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#1
Posted to rec.audio.car
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Help an old school guy out with a sub
I've got an aftermarket head unit with 20 clean watts per channel and
four quality full range speakers in my convertible. It sounds mediocre, but I need some bass. I don't want to pay more than $150 for upgrades and only have one set of pre-amp outputs. Wally World has a 10" sub cabinet for $20 and a pioneer subwoofer for about $50. I could mate this with a low end amp or wait for a better used one on craigslist. I don't understand how to the fading will work on my stereo and how I can best keep the full range speakers from trying to reproduce bass that they can't handle. Do I need bassblockers or is there a particular set of features I need in an amp? MD |
#2
Posted to rec.audio.car
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Help an old school guy out with a sub
Well, the very easiest way would to do what you suggest and connect the RCA
outputs of your HU to your amp that will drive the subwoofer. There is a very cheap and easy way to block the bass from your four existing speakers (something you will most DEFINTAELY want to do as it will add substantially more volume to your system, bass consumes the most power and taxes small woofers the most). Check out this site for a diagram and explanation of how a passive crossover would work. http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/cross.asp In a nutshell, you will connect a capacitor in line to the positive connection of each of your four speakers. Capacitors are cheap and you can pick four up at Radio Shack for about a buck a piece. This will give you a 6 dB per octive crossover. This is not a terribly sharp crossover so I would suggest a capacitor value of 200uF (200 micro-farads) to 100uF. The 200uF will start the attenuation (crossover) at about 200 Hz (easy to remember). The 100uF will begin the attenuation at about 400 Hz (much higher and will cut more low bass out and will allow you to play your speakers louder). Capacitors are so cheap you may even want to experiment with a couple different values. I have used this type of crossover many, MANY times in the past for myself and other installations and they work GREAT. They are easy to install (only one wire has to be cut for each speaker) and they just twist right onto the copper wire, then just cover the whole thing with electrical tape and you're done. Now, as far as a subwoofer volume control, there are many options for this. PERHAPS (and this is a big perhaps) the RCA output level can be controlled indepentally from the other four speakers. My strong guess, however, is probablly not. The easist is to buy an amplifier that has an outboard level control. They are usually connected via phone cords and consist of a simple volume knob you will have to mount somewhere near the dash. This would be your best bet. Trust me, you ARE going to want to be able to control your subwoofer output on the fly, perhaps from song to song as bass varies dramtically in music. If your amp DOES NOT have a remote volume knob you can actually make one using a simple potentiometer (pot) connected between the RCA outputs on your HU to the subwoofer amp. The pot again will have to be mounted somewhere you have access to you and it is just a volume knob with three connections on it (I will not go into what all three do). If you want to amp your four other speakers as well, I would STRONLY encourage you to use two amps or a four channel amp (two channels bridged to one channel for the sub, two channels for the four speakers, you can bridge two speakers to one connection). But this way you will lose fader controls (you would connect right front and rear to one channel, and left front and rear to the other). If fader is important, you will probably need yet another amp. But there's a way around this issue. Keep in mind that your front speakers are the MOST important. Like at a concert, music should come from the front. Your rear speakers should only give you some "rear-fill" or some ambience as a natural room would when sound bounces off the back wall. Therefore, 20 watts IMHO is plenty for your "rear-fill". If you intend to amplify the four cabin speakers, start first with the two fronts only and see how you like that letting the HU power the rears (you will have fader as you will be able to raise or lower the rear-speaker volume). Again, once the passive crossovers are installed and your front four speakers no longer have to play low bass, your front four speakers will be dramtically louder. Hope all this helps, good luck. MOSFET wrote in message ... I've got an aftermarket head unit with 20 clean watts per channel and four quality full range speakers in my convertible. It sounds mediocre, but I need some bass. I don't want to pay more than $150 for upgrades and only have one set of pre-amp outputs. Wally World has a 10" sub cabinet for $20 and a pioneer subwoofer for about $50. I could mate this with a low end amp or wait for a better used one on craigslist. I don't understand how to the fading will work on my stereo and how I can best keep the full range speakers from trying to reproduce bass that they can't handle. Do I need bassblockers or is there a particular set of features I need in an amp? MD |
