Car speakers in the house?

This may sound dumb but here goes.  I know some of you around here know alot about home audio as well as the car, so I was wondering about using car speakers in a home environment.  My center channel went out and I have an extra set of alpine spr-176a's so I thought why not use those?  I have no idea if it would work which is why I'm here. I know about the impedance differences with the recievers and the magnetic shielding, but nothing else.  Would this be a good idea or no?  They sounded great in the shop.

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"I'm Rick James bi***, enjoy yo' self Ah Ah Ah"
Dave Chappelle as Rick James

The problem is that most car speakers are designed for small enclosures and rely on the natural boosting of lower frequencies of the car to give it more output.  In a house you will have to use a larger enclosure to gain back the low extention, and may not be able to do that with an ideal alignment.  If you plan on going ported, make sure to tune low.  That will help with the low end response. 

Steven Kephart

Adire Audio

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Not to mention, most home audio eqiptment is designed for higher impedance. 6 ohms or higher.

Paul

You could easily make a box for them, ,and wire them for 8 ohm if you use the pair, , , , but i have no idea how your gona shield them.   If you put them near your tv your gona have one F' cked up tv.

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2003 Chevy Avalanche,Eclipse CD7000,Morel Elate 5,Adire Extremis,Alpine PDX-4.150, 15" TC-3000, 2 Alpine PDX-1.1000, 470Amp HO Alt.

Bad idea.  Buy a real center channel.  Sound quality will be subpar, anything less than 8ohm will overheat a lot of home receivers, and you'll certainly want to shield them.  If you want to build your own home audio center start with quality shielded drivers from somewhere like www.madisound.com

You can get some great sounding speakers and tweeters for fairly cheap at that site.  They also have crossover design services.

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New Project: 2003 Pathfinder

Oh, I didn't see the center channel part.  For some reason I was thinking of a subwoofer.  Sorry about that. 

I also don't think you will get a good sound out of the speakers.  This is because those speakers aren't voiced for center channel duties.  Madisound is a great place to get speakers.  I recomend checking them out as well.  We offer some kits that come with all the drivers, crossover parts, and hardware for home speakers.  All you have to do is build the enclosure.  I recomend checking them out as well. 

Steven Kephart

Adire Audio

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Yeah .. adireaudio.com sells quality speaker parts and kits too.  :-) 

I'm actually looking to build my first pair of home audio monitors for a spare bedroom, so I've been looking all over the DIY pages myself.  So, Steven, do you use some of the same great technology I've been hearing about on this board in the auto koda driver in your midrange home audio raw driver offerings?

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New Project: 2003 Pathfinder

amen.. and the thing is that car audio speakers are bright and stuff usually to compensate for not being on axis.. so like steven said there not voiced for that shizzle!

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everything stolen :(
Workin on a new system :)

Peace in the middle east

Yes.  A center channel is very important in home theater.  Use car stuff for rears or something, but spend some time searching for a good quality center.

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New Project: 2003 Pathfinder

All the above are right and good advice.  But if you just want to know if it can be safely wired, as a pair they can.  Wire them in series for an 8 ohm load, as was mentioned above.  As an interim arrangement until you get your center channel, they may fill in well enough, as long as you can keep the magnets from interfering with the picture.  They'll probably sound better than the crappy 3" Lanzar center that I'm using. lol ... If you're like me, you always welcome a chance to experiment.  Come to think of it, I have a pair of coaxials I'm not using........hmmm, I wonder...

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Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

I knew I could wire them to 8 ohm and checked into making a box but it looked like it would be big.  The shielding part I was most curious about because I've screwed up a few tv's back in the day screwing with magnets.(none of them were mine)  I'll check out the DIY stuff, I was just curious if I could use those speakers because they are just sitting around collecting dust and I won't get what I paid for them if I sell them.  Thanks for the input.

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"I'm Rick James bi***, enjoy yo' self Ah Ah Ah"
Dave Chappelle as Rick James

Car audio speakers (if they must be utilized) would be best suited to low-tech rear-channel in a surround system, or perhaps as front or side effects channels in a 7.1 or 9.1 system.  

As has been stated above, the center channel is very important in a surround-sound system.  In fact I maintain it is the MOST important speaker in a home theatre system.  You need to be careful when buying or building to voice-match the center channel as closely as possible to the stereo mains or you can get some strange effects when the sound shifts from one to the other.  If you plan to DIY main and center channel speakers, I suggest you should use the exact same mid-bass or mid-range drivers and tweeters, and design the crossovers so they all match.  Don't use car speakers for any of these channels.  Amplifier selection is of supreme importance as well... but let's not turn this into a home theatre thread.

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