i'm trying to create a sound system for my turntables in my house using a car amp and car sub (which are just lying in my room and need to be put to use!). is this possible? my amp is 2000 watt and my sub is 1000 watt. anyone know how i go about creating this set up? can i use any ordinary mixer for this? any help will be much appreciated! thanks
Well its only one, not to bad, I could help with that real quick. For the power you have one of two choices: 1. Put a battery inside (eventually itll die lol) 2. Or buy a car charger and plug it into the amp (easier choice bc this actually plugs into the wall outlet)
oh okay..will a car charger work ok? as in will i still get good sound quality from the sub? also ive read about pc power supplies, are these a good choice as well? or taking everything into account is it just worth buying a home sub and amp instead?
Yea itll work, ive already done it before. As for as quality in my opinion it was pretty good. I mean its used to charge a battery so thats a constant power supply. Actually I have no idea about those, so I cant really tell you. Its your choice if you have little money, just buy a little car charger and ill help you hook it up you can always bring it back if you dont like it. If you have money then thats your choice, me personally i love my money and go the cheap way xD.
do you mean a car battery or a car battery charger? because ive read about a car battery being used or is it just easier to use the car battery charger as it plugs into the mains? and thanks for your help btw
Car bettery: expensive, will eventually die Car battery charger: cheap, never dies, plus it plugs into the wall So go car battery charger, there both easy to use ha just ones more practical than a 35 pound battery in your room. No problem no problem.
agree with glass except if you still want to do it safest way would be to get a car battery, hook up a car battery charger and charge battery in quick start mode as compared to slow charge, hook power from amp to car battery with fuse between, ground your amp to the negative terminal on battery. you will also need a step down for the remote wire, this "step down" drops the voltage down so it doesnt blow your amp, it hooks up to battery as well and sends the proper voltage to remote wire input to turn amp on. wire subs as normal parallel /series, whatever ohm load gets most out of amp while still being stable at that ohm load, and then send your rca signal from turntable to your rca amp input, good luck, , have another way without battery, let me know if you wanna know
no. a car battery in a home is the worst idea possible. lead acid batteries can gas and discharge a deadly colorless, odorless gas that can be fatal if inhaled, when the battery is overcharged. The safest way to run a car amp in a home is with a high current AC to DC power supply. The power supply should be designed for sustained high current use. I have a link to some for you if you insist on this path.
As an anecdote, I worked at a car stereo shop where we had a display board that was run with car batteries on chargers. After having it run that way for quite a while, we redesigned the display board, and upon removing the batteries from behind the board, they were so bloated and misshapen that you could hardly tell that they were batteries at one time. I'm surprised nobody got sick from that setup, honestly. The one thing that helped was having a huge, ventilated showroom.
Ok, glass is right about battery in house, but, if u wanted amp and sub to be played using turn table, is one solution without car battery, seen on youtube, a guy has a remote wire going from remote input to power input on amp , then using battery charger clips positive cable to power input on amp and negative to ground on amp, then runs rcas from cd player to amp, and wallah amp turned on and subs were pounding, I wouldnt reccomend because I think remote turn on is supposed to get a lower voltage to turn amp on, but some amps as seen in video can handle it, hope this helps... Of course this is only if u decided not to buy power converter and ur gutsy with ur car audio
To be honest if done both and they worked. So if someone if desperate to give there amp power there going to do it. Theres no problem with any of that and if so then ive magically messed up all of my setup.
Ok, glass is right about battery in house, but, if u wanted amp and sub to be played using turn table, is one solution without car battery, seen on youtube, a guy has a remote wire going from remote input to power input on amp , then using battery charger clips positive cable to power input on amp and negative to ground on amp, then runs rcas from cd player to amp, and wallah amp turned on and subs were pounding, I wouldnt reccomend because I think remote turn on is supposed to get a lower voltage to turn amp on, but some amps as seen in video can handle it, hope this helps... Of course this is only if u decided not to buy power converter and ur gutsy with ur car audio
the issue with a turntable is if it's a MC or MM turntable, and not one with a built-in pre-amp, then you need an external pre-amp for it anyway else the line-level signal will sound like crap.
