Thanks everybody for your input my mission to proove everybody who thinks car audio cannot work well in house wrong would begin on my first paycheck...tonight i am going to choose (roughly) my parts...on the net......my first piece of equipment is going to be the power supply.....does anybody knows how the radio shack 25amp power supply works.....how well it works????? would that be enough?? cause i dont listen to music loooooudly all the time maybe just on s aturdays.........i would be running a few 100 watts (300 maybe) i'll tell you all about my choice of amps and whatnots.......i am going to build a rack to house all my components......i know with some dedication i can get a cheap musical system......i say cheap cause car audio is cheaper than house audio over here......and i have a wider range of components to choose from..........as far a s i can see t he only hard part to get is the power supply.........if you all have any suggestions on power supplies.....please help me out.....wish me luck folks......i would need it...and once again thanks..........Let the madness begin......oh yea my system is for music alone......byeeeee feel free to stop me in my tracks if you all think i am going off course.........byeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....and thanks....any suggestions on good quality car audio equipment would be appreciated...........byeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Andre,
If you just gotta have a 12V auto power amp, then you should look to switched power supplies, not transformers. Switched supplies are very efficient and cool, while iron core transformers are hot pigs.
You can figure your power needs this way: watts = volts*amps. Or since you need to know amps, then amps = watts/volts. Your volts = 12. So if you want 300 watts, you need 300/12 = 25 amps.
Mine is a Samlex America SEC-1212, which is 10A continuous. You might want the SEC-1223, which is 23A continuous, 25A peak. you'll need to shop on line to find a good dealer. They output 13.8V, not 12V, but so does your car when it's running so it's fine.
http://samlexamerica.com/samlexhome.htm
Cheers,
Wayne
If you just gotta have a 12V auto power amp, then you should look to switched power supplies, not transformers. Switched supplies are very efficient and cool, while iron core transformers are hot pigs.
You can figure your power needs this way: watts = volts*amps. Or since you need to know amps, then amps = watts/volts. Your volts = 12. So if you want 300 watts, you need 300/12 = 25 amps.
Mine is a Samlex America SEC-1212, which is 10A continuous. You might want the SEC-1223, which is 23A continuous, 25A peak. you'll need to shop on line to find a good dealer. They output 13.8V, not 12V, but so does your car when it's running so it's fine.
http://samlexamerica.com/samlexhome.htm
Cheers,
Wayne
YEa thanks for the support i need your help though........the internet is big so if yo8u all see a car sub thats worth using please tell me.......here are some brands ihave available......image dynamics...JBL ....infinity, rockford, kicker, pioneer, cervin vega, lightning audio, power acoustic, directed audio ,treo,soundstream,audiobahn,crossfire,mtx....and the other popular brands..........what wouldyouall recommend??????.......and would 25 amp digital power supply would do????
bigger is better-and cheaper!
One thing to keep in mind is that a bigger cabinet may allow you to use cheaper speakers.
How? Well, the resonance frequency of a speaker is determined by stiffness and mass. The stiffness comes from the spider, suspension, and the air in the cabinet. As cabinets have gotten smaller, the stiffness becomes higher. The cone and coil are made heavier to keep the resonance low, increasing the cost-AND, now the magnet must be bigger to keep all that moving mass under control, increasing the cost even more!
If you look at older speakers, say 1970s, they tended to have much lighter cones and smaller magnets. Today, such speakers would be quite low priced. However, you need a bigger box (less stiffness from trapped air) to avoid driving the resonance and boominess up. If your cost to build a box is not huge, you may save a chunk of money this way.
Unfortunately, I am not current as to which woofers you could buy like this, you'll have to look at Parts Express, Madisound, Zalytron, and the usual places advertised in AudioXpress to see what they have. I'm sure there is some stuff cheaper than a lot of the big car stereo woofers, which are really only good as subwoofers, and will need a lot of power in a home application due to the high moving mass.
P.S. be SURE to stuff the cabinets well with fiberglass or Acousta-Stuf etc. I can say from personal experience it makes a HUGE difference with bigger cabinets made out of relatively thin wood.
One thing to keep in mind is that a bigger cabinet may allow you to use cheaper speakers.
