome and give the system a custom look. However, even though i have an amp and one ported sub box for two subs, i still needed a power converter, another sub box, and four 4ohm 10" subs. cost: roughly another $500.

Note: to choose an Astron power converter, or similiar, find one that can put out about 60%-65% the amperage of your amps fuse rating. For example, my amplifier has a 30 amp fuse, which means it uses roughly 15amps continous power on a good day. I would get at least a 20amp continues power converter to handle any of the power spikes the amplifier might through at it.

Anyway, this stuff is not cost effective, but if you want a custom looking home system and already have some car audio equipment, you can really put some serious bass in your house. I can answer more questions if you are condsidering this. you can mail me at dejongbd@ainet.com
 

Hi every 1 i am a qualified electrician in the uk & extreamly worried by reading some of these comments. 1) do not use car battery chargers/computer supplys/or small psu's (power supply units) to power amps These do not produce enough Amps and can over heat causing electric shock and fire. (2)try your local electronic shops like maplin www.maplin.co.uk or RS electronics rs.www.com and look for a transformer capable of giving 13.8volts and 15 amps. ANY PROBLEMS OR MORE INFO EMAIL ME FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY I AM HERE TO HELP
 

sdr184@hotmail.com all emails will be replied to
 

Anonymous
 
It does work (toughen up man), i use it all the time.
 

Anonymous
 
If you have two car subs (each with an impedance of 4-ohms) and a home amplifier (with an expected impedance of 8-ohms) you can wire the two subs together in series so that their total impedance becomes the 8-ohms the amplifier is expecting. Stop trying to use capaciters, batteries, power converters, and car amps when all you need is one home amp.
 

xplod1236
Unregistered guest
Why go thru so much trouble? I have 2 audiobahn 12 inch subs each with dual 6 ohm voice coils. I have each sub's coils wired in parallel for 3 ohms and I'm powering the subs with a 125w rms at 8 ohms amp. The amp is rated 8-16 ohms, but im running a 3 ohm load on each channel with no problems. When I turn it up, the display on the amp and the lights in the house dim. I have a fan constantly running on top of the amp, cuz it gets a lil warm. The only problem that i had with the amp is a melted output relay contact. The relay wasn't made to handle so much power. I swapped out the relay for a heavy duty one and it works fine. The wires going to the speaker outputs were 22 guage, so I replaced them with 16 guage, so they wouldn't overheat. So all you need to do is hook up car subs to a home amp, no matter what the impedence is, but make sure you cool the amp, cuz it's gonna get quite warm.
 

Unregistered guest
Right Equipment, Right Sound. Even tho some people think that having car audio equipment in the house is a bad idea or dumb, you can have alot of fun and also get some pretty good sound. The most easy and simple way is this way. Start with a battery...Just a regular car battery. take a car battery chager and hook it up to start it charging. Hook up you car amp to you battery... Positive power lin to positive on the battery (make sur you have inline fuse.) then hook up the ground to the negative on the battery. Make sure you jump the Remote system control wire to the power intake PLUS on your amp. I then took two RCA splitters and hooked them into my DVD player. you can also hook these up directly to to a Reciever or computer. Take the car amp RCAs and plug these into one side of the splitters, and your output reciever RCA cables to the other side of the splitters. Run your DVD RCAs to you home reviever. run car amp RCAs to the car amp (DUH). The only Thing that sucks is that with a DVD Player you cant control much output or level of bass. this has to be done from the Car Amp. Hooking to reciever does work better. My reciever was old and had only speaker wire outputs...No low level RCA outputs or sub outputs. I didnt feel like splitting and splicing RCAs and speaker wires to make it work.
 

Unregistered guest
I got a Subwoofer that I baught a couple of weeks ago which is 300 watts, and I wanted it to fit on my JVC car stereo. It has a White and Red wire at the back of the system for the Subwoofer output, but the wires are the ones which u usually put in the DVD video pins. SO if 2 wires come out of each vire which is 2, then I got 4 wires in total and then where does that connect to?? To the Amp or the SUb. Plus I got friend that has a 8" sub and works without a amp. ADVCICE WILL BE TRYED!!! rEMEMBRING i DONT HAVE A AMP, If u know anything how to hook it up, IT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!
 

Fuk-Nut
Unregistered guest
Connecting up an original playstation using the 2 RCA plugs would also make a good cd sorce for a car amp indoor setup.
The only problem is, you would have to use an in- line RCA level control between the playstation and the car amp for a volume control.
This setup would give you all the really cool sound effect/playback options that come stock on the playstation cd player:-)
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