Anyone added a car subwoofer to their system?

pinkpotato

pinkpotato

pinkpotato

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Hi basically as the title says i was wondering if anyone on here had done it. Ive seen a few people on youtube with it and ive found plently of guides on how to do it and ive been getting very tempted to do it myself.

Basically i want a cheap way to get more bass :D

I was thinking a second hand 150w mono alpine amp with a 8" alpine woofer with 150w rms output all powered by a cheap ass psu in a custom box :).
I reckon i could build it all for around £50-£70 and should give me way more kick than the 17w rms sub which is inclusive with my old school cambridge soundworks dtt2200
 
Wow, never seen that before! Would certainly be interested. I love my car audio, just trying to save up for a new set of alpine speakers :D

I think you should go for it and post up progress pics :p
 
Just sounds like a cheap way to get loud uncontrolled bass IMO.

You'll have to split the signal from the soundworks system to the car sub as you can't removed the soundworks sub as that is what's driving all the other speakers.
 
Save up and buy a BK one or go on AVForums, look at the DIY Subwoofer subforum and learn how to make your own for relatively little expense. Tight, deep, controlled bass > farty one-note boom box.
 
DarkBahamut said:
Just sounds like a cheap way to get loud uncontrolled bass IMO.

You'll have to split the signal from the soundworks system to the car sub as you can't removed the soundworks sub as that is what's driving all the other speakers.
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I was planning on taking a lead straight from the spare jack back of the pc from a single 3.5mm jack to 2 rca leads then in the realtek software, configure it to be a center/subwoofer output and leave the cambridge soundworks as it is. Then i hopefully will be able to just flick on the switch of the psu for a mega bass boost.

And regarding the uncontrolledness of the bass, the amp ive been looking at has a filter so i can filter out the high tones and just keep the lows.

Also by not connecting it to the soundworks system it will be faily portable, for example if i wanted to plug it into my laptop i can get a headphone jack splitter with one side going to 2 standard speakers and one side going into the 2 rca leads goingm into the amp. And to be fair im not after supreme bass quality, it will be mainly for if i have a party etc etc

But if i go ahead with it all ill put all the pics up :)
 
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pinkpotato said:
I was planning on taking a lead straight from the spare jack back of the pc from a single 3.5mm jack to 2 rca leads then in the realtek software, configure it to be a center/subwoofer output and leave the cambridge soundworks as it is. Then i hopefully will be able to just flick on the switch of the psu for a mega bass boost.

And regarding the uncontrolledness of the bass, the amp ive been looking at has a filter so i can filter out the high tones and just keep the lows.

Also by not connecting it to the soundworks system it will be faily portable, for example if i wanted to plug it into my laptop i can get a headphone jack splitter with one side going to 2 standard speakers and one side going into the 2 rca leads goingm into the amp. And to be fair im not after supreme bass quality, it will be mainly for if i have a party etc etc

But if i go ahead with it all ill put all the pics up :)
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My concern wouldn't be about keeping the lows, it's losing the mids that will cause a problem. I doubt the sats can reach much below 200-250hz at best, but a sub designed for a car won't be designed to play much above 120hz, at least with any sort of respectable sound quality. There will just be a large gap between the lower mid range and bass where neither speaker can plays those important sounds IMO.
 
DarkBahamut said:
My concern wouldn't be about keeping the lows, it's losing the mids that will cause a problem. I doubt the sats can reach much below 200-250hz at best, but a sub designed for a car won't be designed to play much above 120hz, at least with any sort of respectable sound quality. There will just be a large gap between the lower mid range and bass where neither speaker can plays those important sounds IMO.
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Im keeping the cambridge soundworks sub aswell which can probably produce the frequency, and to be fair im not that bothered, i just want a little project ahaha:D
 
a 'car' subwoofer is just a subwoofer. all this 'a car driver wont drop' and 'a car driver wont have any upper bass' is rubbish.get the right driver in the right box and they will go pound for pound with a HC subwoofer of similar value. and sven its obviously the poor mic on the camera that's making it sound like that.
 
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Well ive bought my alpine type s 10" sub and ive nearly finished making my box. I managed to pick up a matching alpine amp on the bay today so im hoping everything will be done by next week. I might start putting pics up.

In the meantime ive got a question someone here may know the answer to, i need a cheapo power supply to drive it with 30 amps on the 12v rails ive found one on the bay which goes tomorrow but i want to know if it has multiple 12v rails can i solder all the yellow wires together or will it short itself?

This guy here has done it
 
30amps is a lot i run my 300w amp from a 12v - 4.16amp old monitor psu, have even ran it from a 1amp psu.

just see what you have laying around and try it, worst can hapen is sub clips if you turn it up to high, the 4amp gets me more volume than i would ever use.
 
I don't think it's worth doing, a car subwoofer is designed to be used in the designated environment (a car), and won't be as good in a room.
 
Maccy said:
I don't think it's worth doing, a car subwoofer is designed to be used in the designated environment (a car), and won't be as good in a room.
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i beg to differ :p

I have a kenwood car sub, hooked up to a 1500w PA amp, in my room, using a low cut filter at ~160Hz and the sub sounds excellent :)

However OP make sure you get a a ported enclosure :D
 
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