How? Well, the resonance frequency of a speaker is determined by stiffness and mass. The stiffness comes from the spider, suspension, and the air in the cabinet. As cabinets have gotten smaller, the stiffness becomes higher. The cone and coil are made heavier to keep the resonance low, increasing the cost-AND, now the magnet must be bigger to keep all that moving mass under control, increasing the cost even more!
If you look at older speakers, say 1970s, they tended to have much lighter cones and smaller magnets. Today, such speakers would be quite low priced. However, you need a bigger box (less stiffness from trapped air) to avoid driving the resonance and boominess up. If your cost to build a box is not huge, you may save a chunk of money this way.
Unfortunately, I am not current as to which woofers you could buy like this, you'll have to look at Parts Express, Madisound, Zalytron, and the usual places advertised in AudioXpress to see what they have. I'm sure there is some stuff cheaper than a lot of the big car stereo woofers, which are really only good as subwoofers, and will need a lot of power in a home application due to the high moving mass.
P.S. be SURE to stuff the cabinets well with fiberglass or Acousta-Stuf etc. I can say from personal experience it makes a HUGE difference with bigger cabinets made out of relatively thin wood.
Andre Baptiste said:
From what I've noticed from Car Speakers -vs-
Home Speakers, are:
1. Home Speakers are generally 8 ohms, where
as car speakers are 4 ohms.
2. Efficency wise they are both the same.
3. To achieve low bass the Car Speaker uses the
trunk to gain more extension, where as the Home
Speaker uses the walls, ceiling, and, floor to achieve
a lower bass extension.
So all in all they are pretty much the same.
Just my observation among the two.
a lil' history lesson
Historically, home WOOFERS went into bigger boxes, versus how car subs evolved to fit very small enclosures.
But with the advent (no pun intended
) of home theater, the subwoofer came into more common use. For a better "out of sight" factor, the subs started to become smaller and smaller.
So I'd agree there is not as much difference as there was. A room in a house has much less gain compared to a car, so the home sub needs more power to play as loud, but the design style is definitely converging.
On the other hand, if you can accomodate a bigger sub, you could make something truly killer for the house these days. You'd have to use more of a P.A. style woofer, which is designed to use larger cabinets. You could get a lot more output per watt, but I'm wondering if you are better off just buying something already built. Building your own speakers used to save a lot of money, but it's very tough now to beat low cost Asian production with big economies of scale.
Historically, home WOOFERS went into bigger boxes, versus how car subs evolved to fit very small enclosures.
But with the advent (no pun intended
) of home theater, the subwoofer came into more common use. For a better "out of sight" factor, the subs started to become smaller and smaller.So I'd agree there is not as much difference as there was. A room in a house has much less gain compared to a car, so the home sub needs more power to play as loud, but the design style is definitely converging.
On the other hand, if you can accomodate a bigger sub, you could make something truly killer for the house these days. You'd have to use more of a P.A. style woofer, which is designed to use larger cabinets. You could get a lot more output per watt, but I'm wondering if you are better off just buying something already built. Building your own speakers used to save a lot of money, but it's very tough now to beat low cost Asian production with big economies of scale.
Running Car Radio off Computer Power Supply in House
Well, here I go Guys and Gal-Guys:
I have built a cabinet and installed a Car Radio and Computer Power Supply with one 4.5" 60W and 2 tweeter 40W speakers. What I am receiving are fairly high notes which I love when listening to talk radio. I have also installed 2 speaker connections on the back of the cabinet and would like to attach a pair of 4 ohm car speakers to. These would be for listening to music.
QUESTION: Would all these speakers running at once be too much drain on the system? If so, I could run a switch to cut out the 8 ohm speakers when listening to music. Presently, the 8 ohm speakers are connected to the left front wires of the radio. I plan to connect the 4 ohm speakers: (one to the left rear wires of radio and the other to the right rear wires of the radio).
My reasoning is that I am slightly hard of hearing and feel that I would get better sounding music with the 4 ohm speakers.
P.S. The 4 ohm speakers would be 3-way speakers.
Hope all this is not too confusing. Thank You.
