Car Subwoofer/Speaker/AMP Used On PC

ccros44 · January 13, 2013

Hello Internet

I have no money or even plans to even try something like this but has anyone ever used car sound systems with a computer. I am having trouble finding speakers that i fall in love with and car audio has so much customization. I have done some research about it and I have seen a couple of problems in the concept:

POWER - you need a lot of wattage that you cant just pull from the built in motherboard audio ports or pc sound cards (sound cards are at most 100 watts and you need anywhere from 400w to 1000w)

AMP COMMUNICATION - a lot of people have said that there PC's don't recognize the amp as a sound device

COMPUTER RE-DIRECTION - some people who have tried this say that the PC tries to play everything through the sub woofers and nothing through the normal speakers

After my research i became really interested in the subject and would love to hear from people who have successfully done it, hear how they did it, see some pictures and maybe find out if its worth it?

January 13, 2013

Car audio is called car audio for a reason - it belongs in a car.

Power is fine: 12V inverter or a bit of rewiring from a PSU to your amp and you're fine. Connections are no big deal; twin RCA to 3.5mm (1/8") cables will sort that out.

When you look at it, it's like any normal setup; you have your signal coming out of your computer via either the inbuilt card or a 3rd party card to your amplifier then out of the amp to the speakers. If you're using a 3rd party card make sure it has either 2.1 as a minimum (so LR + subwoofer out) or that your amplifier has a built in crossover (where the LF is split to go to the sub woofer amplifier and the HF is sent to your HF drivers).

The routing, power and connections aren't the issue. It's the design of car audio speakers; they're designed for a use in a small closed space environment whereas computer speakers are in a large open environment where there is less boundary loading or more simply deflection. This also opens up the issue of destroying your speakers because car audio is designed for small spaces, it isn't intended to get incredibly loud so when you go to push it so you can hear it nice and loud throughout your room you're more likely to blow the drivers.

You'd also have to make your own enclosures for the drivers which to be done effectively requires either a degree in acoustical engineering and design or pre made plans that support the driver. You can't simple chuck a driver in a box and call it a day; they'll sound like shit. Same reason there's no real gain by switching out the MF and HF in a car with 3rd party drivers without re-designing the enclosure in a door as it just won't sound as good as you expect it to be.

Aphexx · January 13, 2013

"computer re-direction" I really wouldn't follow people who did this and didn't know about LPF low pass filters. basically you take the sound signals and filter out everything but the bass to the woofer.

power and amps. car speakers are usually 4 ohm operating in a 12 volt system things are not going to go well if you just plug and play this. at minimum if you want to use a car amp then you'll need a power converter to plug into your wall socket. however subs are spiky in their usage of power. I'm not sure how long a power converter would last under that kind of stress. so add a car battery or a few car audio capacitors into the mix. and then things start looking bulky and ugly. your computer desk starts looking more like a car garage.

can you link your sources. I could use some entertainment.

so in the end it can be done but it won't be pretty. unless you like the look of a mad scientists test lab.

January 13, 2013

"computer re-direction" I really wouldn't follow people who did this and didn't know about LPF low pass filters. basically you take the sound signals and filter out everything but the bass to the woofer. power and amps. car speakers are usually 4 ohm operating in a 12 volt system things are not going to go well if you just plug and play this. at minimum if you want to use a car amp then you'll need a power converter to plug into your wall socket. however subs are spiky in their usage of power. I'm not sure how long a power converter would last under that kind of stress. so add a car battery or a few car audio capacitors into the mix. and then things start looking bulky and ugly. your computer desk starts looking more like a car garage. can you link your sources.

You can pick up 12V 40A (480w) 12v to mains adaptors and then just do a bit of cutting and soldering of crocodile or banana clips but then as you said - it'll get messy.