A while ago I started this thread about putting speakers in my car. Because I ended up selling the car, I didn’t end up putting them in.
So I have the same speakers and amp and I’d like to put it in my room.
I’d be connecting it to something like this eventually. How would I do this? Should I connect the two (would the system need the other speakers)?
Off the top of my head, you’ll need a 12v power supply for the amp and ones that will give the current you will need are not cheap.
The cost of the power supply could easily equal the price of a nice, clean old amp intended for home use.
I’ve got a small system similiar to the one in the link with an AIWA powered sub in my family room and it’s gets loud. The sub really helps bring out the bottom in a 600+ sqft room. I don’t think any more is needed.
Ok, so I should get a different amp? Is there one you’d suggest?
Just for the sake of saying it, I’ve always been fond of vintage Kenwood KA-3500’s, they’re rock solid and cheap. I have several throughout the rest of my home.
However, getting a signal from the system to the separate amp may be a problem depending on the line-out capabilities of the system. Using the headphone jack to get a signal to the amp should work but, depending on your system, may mute the main speakers. This would nullify the advantage of hooking up another amp.
Assuming that the system you linked to even needs any help, a powered sub should suffice and can be wired up simply by hooking it up in series with the supplied speakers. Most decent subs include a crossover to take some of the lower frequencies off the full range speakers thus allowing you to turn up the volume a little more without distorting.
If you are looking to build a component stereo system with a separate power amp, there are simpler ways to go about it. One option is to use your computer as the head unit/pre-amp and feed the signal from your soundcard into an amp.
And, if you really want to piss off the neighbors, let me tell you about the 18" subs I have hidden in the floor of my office/listening room…
To hook this up to any home system that doesn’t have a subwoofer output, you’ll need what’s called a crossover. This separates the low frequencies from the highs and sends them to different outputs.
Chance are your stereo system doesn’t have enough power to drive the subs from your car; otherwise you could use a passive crossover; however, these aren’t as flexible and will give you mismatches if the sensitivity and impedance of the sub aren’t fairly close to those of the main speakers (which is pretty likely, since most boomboxes I’ve seen use odd speaker impedances).
IMO, as zabrain alluded to, you’d be better off heading over to Costco and picking up a $100 subwoofer, this will almost definitely sound better than the woofer box from your car (these boxes are generally designed more for loudness then accuracy; in fact saying they’re “designed” is a compliment, since usually they’re just a bunch of speakers stuck in a box with no thought of design at all) and will also include the amp and crossover (which can be connected between the main unit and the speakers). Otherwise, this project will end being a lot more costly and complicated, even if you buy everything you need off eBay.