Want To Run Amp/sub In House

eag182 · 05-16-2005, 09:14 PM

Yea I want to do this for a week long party at a beach house so I was thinking about it. Throw your ideas out here. I'm willing to make a new box if that'll make a difference. How will it sound in a non-confined environment? The amp is 650 watts, I'm running 8 guage in the car. I think my teacher told me she had 8 guage wiring put in her house so that she wouldnt have problems with dimming lights and such (an engineer), so (seeing that would be uncommon) should I not suspect a house circuit to be able handle the amperage-draw from the amp? I'm still using the car amp, no reasonably priced home stereo can match its power.

eh?

thoughts?

can i even go from ac to dc?

05-16-2005, 09:18 PM

give up now. you can buy a converter, but it's gonna be expensive. or u could just plug your amp into the wall and see what happens...

eag182 · 05-16-2005, 09:33 PM

i think ill wait for more responses

05-16-2005, 09:45 PM

PLUG IT, PLUG IT, PLUG IT!

BLK03GXS · 05-16-2005, 09:49 PM

yes plug your amp right into the wall

If you want to buy a new amp... haha

easyest way is to get a battery and a battery charger, depending on how loud/long you play it you may want to have either several batts or a large charger handy.
The battery acts as a cap, buffering the draw of the amp and the charger(that will plug into the wall ) will act as a alternator... not soo good for your battery.. but if its a spare/old one who cares..

other then a converter, that are lots of bling.This is the easy, and only safe way to run it

mikegett · 05-16-2005, 10:56 PM

I have to agree with blk03. A charger and battery will be the easiest method. For a permanent and cleaner solution you will want a converter. The problem is that a clean converter that delivers 50 to 60 amps will run more than your car system. If you know a friend that has a home amp that fits the ohm and wattage, have him bring it. Your car amp is converting the DC to AC so there is no difference between other than power handling and efficiency levels. The best sounding home sub I have ever heard was my 15 inch 8700 series sub. It ran off of 300 watts RMS (my home reciever displaces 200) and it was great. My personal preference was to run the sub pointing down at the floor.

eag182 · 05-16-2005, 11:33 PM

thanks for the advice guys

niral622 · 05-17-2005, 12:57 AM

Actually,
I can help here....I have two car amps set up in my house and they work well (meaning they havent fried

)

The way I have them hooked up is: I have two OLD computer power supplies...as in AT power supplies from computers made in the late 1980's and early 90's. Computer power supplies generally give a good 7-8 amps on the 12V rail RMS which means about 100Wrms of power from each one. You might think this is weak, but in the house, it's plenty of bass, it pretty much shakes my room's windows when watching movies. You could also buy bench power supplies online that give 20A@13.8v (276 watts RMS)....tho those would run you around $100 a piece (pyramid makes some I believe...: http://www.walcottcb.com/catalog/product_i...products_id=669 )

That pretty much summarizes it, if you want a LOT of power, you'll need $100...or if you're OK with medium power, then you could dig up some old power supplies...tho not sure where you'd find them, most people have thrown their junk computers away already from that long ago

. By the way, if you go with that other option, the one of the battery and battery charger...battery chargers typically have a fast charge and a trickle charge....your amps will only be able to be used at the current supply of the fast charge (amps times volts = wattage). Even if you use a car battery, you would be able to slightly increase the volume, but the battery would eventually drain and the charger would overload from the current draw of the amp. Not to mention...also, you would have to buy car batteries and the charger...I suggest that if you have the money, just buy the pyramid power supply.

If that confused you, i'm sorry

eag182 · 05-17-2005, 12:29 PM

Not so confusing. How do you feel about 2 power supplys in series?

100 rms is great, sub is 150rms

any tips on wiring it?

sound_xtreme · 05-17-2005, 01:51 PM

i could get ya one of those pyramid power supplies for around 60 bucks.

or you could buy a pro dj amp for around 130 for 600 watts. or 180 for 2000 watts if ur lookin for serious power

eag182 · 05-17-2005, 01:55 PM

Should I strip the yellow wiring from the power supply and connect that to the amp and ditto with the black ground? Shouldn't I be worrying about the size of these tiny wires?

mikegett · 05-17-2005, 09:10 PM

Dito on the wires. Computer powersupplies are not a very good option. Be very carefull on what you are wiring up to. most powersupplies have a aux that you would want to run off of. However, it normaly only supplies five to ten amps max. This is why the wires are so small. Even at max pull, they will very seldom displace a max amperage. For good powersupplies you have to dish out some serious dough. If you do run with the computer powersupply, check the fine print. Ensure that the supply lines can be tied togeather or you will most likely have a fire.

niral622 · 05-18-2005, 02:21 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by eag182@May 17 2005, 12:29 PM
Not so confusing. How do you feel about 2 power supplys in series?

100 rms is great, sub is 150rms

any tips on wiring it?

Quoted post

I would be careful with wiring two power supplies in series....not sure how safe that'd be. Also, some power supplies, esp computer ones have overcurrent protection where they just shut off if there is a current draw spike...for example if you shorted the wires, or there was a heavy bass drop.

As per the wiring: I use about 3 feet of 18 guage copper wire and it works fine, though I RARELY play it very loud. I would recommend about 14 guage or 16 guage for that kind of current draw. For the "remote" trigger on the amps, I have the +12v line shorted by a small bit of wire to the remote. It hasn't blown the amp thus far (knock on wood, had it this way for about a year), but I would recommend a 1A fuse in series with the short if you have one (I guess the wire I use is kind of like a fuse since it's like 28 guage). The amps are on when the power supply is plugged in/has power...meaning I have the two power supplies (one for each amp) plugged into a power strip and to turn on the system, I just flip the power strip's switch. Unplugging and Plugging isn't really a good idea, there is a little bit of ripple noise in the power that results from it, possibly damaging the amp or speakers.

Note: The way I have the remote wire just shorted is actually just my laziness showing through...originally, I had a small switch in series with the short to activate the amps.

I hope that helps, but i'll check tomorrow if you have any more questions