| jake |
Has any body else ever thought about using a car stereo in their homes as a replcement to big ugly stereos? Any way, just a thought. If anybody else had done this before please post your results.
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Jake
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| dickerbeen |
Yeah... I was gonna do that.
I was thinking of using an old desktop PC case to put the rig in...
Pros:
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(1) PSU for PC supplies 12v with earthing possibilities
(2) Drive bays to hold the car audio equipment
(3) Put amp(s) inside of case
(4) Expansion slots for audio out leads
OR
(5) Speakers built in to the case (2 6x9" would fit, right?)
Cons:
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Heat? |
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| cowanrg |
cons:
sound quality
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you should have had me sit down first... "those big ugly speakers". i nearly fell! |
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| Matttcattt |
| why not build a gainclone. low voltage, cheap, high sound quality (i think so :P). |
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| hungl3 |
| how do you run an amp 12' volt in side your house? i have no idea now to do that,!!! does any one know, if yes please show me how! |
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| Matttcattt |
| quote: | Originally posted by hungl3
how do you run an amp 12' volt in side your house? i have no idea now to do that,!!! does any one know, if yes please show me how! |
build a big 12v power supply. like this one by rod elliot: http://www.sound.westhost.com/project77.htm |
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| li_gangyi |
| Yeah..he is planning to iuse that PC PSU to power his amp up...puts out a nice 10A at least...but not sure about interference though...it's an SMPSU... |
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| dickerbeen |
| Yeah, I know noise will be an issue, but not massively. It will be bearable. |
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| li_gangyi |
| Try using some chokes and a few caps on the output...would do good for the Amp at least...and use a BIG fuse...and be careful...I noe it's only 12V...but the current is crazy... |
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| jake |
hey guys
why not just buy a 12V DC 1A Power supply. that shuld work. well it does in aus.
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Jake
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| li_gangyi |
| Cummon man...a crummy 1A wun kick it..especially for bass...you need at least 20A or something bigger...seend as much as 100A being used... |
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| Matttcattt |
| quote: | Originally posted by li_gangyi
Cummon man...a crummy 1A wun kick it..especially for bass...you need at least 20A or something bigger...seend as much as 100A being used... |
Rod elliot said his power supply should be able to go up to 500A with enough output devices. :bigeyes: :cool: :rolleyes: :dead: Cool :P |
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| li_gangyi |
| Yeah...and if anyone needs 3055s..gimmi a mail or a PM...I got a few here... |
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| jake |
why not get an electriction to wire it into your electricity (i.e. wire it into the mains). It shouldnt cost that much really (maybe it does?). just a thought.
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Jake
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| Jennice |
Hi Jake,
I don't know about your local laws, but here in DK you won't be able to have anyone legally install 12V along with the "ordinary" power line.
Apart from legal issues, it's pointless to make the 12V gneration as part of the house's electrical sytem. The long leads from source to appliance will create immense losses (and be terrible inductances, considering that a lot of car stereo equipment has SMPSU's built in. (especially the power-amp's)
Generally, you will need to be carefull if you use a PC PSU. It can indeed deliver a lot of current (although some types have the most juice at 5V), but powering a SMPS from a SMPS can (in worst case) lead to faults in one or both components, mainly during turn-on and turn-off.
During turn-on, some car power amps draw VERY high peak currents, which may stress or damage your PC PSU.
During turn-off, your PC PSU may have temporary states of high output impedance. The SMPS of a car power amp may not protect against (negative) voltage transients emmitting from the SMPS to the PC PSU. At work I had this problem, where one SMPS fried another one during certain power-down conditions.
Jennice |
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| li_gangyi |
| I have tried shorting a PC smpsu...it will just shut itself off...in worst case senarios...the fuse should be adequate to protect you...if you are feeling unsafe...build a BIG linear PSU~!!! |
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| jake |
hey guys
car cigarette lighters only provide either around 20A or 60A (I can t remember 4 sure) This is all the stereos are wirred to.
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Jake
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| uvodee |
Back in the very early 90' s I had fitting transformers installed in the distribution box while still living in Belgium These transfo's took 220 volt AC down to 12 v DC.