You may as well spend the money on an AV receiver with a phono input at a thrift store, or from eBay. Older ones are dirt cheap and a far better solution anyway.
I've bought plenty of home audio gear from eBay for next to nothing. Same with Craigs List.
Lambournledge you can use your mixer output directly into a car amplifier BUT your amp needs to have LPF. You dont want the sub playing anything above 60Hz. The hard part is the 1.5Kw or so +12vdc power supply, peak currents could easily go above 100A!!
I've done it before with the old battery charger, it used to shut down if you turned it up too loud but in my room it was loud. I wouldnt recommend it though if you are using anything you really care about. Put a test light on an old battery charger and watch the light, it never stays constant. I would think that would kill something eventually....
again, I still don't recommend a car battery in the house at all, since they can produce hydrogen gas and kill you. This is why you need to buy a power supply designed for sustained high current applications, like the ones in the link I already provided.
The BEST way to power a car amp is with a "high current" DC power supply. Cheap ones will have "dirty" power and introduce a nifty and loud 60 Hz ground hum into your system. The cheapest one I found to provide around 414 watts of power is the Pyramid PS300-v 30 amp power supply.
Inside the car, the voltage is all over the place, as you rev the motor, as you use the headlights, etc. With one of these power supplies, there are no other parasitic loads on the system, so the voltage remains very constant. At 13.8 volts, the amperage draw will be much lower than at 12 volts, or eleven volts. This steady stream of 13.8 volts is very nice, and somewhat allows you to go with a lower current rated power supply. Just multiply volts times amps to get watts. The lower your voltage, the more amperage needed to obtain the same power.
Since the home power supply has a relatively high (steady) voltage, the current is (usually) less demanding. I've been powering the 300 watt RF R300-12 active subwoofer (powered/amplified) with the previously mentioned Pyramid PS-300v without even "pushing" the limits at all.
In the car, the LED light on the front of the RF R300-12 will dim in relation to woofer excursion. Inside the home with that steady 13.8 volts, the LED light is a very steady and bright representation of power reserves. I would feel comfortable adding more loads to this Power Supply.
Yes, a 100 amp power supply would be nice, but it's money spent on something that doesn't "do anything" as noticeable as buying fun stuff like drivers, enclosures, amps, etc. So, I'm sure we'd all like to invest the least amount of our hard earned $kribble on such a "tool" as the 12 volt power supply.
I don't know if I'd recommend the P.S. I have, even though it only cost $65.00, it's very sensitive to picking up interference, and you really have to watch that your signal cables don't run parallel with your power cables.
Also, the fan is always on, and it's pretty loud - but most extremely high powered A/C powered amps have loud fans as well.
Home/Pro Audio amps have this "PowerSupply" built-in. That's why they're heavier and more costly. The amps need to run on DC, so Home/Pro Amps have the added weight and cost of huge transformers and Rectifier and Filter. Basically a built-in "high current" power supply.
You don't want to use a Capacitor (without modifications) with an AC to DC power supply, the high current draw of "charging" the capacitor is bad for the Power Supply and may trip the circuit breaker, or blow a fuse. These power supplies have a (small) capacitor built-in already to keep the voltage steady. If you still feel like you need one, you're trying to put a band-aid on a bigger problem, and it's better to upgrade to a higher amperage power supply instead.
A car battery charger may work in a pinch, but something's going to give. They're not meant for this job. Using a charge concurrently with a battery introduces all sorts of other variables, and it's not recommended because of the gasses involved, as GlassWolf so elegantly explained. Also, the battery is a "consumable" piece, and it really isn't as consistent as the proper tool for the job - a power supply.
Computer Power Supplies will work just fine, but if you push the power, they'll cut-out - most aren't rated very high current. If you never plan to really crank it in your home, a Computer PSU would work for ya.
