Converting Car subs to Home speakers

[Raf]

If anyone can help me out it would be great.
I have no techinical know how of speakers but I want to use a box
containing two 13 inch 300 watt kenwood car subs in my home.

Can i just attach them to my shelf system? They seem to have the same
red and black wiring.
If anyone knows of any site that can give me step by step instructions
in plain english or can help me out it would be great

thanks

raf

[Engineer]

Raf wrote:
>
> If anyone can help me out it would be great.
> I have no techinical know how of speakers but I want to use a box
> containing two 13 inch 300 watt kenwood car subs in my home.
>
> Can i just attach them to my shelf system? They seem to have the same
> red and black wiring.

No, see below.

> If anyone knows of any site that can give me step by step instructions
> in plain english or can help me out it would be great
>
> thanks
>
> raf

Leaving aside how good they are, you'll need a power
amplifier (I presume they are not powered subs.) The easiest
way might be to use a surplus a stereo receiver (minimum 20
+ 20 watts), one channel to each speaker, and drive it mono
by means of a Y splitter from the main amp analog sub
output.

If you don't have a sub output then you're going to have to
derive a mono, below 100 Hz (or so) sub signal from the main
amp's L + R outputs (REC output should do it.) This is a
bit more complicated but you can do it with auto sound line
level subwoofer filters - not too expensive. Actually, this
is similar to how I drive my pair of passive subs but I
start with a proper sub output (not L + R).

You'll also have to play with speaker location, phasing and
levels.

There are more details but I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Roger
--
Roger Jones, P.Eng.
Thornhill, Ontario,
Canada.

"Friends don't let friends vote Liberal"

[PAGreenP]

The real issue is that the speakers are the wrong impedance. They are 4 Ohm
and your home audio setup is always 8 Ohm. If you take those speakers up to
8 Ohm's they dont sound very good at all.


"Engineer" > wrote in message
...
> Raf wrote:
> >
> > If anyone can help me out it would be great.
> > I have no techinical know how of speakers but I want to use a box
> > containing two 13 inch 300 watt kenwood car subs in my home.
> >
> > Can i just attach them to my shelf system? They seem to have the same
> > red and black wiring.
>
> No, see below.
>
> > If anyone knows of any site that can give me step by step instructions
> > in plain english or can help me out it would be great
> >
> > thanks
> >
> > raf
>
> Leaving aside how good they are, you'll need a power
> amplifier (I presume they are not powered subs.) The easiest
> way might be to use a surplus a stereo receiver (minimum 20
> + 20 watts), one channel to each speaker, and drive it mono
> by means of a Y splitter from the main amp analog sub
> output.
>
> If you don't have a sub output then you're going to have to
> derive a mono, below 100 Hz (or so) sub signal from the main
> amp's L + R outputs (REC output should do it.) This is a
> bit more complicated but you can do it with auto sound line
> level subwoofer filters - not too expensive. Actually, this
> is similar to how I drive my pair of passive subs but I
> start with a proper sub output (not L + R).
>
> You'll also have to play with speaker location, phasing and
> levels.
>
> There are more details but I hope this helps.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Roger
> --
> Roger Jones, P.Eng.
> Thornhill, Ontario,
> Canada.
>
> "Friends don't let friends vote Liberal"

[cyrus the virus]

In article >,
(Raf) wrote:

> If anyone can help me out it would be great.
> I have no techinical know how of speakers but I want to use a box
> containing two 13 inch 300 watt kenwood car subs in my home.
>

13"? weird...


> Can i just attach them to my shelf system? They seem to have the same
> red and black wiring.
> If anyone knows of any site that can give me step by step instructions
> in plain english or can help me out it would be great
>
> thanks
>
> raf

depending on the impedance of the subs.. sure it can be done, the main
question is why you would want to.

if each sub is 4ohms, you can series wire them to your shelf system for
an 8ohm final load. or if each sub is DVC 4ohm you can wire each sub's
coils in series so each sub is an 8ohm load. you want to present an 8ohm
or higher load to your shelf system otherwise you may let the magic
smoke out.

as far as the sound of it goes, in my limited home audio experience, the
box for the subs is just too small. i've noticed decent output with car
subs when the recommended in-car box was approx. doubled for in-home
use. with appropriate amplification of course.

hth,

--
cyrus

[GregS]

In article >, "PAGreenP" > wrote:
>The real issue is that the speakers are the wrong impedance. They are 4 Ohm
>and your home audio setup is always 8 Ohm. If you take those speakers up to
>8 Ohm's they dont sound very good at all.

A home system can be any impedance. There are tons of 4 ohm speakers.

greg