Home Watts vs. Car Watts
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BabyBrock Unregistered guest | I find it strange that car wattage and home wattage seem to be two totally different measures. Although they are the same, 400 watts RMS for a subwoofer at home is a reckoning, yet 400 watts RMS for a car is mediocre. Now on to the big dawgs.... 2000 watts RMS in a car is becoming more common, but 2000 watts RMS for home (esp. for a single subwoofer) is obsurd! Why is this the case?? BBrock |
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Gold Member Username: SubfanaticKy Post Number: 4479 Registered: Dec-04 | it seems to me personally its this way because of the structure of the boxes of the subs for home, like folded horn, ported always, small basses. Dont want somen to overpower words. this is my opinion |
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Gold Member Username: CarguyPost Number: 3609 Registered: Nov-04 | Have you tried car speakers with your home stereo? It will no longer sound as loud. For homes, 100w rms is considered loud cause of the speakers. Most of them are enclosed in a well designed box with 2 or more drivers for bass, mids or highs. Compare that with a 6.5" components installed in car doors without a box. The environment also plays a role. |
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Silver Member Username: Touche6784USA Post Number: 499 Registered: Nov-04 | i would think its because homes have more things to reinforce the bass like walls. a car is well sheet metal and plastic. not much to reinforce the bass. plus most car audio is crappy anyway in comparison to home audio. you dont see many $20,000 speakers for cars now do you. |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfWisteria, Lane USA Post Number: 8268 Registered: Dec-03 | several reasons. one, cars are based on 12VDC, home is based on 120VAC, so generating the power is a bit different. two, acoustics. a room in a house has a different acoustic response than a car. A car needs more power to overcome certain obstacles, like trunk dividers, road noise, engine noise, etc. In a home, you can corner load speakers, and shape the room response more easily by design. three, people at home don't tend to try hitting 150+dB. 115dB in a house is hellishly loud. In a car, people for some reason seem to think going deaf is the only good way to enjoy music. four, if you haven't seen large class A home audio amplifiers, you haven't been looking at the right amps.  Look at the Krell Master home theater subwoofer. The built in amplifier is rated for 2600 watts RMS to drive a pair of 15" subs in a 1" thick billet aluminum enclosure. http://www.krellonline.com/html/m_MRS_p_MRS.html |
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Anonymous | very interesting information....thanx! |
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Silver Member Username: Touche6784USA Post Number: 501 Registered: Nov-04 | i agree with glass. the price per wattage if that is any kind of worthwhile indicator is much lower with car audio. you can get a 2000 watt sub system for maybe less than $1000(i dont know specifics in car audio so i could be way off with the price). home usually runs a hellova lot higher. 75 watt 10" driver home sub can go for $500 depending on make and model which is way higher than any car audio sub. |
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Silver Member Username: TboltCollipark, GA Post Number: 288 Registered: Dec-04 | It weighs 400 pounds!!!! |
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Gold Member Username: CarguyPost Number: 3619 Registered: Nov-04 | Just enough to give me some exercise. |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfWisteria, Lane USA Post Number: 8289 Registered: Dec-03 | wait till you see the price tag on that Krell. heheh be sitting down when you find it. |
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Gold Member Username: InvainMichigan United States Post Number: 3207 Registered: Aug-04 | Ok, your getting two 15" subs with 3 inches of excursion, and a 1" thick Aluminum enclosure with 2 inch thick baffels, and can produce a 20 hz tone at 120 db's, so I'd expect it to cost a friggen ton. But my god. Has anybody else found the price?? "A new car, or subs for my home theater..." |
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Silver Member Username: TboltCollipark, GA Post Number: 292 Registered: Dec-04 | It cost $28,000.00 WTF. |
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Bronze Member Username: Xdrummer03Tenessee Post Number: 33 Registered: Jul-05 | Better bass response in the house cause has more room to echo. Also on the speakers they run 110 watts a channel @ 8ohms.So more power to the speakers with higher resistance. |
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Bronze Member Username: Audioguy22Post Number: 71 Registered: Jul-05 | I for one dont think a car needs anymore than a home. Its become a # game. My home amp is a Classe DR-9(250 wpc rms) and it has something like 48 T-03 transistors in it. my car amp has 12 T-03 in it and its rated at 100 wpc rms.Anyway I think anything more that 60~100 wpc for front two ways is never needed unless you've got some wierd euro speaker thats very inefficient(like less than 85db). Now if you doing SPL that you need to throw the book out and start looking at the power needed to double your output, 1 watt than 10, 100, 1000, 2000... 32,000. For just good SQ with plenty of volume, I feel a 100 up front and a couple of hundred for each sub is just fine. I'm real sorry if this go's in the face of all you experts and psychopathic SPL folks. |
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Bronze Member Username: Audioguy22Post Number: 72 Registered: Jul-05 | One more thing! HeadRoom. Jusy remember that a 25 wpc amp with 10db of headroom will smoke a 200 wpc amp with 1.5 of headroom. I do believe most home amplifiers have more headroom than your run of the mill car amp. |
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Silver Member Username: MixneffectOrangevale, Ca. USA Post Number: 297 Registered: Apr-05 | When I read these posts, sometimes I feel that I am at a swap meet. |
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BabyBrock Unregistered guest | Now I get it....awesome! thanx guys BBrock |
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New member Username: CaddycadPost Number: 7 Registered: Jul-05 | $28,000$ for 2 15's and 2600watts.. why not buy a DJ amp thats 2000-3000 watts and run 2 15" RE's or subs of your choice? Many of the amp's I've seen can run at 4-8ohms.. This way you save yourself atleast 27,000$ |
