Car amp for home

[darkblack]

Hi,
I did a quick search for this here and found nothing relevant. So i am starting this thread.

Has anybody used a car amp as a home amplifier? A quick research on the internet has mixed results. Some say its not possible, some say you can do it with a computer SMPS, but i couldn't land on anything concrete.

I have an old Sony XM222 lying unused for over a year now. Would be great if i can use it. It has high level inputs too!

Looking forward for your views

Thanks

 

[mahisiva]

I have tried it with Dapic-KX999. I liked it very very much. The quality is fantastic But they sound good only when you connect 4 speakers and position them properly around the room. In my opinion, if you have a clear room and place the 4 speakers appropriately then nothing can beat it in the sound quality.

Siva

 

[darkblack]

hi,
how did you power the amp? could you please explain?

Thanks
timothy

 

[mahisiva]

Hi,

You can get a 12V 5A DC supply available in Ritchie Street which is specially made for Car audio to use in home setup and costs Rs.150

Siva

 

[darkblack]

Hi,
I will try that. There are lots of guides on youtube that I checked out today, demonstrating how to use a PC SMPS to accomplish it. Will try these over the weeks and let you know the results. I am trying to bridge my xm222 to power a sub

Thanks

 

[SANJAY KUMAR]

Hi, I am using such a setup in my house for last 2 months. Iam using 2 JBL 10 inchers as builtin subwoofers in my DIY floorstanders. Amplifier is a 4 channel Silicon ampli and I have bridged 2 channels per speaker . Power is through computer SMPS (2 Nos. wired in parallel). Sound is really good. You too can try it.
Bye . Sanjay.

 

[studiomaster]

Hi,
Could you please post some pics too...

thanks,
studiomaster

 

[darkblack]

Power is through computer SMPS (2 Nos. wired in parallel).

Can you please tell me the wiring on how exactly you do that.

The rating of the car amp is maximum of 14 Amps. The computer SMPS does not have such a high amperage.

Last Saturday, enquired from a shop in Ritchie street, The one on the main ritchie street which has been there for a while, which has an led board which ways "220V to 110V converter available". The guy quotes around Rs.3000 for a 220v to 12v transformer with 14 amps rating, which I felt was expensive

 

[darkblack]

The shop I mentioned in my previous comment is "Shahs Electronics" I am sure most of you would know it. Went in there on Saturday and purchased a 220v -> 12V, 12A SMPS for Rs.1800 . I haven't connected the amp to it and tried. Will try to do it in the next couple of days.

Has anybody tried using a car subwoofer at home. All home sub woofers that I see seem to be fully enclosed , side or down firing. When I mean car sub woofers, they are the ones where the driver is fully exposed, either ported (one port), sometimes fully sealed, the typical ones that you will find in a car boot. Any idea on how these perform in a home environment acoustically?

 

[SANJAY KUMAR]

Hi,
Regarding powering the car amplifier I use UMAX 450W SMPS. It has around 15 amps on the 12 volt line
(12*15 = 180 watts) Join 2 of them in paralle and you have 180*2=360 watts of power at 12 volts. Even if the efficiency of the SMPS is 75% we have 250 watts rms, straight. I dont think we would be using that much in the house. I have recently got myself NAD C 326BEE and i have coupled it with my own DIY 3-way towers (2*4 ohms tweeters in series, 1* 8ohms- 6" mid & 2*4 ohms 8"- woofers in series). My setup impedance is 8 ohms. I have also integrated one 10" JBL subwoofer to each floor stander. They now weigh almost 30-35 kgs each, but what sound !! The subs are driven seperately through 100*4 channel SILICON car amplifier in bridged mode with line inputs from sub-1 &2 of NAD C326 BEE. The amplifier is trigerred by 12 volt trigger-out from my NAD. Nad is beautiful and is a blesssssing for my system. Itook almost 3 months to hand assemble the entire stuff but its is worth it.
Do try the SMPS stuff. You would love it.
Bye for now
SANJAY