Car subs for home use - possible?
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On The Tree
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 106
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From: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Car subs for home use - possible? Ive looked all over the internet and this seems to be my last resort for information. Question: Is there anyway to for me to hook up a box with subs (that I got for free - 2 - 12's, bandpass) to my home receiver? I dont like, or have the room for subs in my car and would like to make use of them. Any help would be appreciated!
I've run a car amp and subwoofer in my office. A beefy 12V power supply is required. Most 12V power supplies can't provide more than a few amps though. A 100W amp "in theory" needs about a 10A power supply... that's pretty big for a benchtop. Certainly more than any 'wall wart' out there. So a 400W amp, likewise, needs a 40A @ 12V supply... that's a LOT of current compared to normal household appliances. 
Beyond that, you would need a home audio amp to run the sub. I have an AudioSource Amp Three that I picked up for about $150, that I use for my home subwoofer. It runs at 400W in bridged mode with very low distortion. I've seen 'em on ebay for about that price. I'm sure you can find other amps for less tho, just check ebay. Most any home audio amp will do. Make sure it can run down to 2 ohm stable, and you should be fine. The only trick becomes if your receiver has a subwoofer output - if it does, just plug in the amp, hook up the speaker, and you're done. If it doesn't, you'll need to work out the crossover network as well (or use an amp with a built in crossover).
Beyond that, you would need a home audio amp to run the sub. I have an AudioSource Amp Three that I picked up for about $150, that I use for my home subwoofer. It runs at 400W in bridged mode with very low distortion. I've seen 'em on ebay for about that price. I'm sure you can find other amps for less tho, just check ebay. Most any home audio amp will do. Make sure it can run down to 2 ohm stable, and you should be fine. The only trick becomes if your receiver has a subwoofer output - if it does, just plug in the amp, hook up the speaker, and you're done. If it doesn't, you'll need to work out the crossover network as well (or use an amp with a built in crossover).
11 Second Club
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 804
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From: Tampa, FL
I have an car amp w/ a built in crossover. If I just hook my sub to my amp and find a 12v source (sorry don't know how many amps it needs) will it work? Sorry I don't know anything about stereos. How could I get a 12v to my car amp without a receiver? If I can get 12v but only a few amps would it sound ok? I want to hook it to my computer speakers. 
-Mark
-Mark I bought a car amp (off brand "200W") on ebay for $1, plugged it in to a 6" computer subwoofer, and ran it off of a 3A / 12V power supply. It worked fine for the volume levels I was doing. I also tried to run a bigger sub off of it... not gonna happen. 
For a small computer level sub, you can get away with a smaller power supply. But for an 8", 10", or 12" subwoofer, you're going to need the power.
Here's the types of power supplies I'm talking about.
http://www.etronics.com/listproducts...id=4071&store=
One of these would be used to power a car amp "in the house".
If you watch ebay, you can get lucky. My current benchtop power supply is a PowerOne rack mount unit with 5V, +/-12V, and 24V, and high current... I picked it up on ebay for 6 bucks.
Cost $25 to ship tho. Price to buy it new would have been about $250.
For a small computer level sub, you can get away with a smaller power supply. But for an 8", 10", or 12" subwoofer, you're going to need the power.Here's the types of power supplies I'm talking about.
http://www.etronics.com/listproducts...id=4071&store=
One of these would be used to power a car amp "in the house".
If you watch ebay, you can get lucky. My current benchtop power supply is a PowerOne rack mount unit with 5V, +/-12V, and 24V, and high current... I picked it up on ebay for 6 bucks.
