Car sub woofer in a home audio setup

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StalinDaBomb

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Nov 21, 2015
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I am preparing to build a 5.1 or 7.1 home audio system for my computer and was wondering if there was any way to use a car sub on a home system. I am preferential to car subs as they are larger and cheaper. The sub would be about 7 ft from the pc to prevent any potential magnetic distortion. Or if anyone has a sub in the 12 to 15 inch range with amp in the 100 dollar range that would work.
 
Solution
If you have a 12 volt power supply for it(assuming it is active), I see no reason you can not use one.

Connecting multiple devices can cause humming from ground loops so if the power supply is isolated it may work better.

EDIT.
I guess you may want to use the passive speakers. They may work, but make sure your amplifier can drive a speaker with such low resistance. Many card speakers are 4 ohm(and subs can be lower like 2 ohm) while many home speakers are 6-8 ohm. not all amplifiers can drive a 4 ohm load without having problems(running hotter and able to try to push more power than they can handle). If you have 2 x 4 ohm subs in a box, you can wire them in series to make them an 8 phm load that any amp should drive.

Wiring them in...

nukemaster

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If you have a 12 volt power supply for it(assuming it is active), I see no reason you can not use one.

Connecting multiple devices can cause humming from ground loops so if the power supply is isolated it may work better.

EDIT.
I guess you may want to use the passive speakers. They may work, but make sure your amplifier can drive a speaker with such low resistance. Many card speakers are 4 ohm(and subs can be lower like 2 ohm) while many home speakers are 6-8 ohm. not all amplifiers can drive a 4 ohm load without having problems(running hotter and able to try to push more power than they can handle). If you have 2 x 4 ohm subs in a box, you can wire them in series to make them an 8 phm load that any amp should drive.

Wiring them in series means you would have

Amp + ---------- +sub- ------------- +sub- -------------- - amp
 
Solution
it can and has been done, but as nuke stated it would need its own power supply and there is always the possibility of hum with the more electronics you get involved.

ht speakers would be wired up as normal. ideally you would have a subwoofer pre-out to go to your subwoofer amplifier if using car equipment. otherwise it would normally go to a powered (active) subwoofer.

be aware that going too big on your subwoofer can sound bad as it can overwhelm the rest of your speakers.
 

StalinDaBomb

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Nov 21, 2015
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4,510
I ended converting an old computer power supply into a 12v power supply simply by using the 12v rail only, i draw a max of 19 amps. I use a car amp as my amplifier and use the sub out on a traditional amp. The car sub and car amp on isolated amp works well and avoids the ohm issue. Thank you for your input though
 

nukemaster

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Glad you got it setup to your liking. As long as your computer power supply has enough power you should be good.

Try to use multiple 12 volt wires from the power supply so each wire carries a lower load and if it is multi rail, try to get them from different rails(normally indicated with stripes so yellow yellow with a green strip for instance.).
 
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