Car amp to power non car speakers?

Mark M · 5 Jun 2006 at 11:21

Ok the scenario is this, Ive just gotten some rock speakers for my garden and I need an amp to power them. I cant afford one this month due to holiday and also dont really have space for the amp in my tiny little house Ive moved into.

I have a spare car amp kicking about which would be ideal to power the garden speakers and would be screwed onto the inside of a kitchen cabinet.

Obviously there is the signal wire to get around but thats just a voltage signal isnt it?

So will it work or would I be best off waiting to get a hifi amp? I wont be having them turned up loud at all so dont need anything powerfull.

tom_nieto · 5 Jun 2006 at 14:18

You could use a car amp, but you'd need a pre amp to control source selection and volume. If you have a CD player with output level adjustment or a computer to plug it into you should be ok though.

k3v · 5 Jun 2006 at 14:30

are the impedances different 8 ohm for car and 16 house speakers? will it make them quiet?

daz · 5 Jun 2006 at 15:06

k3v said:
are the impedances different 8 ohm for car and 16 house speakers? will it make them quiet?

Car speakers will generally be around 4 ohm whilst home speakers will be 8 ohm. Using speakers with a higher impedance than the amp is designed for will simply result in your amp not putting out as much power - which is perfectly fine. The only trouble is if you run speakers with a lower impedance than the amp was designed for.

I would be more worried about how you're going to get a constant 12V DC supply. The signal wire is just a 12V switch that tells the amp to turn on and off when the car ignition is switched on and off.

monkeyspank · 5 Jun 2006 at 15:06

4 or 2 ohm for car and 8 for home IIRC

Mark M · 5 Jun 2006 at 16:09

Thanks for the replies guys. The amp is 4ohm and the speakers are 8ohm(iirc)

As far as the 12v dc supply goes could I not just use one of these?

http://www.******.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=13453&criteria=Unregulated Mains Adaptors&doy=5m6

Need to change the stars for a well known store that sounds like Chaplin but with an M :rolleyes:

james.miller · 5 Jun 2006 at 16:14

yeah good luck with that. car amps draw a massive amount of current when driving a load. hell a half serious amplifier will draw 5-10amps @12v doing nothing at all. A 500mA supply wont cut it mate.

You could go ghetto and rig an atx power supply up, but honestly for the price of a decent 12v supply, your better off just buying a cheap home-amp from cash-converters or somewhere similar.

Mark M · 5 Jun 2006 at 16:20

Ah, ok I'll scrap that idea then. Just thought I might beable to use what I had without buying much else.

I think my best bet is to buy something off a well know auction site or cash convertors as previously mentioned.