Cost $25 to ship tho. Price to buy it new would have been about $250. i have a 40 amp power convertor hooked up to a rockford 500w amp and two 12's in my room
INSANELY loud, but it sucks some juice, all the lights in my townhouse dim when the bass hits
INSANELY loud, but it sucks some juice, all the lights in my townhouse dim when the bass hits
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... Or build your sub like I did I've got an older JL Audio 15W0 as my home theater sub, in a 3.5 cu.ft. sealed enclosure filled with fiberfill. I power it with a Carver M4.0t amp bridged mono 
I've got an older JL Audio 15W0 as my home theater sub, in a 3.5 cu.ft. sealed enclosure filled with fiberfill. I power it with a Carver M4.0t amp bridged mono LS1 Tech Stories
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Originally Posted by Tally TransAm
i have a 40 amp power convertor hooked up to a rockford 500w amp and two 12's in my room
INSANELY loud, but it sucks some juice, all the lights in my townhouse dim when the bass hits
INSANELY loud, but it sucks some juice, all the lights in my townhouse dim when the bass hits
Nice! 
Ok, heres the deal, the bandpass you have is tuned to take advantage of the cabin gain in a car and will sound unimpressive in your home. Give me all the details you have for the drivers in the box, brand, model #, if you have the TS specs that would be really handy, but whatever you have would be helpful. If you know the internal volumes of the chambers in the box, the port diameters, port lengths, and number of ports that would also be nice. Typically car audio subs are not optimal for home use but that isn't always the case. I will help you design an enclosure to get the most out of your equiptment in a home environment. It may mean a new box, or possibly just modifing your existing enclosure. I won't know until I get details.
Second issue, I absolutely do not recommend you use a power inverter and a car amp to power it. You can purchace an appropriate AC powered sub amp module for the same or less than a high current power inverter. Once you give me info on the drivers I can point you tward an appropriate amp.
Second issue, I absolutely do not recommend you use a power inverter and a car amp to power it. You can purchace an appropriate AC powered sub amp module for the same or less than a high current power inverter. Once you give me info on the drivers I can point you tward an appropriate amp.
Copy & Paste Moderator
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 9,764
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From: Eastern MA
I have a old off-brand carbox (standard box with outward-facing speakers) with two 12" subs and two 4X2 tweeters that I used to run off an old 100wattX2 Pioneer home audio receiver. It worked well through college and pounded pretty well.
I've been discussing this in PM's with someone else, but here goes.
Here's a collection of subwoofer plate amps. A lot of them have High Level (speaker level) and Low Level (RCA jack) inputs, so if your reciever doesn't have a dedicated subwoofer output line, you can still use one of these. These plug in to the wall for power, so no external power supply (as discussed above - hey, were were talking about using car amps in the house above! - now we're talking about house amps in the house):
http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage....ctGroup_ID=505
Here's a picture of my homemade enclosure.
http://www.akmcables.com/subwoofer.JPG
It's the first enclosure I ever built, so it's not perfect, but it does look better than the picture leads on. It's made from 3/4" MDF with a double wall front. I used WinISD (Google for it) to calculate enclosure size and port size based on the specific speaker parameters. The sub is a 12" Dayton Titanic Mk III from Parts Express.
The finish is truck bed liner, rolled on the sides and brushed on the front where the sub and port are mounted. The port is 4" flared 18" long (has an elbow inside).
It thumps. I built it more for movies, but it sounds great with music too.
Here's a collection of subwoofer plate amps. A lot of them have High Level (speaker level) and Low Level (RCA jack) inputs, so if your reciever doesn't have a dedicated subwoofer output line, you can still use one of these. These plug in to the wall for power, so no external power supply (as discussed above - hey, were were talking about using car amps in the house above!
- now we're talking about house amps in the house):http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage....ctGroup_ID=505
Here's a picture of my homemade enclosure.
http://www.akmcables.com/subwoofer.JPG
It's the first enclosure I ever built, so it's not perfect, but it does look better than the picture leads on.
It's made from 3/4" MDF with a double wall front. I used WinISD (Google for it) to calculate enclosure size and port size based on the specific speaker parameters. The sub is a 12" Dayton Titanic Mk III from Parts Express.The finish is truck bed liner, rolled on the sides and brushed on the front where the sub and port are mounted. The port is 4" flared 18" long (has an elbow inside).
It thumps. I built it more for movies, but it sounds great with music too.
