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Conversion of a car sub

Discussion in 'DIY Speaker & Subwoofer Building[1]' started by rgledhill[2], Jan 11, 2017[3].

  1. rgledhill[4]

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    Hi all,

    My home cinema sub has expired sadly. One option to replace it is to use a monster sub I built for my car nearly 20 years ago, using a hard-to-drive Rockford Fosgate Power DVC 10" long-excursion sub (original purist design, before they went mass-market - >£250 just for the speaker!). I built a tuned, mega-braced, ported enclosure for this and when I tested it some years back with a decent old-skool amp, it had hugely cleaner and more tuneful bass than the Rel. However it's a bit of an amplifier killer, having chewed through two (proper) car amps before I bought a JL Audio Class D amp to tame it. That though is a 12V (car) amplifier so unless I can find a 240V->12V dc converter with massive current output, I can't use it.

    What are people's thoughts on using a car subwoofer speaker for home cinema? I appreciate most are just set up for boom and SPL but this really is a tuneful speaker and it's just sitting unused in my garage...

    Cheers
    Richard

  2. MattSPL[6]

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    If it sounds good, then there's no issue using it at home.

    What power was the JL Audio amp and what impedance were you running the sub at?
    It's possible you can buy a DJ amp like a behringer inuke to drive the sub.

  3. rgledhill[8]

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    Hi Matt,
    Yep, sounded good, very tuneful, though I'm not sure about the absolute extension to <20Hz. The JL Audio Amp was 500W (I think); I tried various combinations as each coil is 4 Ohms; I think to protect the amp I actually just used a single voice coil in the end to make 4 Ohms, on the grounds that I was after quality and depth, not SPL, and I was tired (and broke) from blowing up amps by putting the voice coils in parallel. I think at certain frequencies the effective resistance drops to around an Ohm if you use them in parallel! On the other hand 8 Ohms is a lot to try and drive with any volume.
    Good tip on the Inuke; I see BK also do a standalone amp now with controls as I need something with the usual HT controls (cross-over etc).
    I guess I could try the Inuke or BK amp and if it doesn't suit, send it back within 14 days...? I always feel a bit bad doing that though!
    Cheers

Richard

  • MattSPL[10]

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    If you get the dsp version of the inuke, it has a full eq. I use an inuke6000dsp with my sub.
    These amps have fans though, so they can be noisy. You can mod the fans, but they are still a bit obtrusive in a living room unless your playing loud.

  • rgledhill[12]

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    Thanks, that's very useful to know. I'm thinking that the WAF might be low on extra boxes and fans so I'm moving in the direction of selling the car sub and amp now :(

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    References

    1. ^ DIY Speaker & Subwoofer Building (www.avforums.com)
    2. ^ rgledhill (www.avforums.com)
    3. ^ Jan 11, 2017 (www.avforums.com)
    4. ^ rgledhill (www.avforums.com)
    5. ^ Stoneleigh, UK (www.avforums.com)
    6. ^ MattSPL (www.avforums.com)
    7. ^ 462 (www.avforums.com)
    8. ^ rgledhill (www.avforums.com)
    9. ^ Stoneleigh, UK (www.avforums.com)
    10. ^ MattSPL (www.avforums.com)
    11. ^ 462 (www.avforums.com)
    12. ^ rgledhill (www.avforums.com)
    13. ^ Stoneleigh, UK (www.avforums.com)
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    Conversion of a car sub Rating: 4.5 Posted by: kriskiantorose

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