Using a Car Amp?

Bass-desires · #1 11-22-2010, 08:57 PM

(Searched the forums and couldn't find this topic anywhere.)

A silly question popped into my head a little while ago: Is it possible to wire up a car amp to a cabinet and it work?

I mean you would have to EQ the signal either before or after, make a power supply and switch, work with speaker impedance but what do you think. Is it possible/workable?

Am I crazy for thinking it might work?

JimmyM · #2 11-22-2010, 09:21 PM

it's a power amp. it would work, but you're liable to get pulled over for playing bass while driving. and you'd probably still need a preamp.

audiomitch · #3 11-22-2010, 09:33 PM

I bet the tone would leave a lot to be desired. I've tried using some low end car speaker subs, "kickers" or whatever, and they pretty much sucked as far as tone. I would imagine the amps would have similar issues. They're designed for a different application. The high end stuff may be different, but it's as expensive as our bass stuff.

OTOH, I don't know that for sure and it might be fun to try

Bass-desires · #4 11-22-2010, 09:33 PM

Haha! I can imagine driving down the road with the headstock sticking out of the window. Laying down a bass line while sitting at the stop light.

That would be something to see/hear/do before I die.

I was thinking of giving it a shot and seeing what happens. The wiring and power supply are not a big issue, but you are right I would need a pre to act as the 'stereo' before the amp. Hmmmm

And I · #5 11-22-2010, 10:46 PM

a car stereo amp would certainly sound better than car sub speakers. auto sub speakers are designed for a very limited frequency range (usually under 200 hz). amplifiers are full-range. but yeah, you'll need a pre of some sort. i suggest you get a nice kenwood deck with an 1/8" aux input and run your bass directly into that! cuz really... if you're going to do it, you might as well do it all the way.

most car stereo amps have a switch to bridge to mono and can operate at 2 ohms, so you should be able to get a whole bunch of power for not a whole lot of price. Who knows, it could sound great. never know till you try...

Passinwind · #6 11-22-2010, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bass-desires

(Searched the forums and couldn't find this topic anywhere.)

A silly question popped into my head a little while ago: Is it possible to wire up a car amp to a cabinet and it work?

I mean you would have to EQ the signal either before or after, make a power supply and switch, work with speaker impedance but what do you think. Is it possible/workable?

Am I crazy for thinking it might work?

It works fine if you don't expect gigging volume. A friend of mine has a wireless transmitter that plugs into his bass and plays through the FM radio in his car. It was fairly cheap too, I think.

audiomitch · #7 11-22-2010, 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by And I

a car stereo amp would certainly sound better than car sub speakers. auto sub speakers are designed for a very limited frequency range (usually under 200 hz).

The subs I tried (can't remember which ones now) supposedly would go up to 4.5k. This was their "published" spec, which was probably worthless. The lower end amps are probably just as "accurate".

But who knows until you try it?

greenboy · #8 11-22-2010, 11:19 PM

Should be a great system for [not] listening the the SOUNDS OF SILENCE (Dr Bass Remix) mp3 too...

T-Bird · #9 11-22-2010, 11:23 PM

Hi.

What You ask is perfectly doable, I guess every DIYer (me included obviously

) who's ever had a spare car amp has tried it. With a car battery that is.

Usually the problems or difficulties start when one starts to hunt a suitable PSU. 12V (14.2V) high amperage regulated power supplies ain't cheap, or easy to obtain for that matter if the cost is what You're concerned with.

Regards
Sam

Bass-desires · #10 11-23-2010, 07:40 AM

Its funny you should mention the power supply just now because I was just thinking the same thing. Although there are pawn shops around here that sell battery chargers for pretty cheap. I'm going to do it, but it will have to wait until after Thanksgiving. I'll order some parts and let you guys know what hashes.

BassmanPaul · #11 11-23-2010, 09:36 AM

Just a point - a battery charger is NOT a regulated power supply. It IS a trickle charger for a car battery with very little smoothing. you'll get a lot of hum and insufficient current capability.

