Can I use my old Creative 2.1 in my car?

[Santy]

Hi guys

This was my first a/v purchase some 5-6 years before when I just started to earn: Creative 2.1 SBS 370

Currently I have a very basic setup in my sparky, with only front speakers and Pioneer DEH 2950
I have no immediate plans for any upgrade as all my budget is likely to go to my living room.

Since this 2.1 was lying at my home unused for years, I thought if possible I can use it for my car.

The DC supply, impedance and other specifications of creative is not known- it is on transit, only after I receive it, I could tell.
The woofer is true 11 W and speakers are 5W each. SNR = 75dB.

The player/ amp has
Supply: 14.4 V
50W x 4 max, 22W x 4 continous
Load impedance: 4 ohms
Max. current consumption : 10 A
Preout max output level: 2.2 V at 1 ohm
SNR: 92 dB

Now the questions
-Can I connect use preout of HU as input for the speakers
-If yes, will the volume control on HU have any effect on it?
-Can I keep the sub on the floor of the trunk or I should fix it under the rear tray.
-How to go about the power supply- any car ICE shop can fix it?

Thanks for reading.

 

[vivek.saikia]

Hi guys

This was my first a/v purchase some 5-6 years before when I just started to earn: Creative 2.1 SBS 370

Currently I have a very basic setup in my sparky, with only front speakers and Pioneer DEH 2950
I have no immediate plans for any upgrade as all my budget is likely to go to my living room.

Since this 2.1 was lying at my home unused for years, I thought if possible I can use it for my car.

The DC supply, impedance and other specifications of creative is not known- it is on transit, only after I receive it, I could tell.
The woofer is true 11 W and speakers are 5W each. SNR = 75dB.

The player/ amp has
Supply: 14.4 V
50W x 4 max, 22W x 4 continous
Load impedance: 4 ohms
Max. current consumption : 10 A
Preout max output level: 2.2 V at 1 ohm
SNR: 92 dB

Now the questions
-Can I connect use preout of HU as input for the speakers
-If yes, will the volume control on HU have any effect on it?
-Can I keep the sub on the floor of the trunk or I should fix it under the rear tray.
-How to go about the power supply- any car ICE shop can fix it?

Thanks for reading.

Yes ofcourse you can. Infact, I used my Altec Lansic ATP3 in my car on a temporary basis for quite a long time. But don't expect very good sound output from the speakers when used in the car. The details of the music will be lost in the noise and as a result you will have to notch up the volume resulting in further distortion. But as a make shift arrangement it works well.
Regarding the querries:

-Can I connect use preout of HU as input for the speakers
Yes, you can. Use a RCA cable. Use the front LR line level output of the HU to feed the creative speakers.
-If yes, will the volume control on HU have any effect on it?
Yes, the volume control of the HU will also control the volume of the creatives.
-Can I keep the sub on the floor of the trunk or I should fix it under the rear tray.
Assuming it is a temporary arrangement, keep the sub on the trunk floor.
-How to go about the power supply- any car ICE shop can fix it?
There are some car inverters available which can be attached to the cigarratte lighter point in your car. You can even check out the MX cables site or check out with your local car accessories shop. They will be selling cheaper chinese products.

Cheers!
Vivek

 

[tejasnaidu]

Hi guys

This was my first a/v purchase some 5-6 years before when I just started to earn: Creative 2.1 SBS 370

Currently I have a very basic setup in my sparky, with only front speakers and Pioneer DEH 2950
I have no immediate plans for any upgrade as all my budget is likely to go to my living room.

Since this 2.1 was lying at my home unused for years, I thought if possible I can use it for my car.

The DC supply, impedance and other specifications of creative is not known- it is on transit, only after I receive it, I could tell.
The woofer is true 11 W and speakers are 5W each. SNR = 75dB.

The player/ amp has
Supply: 14.4 V
50W x 4 max, 22W x 4 continous
Load impedance: 4 ohms
Max. current consumption : 10 A
Preout max output level: 2.2 V at 1 ohm
SNR: 92 dB

Now the questions
-Can I connect use preout of HU as input for the speakers
-If yes, will the volume control on HU have any effect on it?
-Can I keep the sub on the floor of the trunk or I should fix it under the rear tray.
-How to go about the power supply- any car ICE shop can fix it?