#3
Posted to rec.audio.car
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Help an old school guy out with a sub
On Feb 23, 2:46*am, "MOSFET" wrote:
Well, the very easiest way would to do what you suggest and connect the RCA outputs of your HU to your amp that will drive the subwoofer. There is a very cheap and easy way to block the bass from your four existing speakers (something you will most DEFINTAELY want to do as it will add substantially more volume to your system, bass consumes the most power and taxes small woofers the most). *Check out this site for a diagram and explanation of how a passive crossover would work.http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/cross.asp In a nutshell, you will connect a capacitor in line to the positive connection of each of your four speakers. *Capacitors are cheap and you can pick four up at Radio Shack for about a buck a piece. *This will give you a 6 dB per octive crossover. *This is not a terribly sharp crossover so I would suggest a capacitor value of 200uF (200 micro-farads) to 100uF. *The 200uF will start the attenuation (crossover) at about 200 Hz (easy to remember). *The 100uF will begin the attenuation at about 400 Hz (much higher and will cut more low bass out and will allow you to play your speakers louder). *Capacitors are so cheap you may even want to experiment with a couple different values. *I have used this type of crossover many, MANY times in the past for myself and other installations and they work GREAT. *They are easy to install (only one wire has to be cut for each speaker) and they just twist right onto the copper wire, then just cover the whole thing with electrical tape and you're done. Now, as far as a subwoofer volume control, there are many options for this. PERHAPS (and this is a big perhaps) the RCA output level can be controlled indepentally from the other four speakers. *My strong guess, however, is probablly not. *The easist is to buy an amplifier that has an outboard level control. *They are usually connected via phone cords and consist of a simple volume knob you will have to mount somewhere near the dash. *This would be your best bet. *Trust me, you ARE going to want to be able to control your subwoofer output on the fly, perhaps from song to song as bass varies dramtically in music. *If your amp DOES NOT have a remote volume knob you can actually make one using a simple potentiometer (pot) connected between the RCA outputs on your HU to the subwoofer amp. *The pot again will have to be mounted somewhere you have access to you and it is just a volume knob with three connections on it (I will not go into what all three do). If you want to amp your four other speakers as well, I would STRONLY encourage you to use two amps or a four channel amp (two channels bridged to one channel for the sub, two channels for the four speakers, you can bridge two speakers to one connection). *But this way you will lose fader controls (you would connect right front and rear to one channel, and left front and rear to the other). *If fader is important, you will probably need yet another amp. *But there's a way around this issue. *Keep in mind that your front speakers are the MOST important. *Like at a concert, music should come from the front. *Your rear speakers should only give you some "rear-fill" or some ambience as a natural room would when sound bounces off the back wall. Therefore, 20 watts IMHO is plenty for your "rear-fill". *If you intend to amplify the four cabin speakers, start first with the two fronts only and see how you like that letting the HU power the rears (you will have fader as you will be able to raise or lower the rear-speaker volume). *Again, once the passive crossovers are installed and your front four speakers no longer have to play low bass, your front four speakers will be dramtically louder. |
#4
Posted to rec.audio.car
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Help an old school guy out with a sub
Don't know if you are still looking for a subwoofer volume control, but
