... But I'm about to make them rethink that phrase with a question I have. Can you use a car sub woofer as a temporary amp cabinet if you have an amp head? Could you rig up a quarter inch jack and use it for a short while?
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They say there is no such thing as a stupid question
- Thread starter Seth DuSith
- Start date
I am thinking a car subwoofer is going to want a line level input so you would need a preamp of some sorts between your bass and the sub. I am guessing using a car sub as an instrument amplifier would be rough on the car sub and it would blow. Just a guess.
Nope. I mean... yes, depending on the PASSIVE sub, something could be made to work, somewhat, at a very low level, like low bedroom practice volume... but I'll go with just plain nope. Negative. Nuh-uh.
Not a stupid question just a Bad Idea
Probably won't work as well as you might expect. First it probably won't produce mids well or any highs. Second the efficiency is most likely way too low, so you won't be able to get it loud enough outside of a vehicle to be very useful. The exception might be if you have really serious car subs and a really big amp.
This opinion is based on actual experience. I have a 10" Kicker truck box pushed by a 400W amp. It gets plenty loud and produces plenty of lows in my truck. The reason is because of something called cabin gain.
Before I had the little sub installed, I hooked it up to my home stereo and it was pathetic...no volume and it did not sound like it had much lows either. It sorted sounded like two subs hooked up out of phase.
I think the sensitivity is probably in the low 80dB range for 1W...that's even lower than most HiFi speakers.
My guess is the response of my sub is fairly close to the solid black line:
One note wonder with a peak in the mid 60hz range. It sounds a lot better if I use EQ to counteract the peak a bit...it actually sounds pretty good in my truck.
So if you have a fairly large car sub box with a couple of 15s and a big amp, you might get some usable volume, but it's probably still not going to sound very good...unless you plan to play bass in your car.
However, you can certainly try it. Just make sure the sub presents an acceptable load to your amp. (My sub is 2 ohms)
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I used a car sub woofer called The Bazooka because it looked like one. It had a 10in speaker and was 200 watts. You just need a preamp and it kicked ass.
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How loud could you get it without any issues?
Now, if it's better not to do, I probably won't bother, but I have found affordable amp heads, that can pump out 200 watts, and I have an old sub woofer. I considered taking the speakers out and just putting in bass cab speakers, to make my own cab, but I am also a fan of trying to make use of what I already own as much as I can
it won't seem that loud as a sub isn't designed to push mids and highs, which are what cut through. also more speaker area equals more volume, and it's only one speaker, so it won't be as loud as you may want it to be. but we don't know how loud you want it to be or if tone matters in this experiment.
why not try it, then come back and let us know what you think?
btw, most cabs are designed around their speakers, so just throwing a speaker or two in a cab may not get you very close to the sound you want.
why not try it, then come back and let us know what you think?
btw, most cabs are designed around their speakers, so just throwing a speaker or two in a cab may not get you very close to the sound you want.
Yes but it sounds pretty “poopie”
I’ve even run across sub speakers
put into open back combo amps and there is more treble than you expect from the speaker type. Unfortunately, it still sounds broken and muffled despite being technically usable.
It’s more fun to play through an entire installed custom car audio set up though.
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I tried this as an experiment. I made sure the impedance was OK, but the sound was mud. Nothing but "woof woof". And the car speakers are not made with the speaker excursion of a musical speaker, nor will they hold up under use.
Not worth your trouble.
Not worth your trouble.
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How loud. That depends on the driver's sensitivity and how much power is usable.
I think my sub is rated 83.5dB 1W/1m. I think the usable power in the cab is 300W...it can't handle the full 400W of my amp.
Calculated SPL:
[Log(300) x 10] + 83.5 = 108.3dB.
This is hot very loud IMHO.[Log(300) x 10] + 83.5 = 108.3dB.
I have same bass speakers that are rated 97.5dB 1W/1m
Required Power for 108.3dB:
10^{(108.3-97.5)/10} = 12W
10^{(108.3-97.5)/10} = 12W
My small car sub will probably experience significant compression while being fed 300W. The bass cab is rated for 600W RMS, so I doubt it will have much compression. My guess is the bass cab will only need 6W or less to play louder than my car sub at 300W.
Dropping a random driver into a random cab will not ensure the driver and cab work together. Both the sound and power handling can suffer significantly. In order to ensure optimum performance, you need to get the driver's Thiele/Small parameters and model them in some sort of program. This will allow you to adjust box dimensions and port size for best results. If you already have a box, you model driver's T/S parameters in the box to see how it will work.
If you have an amp and car subs (in boxes). Confirm the impedance of the subs is suitable for the amp and try it out. If it shows potential consider modeling to drivers in other boxes to see if you can improve the performance.
Unless you already have the wood, it's most likely going to be cheaper to buy an older used bass cab. Also the old used bass cab will most likely sound way better and get way louder with a modest amount of power than a custom box with car sub drivers. Car subs generally require massive power to get loud.
Don't get me wrong. With enough car subs and enough power, you can make some serious lows. I wouldn't expect car subs alone to sound great in the mids and highs though. For good tone, you would need to build a 2-way design with a mid driver, or a 3-way design with a mid driver and a tweeter. It would probably get expensive rather quickly.
"They say there is no such thing as a stupid question"
I'll be the judge of that, though I'll probably keep that part to myself.
I'll be the judge of that, though I'll probably keep that part to myself.
I've asked lots of stupid questions. If you missed them Watch This Space for New Stupid Questions coming soon.
And believe me, there's lots of stooopid answers.
RE: Car subs. Every time I hear one of those hoopties roll down the street and the whole car is just buzzing sympathetically and rattling, I think to myself 'If my bass playing sounded like that, I hope SOMEBODY would shoot me'. I often think about taking a pot shot at the hooptie . . . I daydream about some handheld directed energy weapon that would kill all the electrics in the car . . . .
And believe me, there's lots of stooopid answers.
RE: Car subs. Every time I hear one of those hoopties roll down the street and the whole car is just buzzing sympathetically and rattling, I think to myself 'If my bass playing sounded like that, I hope SOMEBODY would shoot me'. I often think about taking a pot shot at the hooptie . . . I daydream about some handheld directed energy weapon that would kill all the electrics in the car . . . .
I looked at some sub drivers on Parts Express. Quite a few were rated 2 Ohms. You'd have to check. Unless you've got an amp that will handle that . . .
Aren't most of those on a 100Hz crossover? There are high excursion ones.
Aren't most of those on a 100Hz crossover? There are high excursion ones.
