I have an old kenwood kac-5202 car amp lying around(got it from my father's old car) and was wondering if I could hook some 2 way speakers to its stereo outputs. Saw some people doing this ,I don't have any high hopes for it to be honest but it'll be fun project. Being complete beginner in audio systems , I have only figured out
1)need power supply(at least 12v 15amp)
2)need woofers and tweeters of 4ohm or 2ohm (according to that old manual at 4ohm get 40W x 2, and at 2ohm get 60W x 2, I'm hoping to get to 2ohm so I can squeez 60watt per channel )
manual link : manual
3)need to build a enclosure for 2 way speakers
I tested amp with 12v battery and old 20w woofer lying around and didn't got any noise from amp, things I need to know/understand are
1) speaker(woofer and tweeter) power rating (found speaker power rating in program power while amp manual doesn't mentions any power rating , may be in rms ) ,do I need to match woofer and tweeter power rating ?? or can I use tweeter of power rating much lower than woofer like 4ohm 80watt pp woofer and 4ohm 30watt pp tweeter and use that(amp provide 60w x 2 at 2ohm) OR 4ohm 80watt pp woofer and 15watt rms tweeter (miss match power ratings cause of different brand speakers)
2) woofer sizes matters ? is 6inch 4ohm 40watt pp woofer better than 4inch 80watt pp (much cheaper than 6inch), same with tweeter , I personally don't think I need those big tweeters
3)crossover's. do I need high quality crossover or cheap ones will do(cheap one has crossover somewhere at 4.5khz) , do crossovers changes impedance? and do crossover have power rating?
1)need power supply(at least 12v 15amp)
2)need woofers and tweeters of 4ohm or 2ohm (according to that old manual at 4ohm get 40W x 2, and at 2ohm get 60W x 2, I'm hoping to get to 2ohm so I can squeez 60watt per channel )
manual link : manual
3)need to build a enclosure for 2 way speakers
I tested amp with 12v battery and old 20w woofer lying around and didn't got any noise from amp, things I need to know/understand are
1) speaker(woofer and tweeter) power rating (found speaker power rating in program power while amp manual doesn't mentions any power rating , may be in rms ) ,do I need to match woofer and tweeter power rating ?? or can I use tweeter of power rating much lower than woofer like 4ohm 80watt pp woofer and 4ohm 30watt pp tweeter and use that(amp provide 60w x 2 at 2ohm) OR 4ohm 80watt pp woofer and 15watt rms tweeter (miss match power ratings cause of different brand speakers)
2) woofer sizes matters ? is 6inch 4ohm 40watt pp woofer better than 4inch 80watt pp (much cheaper than 6inch), same with tweeter , I personally don't think I need those big tweeters
3)crossover's. do I need high quality crossover or cheap ones will do(cheap one has crossover somewhere at 4.5khz) , do crossovers changes impedance? and do crossover have power rating?
Hi harsh_p, welcome to diyAudio.
Let's start with the basics like where are you going to be putting this? If it's for a secondary system we can look at it as such.
If the amp produced no sound then sort that out before anything else.
If you get it going don't worry about the difference between 40w and 60w, it's not a big difference. To go twice as loud as 40w you need 400w as audio watts are logarithmic when converted to dB. (sound pressure level). 10 times the power for double the perceived volume.
If you have never built speakers before, there are some dos and don'ts getting going.
If your carpentry skills are decent consider building the boxes yourself. Otherwise converting an old pair from a second hand store can also work.
Consider also that you might be best off with a full range driver rather than a two way. Far fewer problems in the long run and there are some good FR drivers out there. Something around 6.5" or 8" might be in order.
Hopefully others will add to this.
Let's start with the basics like where are you going to be putting this? If it's for a secondary system we can look at it as such.
If the amp produced no sound then sort that out before anything else.
If you get it going don't worry about the difference between 40w and 60w, it's not a big difference. To go twice as loud as 40w you need 400w as audio watts are logarithmic when converted to dB. (sound pressure level). 10 times the power for double the perceived volume.
