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house amp to power four 6x9’s

Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=107374
Printed Date: June 16, 2024 at 11:51 PM


Topic: house amp to power four 6x9’s

Posted By: ike221
Subject: house amp to power four 6x9’s
Date Posted: September 11, 2008 at 10:42 AM

4 6x9s car audio speakers? Can this be done? Is there a home amp that can do this? I was planning on getting some 6x9s and my car cd player installed in my house. I want to put the 6x9s on an amp but the amp would draw to much from my 13.8VDC power supply. So I was wondering is there a home amp to do this.



Replies:

Posted By: megaman
Date Posted: September 11, 2008 at 11:39 AM
Any home amplifier that is 4 ohm stable can power your 6x9's.




Posted By: i am an idiot
Date Posted: September 12, 2008 at 9:25 PM

Of course you will have to wire the speakers in series.  2 speakers per channel.

Option 2 (series) = 8 ohm load
Speakers wired in series
Recommended Amplifier: Stable at 4, 2, or 1 ohm mono
posted_image





Posted By: ike221
Date Posted: September 14, 2008 at 9:06 AM
What are some good 6x9's that will sound GOOD when powered by on of the following amps? https://www.technicalhifi.com/prods.php?prod=LB-1000

Also is that a good AC amp to power some good 6x9s. Opinions will be appreciated.

If you read some of my previous posts you can see what I'm trying to do. I'm a relatively new with audio. I know some people that are fairly knowledgeable (think they know what they are doing, I have my doubts). I just wanted to read your opinions.




Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: September 14, 2008 at 9:56 AM

I've never heard of Technical Pro, although their offerings look like low-end DJ gear and reminds me a lot of Pyle Professional.  In any case, pro-audio amps tend to be noisy - and I mean mechanically noisy as they are often cooled by fans, as well as musically noisy with poor S/N and distortion performance.  But like I said, I'm not familiar with that company.  If you want to go for pro-audio, look at Crown or Crest or QSC, and at the low-end the only gear I've ever used with success is Behringer (who make a nice amp called and A-500 that I use for my outdoor speakers.)

Now let's get back to your intended application.  Car audio speakers tend to not work real well in a house.  They tend to sound flabby and dull since they are designed with cabin gain and near-field listening in mind.  If you use your 6X9's inside you may find they need to be in an enclosure, and that they only sound "right" if you're sitting on top of them.  A better choice would be a loudspeaker system designed for use in the space where you want to listen.  Also, what are you using to drive that amplifier?  If it's a standard CD player or something, you will need a pre-amp of some sort.  A better choice than an amplifier might be an integrated amplifier.



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Posted By: megaman
Date Posted: September 14, 2008 at 10:00 AM

Honestly my opinion is ditch the 6x9's and get home speakers.  Building an enclosure is the key to getting decent sound out of any 6x9's.  For example, check out an audio shop and listen to the speakers in the display.  Generaly they sound terrible compared to when they are inside a car.  So unless you already have the 6x9's, and are trying to save money, do yourself a great service and buy some home speakers.

When asking about which home amp works best with which 6x9's is so broad a question, it's like going to the world's largest car dealership, and simply asking a sales person "which vehicle is best for me?"  There's too many options.





Posted By: ike221
Date Posted: September 14, 2008 at 10:17 AM
Ok. What would be a good home audio amp and some good home speakers as a package around $600? Can I still use my current car cd headunit as my reciever?

I haven't ordered any 6x9s. I wanted to wait until I recieved yalls advice (yes I'm from Louisiana I say yall) I was planning on building two boxes for the speakers. 2 speakers in each box. I was planning on building a center unit that housed my reciever, auxillary 12 volt connections, a scanner/cb radio and I guess now an integrated amplifer. This is going to be a nice setup when done. I'm in college right now (don't have a whole lot of money) just was planning on doing something that looked nice. The boxes would be oak (probaly though it is expensive), I was think about covering the tops of the boxes with a nice marble of some sort. Something that looked nice. I might add some cabinets to the bottom of the main center unit.

So for now there will be a left, right, and a center boxes. Center houses all of the accessories and the L&R houses the speakers. Now what would be a good idea for some good home speakers and an integrated amp.




Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: September 14, 2008 at 10:24 AM
Why do you want to use your car head unit as a receiver?  Why not just buy a home stereo receiver?  It is much simpler.