I did this in order to install the then very popular 12 volt halogen lighting. it took away the wall warts and even ceiling warts......
worked just fine and installing it was a piece of cake. |
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| purplepeople |
Hey, how about those big halogen light wall warts. They give out 12VAC and 6A. Shouldn't that be enough for a GC monoblock. You could go to IKEA, get the cheapest tracklight for the transformer, throw the hardware in the future use pile, and still have 3 spare bulbs for your current tracklights.
With two of them, each one DC'ed with a bridge into a 317/337 or 78xx/79xx to get a just under +/-12VDC supply?
:)ensen. |
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| jake |
is it just me or are ppl in this forum talking about garden lighting. guys, dont fill this room with rubbish, weve already established that we needj around 20-100 AMPs.
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Jake
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| li_gangyi |
| I guess maybe you could parellel a few PC PSU together...one here costs around SGD$5.00 that would be around USD less than $3...cheapie considering the amperage and the price... |
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| Paulr |
Hi All,
I rigged up a Sony car cd player at my mom's for her. She already had a mini system that was pretty good, but from the days before CD became that popular. Headunit was (I think) CDX44 line level out only - one of the first car CDs intended as an add on running off a wall wart with some rectification.
NOT hi-fi, but a hell of a lot cheaper than buying a new system
She was only going to play Tom Jomes on it anyway, but it's been running without a hitch for about 6 years.
Cheers
Paul |
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| mikee12345 |
i really wouldnt bother using car amps in house
youl never get the power supply you want unless u spend too much getting a high amperage one.
id just go buy a plate amp from partsexpress (they are Very cheap in USA)
along with an Av15 or something similar.. |
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| li_gangyi |
| nahz...if you knew where to look...you can get a cheapie 100A Switchmode PSU from surplus sales...those for industrial stuff and power your amp with it... |
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| jake |
if i were actually going to go ahead w/ this project, i would just get an electrician to wire it up for me. and by the way, how could for example, a 500w 5 channel stereo system be run off normal 240v, usually 12 amps, but when we want to use the same setup, only the amp is ruin off 12volts and we for some reason need 90 more amps than with a 240v system?
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Jake
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| li_gangyi |
| maybe he already has the amp but not the PSU...he could mod the amp to accept voltages that are higher though...forget about the SMPSU...and power it straight... |
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| Dj Dfa |
| What equations would I use to find out how many amps I need to convert a car amp to a home amp. If i have, say, a 200 watt amplifier, how many amps does the transformer need to supply? I'm a little confused with all this so if anyone could help me it'd be greatly appreciated |
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| li_gangyi |
| is 200W the speaker output...or the power needed for the amp to run??? Because no amp is 100% efficient...some power is lost as heat...therefor the wattage the amp actually needs is a bit higher than the wattage put out to the speakers... |
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| Dj Dfa |
| I really am not sure. The amp was givin to me as a present. I think it is a 200 watt output. Its advertised as a 200 watt amp. Would the company say its more? I dont know. But lets say its a 400 watt. It really doesnt matter, does it? I'm just wondering what basic physics equations do I need to convert it? Im a freshman in College and I took physics in high school and i know i could have done this back then, but since then i have forgotten the equations. I appreciate any help anyone can supply. thanks li |
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| r_s_dhar |
Hellow,
I have been following this thread with interest. What I would like to know is how a triaxial speaker (say, something as respectable as Sony or Kenwood) would perform when installed in a room of about 140 Cu Ft dimension? I would like to hear from members who have sound empirical knowledge in this matter. |
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| SkinnyBoy |
| quote: | Originally posted by r_s_dhar
Hellow,
I have been following this thread with interest. What I would like to know is how a triaxial speaker (say, something as respectable as Sony or Kenwood) would perform when installed in a room of about 140 Cu Ft dimension? I would like to hear from members who have sound empirical knowledge in this matter. |
ummm.. sony sucks..... umm.. yeah... |
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| r_s_dhar |
Skinny Boy,
Didn't know that. Well imagine you received one of those heaven-made, non-sucking triaxials from St. Paul himself. How would it sound in my 140 Cu Ft room? A room of this size is apparently far bigger than the biggest car ever built. So what would this "extra" room mean? |
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| JOE DIRT® |
| placed in a small sealed box they would be ok for low level audio |
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| r_s_dhar |
Hellow Joe Dirt,
could you be more specific? What exactly do you mean when you say "low level"? Do you mean:
1. low quality
2. low output
3.low resolution in terms of reproduced audio spectrum
thanks. |
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| MikeHunt79 |
Quick story... My car alarm behaving funny, so I've had to disconnect it. So I brought my expensive bits of my car hi-fi in the house, as I know what it's like to have audio gear nicked from your car. :(
Expensive bits =
Rockford Fosgate Punch 300x 4 channel amp
Pioneer 12" sub (forgot the model number, but it will take 400Wrms) :eek:
I thought, there was no point having it sitting there for no reason, and the sub was pretty new, so it needed running in.
