I have a subwoofer sitting around and I'm curious if I can use it to create a computer entertainment system or a home theatre? Is it possible? If so, how can that be done? Thanks, all.

Kev

 

the answer is yes. but depends what you really want out of it.

 

i just want to make use of the subwoofer.

 

it can be done. the question is, is it worth the trouble? here is what you need.

1. subwoofer (already have)

2. subwoofer enclosure (may or may not have) - if not, as you should know the enclosure should match the subwoofer. the most simple would be a sealed enclosure or you could get fancy and go ported. either one takes some consideration as the enclosure makes or breaks the quality of sound you get from the sub.

3. amplifier - you can use a home one, but it should have a dedicated subwoofer output. its not enough to supply power to the sub, it needs to filter out the higher frequencies so it sounds like a subwoofer and not like a full range speaker that will just distort when turned up. some home amps offer this others don't. - if not, you could purchase a passive crossover that you hook up to the speaker leads and filters out the highs and only allows low frequencies.

you could also use a car amp but this is even more complicated as you would need a source of 12v current to power the amp.

 

This is one of the sub I have sitting at home. So it is enclosed.
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I also have
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sitting at home as well.. so i would like to make use of them at home.. at least that huge enclosed subs.

 

looks good. what kind of amp did you have in mind? btw, most home amps are set up to control 8 ohm speakers while most car speakers are 4 ohm. that doesn't mean it won't work, but you should keep that in mind when wiring it up. for example, it would be a bad idea to hook up two speakers to one output in parallel, which would mean that the amp would actually be seeing a 2 ohm load and would probably become unstable.

 

you seem to know a lot about audio stuff. I'm a noob on that and may need some help. Although, your explanation on parallel is very similar to the concept of circuit analysis.

Now, I am curious to how much wiring will be involved.

Before everything, I just want to thank you for your time and I greatly appreciate you comments.

 

the reason i mention the wiring is because most home amps are equipped with a single subwoofer output; (mono). on top of that, they usually are happy at 8 ohms. as mentioned above, most car subwoofers are 4ohm b/c the car stereo amps are made for 4 ohm speakers. parallel wiring in car audio is very common, mostly because many car amps are made for this. which is why you may see an amp advertised at "stable up to 1 ohm." the amp is putting out more power at a lower ohm impedence, but it is also putting a greater strain on the amp. and unless it specifically says it can handle those types of loads, it should be avoided.

of course there are ways to get around this. the most common being wiring in series. two 4 ohm speakers wired in series will actually give the amp an 8 ohm load, which is much more common in home stereo amps. these should help give you a visual:








btw, i don't mind helping out. like i said, i used to install systems for a living back in the day. i used to have a subwoofer hooked up to my home speakers. yes, it was kind of ghetto, but it worked!

oh, and i would need to know what kind of amp you have to give you an idea of what kind of wiring is involved.

 

I forgot to find the info on this. I'll probably need a good sound card too. I have an audio bahn amp and another pair of audiobahn subwoofer as well.

 

 

wow i hadn't seen a car amp that style before. pretty cool! however, since its a car amp it will complicate things a bit. the issue now is that car amps are made to run on a car battery (12v dc). perfect if you are driving, you just run a wire from the battery to the amp and ground it. so you are basically left with two choices if you want to use a car amp from home.

1. ghettolicious! get a car battery and hook it up to your amps at home. yeah i know it sounds crazy but you need a 12v dc source. the major problem here is that the battery is eventually going to die, and pretty quickly b/c there is no alternator in your house contantly recharging it. you can recharge it every once in a while with a battery charger, or even hook it up to a battery charger/booster but this will soon become very very old.

2. nerdylicious! the other way of doing this is to create your wall socket ac plug into 12v dc current. these are not that hard to find unless you are trying to push alot of amps/watts (which you are trying to do). so you need a biggun. one that basically you don't see powering amps at your local stereo shop. the problem here is that these bigguns are not cheap. and one to power an amp that size would probably set you back about $200.
something like this:

again, its possible but certainly a tedious process. not sure this is what you bargained for but if you complete it, it certainly makes a good conversation piece.

or, if you could find a home amp...

 

I'd be interested on a home amp. If I can sell my audiobahn set.