I have a Power Precision 2/4 Way 200W car amplifier. The HTIB setup I have is 5.1 ch. Yamaha with a powered sub (plug into the wall). What do you guys think would be the best way to make the most out of my car amp.
Should I use the amp to power the surround speakers (front/back) or give more power to the sub?
Happy New Year back at ya Steve, Quite literally the best place for your car amp is in a car somewhere. Your Yamaha HTiB will certainly not benefit at all by it's use and most likely will be damaged by the use of it.
I appreciate your concern, Jim, but I have no use for this amp in my car and it's just sitting around the house. No one wants it. I have been reading around that lot of people are incorporating their amps into their HTiB.
I am new to this forum. Maybe you can convince me not to use the amp. How can it damage my Yamaha rcvr? The amp's input impedance is 10kohm which is high enough to prevent any kind of damage. Car rcvr's are designed to drive similar load speakers as home theater speakers. So, why can a HTiB rcvr not feed into a car amp?
And I can definitely appreciate the interest in the idea of "more power" but I would dispute the idea that a lot of people incorporate amps into their HTiB's and argue that people buy HTiB's to avoid having to make any modifications at all. Perhaps it can be done but to what end?
If smoking the speakers is you goal that might be a good way to go about it, if just plain getting louder is your goal then I would suggest a new system.
as an introduction, let me note that I'm an E.E., and worked in the car audio field as a gold level MECP installer for quite a while. That being said, let me suggest that if you need a home amp, as noted, get a home amp. The problem with a car amp in the home, is that the car amp is made to drive a 4 or 2 ohm load. Home speakers, nine times out of ten, are 8 ohms, so you'll get half the power from the car amp that you would get in a car setup. The biggest problem though, is a power supply. You need a modulated power supply designed for sustained high current output, and that power supply made for AC-to-DC runs about $600+ for one with a high enough current rating to drive a typical car amplifier. Don't use a car battery in the house. They can "gas" and kill you in an enclosed environment like a room. Computer power supplies, and those Pyramid jobs used for test benches to work on CBV radios cannot supply sustained current in the amounts you need, and while the bench supplies will go into protection, the computer supply will catch fire.
Short answer is, it's not worth the effort, and won't sound very good if you do pull it off. Get the right tool for the job and buy a home amplifier. If it's for a sub, look at partsexpress.com for a plate amp. They're pretty cheap.