If you have never built speakers before, there are some dos and don'ts getting going.
If your carpentry skills are decent consider building the boxes yourself. Otherwise converting an old pair from a second hand store can also work.
Consider also that you might be best off with a full range driver rather than a two way. Far fewer problems in the long run and there are some good FR drivers out there. Something around 6.5" or 8" might be in order.
Hopefully others will add to this.
I use a car stereo for outdoor music. powered by an old car battery to keep the radio's memory alive and a power supply to charge the battery up. I recently added a sub amp and speakers. I live in a rural area and I have had only one complaint about loud music. If you have no sound what input to the stereo are you using? radio, cassette, cd, usb etc. does the stereo light up when powered on? Is there a mute? If you are using the tuner do you have an antenna? Is there a power connection and an ON wire? Many car stereos have bridged outputs, do not connect the negative speaker terminals together. I use the cheapest 6x9 speakers from wall mart. Mainly if they get wet from the rain I dont care. Audio files cant believe they are listening to a 4 channel $50 stereo with $29 dollar speakers. Can you look up the user manual online?
sorry , seems like I didn't clarify my bad, I meant the amp is good and I didn't got any noise in the audio as some old amps/car amps have . I ran the amp with a 12v battery so if I add a power supply I might get noise in audio
A tweeter only handles the treble frequencies that only make up 10 to 20% of the total power delvered to the speaker system - the remaining percentage going to the woofer.
Consequently, the tweeter's power rating does not have to be as high as the woofer's.
I highly support Cal's suggestion of going for full range drivers because then, as a beginner, you would not have to worry about designing a crossover network.
Hi Cal, thanks for such fast reply . As you suggested full range driver might be good idea (I wont need to worry about crossover and other drivers ) and later I can add subs if I needed but the amp is quit old and don't know if I can add a sub later on. The main problem is I'm a complete beginner in this and don't know how to match amp and speaker , I only know that i need to match impedance as going lower than rated might fry the amp 🤣
Crossovers are designed to match the impedances (often quite different) of the woofer and the tweeter at the crossover frequency. An 'off-the-shelf' crossover is highly unlikely to do this, meaning that the crossover must be designed to suit the particular drivers in question.
Commercial crossovers do have power ratings.
Again, for an absolute beginner, go full range - or you could use car speakers which combine the woofer and tweeter with an inbuilt crossover circuit.
ok so the amplifier works. In a recent trip to the recycle center I found a pair of working Dynaco A25's. The cabinets are damaged beyond repair. I dont care. They are on my workbench. Cost =Free. I drop by the recycle center at least once a week. I have 2 new (to me) computers that are faster than what I was using. And about 90 lithium batteries from old laptops and 2 UPS systems that need nothing but new batteries. One UPS is backing up my new 6 core 3.8 ghz amd with an SSD drive. I cant believe the number of TVs and speakers people throw out. Microwaves by the ton and even more printers. Look around your recycle center for speakers, you will find something thats cheap and if you blow them up no harm to your wallet. You can experiment with cabinet design to your hearts content. Have fun. Be warned you can end up spending a lot of $$$$ finding perfection. I almost forgot. I found a Music Fidelity B200 that works, but needs a little updating.
In india its not that easy to get hands on thrown items . most often they pick it apart and sell the individual components as scrap metal and plastic . I did try to find old pc power supply as they are quit capable of running this amp , they told me that they sell the parts to other repair shops which uses its components to repair other parts (in short donor parts) and they don't keep any old hardware as most people don't try to diy. I might be able to get some second hand speakers and power supply but not in junk yard i would have to buy them from people , i was lucky that i took out the amp before my father sold the car. But im amazed how easy it is to find good items in recycle center there 😀
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Thanks for all the help , I manage to get hold of car speaker which were installed with these amps (they are old pioneer coaxial speakers, haven't got them yet) , now I need to check sound quality of those speakers after all these years . One last question how would I buld proper box for those like should i go for vented or sealed or use passive radiators(recently learned about those while researching about speakers, they work like ported box in a sealed box, right??)