Camaroholic is on the right page. What you want to do is buy a plate amp for subs from partsexpress or other places. Partsexpress is cheap and a very good vendor.
Most home reciever's won't drive 4 ohm loads... and finding a 120 volt AC to 12 volt DC power supply capable of providing the amps needed for a car amp will cost a fortune.
Go with a plate amp. You could even mount it in the sub box and have the box ready for double duty if you ever go back to a car.
Most home reciever's won't drive 4 ohm loads... and finding a 120 volt AC to 12 volt DC power supply capable of providing the amps needed for a car amp will cost a fortune.
Go with a plate amp. You could even mount it in the sub box and have the box ready for double duty if you ever go back to a car.
It is possible you can hook it up to your home receiver. You just need to see the ohm rating on the speakers. most home audio amps are 8 ohm. How much power do they handle and how much power your home audio reciever puts out. Some of those receivers put out 150 watts in the sub channel, it just depends on what you have.
TECH Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 6,157
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From: Texas
Originally Posted by wickedwarlock
It is possible you can hook it up to your home receiver. You just need to see the ohm rating on the speakers. most home audio amps are 8 ohm. How much power do they handle and how much power your home audio reciever puts out. Some of those receivers put out 150 watts in the sub channel, it just depends on what you have.
Its also a lot easier (cheaper) to get power from a A/C receiver then a DC (12V) convert+12v amp.
Generally a car subwoofer will be deeper then a home audio sub because they are designed to concentrate the pressure more in one area to take advantage of cabin gain. Also its a lot easier, in a car, to get lower frequencies because the wavelengths can be altered to be longer creating a lower (resonant) frequency.
The average car interior (with trunk) is around 12 ft, the 40 Hz note will be longer then the car's interior. This is why notes below 70-90 Hz (depending on the vehicle) will have a greater output than the rest of the frequencies. Once this resonant frequency is achieved the bass output will increase by about 12 dB/octave below that frequency. This is known as 'cabin gain'. A smaller vehicle will have a greater cabin gain and should be able to have greater low bass than a larger vehicle (given were using identical subwoofer systems with identical power).
The cabin gain works well because human ears are less sensitive to low bass. It doesnt matter what type of vehicle you have, the cabin gain will still apply. The firing orientation of the subwoofer system has no effect on the cabin gain but you always want to keep your ports/ducts in the same location.
Bottom line is, you can use car subs in a home enviroment (I do it) but it is not optimal due to speaker design but can be altered (most of the time) by the enclosure and port size/length.
Originally Posted by 2MuchRiceMakesMeSick
I hooked my "coffee table" (2 - 15" 5th order band pass) to my Yamaha receiver.
Its also a lot easier (cheaper) to get power from a A/C receiver then a DC (12V) convert+12v amp.
Generally a car subwoofer will be deeper then a home audio sub because they are designed to concentrate the pressure more in one area to take advantage of cabin gain. Also its a lot easier, in a car, to get lower frequencies because the wavelengths can be altered to be longer creating a lower (resonant) frequency.
The average car interior (with trunk) is around 12 ft, the 40 Hz note will be longer then the car's interior. This is why notes below 70-90 Hz (depending on the vehicle) will have a greater output than the rest of the frequencies. Once this resonant frequency is achieved the bass output will increase by about 12 dB/octave below that frequency. This is known as 'cabin gain'. A smaller vehicle will have a greater cabin gain and should be able to have greater low bass than a larger vehicle (given were using identical subwoofer systems with identical power).
The cabin gain works well because human ears are less sensitive to low bass. It doesnt matter what type of vehicle you have, the cabin gain will still apply. The firing orientation of the subwoofer system has no effect on the cabin gain but you always want to keep your ports/ducts in the same location.
Bottom line is, you can use car subs in a home enviroment (I do it) but it is not optimal due to speaker design but can be altered (most of the time) by the enclosure and port size/length.
Its also a lot easier (cheaper) to get power from a A/C receiver then a DC (12V) convert+12v amp.
