Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio How do you hookup a car amp in a home system? HELP?

For all you audio gurus!

I've been pondering this idea ... I have a couple extra JL audio 12W6's and a ROckford power 800a2 laying round the house and I want to hook em up with my current home system, which is Denon 1602 receiver and Definitive audio surround system w powered sub. How do you hookup the amp to my power outlet in the wall? Basically I need a way to regulate the sound volume coming from the line out on the receiver (which I know they make a product but don't know what its called), and also a way to supply power (AC TO DC, 120 v to 12 v for example) ... any ideas? Thanks guys!

As far as I know, you can go to any store with an automotive section and get a transformer to go from 120vAC to 12vDC. Think about it -- how else could the guys at best buy demo the car audio stuff!

However, it will be a little messy (cables running everywhere), and more trouble than it might be worth.

As for controlling the output from your receiver to the amp, any basic DJ mixer should be able to do the job - they all use RCA plugs as standard for the ins and outs. Plus, you could do some crazy beat matching!

That's the best advice I have.

Brian

ps -- don't you think you'll have more bass than you need? Or is the 'need' outweighed by the 'want'?

Good idea. I'm going to besy buy tomarrow to find out. But yeah, all I want to do is put the couple subs behind the TV in the corner and let them fire up ... to the corner of the room and I think that will make it cool. All the wires, amp, box, etc, will be behind the TV or right next to it. Anyone else have any ideas? I need to get this done tomarrow if possible. Thanks! Jared.

In my votech class in HS we had DC power suppies. Huge mo-fo's about the size of a VCR. Overload protection adjustable voltage output, of course those suckers are expensive I bet. I used to work at Suckit City and I saw the wall behind their roadshop one day wher all the wires are run for car stereo's that are in the wall for demo's it's a insane mess

This probably doesn't help but that it how I would go about doing it

Pete

most of those audio stores simply use power supplies that are the same as the internals of a battery charger. Becasue a battery charger is just a transformer/rectifier, that turns the 120 volt AC house voltage to 12-14 volt DC.

I have used one before to test my amp and other 12 volt equipment like starters, lights etc. so it will work.

BUT you can not use a automatic charger, you need one of the old fashioned kind, and make sure it has enough capacity to keep up with the power demands of the amp. An automatic unit somehow can tell wether it is hooked to a battery or not, if it is not hooked to a battery it will not allow current flow.

You could go to a place like Radio Shack and get a power supply but I haven't ever seen any there for over 20 amps, but maybe if you ask they could get a hold of a higher capacity unit.

must be nice to ahve 2 700 doller subs and a 500 amp laying around the house :rolleyes:

I got the subs for $175 (retail $225?) each a couple years back. I don't know where you got the $700 quote. I think this may be out of my reach. Thanks. Jared.

We tried it once and found that it would blow a fuse/breaker in the Reciever! Most home amps are powered independently! You have to make sure you have the same OHM level all around.

-Andy

OK, well thanks guys. I tried posting this to a couple other homeaudio forums and got the same type responses. Nobody seems to know what exact device to use and they also state that it would not be advised. THanks for the input fellas. Jared.

You would need the power inverter to run the car audio amp. Your sub output on your receiver should have a level control that you could use to set the volume. The actual subs should work pretty well in HT applications as they tend to go a little lower than a lot of car audio subs which tend to rolloff at about 60 hz.

I'll see if I can find an inverter somewhere that you could use. The limitation would be the expense because it'll likely cost you more than buying a couple of plate amps to power the subs. You could sell the rockford amp and pick up two 250w plate amps for about 250.00. They have become pretty cheap. If you need some help with the sub enclosures, let me know and I can make some recommendations on size.

What model subs do you have, dual 6 ohm, dual 4 ohm?