I've got a fun project: I'm trying to wire a Road Gear 250 watt max amplifier, intended for car audio, to a nice old home speaker. I know the amp isn't that great, but it will be plenty good for my purposes. Also, the speaker is from the 80s, so it has a nice, large woofer cone (10" I believe).
The speaker is 8 ohms, but I've already removed the tweeter and covered it's mounting hole to seal up the box. I'm sure there's a crossover inside the speaker, but I don't know if I should remove it or not. I'm willing to bet that the woofer cone itself is only 4 ohms.
My primary question, however, is about the inputs and outputs on the back of the amp. I know very little about car audio gear, so I'm not really sure how to wire it. If anyone is willing to help me, it would be greatly appreciated.
I'm going to list the input and output connections here:
Power: +12v, RMT, GND
Speaker: L(+), L-, R(-), R+
Input:
Low Level: L-, R- (this is a pair of standard RCA plugs)
High Level: +L- -|- +R- (this is a strange 5 pin connector I've never seen before)
The Amp has standard crossover adjustments, including a Gain nob, a frequency nob, and mode selector (High, Flat, and Low). It also has a "Bass Boost" switch.
I know that +12v is a positive, 12 volt input power line. I plan to use an old AT computer power supply for this. I know that the GND is a Ground line, and that I can use the same AT power supply for this as well. I have no idea what the RMT does.
As for the speaker side, the L(+) and the R(-) are marked as bridged. I don't fully understand what that means, but I'm guessing that it has to do with hooking both channels together if you're going to use only 1 cone.
If anyone can give me any additional information or help me in any way, feel free to post here or to send me an email @ gigasvii@yahoo.com
Thanks!
The speaker is 8 ohms, but I've already removed the tweeter and covered it's mounting hole to seal up the box. I'm sure there's a crossover inside the speaker, but I don't know if I should remove it or not. I'm willing to bet that the woofer cone itself is only 4 ohms.
My primary question, however, is about the inputs and outputs on the back of the amp. I know very little about car audio gear, so I'm not really sure how to wire it. If anyone is willing to help me, it would be greatly appreciated.
I'm going to list the input and output connections here:
Power: +12v, RMT, GND
Speaker: L(+), L-, R(-), R+
Input:
Low Level: L-, R- (this is a pair of standard RCA plugs)
High Level: +L- -|- +R- (this is a strange 5 pin connector I've never seen before)
The Amp has standard crossover adjustments, including a Gain nob, a frequency nob, and mode selector (High, Flat, and Low). It also has a "Bass Boost" switch.
I know that +12v is a positive, 12 volt input power line. I plan to use an old AT computer power supply for this. I know that the GND is a Ground line, and that I can use the same AT power supply for this as well. I have no idea what the RMT does.
As for the speaker side, the L(+) and the R(-) are marked as bridged. I don't fully understand what that means, but I'm guessing that it has to do with hooking both channels together if you're going to use only 1 cone.
If anyone can give me any additional information or help me in any way, feel free to post here or to send me an email @ gigasvii@yahoo.com
Thanks!
Go ask Djbassamp he is great at this 
But seriously if it really has anything approaching 250
watts you will need a 40 ampere 12 volt power supply
to run the thing. You will NOT get 40 amps from a pc supply.
Especially with the 5 and 3.3 volt supplies unloaded.
Second thing is that the 12 volts is not really 12 volts.
For that power level those kind of amps really need
real car battery voltages which is in the range of 13.8 to 14.2.
But seriously if it really has anything approaching 250
watts you will need a 40 ampere 12 volt power supply
to run the thing. You will NOT get 40 amps from a pc supply.
Especially with the 5 and 3.3 volt supplies unloaded.
Second thing is that the 12 volts is not really 12 volts.
For that power level those kind of amps really need
real car battery voltages which is in the range of 13.8 to 14.2.
okay, I bridged the 12v+ and the RMT, so now the amp powers up. I'm using a crappy car subwoofer to test it, but I'm not having much success. The sub has 2 sets of postive and negative connectors, but no labels. I've tried using the bridge lines on the amp and the unbridged ones, and i've use one of the two sets of connectors on the back of the sub. No sound yet.
As for the powering of the amp, I'm not planning on turning the amp all the way up, so I think the power output from my powersupply will be fine. If it isn't, I didn't hardwire anything to it. I used molex connectors, so I could just swap the powersupply out for a more powerful one.
As for the powering of the amp, I'm not planning on turning the amp all the way up, so I think the power output from my powersupply will be fine. If it isn't, I didn't hardwire anything to it. I used molex connectors, so I could just swap the powersupply out for a more powerful one.
Oh, one thing I forgot to mention: I've connected the RCA "Record Out" line on my nice old Sony STR-6036A (from like the 60s) to the input. this might have something to do with the lack of sound but I'm not sure. I've never tried that set of jacks, so it might not be outputting anything. My main speakers still work fine, though.
Okay, I got the amp to work with the sub. It seems that the Record Out is busted. I need to find a way to wire the amp into my stereo. I don't know if / what I should splice off to get signal to the amp. Is there any way I could construct a pass-thru so I could run off of one of the speaker lines, that would rock. I don't really know how to do that, thought.
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