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Can you convert a car subwoofer and car amp into a bass rig?


stefBclef
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[quote name='stefBclef' timestamp='1334328574' post='1614698']
Ok...can you please explain where you are getting that "the amplifier requires a 20 amp power supply" from. Also I thought it would work on any voltage from 11V - 16V, just that 14 is optimum.

Not the case?

Thanks
[/quote]

Good evening, Stef...

I sincerely like the stubborn fight you're putting up for going through with this, it's quite impressive. I don't wish to be another carnaval urinator, and this may not stop you, but a couple of facts and some arithmetic give us the following...

Watts is Volts times Amps, so...

255 watts = 14 volts x 18 Amps

That's where the 20 amps comes in. That's a lot of current, and will heat up a cable that's too thin. The speaker cable will have to be very thick, and as short as possible, to keep unwanted resistance to a minimum. The Xbox cannot supply half of that power; a good PC PSU could do the job (only just..!), but would only give 12 volts. At 12 volts, the current for the same power would increase to 21 Amps.

Do you not have a brother-in-law with a bent for car tuning or such..? It would indeed be a waste to scrap a decent car system, but sooner or later (preferably before wasting time and money on the inevitable...), this system is going back into a car, for which it is suitable, or you're going to burn a hole in the living-room carpet.
In France, it's 'Leboncoin', the UK equivalent is, I believe, 'Gumtree'; get some cash for it through a local sale, and get a practice amp.
(You can buy replacement carpets from 'Gumtree', too, I think. May come in handy..?)
Hope this helps (but I'm not banking on it...)

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The obvious thing to do with this is to run it from a car battery. In other words make a portable battery amp. You'll need to knock out the filter too. The speaker is not going to be useful, they are terribly inefficient compared with one designed to do what is a very different job.

You'd probably want to add a pre amp at some stage but decent battery powered amps are fairly rare and quite expensive. Really the value in any project like this is the stuff you learn and the fun you have doing it.

Have fun.

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[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1334358619' post='1615305']
Good evening, Stef...

I sincerely like the stubborn fight you're putting up for going through with this, it's quite impressive. I don't wish to be another carnaval urinator, and this may not stop you, but a couple of facts and some arithmetic give us the following...

Watts is Volts times Amps, so...

255 watts = 14 volts x 18 Amps

That's where the 20 amps comes in. That's a lot of current, and will heat up a cable that's too thin. The speaker cable will have to be very thick, and as short as possible, to keep unwanted resistance to a minimum. The Xbox cannot supply half of that power; a good PC PSU could do the job (only just..!), but would only give 12 volts. At 12 volts, the current for the same power would increase to 21 Amps.

[/quote]

Thanks for the mini lesson. I had actually given up on the idea a couple of posts ago, I was just keen to learn how someone worked that out - which you just told me so thanks![quote name='Phil Starr' timestamp='1334394427' post='1615508']
The obvious thing to do with this is to run it from a car battery. In other words make a portable battery amp. You'll need to knock out the filter too. The speaker is not going to be useful, they are terribly inefficient compared with one designed to do what is a very different job.

You'd probably want to add a pre amp at some stage but decent battery powered amps are fairly rare and quite expensive. Really the value in any project like this is the stuff you learn and the fun you have doing it.

Have fun.
[/quote]

I agree, you've gotta have fun doing these things otherwise life would be all uphill. [url="http://www.instructables.com/"]http://www.instructables.com/[/url] is a very good site for finding projects like this.

Re powering from a car battery; I heard this can also cause a hole in your carpet!


[quote name='charic' timestamp='1334354378' post='1615232']
You could use it for this?

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zoTKXXNQIU[/media]
[/quote]

That looks like fun. But I would like to see it go back into a car as that is where it belongs and it seems that is the only place where it can be bassy. Just gotta find someone who is willing to give up half their boot space to something really heavy that makes them not be able to hear any police sirens or people next to them talking...or half the melody.

Brother in law is first on the list!

Cheers guys

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[quote name='stefBclef' timestamp='1334328574' post='1614698']
Ok...can you please explain where you are getting that "the amplifier requires a 20 amp power supply" from. Also I thought it would work on any voltage from 11V - 16V, just that 14 is optimum.


[/quote]

From your earlier posting:

[size=3][color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][b]Current Draw @ Max Power: [/b]
21.3 amps @ 4 ohms[/font][/color][/size]

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