I was using a battery with a charger as my power for my "Car Subwoofer in Home" for a while, because I was too impatient to wait for the Dedicated P.S. to arrive from Amazon. I found that with the dedicated P.S. 30 amp, I have SO MUCH more headroom and power reserve. The Power Supply stays ice cold and now I can CRANK my powered sub ALL DAY. (All day? Everyday of my LIFE! I don't give a ?*!@?!) - that was a Nick Swardson reference, sorry:
a computer power supply isn't designed for sustained high current loads, which is why that's a bad idea. It's a great way to start a house fire to be honest.
I have a couple of those pyramid power supplies, and I regularly use them to power head units and peripheral devices like EQs that don't hae a lot of current draw, and for that they do work great, but a car's eyectrical system as mentioned is 12VDC at idle, and 13.8-14.4VDC above idle, depending on your voltage regulator post-alternator. The AC-to-DC units are typically 13.8VDC regulated. How much current you draw entirely depends on how loud you try to turn up the system, so if you don't plan to abuse it, then sure that Pyramid would be fine. If you plan to shake the house, get a sustained high current capable power supply, and spend the extra money if you insist on using car audio gear in the home, which I still advise against. Your money is better spent just buying a used home AV receiver, or a plate-amp for a sub from parts-express.
The high current power supplies are designed for people like me who work on equipment on a bench regularly. Not really for converting car stereos to in-home stereos.
As for the capacitors.. don't bother. They do absolutely nothing for you that's beneficial. n o t h i n g.
GlassWolf, I just have to tell you that this one - the one I am currently using for my "in home car subwoofer for home theatre" is slamming all day, everyday.
It's made in China, and I could hear something rattling inside it when it arrived. It only has capacity for 16 AWG (gauge) wire for the terminals. I had to solder (as opposed to crimp - more conductivity) some ring connectors for it to work with mere 8 AWG (gauge) wire. So, I'm definitely agreeing it's a cheap unit, but...
It seriously pumps out the juice for my RockFord Fosgate R300-12 Powered/Active/Amplified sub. At FULL blast, the power supply has plenty of headroom. The specs of the sub are supposedly 12" woofer, 300w RMS, 600w Peak, but it's got a 30A fuse, a perfect mate to the 30A rating of the Pyramid power supply, and I'm just telling you all that it works.
I cannot tell you why I am using car audio in my home, but I am. There comes a time in life, when people just need to do crazy things with subwoofers. It's just crazy, but it's nice to have options.
I just wanted to testify that it is doing the job for my rig. I got the one this guy has in this video - this isn't me, but it kind of convinced me to buy it. He shows it with an analog meter, and my experience has been the same, it's a steady +/- .5 volts when I'm pushing air.
30 amps is a lot when you're at 13.8 volts. It's 414 watts. 414 is pretty good for a little 12" in a sealed box. I like it. I'm actually pretty amazed at this little kit.
I'm just saying when you want to, if you need to have car audio in your home, it's a cheap solution that's working wonderfully for me.
But the ground hum issue does suck right now, and the fan is loud. I don't regret it though. It's not unbearable. It's highly sensitive to interference. Positioning the cables perpendicular to power helped, but I'm going to try some shielded cables next to combat it. Respect.
Glad it's working. I'm workin on designing a home subwoofer for my living room using a car sub at the moment. I'm looking at using a 500W plate amp with a def tech passive radiator and a 10" sub in a veneered cabinet, double baffle for the down firing sub. Lots of router work. Should work nicely when it's done. I guess my point was just that by the time you get everything working with car gear in a house, you've spent enough to just buy a home theater in a box system, if you've set it all up in a manner that isn't likely to get you killed, most times. At least if you don't already own the power supplies and what now.
That 1Kw rating on a PC power supply is misleading. That can be a combination of all of the voltage rails in the power supply, where you'll only be using the 12V rail, which at best may be a 15-20A rail, and even then, not designed for sustained (60+% duty cycle) draw at those numbers. Like I said several times already, using a PC power supply is a great way to start a house fire.