I had a motorbike battery laying around, I put a charger on it (it only goes to about 3 amp charging current). I then connected the amp to the battery, and the 2 spare channels (the other 2 are bridged to the sub) on my amp to my normal Hi Fi speakers (with a HPF set on the amp).
I then connected my mixer and turntables to the amp, and it worked fine! No noise, very good sound quality, and enough bass to get me arrested. :devilr:
I tried conectting it directly to my PC, and there was an audible 50Hz hum, so I connected the PC thru my mixer, put the volume on the PC to 100%, and used the mixer as a volume control. You can now hardly hear the hum since there is a really high signal to hum ratio when listening to MP3's. :cool:
Using a battery is a good idea as it allows for large amounts of current to be delivered with no problems. I could have this thing drawing 20-30 amps if I wanted. :cool: My only concern is that I'm gonna kill the battery, but I leave it charging overnight, so I think it'd be hard to completely drain it unless I had it turned right up for quite a long time.
If I get problems with this, I could upgrade the charger or battery.
I can post pics if you guys want... Theres wires all over the place, but it works.
Also, just a quick question: I've had this sub for around 2 months now, and have been running it in at low power... How much longer should this speaker take to run in before I can run it at full power? 10 hours? 100 hours?
EDIT: Just gonna get another quick question in if I can, (sorry if I seem to be dragging this one off-topic, it's not intentional). My hi-fi speakers are 6ohms, and yet the manual for my amp says it runs at 4 and 2 ohms (and shows various speaker configurations involving 4 and 2 ohm loads), with no mention of 6 ohms anywhere. I'm not gonna damage my amp by using 6 ohm speakers am I? |
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| r_s_dhar |
Mike,
Interesting. What you say confirms that gut-feeling I have always had -- something which the Gurus and the measurement equipment may dismiss. Batteries supply clean, instantaneous power and car audio is uncluttered. As the saying goes, "what is not there cannot create noise." To avoid evils of misconstruction, let me hasten to add that I do not, for even a millisecond, think that car audio, in a living room, can substitute a 3-Way system. But, then, I do not know how else to describe that clarity that you get from car audio. |
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| JOE DIRT® |
Mike.....6 ohm speakers are fine for the amp
24 hours is what we use to do to break in drivers
and you will eventually kill that battery (buy a marine gel cell);)
DIRT® |
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| MikeHunt79 |
At the moment I either have the car audio setup, or my horrible midi hi-fi setup... I know which one sounds better. Sub-bass also makes a big difference tho, I made a tune in Reason that sounded ok on my midi hi-fi, but I listened to it again on my car audio setup, and the bass sounded mushy and horrible. I'm now in the process of remixing the tune.
If I had more time and money, I would love a proper system, but being a student isn't really pay for a pass labs system at the moment. :)
If it sounds good stick with it... thats what i'm doing at the moment. :) I've always wondered the same thing about car audio quality tho... You hear of these people paying megabucks for power cables to thier amps, and I've often thought... "car audio has none of these problems... there isn't even any chance of 50Hz (or 60Hz) hum. |
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| MikeHunt79 |
JOE DIRT: Thanx for the reply... Glad to hear the ohms situation is ok. (I've killed a cheapy car amp in the past due to some 2ohm shenanigans) :)
Also, I'll wait till this battery dies before I get another one... The gell cell thing sounds good, but I'm only really having this setup until I get my car alarm fixed.... I'm gonna miss it in my room :( |
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| MikeHunt79 |
Wow... 3 posts by me in a row... there is a reason however...
