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car amplifiers for bass?

#22
everyone keeps talking about a car battery, what for, probably any ole 120->12v converter will do the job. I would bet that some of the innards of some of today's mobile audio amps aren't that far away from the tiny 'duffel bag' digital amps...

that said, yes you would need to use a 'bass cab' and a 'bass preamp' (as seen on TB) but it would be very interesting to see, and would probably be a surprise to some.
 
#23
hrgiger said:
everyone keeps talking about a car battery, what for, probably any ole 120->12v converter will do the job. I would bet that some of the innards of some of today's mobile audio amps aren't that far away from the tiny 'duffel bag' digital amps...

that said, yes you would need to use a 'bass cab' and a 'bass preamp' (as seen on TB) but it would be very interesting to see, and would probably be a surprise to some.
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I think you would need an expensive 120 -> 12V converter. It is very easy to design for DC since you don't need to worry much about filtering. Most of the converters I have seen basically put out slightly filtered AC.

But I could be wrong and am interested to see how this works out.
 
#24
Hi.

OOZMAN said:
So, so wrong, my friend.

To all who say it is not drastically cheaper, you have obviously never tried it. :rollno:
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No offense, but do You really think no-one has tried it before? Or that You were the first one to build a "car-amp" rig?

To my limited knowledge, You are the first to describe ~20W SS through a budget PA cab loud though :).

seanm said:
I think you would need an expensive 120 -> 12V converter. It is very easy to design for DC since you don't need to worry much about filtering. Most of the converters I have seen basically put out slightly filtered AC.

But I could be wrong and am interested to see how this works out.
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You're not. When the power supplies current delivering capability exceeds ~10A (~50W to the speaker on a good day) or so, the problems (price-wise) skyrocket. On a budget scale anyway ;).

There's a very good reason why even the cheapest of amps ( and amp kits) use rail voltages far greater than 12V, and also why the dual secondary is the norm. Both something that are pretty hard to take advantage of with car amplification.

This is in no way to discourage anyone from trying, but try do a bit of a feasibility study beforehand to avoid un-necessary costly mistakes.

Regards
Sam
 
#25
This has been done before actually quite a bit just do a google search for "car amplifier psu" and you will get hundreds of results.

IMO it's just too much fuss for the result you are getting. First off you need some sort of preamplifier. You would need to make or buy a cable to hook it up to the RCA input. Then you would have to hard wire the amplifiers remote turn on to a 12 v source. Then you need to find a suitable power supply to provide enough current to drive the amplifier. Most decent amplifiers need a stiff supply of current to drive them efficiently. This is why most people who install subs in their car end up having to upgrade their alternator and add batteries and caps and what not. You could find a computer PSU but you would have to make sure it is within spec to the amplifiers needs. Then you need to use what ever output wire scheme to get power to you speakers.

If you add to this that a great number of car amplifiers are extremely over rated and are usually rated at 2 or even 1 ohm for maximum power, its really not worth the trouble.

We are currently living in the ebay and craigslist age it would not be hard at all to find a decent bass head, power amplifier, or even a old powered PA mixer(pop up all of the time) for not much money and none of the hassle.

Not saying this can't be done but to me, it's just not worth the hassle.
 
#29
3506string said:
You could find a computer PSU but you would have to make sure it is within spec to the amplifiers needs.
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A computer PSU could be a problem. Almost all of them have minimum load requirements on the different supplies to keep the PSU regulating properly. If you only want to use the 12V line, you will have to put loads on the other lines.

The cheapest solution might be to get a cheap simple battery charger (not a trickle or intelligent charger) and use a good DC to DC regulator.
 
#31
you would need a large power supply, something to handle the draw of current from a powerful car amp. My 1000 watt Phoenix Gold car amps require 80amp fuses each. THis tells me a power supply rated at 90 amps or higher should get the job done. This would cost several hundred dollars even for a good used one.
 
#32
SlappinHertz said:
you would need a large power supply, something to handle the draw of current from a powerful car amp. My 1000 watt Phoenix Gold car amps require 80amp fuses each. THis tells me a power supply rated at 90 amps or higher should get the job done. This would cost several hundred dollars even for a good used one.
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And that's why when the electric grid was created 100 odd years ago it was done at 110 volts, not 12. 220v is even better, but we did it first, and the rest of the world learned from our mistake.
The amp manufacturer's aren't stupid, and if everyone from Ampeg to QSC could use an autosound style of power amp with a wall wart supply and boost their profit margins by doing so it would happen overnight.
 

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