Generally a car subwoofer will be deeper then a home audio sub because they are designed to concentrate the pressure more in one area to take advantage of cabin gain. Also its a lot easier, in a car, to get lower frequencies because the wavelengths can be altered to be longer creating a lower (resonant) frequency.
The average car interior (with trunk) is around 12 ft, the 40 Hz note will be longer then the car's interior. This is why notes below 70-90 Hz (depending on the vehicle) will have a greater output than the rest of the frequencies. Once this resonant frequency is achieved the bass output will increase by about 12 dB/octave below that frequency. This is known as 'cabin gain'. A smaller vehicle will have a greater cabin gain and should be able to have greater low bass than a larger vehicle (given were using identical subwoofer systems with identical power).
The cabin gain works well because human ears are less sensitive to low bass. It doesnt matter what type of vehicle you have, the cabin gain will still apply. The firing orientation of the subwoofer system has no effect on the cabin gain but you always want to keep your ports/ducts in the same location.
Bottom line is, you can use car subs in a home enviroment (I do it) but it is not optimal due to speaker design but can be altered (most of the time) by the enclosure and port size/length.
You just need to be careful not to blow up the home audio amp channel in the receiver. Most of the amps will only hold an 8 ohm load. I wouldn't be so much to worry about port, etc. I would be more worried about how power I have to push them and what kind of load the receiver will take. That being said, you need to know the ohm rating on the subs and how to wire it. I agree, I would never use a 12volt conveter to run a car audio amp, it's not worth the trouble. Home audio amps do just fine; I've done it with the neighbor's stuff too. The basic kicker comp's sound great ( I did it with a 12" sub sealed, so does the fosgate punch line (pair of 10s sealed) and cervin vega (2 10s also but I can't remember what model). These all sound great off of about 150watts rms and most home audio players have this for a subout channel. Hell, the new receivers are even better today.
Last edited by wickedwarlock; Mar 10, 2006 at 08:02 AM.
It can be done, you just need to pay very close attention to the resistance of the Speakers. They will be at the most, 4 ohms. You need 8.
Alot of bandpass boxes will work ok, but will sound peaky as hell and have almost no compensation in above 80-100hz and below 55-40 hz. Makes it sound even worse outside of a car.
BUT, if all you are trying to do is just bump, it may work for you.
BTW Andrew, I need to refresh you on your AMP theory and AB circuits some. (where the hell are you finding 100% efficient AMP's?)
Alot of bandpass boxes will work ok, but will sound peaky as hell and have almost no compensation in above 80-100hz and below 55-40 hz. Makes it sound even worse outside of a car.
BUT, if all you are trying to do is just bump, it may work for you.
BTW Andrew, I need to refresh you on your AMP theory and AB circuits some. (where the hell are you finding 100% efficient AMP's?)
Avalanche 15 sealed in about 3.0 cubes off of 1200 watts from a Behringer in my apartment. Needless to say, I get yelled at if its barely on. But SOMEDAY I will let it stretch it's legs.
ok, so i have 2 12" car subs, i want to hook them up to my stereo, i have a car amp. but if need be i will buy a home amp, my stereo has output thing (very technical term i know) for a sub, because it has one hooked up to it now, but its a crappy home audio sub that barely does anything. so, what do i need? you guys are being way too technical. haha. so....what do i buy?
ps. sorry for bringing this back from the dead, but i figure it was better than starting a new thread.
ps. sorry for bringing this back from the dead, but i figure it was better than starting a new thread.
What kind of subs? Model number and specs if you have em'
Do you plan to build a new box, or do you have one already?
You shouldn't use a car amp, you will spend more money on a power supply for it than to buy an appropriate home amp. When you tell me what the subs are I can tell you what amp to buy.
Do you plan to build a new box, or do you have one already?
You shouldn't use a car amp, you will spend more money on a power supply for it than to buy an appropriate home amp. When you tell me what the subs are I can tell you what amp to buy.