T-Bird · #12 11-23-2010, 10:14 AM

Hi.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BassmanPaul

Just a point - a battery charger is NOT a regulated power supply. It IS a trickle charger for a car battery with very little smoothing. you'll get a lot of hum and insufficient current capability.

^What Paul said.

With a regular 6A charger, You'll only get roughly 30W out of the speaker outputs anyway, so that's not an option even if it's a continuous model, not a trickle one.

Regards
Sam

audiomitch · #13 11-23-2010, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BassmanPaul

Just a point - a battery charger is NOT a regulated power supply. It IS a trickle charger for a car battery with very little smoothing. you'll get a lot of hum and insufficient current capability.

Try a Camper/RV supply place. They should have a AC powered 12v DC power supply that would work. It will probably cost as much as a new bass head though.

Wes Whitmore · #14 11-23-2010, 12:27 PM

I have a 20A version of something like this in the garage somewhere...

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=120-538

You can cut the end off of a 1/4" speaker cable and screw it down to the terminal screw connections of the amp. You will still probably want to use something like a battery powered VT bass pedal for preamp and eq duties. 1/4" to RCA cable and you will be set.

Bass-desires · #15 11-23-2010, 10:58 PM

Ahh yes, you are right I should have known better about the chargers. Some of the places around here have quite a bit of industrial type equipment I'll have a look around. I don't want to sink lots of money if its just an experiment.

I might have time to run down to a local shop here tomorrow, see what I can find.

I have an MXR M-80 I was planning to use for pre and eq duties. I have an old Digitech BP-50, but I prefer the M 80.

GCool · #16 11-24-2010, 05:07 AM

Why would you want to use a 12v amp? But yes it will work if you had every thing correct. If would not be hard to put a good power supply on an 12v amp and make it work. With most newer car audio amps these days they want to play 2 Ohm to get full power. Now just for giggles I have plugged my bass in to my car before, being a 5x world champ in car audio SPL and a bass player I had to try it by taking a 1/4 in in to rca and using the pre in the bass, it did work but sounded like poop.

washburn_it · #17 11-24-2010, 06:53 AM

You could use a computer PSU, with a simple contact between two inputs of the main connector (the one that is connected to the motherboard) you can turn it up and use the +12 V output that can supply up to 30 Ampere (that's about 360 Watt in total).
The negative side of it is that PSU that can supply such a high current are not properly the cheapest (Thermaltake Toughpower W0131RU 850 Watt for example) !

Regards,

Roberto

rmkesler · #18 11-24-2010, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by washburn_it

You could use a computer PSU, with a simple contact between two inputs of the main connector (the one that is connected to the motherboard) you can turn it up and use the +12 V output that can supply up to 30 Ampere (that's about 360 Watt in total).
The negative side of it is that PSU that can supply such a high current are not properly the cheapest (Thermaltake Toughpower W0131RU 850 Watt for example) !

Regards,

Roberto

Maybe if you had the old style AT power supply with the hard switch. Not sure how you would get a modern power supply that uses soft power from the system board to start up.

This thread reminds me of something my brother did once. He used to work in car audio. The big BOOM systems and the guy he worked for played bass. A Steinberger as I recall. Anywho, they made him a speaker cabinet for his bosses car with 8 X 6.5" speakers that he could take out and use for his bass rig. Said it had a pretty tight sound and could get surprisingly deep.

washburn_it · #19 11-24-2010, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmkesler

Maybe if you had the old style AT power supply with the hard switch. Not sure how you would get a modern power supply that uses soft power from the system board to start up.

Here is explained how to do it with an ATX power supply.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/other/22

Regards,

Roberto

rmkesler · #20 11-24-2010, 07:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by washburn_it

Here is explained how to do it with an ATX power supply.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/other/22

Regards,

Roberto

Very cool. Thanks for the info!