Think of how a car speaker is mounted.
Basically it's mounted in a 'sealed' enclosure which is not perfectly sealed! That is, there are resistive air leaks.
Estimate the volume of air behind, say, a door panel then construct an "Aperiodic Enclosure" of that volume, following the instructions in the following link:
https://diyaudioprojects.com/Technical/Aperiodic/Aperiodic-Enclosures.htm
Basically it's mounted in a 'sealed' enclosure which is not perfectly sealed! That is, there are resistive air leaks.
Estimate the volume of air behind, say, a door panel then construct an "Aperiodic Enclosure" of that volume, following the instructions in the following link:
https://diyaudioprojects.com/Technical/Aperiodic/Aperiodic-Enclosures.htm
Back with few problems , the guy who was suppose to return the speakers declined, and I'm back to full range , ordered some decent ones(limited budget)but the problem is they didn't provide all the spec / data sheet, some online tools suggested to go for Ported with 18-20 L of volume .
Questions:
1) which design should I go for ported or sealed , I don't need too much bass I'll add subwoofer later on
2)what tuning frequency should I aim for box
Speakers : 6" 40watt rms full range (4 ohm)
Specification
Nominal Diameter 166 mm
Nominal Impedance 4 Ω
Re 3.9 Ω
Power Handling(AES) 40 w
Program Power 80 w
Sensitivity IW/IM 92 db
Voice Coil Dia 25.4 mm
Product Weight 1.20 Kg
T/S Parameters
Fs 92 Hz
Qes 0.6
Qms 4.01
Qts 0.52
Vas 8 It
Mms 9.8 g
Mmd 8.86 g
BL 6.06 T-m
Questions:
1) which design should I go for ported or sealed , I don't need too much bass I'll add subwoofer later on
2)what tuning frequency should I aim for box
Speakers : 6" 40watt rms full range (4 ohm)
Specification
Nominal Diameter 166 mm
Nominal Impedance 4 Ω
Re 3.9 Ω
Power Handling(AES) 40 w
Program Power 80 w
Sensitivity IW/IM 92 db
Voice Coil Dia 25.4 mm
Product Weight 1.20 Kg
T/S Parameters
Fs 92 Hz
Qes 0.6
Qms 4.01
Qts 0.52
Vas 8 It
Mms 9.8 g
Mmd 8.86 g
BL 6.06 T-m
no one?? , well I assumed few parameters and came up with box size ,and im done with that.
next i need to figure out how would i connect separate amp board like tpa3110 , i have 2 30watt subwoofers lying around , i need a lpf between tpa3110 amp and signal form audio source
put this simple diagram
should i just make a passive RC LPF or should i buy active LPF
next i need to figure out how would i connect separate amp board like tpa3110 , i have 2 30watt subwoofers lying around , i need a lpf between tpa3110 amp and signal form audio source
put this simple diagram
should i just make a passive RC LPF or should i buy active LPF
Just gathering my thoughts:
Kac-5202 is your stereo car amplifier and it will drive your full range speakers.
A TPA3110 amp will drive the subwoofers which will presumably be mounted in their own enclosures.
So you are asking if it would be best to use a line level LPF or an active LPF at the input of the TPA amp.
There, I've given your thread a bump. Hopefully the experts will answer your question!
Kac-5202 is your stereo car amplifier and it will drive your full range speakers.
A TPA3110 amp will drive the subwoofers which will presumably be mounted in their own enclosures.
So you are asking if it would be best to use a line level LPF or an active LPF at the input of the TPA amp.
There, I've given your thread a bump. Hopefully the experts will answer your question!
yes , i have 3 subwoofers lying around found them in scrap , 2 of them are same 15watt each, and one of them is rated for 20watt but i believe it's 10watt so tpa3110 should be able to run them, both 15watt in each channel , and both in a single enclosure .
nvm the above questions , decided to buy active LPF board
nvm the above questions , decided to buy active LPF board