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BabyBrock Unregistered guest | LOL........Jeff has point there! Better yet get two Sunfire Signature 600~two run them @ 4 ohms to each voice coil of two 15" dual 2 ohm RE MT's wired in a series in a custom made box. That's 2400 watts RMS to each MT and cost about $10,000.....$18,000 cheaper than Krell. But if u wanted SQL in ur house.... Heck run XX.X's instead... lol 150+ db mark is within reach!!!! |
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Gold Member Username: SubfanaticKy Post Number: 4498 Registered: Dec-04 | haha, i just see a problem with getting the box from sliding closer to the tv everytime the bass hits on the wood floor lol, or the magnets completely mangling the tv screen lol |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfWisteria, Lane USA Post Number: 8304 Registered: Dec-03 | Benny, I have 250 watts RMS x 2 to my fronts, but they're 3 way separates, and I'm driving 8" midbass drivers along with 3" midrange and 1" tweeters on that amp. That's strictly a SQ setup though, not SPL. Generally speaking, most people don't need more than 50x4 for door speakers front and rear, I agree. I also have that power to balance out the power to the subs though, which each get about 1300 watts for 2 12" subs in a rather inefficient AP enclosure. Lots of headroom and great SQ though. |
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Gold Member Username: SubfanaticKy Post Number: 4499 Registered: Dec-04 | glass, could i run a jl 250/1 to my 2 RF t1 speakers for my fronts? |
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Silver Member Username: Touche6784USA Post Number: 502 Registered: Nov-04 | jeff, home audio is about sq not spl unless you want your home audio to be like you car which is pointless. people that can afford $30,000 subs dont buy them to make a bunch of noise. they are usually ultra rich people with extremely expensive HT setups or more expensive stereo speakers interested in in extremely high quality music reproduction. if you knew anything about home audio you would know that krell is one of the premier manufacturers of home audio gear. no one in their right mind would choose a dj setup over the krell sub. |
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New member Username: CaddycadPost Number: 8 Registered: Jul-05 | Christopher I dont doubt for a minute that krell would sound way better, I'm just offering some idea's for people that dont want to spend the price of a hummer on a powered subwoofer.. but I think that 2 RE xxx's in the right enclosure might be a nice shot at the poor mans krell sub setup. |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfWisteria, Lane USA Post Number: 8307 Registered: Dec-03 | sub, no. the 250/1 is a class D sub amp and won't produce higher frequencies due to the distortion limitations of class D amplifiers. you'd want to use a 300/2 or 450/4 instead I'd say. keep the 250/1 for a sub. As for Krell, they do make terrific amplifiers. I use a Krell KSA-250 to drive my MartinLogan Odessey mains for music. The class A stereo amp has plenty of headroom, and reacts quickly enough to the excessive demands of electrostatic panels to make them really shine, even at high volumes without losing their clarity and transparency, where many lesser amplifiers would start to sound flat and strained. I wanted to go with a Pass Labs X or XA series amplifier but didn't have the money for one at the time. The Krell has proven to be an outstanding choice though. The biggest problem was moving the amp and speakers to get good imaging and heat dissipation, since the amp is 200lbs, and each of the two speakers is about 150lbs. You've probably never heard a more real, live sounding speaker in your life though. I have trouble telling these from a live performance, with a good, well-mastered CD. |
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Bronze Member Username: Audioguy22Post Number: 77 Registered: Jul-05 | Ya Glass, 250 wpc sounds totaly reasonable for a three way. I used to run a 50 wpc LP to my Boston mids/tweets until the amp crapped out. While out for repair I put in a SS 80 wpc and it had a little more hefty sound and seemed to play with a bigger sound. When I found a SS VanGogh 100 wpc on Ebay for $85.(BIN) I grabed it. The sound got better(much better). Now I was on a wattage trip! I than came a cross a VGA800.2(200 wpc), put it in and to my surprise I did not get a big increse in volume. This is where I figured that 100 wpc is all thats needed(for a 6.5 mid/tweet setup). I'm really glad to, as I could not fit that 800.2 under the seat. As I read your last post, It makes me wonder if my DR-9 ia class A? It runs nice and hot so it mite be. I'm using a MFA Magus for a pre, how about you? My D2A is a MSB with a LC Audio Zap in it. http://www.lcaudio.com/index.php?page=6 These guys over in Danmark make killer stuff! |
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Gold Member Username: SubfanaticKy Post Number: 4500 Registered: Dec-04 | ok glass, how about my interfire ib2900c amp |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfWisteria, Lane USA Post Number: 8321 Registered: Dec-03 | if its a full range amp, sure. if its a mono amp, no. I don't have the specs on that interfire at hand. for a preamp? I use a mark levinson connected to a meridian SACD player. one reason I used the 250x2 amp for the fronts also was it matches the two sub amps so I have three identical amps for the entire system. three orion 2250SX amps. two bridged, one stereo. looks nice that way |
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Silver Member Username: Msully701Connecticut US Post Number: 222 Registered: Apr-05 | hey benny boy do you play online rpg games? |
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Bronze Member Username: Audioguy22Post Number: 80 Registered: Jul-05 | Ya that mite be me. Im also know as FatherDeath, JAKE and MadMacs. I not to good anymore but I took 14th place in the international Gaming confrence in Paris,France(Quake). That was 5 years back and after some therapy I now just play for fum. Mostly COD-UO(not many games for Mac,i wont use a PC) I do ok for a 40 year old. I've been asked to leave lan partys for winning like 38 games in a row. |
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Silver Member Username: Msully701Connecticut US Post Number: 228 Registered: Apr-05 | ever play nexus |
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