Well, here I go Guys and Gal-Guys:
I have built a cabinet and installed a Car Radio and Computer Power Supply with one 4.5" 60W and 2 tweeter 40W speakers. What I am receiving are fairly high notes which I love when listening to talk radio. I have also installed 2 speaker connections on the back of the cabinet and would like to attach a pair of 4 ohm car speakers to. These would be for listening to music.
QUESTION: Would all these speakers running at once be too much drain on the system? If so, I could run a switch to cut out the 8 ohm speakers when listening to music. Presently, the 8 ohm speakers are connected to the left front wires of the radio. I plan to connect the 4 ohm speakers: (one to the left rear wires of radio and the other to the right rear wires of the radio).
My reasoning is that I am slightly hard of hearing and feel that I would get better sounding music with the 4 ohm speakers.
P.S. The 4 ohm speakers would be 3-way speakers.
Hope all this is not too confusing. Thank You.
Boombox
Years ago I built a boombox into an old toolbox. My first attempt used a switching power supply but I found it radiated too much noise, especially on the AM/FM bands. My solution was to use a 2A linear 12dc power supply designed for a home security system with a 6Ahr rechargeable battery. The power supply also has a 1 farad capacitor for extra punch. The Alpine head unit is 4x50w into 5-1/2" front speakers and 4-1/2" rear speakers mounted on the sides. The head unit has an equalizer to tailor the sound to the environment, which is important since it's a portable stereo. Pictured also is a satellite radio tuner which has since been disconnected due to poor reception. In it's place is a music bridge allowing me to stream music over my network to the box. Each speaker has a discrete crossover unit and each component is individually fused via a main power buss.
My boombox is loud and clear. There is nowhere in my backyard that it cannot be heard clearly. In the house, it's a great table radio that plays mp3's etc..The high frequency and low frequency response is very surprising, to say the least. This unit roars and is modular for easy upgrades.
I was originally going to build a wooden box for my old car stereo, but decided to give an old toolbox a chance. The results were encouraging. I'm usually accused of over engineering things, but I think I took the easy path on this project.
Rich
Years ago I built a boombox into an old toolbox. My first attempt used a switching power supply but I found it radiated too much noise, especially on the AM/FM bands. My solution was to use a 2A linear 12dc power supply designed for a home security system with a 6Ahr rechargeable battery. The power supply also has a 1 farad capacitor for extra punch. The Alpine head unit is 4x50w into 5-1/2" front speakers and 4-1/2" rear speakers mounted on the sides. The head unit has an equalizer to tailor the sound to the environment, which is important since it's a portable stereo. Pictured also is a satellite radio tuner which has since been disconnected due to poor reception. In it's place is a music bridge allowing me to stream music over my network to the box. Each speaker has a discrete crossover unit and each component is individually fused via a main power buss.
My boombox is loud and clear. There is nowhere in my backyard that it cannot be heard clearly. In the house, it's a great table radio that plays mp3's etc..The high frequency and low frequency response is very surprising, to say the least. This unit roars and is modular for easy upgrades.
I was originally going to build a wooden box for my old car stereo, but decided to give an old toolbox a chance. The results were encouraging. I'm usually accused of over engineering things, but I think I took the easy path on this project.
Rich
Here in Sydney we have a humid sub tropical climate and the average house does not have much preassurisation gain to speak of, but we drive well sealed air conditioned cars that do.
For years I have had a pair of speakers that have fifteen inch woofers originally marketed as car subwoofers.
These are in 205 litre boxes and have a filter assisted QB5 II alignment that goes down to a theoretical 25Hz. and can produce peaks of over 110db. in this region.
Ten years ago these drivers were selling all over the country for A$100 each.
You can get car subwoofers that are very useful in a domestic situation, but some are far more useful than others.
rcw
For years I have had a pair of speakers that have fifteen inch woofers originally marketed as car subwoofers.
These are in 205 litre boxes and have a filter assisted QB5 II alignment that goes down to a theoretical 25Hz. and can produce peaks of over 110db. in this region.
Ten years ago these drivers were selling all over the country for A$100 each.
You can get car subwoofers that are very useful in a domestic situation, but some are far more useful than others.
rcw
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