Car amp in home theater?

[JWFokker]

Couple dumb questions, as I'm no expert on these matters by any means:

Is it possible to use a car amplifier for a home theater? I have an old but completely functional Orion Cobalt 465 (520W 4-Channel amp or 260W 2-Channel bridged) that I'd like to use with a sub or two (12" Shiva's). If it is possible, what would the drawbacks be to this, if any?

Also, the manual only mentions 4 Ohm subs. The Shivas are 8 Ohm if I remember correctly. Will this cause any problems?

[qwad]

yes it's possible but bear in mind car audio amps are designed with a different purpose in mind and also distortion is higher than domestic amps so the question is are you going to get the sound quality you anticipate? and are you going to be happy, not just with saving your hard earned cash, the decision is yours, go ahead and try it, no harm in that! cheers and best regardsT.C.

[Bill Fitzpatrick]

Don't overlook the fact that you will need a 13.5 volt, 20 amp (or so) power supply for that puppy.

[JWFokker]

Are there any issues with using the Shiva, being that it's 8 Ohms and the Orion manual makes no mention of 8 Ohm drivers anywhere? Also, is higher THD a huge issue with a sub, especially since I'm not going to be driving it very hard (I'm using it for near field listening and a little bit of movie watching).

[subarusteve]

power supply as mention by another poster here is a definite issue but certianly not a huge one... to help bolster that power supply a 1 farad cap will give you the quick shots of extra power you'll need for musical peaks and as an added bonus it might help filter out some noise from the power supply....using 8 ohm speakers will cut your amps power output in half or almost in half....

the crossovers built into the amp are the only weak link....cobalt is orion's entry level line and the parts they use in the crossover section are ok but not great.....not a huge deal for your sub....but if you're a careful listener you might notice an edginess in the midrange and lower treble through a really good set of speakers....the amplifier section of the amp is the same circuits used in their higher end and are real clean
for what you want to use it for it'll probably be fine....
i've done the same thing before with 8 ohm home speakers with my Xtant running the speakers
I also use home drivers in my car you just have to be willing to sacrice some power and or buy reall big amps...lol

give it a try !!!