Sub

Walkerie · 13 Nov 2009 at 01:06

Looking to bring in my sub from my car its a FLI 12" active has a built in amp, but apart from that thats all i know, without DIY and faffing with a PSU are there any other easy ways or kits i can buy to get it straight onto my pc?

MikeHunt79 · 13 Nov 2009 at 01:29

If it's an active sub then all you have to do it plug it into the mains, and off you go!

fornowagain · 13 Nov 2009 at 01:45

Its going to need a power supply regardless.

MikeHunt79 · 13 Nov 2009 at 01:48

fornowagain said:
Its going to need a power supply regardless.

Not really, most amps have their own power supply which converts 230v into +-DC rails for the amp.

fornowagain · 13 Nov 2009 at 01:54

MikeHunt79 said:
Not really, most amps have their own power supply which converts 230v into +-DC rails for the amp.

I'm dubious, low voltage DC amplifier step up to 230 AC (flip/flop??) and back down to 12 DC. Car subs I've seen take the 12 DC direct. Could be I suppose not looked in years, but sounds very odd to me.

WalkeruK said:
Looking to bring in my sub from my car its a FLI 12" active has a built in amp, but apart from that thats all i know, without DIY and faffing with a PSU are there any other easy ways or kits i can buy to get it straight onto my pc?

I'm not sure how good it will sound though. I have 325W 12" sub (SVS PC12-NSD) designed for indoors and its pretty big, well massive tbh. Tuned to go way down low in the volume of an average room and mental loud, so its much bigger than a car sub. I also have a small (ish) Yamaha YST-SW120 for the PC rated at a tiny 70W and its more than enough.

Can't hurt to try though, specs say the FLI is 300W RMS (13.8V) I'd suggest a power supply with at least 25A 12v rails or more. You could use a car battery to try it out, should get a couple of hours out of a 50AH.

Oh btw, the car sub won't be shielded so be careful how close to you put it to the PC.

Phil2008 · 13 Nov 2009 at 03:24

I bought a BK XLS200 10" 275watt sub a few months back. awsome quality sub it is aswell.

MikeHunt79 · 13 Nov 2009 at 03:35

^ Not heard of BKS, do they make 8" subs also? 8" subs are hard to find in the UK.

fornowagain said:
I'm dubious, low voltage DC amplifier step up to 230 AC (flip/flop??) and back down to 12 DC. Car subs I've seen take the 12 DC direct. Could be I suppose not looked in years, but sounds very odd to me.

Oh, wait, you mean to tell me that the OP is referring to a 12v sub? I thought he was referring to an active HT type sub! I guess that makes sense... In that case, don't wire it up to the mains, it will go bang!

You could, however, remove the 12v amp, and wire a normal mains amp up in it's place... That's if you can remove the 12v amp that is. Remember to check the imedance of the driver however, a lot of car audio stuff is 4ohm which many hi-fi amps will struggle with. It's a piece of cake for a PA amp however, something like a QSC 2450 will work well here.

Also, 99% of car subs will sound poor in a room, as car subs are normally designed take advantage of cabin gain, and have a rising response... It may sound good if you have a very very small room tho...

That said, I sometimes power my car sub in the house, and it's pretty good, but it's a bit of an oddball box (horn...), but it still work better in the car...

Finally, why do you want just a sub connected up to the PC? Are you a .1 short of a 5.1 system?

james.miller · 13 Nov 2009 at 06:24

Mike, you've not heard of BK? They make the best value entry level HT subs. SVS make the best value high end subs period. The pc13 ultra is a pure weapon lol.

fornowagain remember that a decent ported box tuned low intended for home use will big big, very big for 12" + driver. boxes can get away with being a lot smaler when designed for car use because room gain ect. A small ported box will sound quite average in the average living room.

for me, its either a big ported box tuned low, or a big driver in a much smaller sealed box.

Can't hurt to try though, specs say the FLI is 300W RMS I'd suggest a power supply with at least 25A 12v rails or more.

300w RMS output...in reality the car amp would probably be working at some awful efficiancy figure so i'd reckon you'd need closer to 45-50 amps of current available.

Walkerie · 13 Nov 2009 at 09:51

Hi guys most of this has completely lost me its this.

Driver

Frequency 12

Amplifier

FL250

RMS Power

300 watts

Max Power

1000 watts

Size (H x W x D) mm

350 x 500 x 379

Recommended Amp

FL450s/900s/1000m

Comes in a carpet surrond also.

