Author Topic: Home Sound System Using Car Stereo Components  (Read 2675 times)

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Offline bruda

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Home Sound System Using Car Stereo Components
« on: Feb 19, 2005, 12:24PM »
Hey all,

I've decided that I want to create my own sound system at home using car stereo parts, like a head unit, subs, amps and speakers, etc.
I was wondering if anyone has tried this before, what success they have, and what would be the best way to go about it. I was thinking of having it set up like they do in Auto Barn, with one big box, and having the head unit in the middle, two subs down the bottom with amps on the inside, speakers up the top and a couple of car batteries running it. My main concern is what to hook the ground cable up to for the amps, and what to do when the car batteries run out of juice.

Ta

Dan
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Offline weasel

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Re: Home Sound System Using Car Stereo Components
« Reply #1 on: Feb 19, 2005, 12:35PM »
you will need a power converter, something that will push a fair few amps and run at around 13-14volts

don't use car batteries as it'll be a waste of time

basically the power converter will act like your alternator in your car and will in turn need to be as powerful or even more powerful than it

head to jaycar and have a chat to them about it
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Offline VladIvanovic

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Re: Home Sound System Using Car Stereo Components
« Reply #2 on: Feb 19, 2005, 12:45PM »
Well i havent tried using car stereo speakers for a home entertainment system, but ive got my stereos speakers hooked up in my car along with my 6x9s and works awesome :P

I cna even pull the speakers out, have the 6x9s crankin inside the car, n then these speakers sit ontop of my roof when im parked n crank out more music :P but anyway thats slightly offtopic but i felt like sharing anyway hehe

Offline bungs

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Re: Home Sound System Using Car Stereo Components
« Reply #3 on: Feb 19, 2005, 12:56PM »
You gotta watch out how you wire car speakers on a home stereo, because car speakers are 4 ohm whereas home stereo is 6/8 ohm. If you want to power a deck, cheapest way is to get an AT computer powersupply (AT is the old school ones with a switch, new ATX ones don't have a switch) and use that.

I cna even pull the speakers out, have the 6x9s crankin inside the car, n then these speakers sit ontop of my roof when im parked n crank out more music

lololol. Quality of the sound must be amazing in your setup :P

Offline BEEFY_1600

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Re: Home Sound System Using Car Stereo Components
« Reply #4 on: Feb 19, 2005, 03:04PM »
Its not really worth doing as the power supply you will need to run this sort of system will be worth $800+.

Offline weasel

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Re: Home Sound System Using Car Stereo Components
« Reply #5 on: Feb 19, 2005, 05:46PM »
You gotta watch out how you wire car speakers on a home stereo, because car speakers are 4 ohm whereas home stereo is 6/8 ohm. If you want to power a deck, cheapest way is to get an AT computer powersupply (AT is the old school ones with a switch, new ATX ones don't have a switch) and use that.

you won't need to worry about how to wire speakers cause it'll all be run off the H/U which is already low ohmage

if they were car speakers being run off of a home theatre amp then that'd be where you need to worry about the ohmage of the speakers

also a computer power supply won't have enough amps to run the system, it may run the H/U but that'd be about it
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Offline weasel

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Re: Home Sound System Using Car Stereo Components
« Reply #6 on: Feb 19, 2005, 05:48PM »
p.s. as beefy said the power supply you will need is gonna be worth a fair bit of cash
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Offline Barnett

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Re: Home Sound System Using Car Stereo Components
« Reply #7 on: Feb 20, 2005, 08:25PM »
go get your self a decent home stereo........sound better than anything else.....if you really want.....my bros mate has a sony home amplifier that you can run car stereo speakers off (4ohm) maybe look into that.....otherwise you would have to spend lots of money on a power supply....and would you really want a car head unit in your room believe me i would rather it in my my car :P

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Offline FalconGuy

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Re: Home Sound System Using Car Stereo Components
« Reply #8 on: Feb 20, 2005, 10:09PM »
<sigh>

It is MUCH easier and it would sound INFINATELY better if you used real home stereo gear.

For Example:

Source:
Cheaper 'Quality' Car Head Unit - Such as Pioneer $350 vs Denon Low Range CD Player ~$350

Low range Denon etc would still sound about one trillion times better than even most uber Car Headunit's. It has the advantage of pure audio orientated DACs and circuitry (ie not also a receiver) as well as much larger and constant power supply. Also, the actual chips themselves would be of higher quality and the player would have far better EM sheilding.


Amplifier
Decent Car Amp ~$500 vs Decent Home Power Amp ie Behringher EP1500 ~$650

You said you were looking at running a couple of subs AND a couple of full range speakers, so you'll need a decent amp of around 200WRMS a channel (or a 4 channel@~100). The Behringher EP1500 (what I use) is 450WRMS a channel@4ohm and can go down to 2 ohm. That is enough to run 4 x 12"s and dual Piezo Horns at around 120Db free air.  As a side note, the 'Old Days' when you couldnt run car speakers off home amps, but those days are gone. Once again, the home amp will sound better as it will have far less distortion (at even higher levels) and also they have a very beefy power supply (which again is inportant for sound quality)


Speakers
Quality Car Speakers (2xFull range and 2xSub) ~$800 vs Good Quality Home Speakers ~?

Now this is a hard one. Decent quality speaker's for either type of system can cost ALOT of money. For example a pair of good Pioneer's retail at around $500 and as for subs, I have no real idea on something like Alpine Type R's (most people REALLY like them) but $200 each wouldn't be out of the question for decent ones! So that's around $900 or so. On the other hand, assembled speakers for home start at around $500 as well with subs costing lots...and lots... starting around $500 again (powered however)

The other option is to build your own, I built mine for around $650 but I was lucky with the drivers. You could go with something using  good 12"s and a good piezo and you probably would NEED a subwoofer if you designed the boxes properly, it depends to what you listen too, I'd like a sub for when I get the feeling to listen to some Goa but generally, mine are more than enough. There is always the option of using car drivers, like 6x9's in a proper box and I'd say they'd sound pretty good, at least better than unboxed in a car...



They are just my thoughts on the matter. It depends on how much you want to spend, how often you'll listen to it and what kind of music you like as to how much you want to spend.




However I can catergorically state, IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO MP3'S, GO TO CRAZY PRICES AND BUY THEIR SHITTIEST ALL-IN-ONE DVD PLAYER YOU CAN FIND save your money and spend it on something useful...like Red (or Green) frogs.... <shudders at thought of MP3's....>
« Last Edit: Feb 20, 2005, 10:10PM by FalconGuy »

Offline FalconGuy

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Re: Home Sound System Using Car Stereo Components
« Reply #9 on: Feb 21, 2005, 12:10AM »
Maybe I was a bit out with the Source unit. You can get a very good NAD player for around $350 a Marantz are about the same (lower order ones, of course)