Just thought I'd let you know that i solved the 50Hz hum issue. I had the line-in on my soundcard on in the mixer, and as soon as I turned it off, the noise vanished completely. I've now got the amp plugged straight into the computer, and it's still working ok. :D :eek: :cool: |
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| Matttcattt |
i have built a gainclone amp to run off +/-12v, to go in my car, when i get one. :dead:
in the mean time, i want to run the amp off 2 12v car batteries. i want to build a simple dual charger, with circuitry to automatically turn the chrager on and off.
i found these circuits, the first is a circuit using the L200 variable voltage regulator, rated at 2A. is this suitable for car batteries?
the second is a circuit by rod elliot which switches the chragher on and off. does anyone have a better/simpler circuit?
my last question concerns the power supply. i have a dual secondary, 25v, 60VA toroid. the ~35vDC i should get from this is ok for the L200, but the heat dessipation will be huge. i was thinking of putting the secondaries in parrallel to get ~17.5v, which is about what i need. this will only leave me with one supply, between the 2 chargers, which means that the 2 batteries have to be seperated from the aplifier before chrarging. whcih method should i use? :confused: |
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| zech4_6 |
| I want to use a car stereo to listen to cassettes in my home. Nothing loud, just regular volume, no amps. Outputing to 4 speakers (2 FR - 2 BK). Anybody know how many amps my 12V power supply needs to be? |
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| Dj BASS AMP |
i build from car amp to home amp
it is alot of work. (i do not build a 12V power supply).
i out the power supply of the amp (12V to 35VRAIL).
i put alot of CAPS that i found in my room. :)
i put a 4X12VAC 250VA (Home light 12v -spot)
and i make 24VAC x2.
it is do in the end 33VDC +/- (1000W power supply).
LINK !! PIC !!
DOWNLOAD A MOVIE OF AMP IN ACTION
it is base on car amp "California Boom 1000W".
now it is on 230V the amp is out a very high power and the sound is very good.
Tamir :)
sorry on my poor englise... it will be batter in soon... |
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| whiteymack |
Oh yeah,,, been there done that with the car stereo equip for home audio...
Now we all know what opinions are,, and that everybody has one,, so here is mine,, just remember its my opinion and not meant to step on any audiophilic toes here :D
I unlike probably most people in thig group, enjoy hip hop music, along with (r&b such as RKelly BoyzIIMen etc),,
So my opinion on this subject is very biased,,
I do not listen to much music containing subtle tinkling of chimes or the breath of a cello.
So what i wanted was a really loud clean system in my studio,,(I write and record my own music) that would allow me to hear everything from 20 to 20,, as loud as i wanted to hear it,,,
I do not care about big luggy boxes taking up space,,
I utilized 2 car batteries built in a watertight vented enclosure in the attic, with a low noise medium current battery charger with an auto charge feature that would measure the current level of the batteries and charge if needed,,
for the upper end I used 4 polk audio plates with the liquid cooled 3 inch mids and 1inch p/cell tweeters mounted in the wall in a very unique swivel box design to allow for staging,
i utilized for the mids and mid bass,, a small pair of enclosures each containing 1 fosgate punch 5 1/4 mid 1 punch 8" driver and 1 10" punch,, I found that for the midrange and midbass thump that the harder cones of the fosgates provided better,, all were chambered in the enclosures, with respective crossover points,,,
for the boom down under, i built 1 enclosure and placed in it one 18" kicker solobaric L7,, allowing for a smaller box size,,, and I think better transient response,,, and of course the poly cone, is as quiet as could be,,, the room is quite big,, and sound proof,,
amp wise I used a Kicker ZR1000 amp, for the sub,, with 100hz module,,
for the mid cabinets, I used a pair of older orion 225HCCA amps had laying around,,, and for the tweets,,, I used an old MEI 500w amp,, tuned down of course,,, all was layed out with kicker electronic 3way crossover with sub control,, and an older fultron digital signal processor (DSP)
All of this was wired into my main computer system which i do all of my tracking/sequencing being played out of a sound blaster audigy platinum
the sound is quite stunning,, even from very low volume to oh my god,,, the staging is great,, and with the wide array of sizes of drivers and crossover points it never has any dead spots within the spectrum,,, its not over boomy but its not gonna flatline on the rta,, ill tell ya,, ha ha |
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