Scosche makes one without the need to make your own. It's basically a potentiometer with stereo inputs and outputs (like I suggested in my last post) but it surely looks more classy than one if you are I built one. Again, this would only be necessary if your sub amp had no remote gain control OR there was no subwoofer output on your head-unit that would allow subwoofer volume control (this would only be likely if your HU had three sets of outputs: fronts, rears, and subwoofer). Anyway, there's a used one on Ebay right now (that's where I stumbled onto it, just browsing Ebay) and I recalled you mentioned a need for just such a device. It's going for dirt cheap and would certainly be easier and perhaps even cheaper (you'd have to buy the pot., the knob, the connectors, etc.) than building your own. The Ebay link to this device is: http://cgi.ebay.com/SCOSCHE-EFX-CAR-AMP-REMOTE-LEVEL-CONTROL-BASS-KNOB-RLC_W0QQitemZ270365101275QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_Def aultDomain_0?hash=item270365101275&_trksid=p3286.c 0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1462|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|24 0%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50 Hope this info is useful, perhaps it will give you other ideas. MOSFET "MOSFET" wrote in message m... Well, the very easiest way would to do what you suggest and connect the RCA outputs of your HU to your amp that will drive the subwoofer. There is a very cheap and easy way to block the bass from your four existing speakers (something you will most DEFINTAELY want to do as it will add substantially more volume to your system, bass consumes the most power and taxes small woofers the most). Check out this site for a diagram and explanation of how a passive crossover would work. http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/cross.asp In a nutshell, you will connect a capacitor in line to the positive connection of each of your four speakers. Capacitors are cheap and you can pick four up at Radio Shack for about a buck a piece. This will give you a 6 dB per octive crossover. This is not a terribly sharp crossover so I would suggest a capacitor value of 200uF (200 micro-farads) to 100uF. The 200uF will start the attenuation (crossover) at about 200 Hz (easy to remember). The 100uF will begin the attenuation at about 400 Hz (much higher and will cut more low bass out and will allow you to play your speakers louder). Capacitors are so cheap you may even want to experiment with a couple different values. I have used this type of crossover many, MANY times in the past for myself and other installations and they work GREAT. They are easy to install (only one wire has to be cut for each speaker) and they just twist right onto the copper wire, then just cover the whole thing with electrical tape and you're done. Now, as far as a subwoofer volume control, there are many options for this. PERHAPS (and this is a big perhaps) the RCA output level can be controlled indepentally from the other four speakers. My strong guess, however, is probablly not. The easist is to buy an amplifier that has an outboard level control. They are usually connected via phone cords and consist of a simple volume knob you will have to mount somewhere near the dash. This would be your best bet. Trust me, you ARE going to want to be able to control your subwoofer output on the fly, perhaps from song to song as bass varies dramtically in music. If your amp DOES NOT have a remote volume knob you can actually make one using a simple potentiometer (pot) connected between the RCA outputs on your HU to the subwoofer amp. The pot again will have to be mounted somewhere you have access to you and it is just a volume knob with three connections on it (I will not go into what all three do). If you want to amp your four other speakers as well, I would STRONLY encourage you to use two amps or a four channel amp (two channels bridged to one channel for the sub, two channels for the four speakers, you can bridge two speakers to one connection). But this way you will lose fader controls (you would connect right front and rear to one channel, and left front and rear to the other). If fader is important, you will probably need yet another amp. But there's a way around this issue. Keep in mind that your front speakers are the MOST important. Like at a concert, music should come from the front. Your rear speakers should only give you some "rear-fill" or some ambience as a natural room would when sound bounces off the back wall. Therefore, 20 watts IMHO is plenty for your "rear-fill". If you intend to amplify the four cabin speakers, start first with the two fronts only and see how you like that letting the HU power the rears (you will have fader as you will be able to raise or lower the rear-speaker volume). Again, once the passive crossovers are installed and your front four speakers no longer have to play low bass, your front four speakers will be dramtically louder. Hope all this helps, good luck. MOSFET wrote in message ... I've got an aftermarket head unit with 20 clean watts per channel and four quality full range speakers in my convertible. It sounds mediocre, but I need some bass. I don't want to pay more than $150 for upgrades and only have one set of pre-amp outputs. Wally World has a 10" sub cabinet for $20 and a pioneer subwoofer for about $50. I could mate this with a low end amp or wait for a better used one on craigslist. I don't understand how to the fading will work on my stereo and how I can best keep the full range speakers from trying to reproduce bass that they can't handle. Do I need bassblockers or is there a particular set of features I need in an amp? MD |
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