My cousin and i were wondering if there is any way to use an amp at home. Like convert 110 thats at the wall to 12 so that the amp wont fry.
Chad
When you decrease the voltage, you must increase the amperage to get to the same power output....(Ohm's Law). Now price all this stuff out: a converter that will change household current to 14 volts, AND be built to supply the huge increase in amperage that you will have to have. It is well established that buying and using a regular home receiver is much, much cheaper.
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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.
There is a such thing as a "step down" transformer. or power converter that will do the job for you. Radio Shack carries them. My dad has one in his garage. He has a sony 8 track and a Sparkomatic amp running off of it as a conversation piece.
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Do it right the first time
Yes, but like stevdart said, you will need a lot more current for any decent sized power amp than an 8-track and Sparkomatic are likely to draw. A DC power supply to run an average amp would probably run you $400 or more. That would probably get you about 30-40 Amps continuous supply. Look at the fuse rating with your amp. You'd better have a supply that continuously delivers at least half that rating for moderate volume levels and equal or higher for high volume. We have a Samlex 100A continuous power supply in our store for big amps and I shudder to guess what that bad boy cost.
Yeah, it's called a 12 volt power supply. Why are you waning to run a car amp in your house? Like the man says, a home receiver will cost you less. Another way around it? Get a BIG 12 volt car battery and a 10 amp battery charger... this can work, but you need to do the math for charge/discharge ratios. If your average discharge is 10 amps, and you run the system for 10 hours, (10A * 10 hours = 100Amp/hours) you will have to recharge the battery for slightly more than 10 hours to rechage it (this is becase there are losses in the recharge cycle that must be accounted for) If your average discharge is 100 amps, you can only run the system for 1 hour, (100A * 1 hour = 100Amp/hours) but you STILL have to recharge for slightly over 10 hours to get back the stored energy you use. Yes, it CAN be done, but good luck with the trade-offs...
12-volt_guy has a good idea, and he is right, they are expensive. Go ask your local (good) car stereo installer what kind of power supply they use to run their display board. I also havea HUGE military 100A 12/24 volt power supply, (it's a forklift battery charger) and it weighs about 200 pounds. I was lucky, I found it in an electronics supply in San Jose, and I paid 80 bux for it. Actually, I bought 4 of them, and drove those bastards back to Bakersfield in the back of my '86 Civic. <Ahhh, the good old days...> But I digress... No, I don't have ny of them left, I sold three of them the minute I got back for 300 bux each... Anyway, all I am saying is this is close to what you are looking for. Big
current at 12 volts.
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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."
Yes, I agree. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the high cost of the power supplies necessary to operate a car amp from 120V is often more than simply purchasing a standard home amplifier. It's not worth it in most cases.
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