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Posted By: ike221
Date Posted: September 14, 2008 at 10:26 AM
Because I like the car head unit. And I already have a power supply to work with it. Just a preference.




Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: September 14, 2008 at 10:44 AM

ike221 wrote:

Because I like the car head unit. And I already have a power supply to work with it. Just a preference.

OK fair enough.  If that's the case, then you could indeed use a standard power amp.  Here's a couple of suggestions for you:

Look for an amp like the AudioSource AMP300.  It's a decent sounding stereo amp that is made by Phoenix Gold and should cost you less than $300 for 150 clean watts per channel.  For speakers, if you want to build your own cabinets, look for a DIY kit such as THIS nice Vifa MTM kit that you can pick up for less than $300 for the parts and pre-made crossovers to build a pair (note the link states the cabinets are not included.)  If you don't want to build your own, I suggest you go shopping and listen to what's available in your area, or check the used market.  You can probably also find a decent amplifier in the used market in your area.



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Posted By: ike221
Date Posted: September 22, 2008 at 8:43 PM
I have a Crown XLS 202D Power Amplifier for my 6x9s. What kind of pre amp do I need?




Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: September 22, 2008 at 9:31 PM

ike221 wrote:

I have a Crown XLS 202D Power Amplifier for my 6x9s. What kind of pre amp do I need?

I thought you were set on using your car audio head unit?

That Crown is 200 wpc into 8-ohms, so I hope your speakers can handle the load (or better yet, be careful with the volume knob!)



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Posted By: ike221
Date Posted: September 24, 2008 at 7:13 AM
Yeah I was using the car head unit. I had wired as the input to the Crown Amp and I had the 6x9s wired at 8 ohms hooked up to the output. And when you powered up the amp they sounded like crap. My friend told me that the cd player is giving out a weak signal. I remember somebody on here telling me that I would need a pre amp.




Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: September 24, 2008 at 8:15 AM

ike221 wrote:

Yeah I was using the car head unit. I had wired as the input to the Crown Amp and I had the 6x9s wired at 8 ohms hooked up to the output. And when you powered up the amp they sounded like crap. My friend told me that the cd player is giving out a weak signal. I remember somebody on here telling me that I would need a pre amp.

My guess is it doesn't sound like crap because of the HU, it sounds like crap because you're trying to use car audio 6X9's inside.  I tried to warn you about that.



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Posted By: ike221
Date Posted: September 24, 2008 at 2:01 PM
Not really. When the 4 6x9s are hooked up directly to the cd head unit they sound awesome. Its just when I put the amp on them they sound like crap.





Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: September 24, 2008 at 2:11 PM
Uh huh.  A Crown professional amplifier - even the bottom of the line model you have - is much higher quality than any amp built into any head unit.  How do you have them hooked up?  Did you set the gain level?

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Posted By: ike221
Date Posted: September 24, 2008 at 3:18 PM
I don't know. Could it be my connection from the head unit to the amp. The amp had female XLR 3 pin inputs and my cd player was RCA's so I made something to link them. Maybe it could be that there is not a good connection.

I think all of my levels are set up correctly




Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: September 24, 2008 at 3:29 PM
There are instructions on page 9 of your owners manual illustrating a method for adapting an unbalanced signal (like from your HU) to the balanced inputs of the amplifier.  Also, page 16 describes a quick and dirty level matching procedure.

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Posted By: ike221
Date Posted: September 24, 2008 at 3:40 PM
Thanks. You wouldn't happen to have a link to the manual. My friend has the manual at his house




Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: September 24, 2008 at 4:10 PM




Posted By: ike221
Date Posted: September 24, 2008 at 5:41 PM
I think everything is hooked up now correctly but it still sounds the same coming off of the amp. I hook them up just to the cd player itself and they really good. I'm thinking that the RCA outputs on the cd player are giving off a weak signal or something. I hook up my house cd player to it it sounds REALLY good. Could it be the head unit is giving off a weak signal?




Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: September 24, 2008 at 8:24 PM

ike221 wrote:

I think everything is hooked up now correctly but it still sounds the same coming off of the amp. I hook them up just to the cd player itself and they really good. I'm thinking that the RCA outputs on the cd player are giving off a weak signal or something. I hook up my house cd player to it it sounds REALLY good. Could it be the head unit is giving off a weak signal?

Hard to say, but yes the HU could be producing a bad signal.  Not "weak" necessarily but perhaps distorted or with phase issues... what is the HU make/model?



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