[Stap Boy]

Well Folks... wifs a baby coming I no longer have the trunk-space for my Clunky-Sub... damned thing slows me down anyways

I'd sell it for the right price (Audiobahn 8012T + 12" Kicker Solo-Baric L5 in Kicker Ported Box) but, I figure I'll just hook it up to my nice lil Harmon Kardon Amp..

The question is...

To power the amp I just need a 12V power supply... but....
what kinda 12V power supply should I be looking for? How much do they tend to cost? And...

Is there something more complicated to this situation that I am not seeing..?

[S2]

A friend of mine did the same sort of thing, he actually ran his car sub with the house amp, if your running off your car amp in the house, he did that also one time, he just used a battery charger (those ones at Crappy Tire you plug into the wall) and used that. Probably not the best idea, possible fire hazard in the house and all that, but it worked. That would be one way to go I guess..?? I wouldn't recommend it though.

[paolo]

Stap boy, depending on your amp, some receivers will power a 4 ohm load easily. If this isnt the case, and you want to get rid of the sub/box combo, I'll gladly consider buying it off you.

[Raine]

I've posted this topic before with no definitive answer. I have two 10's in a in a dual bandpass box just collecting dust in my garage that I wanted to stick onto my Sony system, which only has an RCA output for a sub (therefore it must be self-powered) and I've been wondering how to run it. I'm assuming any power converter would work, to convert 120 - 12v, and then power the amp. Question is how would you ground it, and how would you turn it on save unplugging it and plugging it in again every time you wanna use it.

[S2]

Raine, that is why my buddy used a battery charger, you can use the ground on the charger (black) and the power (red). Like I said though, I wouldn't recommend this but it does work.

[Stap Boy]

I saw in a few places during research that a CPU Power Supply would work... its 12V with plenty of Amperage

I should just buy a real sub for the house but.. <shrug> I if I have one sitting around in my caR? (a very powerful one, I should say)

Maybe I'll grab an old power supply and see how it works... my only question remaining is this...

what about the Control wire?? How is my Sub supposed to know when to turn on.?

[S2]

Control wire? You mean the REMOTE wire for your amp right? The sub input would go through the amp first so depending on how you set it up, you might have to turn on the power to the amp and shut it off when your done but who knows, maybe there is a way. I am pretty sure my buddy doesn't use his REMOTE wire, just uses a positive/negative lead from the amp and turns on his power supply when he turns on the TV, DVD, ETC.....

[Raine]

Stap Boy,Jun 23 2004, 11:09 AM Wrote:I saw in a few places during research that a CPU Power Supply would work... its 12V with plenty of Amperage

Maybe I'll grab an old power supply and see how it works... my only question remaining is this...

Lemme know how this turns out.

[darkpuppet]

how much current does the amp draw?

Depending on your CPU powersupply, you get different wattage handling capabilities between the channels.

if the amp is greater 100watts, you'll have to pony up for an expensive power supply to get reliable, not-burning-the-house-down power. You can get 120v - 12v converters (as opposed to inverters) for $30-$50, but most of those are 5-10 Amp models meant to power electric coolers, and other lightweight power options.

If you want something that'll handle > 10amp you're into the hundreds of dollars for a power converter.

Also, using a car battery charger is such a bad idea, I cannot say it enough. The thing is that battery chargers aren't meant to deliver a high current load.. you can run the amp off a car battery, but to be safe, the battery charger should not be hooked up at the same time.

It's funny, because despite the logic behind it, people still run their amps off of battery chargers or low-power converters without blowing themselves up, and I think it's because the amps they're running aren't very high power.

Just be careful and make sure that your power supply matches the amp you're hooking up.

And the fuse you put inline between the power source and the amp should be a fuse rated at what the powersupply is rated for. it will do you no good to have a monster amp fuse in, if the converter can't handle it.

[S2]

Yeah Puppet, that is why I said "I DON'T RECOMMENT IT, BUT IT DOES WORK"

[paolo]

I have had first hand experience of why you should not hook up a car audio amplifier to a DC Power supply. My friend borrowed my amp a few yrs ago, but he never told me he was gonna try and run it off a DC power supply, Guess what happened? he blew the amp, it started smoking because the power supply couldnt supply enough current or something like that, and It was not worth it to fix it.