Thanks for reading.

You can use the creative sub for car use. It works on 12V DC so the Power supply is no issue can be taken from car batt properly fused, but check polarity before connecting.

The sub preout can be used as the input to the sub amp. Continue using the main boot speaker and creative as the sub. Internally disconnect the creative satellite connections.

 

[Santy]

Thanks guys. Yes supply is 12v so it should not be a problem. With great difficulty I could open the dash and reach the rear panel of the HU which has one RCA output.

Now the tasks is to to get the supply from battery and run the power and line cables all the way to the boot. Challenge is to conceal all the wires and to do that myself.

Also, instead of taking connection directly from battery, I am thinking of opening the trims below the cigarette lighter and shunt the wires for the supply. Let me check it out this weekend.

 

[vivek.saikia]

Thanks guys. Yes supply is 12v so it should not be a problem. With great difficulty I could open the dash and reach the rear panel of the HU which has one RCA output.

Now the tasks is to to get the supply from battery and run the power and line cables all the way to the boot. Challenge is to conceal all the wires and to do that myself.

Also, instead of taking connection directly from battery, I am thinking of opening the trims below the cigarette lighter and shunt the wires for the supply. Let me check it out this weekend.

If you want to spend a bit more, get yourself a mini inverter which fits itself to the cigarratte lighter point nicely. Should set you back by about 1500 bucks. This way the installation will be much "cleaner" and you can do away with opening your speakers.

 

[Santy]

but why i have to convert dc to ac when my 2.1 is already running on dc same voltage as car's electricals.

 

[vivek.saikia]

but why i have to convert dc to ac when my 2.1 is already running on dc same voltage as car's electricals.

Just to avoid opening up your speakers.....

 

[Santy]

vivek.. What you say is right... I thought the power adaptor of 2.1 converts into 12v DC but it is simply a step down.. Output is 12v AC... I am certainly not going for inverters, i would rather go for new car sub.

Now just want to know if i can connect the speaker out of the HU (22w) to the sub driver (11w) directly so i get rid of supply issue and also by pass the 2.1's circuitry. Do not mind if sub plays all frequencies...

 

[tejasnaidu]

vivek.. What you say is right... I thought the power adaptor of 2.1 converts into 12v DC but it is simply a step down.. Output is 12v AC... I am certainly not going for inverters, i would rather go for new car sub.

Now just want to know if i can connect the speaker out of the HU (22w) to the sub driver (11w) directly so i get rid of supply issue and also by pass the 2.1's circuitry. Do not mind if sub plays all frequencies...

Santy i do not know how comfortable you are with little circuit mod and soldering.

Yes the adapter converts 230V AC to 12V AC. This 12V AC power is applied at the power jack of sub where a rectifier circuit on the PCB (4 diodes and a cap) converts it to DC.

For direct DC connection from battery you have to apply wire jumpers on the PCB, so that the rectifier circuit is bypassed. It is simple job of soldering wires taking care of polarity.

I have done the same for my creative sub. Also little mod is also required on the satellites. Open the satellites and desolder the speaker connections so that only the sub is playing and the satellites are off.

In this config your main rear car speakers are working as main full range drivers with the sub providing the low end. The creative satellites are disabled.

You cannot connect full range output to the sub driver. It is designed to work upto 400Hz and driver capacity is 10 watt RMS depending upon the model. At medium to high volumes the sub driver will distort heavily.

 

[Santy]

Thanks bro..

I understand it is not ideal to connect the speaker output directly to sub. Still, I wanted to try and opened the dash once again last week and I was upset to see so many connections without any labels on the output terminal of HU.

Could not find out which is speaker cable.. so gave up that idea.

Last option is to connect supply to the PCB directly towards the DC end of the rectifier. Problem is the PCB is so cramped and too much of wax has been spilled on it. Let me give a try.