Phil2008 · 13 Nov 2009 at 11:16

I also read somewhere theres components from BK in SVS subs, or was that pc13 subs? The cheapest sub that BK do is "The Gemini II" for £200 and that is a 10" with 150watts. Heres the link if you want to look at there range of subs. http://www.bkelec.com/index.htm. Also they sell their amps, drivers ect

Heres a few pics of my sub

]

Walkerie · 13 Nov 2009 at 11:40

Im so confused, can anyone summarise whats been said and what exactly i need to get?

MikeHunt79 · 13 Nov 2009 at 11:50

james.miller said:
Mike, you've not heard of BK? They make the best value entry level HT subs. SVS make the best value high end subs period. The pc13 ultra is a pure weapon lol.

I've heard SVS subs before now, the one I saw looked like a long tube and did give off a nice rumble!

I don't remember the model name tho...

I haven't heard of BK until now, but I'll have a google or two... Most subs I've heard from the more mainstream speaker manufacturers (Mission, Morduant Short, etc.) leave something to be desired...

WalkeruK said:
Im so confused, can anyone summarise whats been said and what exactly i need to get?

To answer your original question, this is what you need to power your sub from the mains:

Phil2008 · 13 Nov 2009 at 12:32

MikeHunt79 said:
I've heard SVS subs before now, the one I saw looked like a long tube and did give off a nice rumble! I don't remember the model name tho...

I haven't heard of BK until now, but I'll have a google or two... Most subs I've heard from the more mainstream speaker manufacturers (Mission, Morduant Short, etc.) leave something to be desired...

The reason you may not heard of bk before is you can only buy BK subs directly from BK, and BK is quite a small company.. If you browse on AV Forums, ppl are always talking about BK subs and recommending them.

Walkerie · 13 Nov 2009 at 14:00

Hi but what about the already built in amp i have?

fornowagain · 13 Nov 2009 at 14:06

james.miller said:
Mike, you've not heard of BK? They make the best value entry level HT subs. SVS make the best value high end subs period. The pc13 ultra is a pure weapon lol.

fornowagain remember that a decent ported box tuned low intended for home use will big big, very big for 12" + driver. boxes can get away with being a lot smaler when designed for car use because room gain ect. A small ported box will sound quite average in the average living room.

for me, its either a big ported box tuned low, or a big driver in a much smaller sealed box.

I've tested car subs indoors once or twice and wasn't very impressed with the results. I also wonder about the quality of the driver & amp in something like the FLI, mainly its low end response. More of a thump thump thump to impress in the cars small resonant volume. My SVS has a tuned extension, down to 20Hz before it drops off. I find the extra low end makes all the difference compared to other subs I've had.

james.miller said:
300w RMS output...in reality the car amp would probably be working at some awful efficiancy figure so i'd reckon you'd need closer to 45-50 amps of current available.

Good point, not exactly class D. With the current available I doubt the designers pay much attention to efficient amplification. There is a chap on youtube running one on a 16A computer psu, god knows how long that would last. Fuse rating would give a better idea.

WalkeruK said:
Hi but what about the already built in amp i have?

I think its a matter of horses for courses, they go to great lengths to design the sub for the application. With all the effort it would take to get your car sub to work happily, you might as well get a smaller indoor sub designed for the job. How are you planning on driving it, do you have a LFE signal from a decoder or such?

MikeHunt79 · 13 Nov 2009 at 17:18

Phil2008 said:
The reason you may not heard of bk before is you can only buy BK subs directly from BK, and BK is quite a small company.. If you browse on AV Forums, ppl are always talking about BK subs and recommending them.

Gotcha, I'll keep that name in mind if I'm ever after a compact sub... Right now I'm happy with my coffin sized thing!

WalkeruK said:
Hi but what about the already built in amp i have?

That amp made to run from a cars electrical system, which is different to mains electrical system. You could also use a car battery in the house, I've done this in the past when fixing up car amps, it's handy to be able to test them without having to plug them up to the car each time.

It's akin to trying to run a petrol car on diesel, you may be able to manage it with lots of engine mods, but it would be a lot of hassle and not really very good.

Minstadave · 14 Nov 2009 at 21:30

WalkeruK said:
Hi but what about the already built in amp i have?

Walker the problem you have is your amp runs off a 12V car battery, the mains supply is 240V, so you'd either need to find a meaty 240-12V converter, or bin the 12V amp you have and replace it with a 240V amp like pictured above.