Hello I'm somewhat new to the forums so go a little easy on me _____________ Is it possible to hook up car speakers to a pc and have it work properly? I came up with this idea after looking around online for a good set of speakers that also looked nice and found no results. I thought it would be cool to make a set of speakers with my own design. I cant show the designs on sketchup because my computer broke down (im using my mom laptop)... I thought this would be a cool first project do accomplish with the help of my friends and would like some advice on how to do it if its worth the effort. Thanks in advance!
Absolutly, you could most certainly hookup car speakers to your pc (or an mp3 player, cd player, pda... ect...). But the complication is, the way stereos work is bassically this. LoudSpeaker <-- Power Amp <-- Preamp <-- signal You probably dont need to worry about the Preamp because pretty much all amplifiers have built in preamps aswell, and even if it doesent computers have a high output anyways so it would probably be fine. So in order to do this you need to get some form of an amplifier that works here. You could even use a car amplifer, Amoung other options.
Keep in mind the majority of car speakers have a 4ohm resistance, while normal household speakers are of the 8ohm variety. It should be okay to run the speakers with a house based amp. Just be careful that is all. Also read the specifications on the amp, a good majority of the time it will tell you what range it is suited for. The reason in case you were wondering for the difference is because car's equipment is designed for a lower resistance due to the decreased amount of power a car has to work with. While home audio can happily support the 8ohm resistance of home speakers. Just check your speakers on the back for the ratings and match it up with the ratings on your amp. They do need to be powered by an Amp of some sort. The low level output of your computer's soundcard is barely enough to run a decent set of headphones.
Could you give an example of comparing the ratings? im not quite sure i understand.. Just wondering will there be any custom wiring of anysort necesary? If so what would be needed? its reassuring this project indeed possible!
Bassically as far as ratings go, if you got hold of an amp thats meant for home theater systems it would probably want 8Ohm speakers (the resistance of the coil in the speaker is 8Ohms) But most amplifiers have a tollerance and will accept a range of speakers. Infact in most cases it wont even do any harm to the amplifier to run even a 2ohm speaker on a 8ohm rated home theater amp. It would probably be nice to figure out what your speakers are anyways. Either it says on it, or you could measure it with a multimeter (you just measure the resistance across the speaker terminals). Wireing all depends on what you get ahold of (Any stereo amplifier will work). But bassically it will just be attaching some speaker cable to your speakers (you can either solder them on, or use those crimping attachements). And then attaching the input of the amplifier to your computer. If its a Home theater amp and the amplifier accepts RCA inputs you could simply buy a cable to go from your computer to the amp (or make one). Its rather simple to hook up really. I personally think using a car amplifier would be a cool idea (doesent matter though). Because then if its not too power hungry you could probably even build the amplifier right into your computer and hook it up to your powersupply. (Car amps use 12v and Pc powersupplys have 12v available for you).
Also, what kind of speaker arrangement are you after here? Just a simple 2 speakers hooked up to your computer for two channels? 2 sets of 2 speakers, still 2 chanels? Or even surround? I say this because you can also mess with the impedences of speakers by combining speakers. Example: 2 x 4Ohm speakers in parrallel = one 2ohm speaker 2 x 4Ohm speakers in series = one 8ohm speaker - one of these configurations would be good for installing multiple speakers in one speaker box. But anyways, i wouldent worry about this whole impedence deal yet. As it's not much of a big deal anyways. And you dont have an amplifer (as far as i know).
bubsterboo, speaker impedance can't be measured by just measuring the resistance of the speaker. Impedance works to limit change of the current. Resistance works to limit the current: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_impedance Note that a speaker acts as a resistor, inductor and capacitor, but the capacitance is so small it can usually be neglected.
Well... i know from experience that if you measure the resistance of a speaker coil it will give you a very good idea of what the speaker is. Like a 8ohm will appear as something like 7.4ohms This being the whole point of what im saying...
I was planning on making a 2.1 surround setup and if I was satisfied I would bring it up to 5.1 surround (2 speaker on each box, 1 in sub).
You may want to consider a logitech 5.1 setup. Or another setup. Car speakers or any speakers for that matter sound terrible when they are not put into a box or an enclosure that suits them. Just offering up a premade solution to save the hassle of building the boxes. But trust me I would love to see how you do it if you decide to go this route, mod on!
bubsterboo, that is because impedance is Z = sqrt( R^2 + ( XL + XC )^2 ). Meaning that the impedance in resonance is R minimum when XL = XC. Usually it is more. I just wanted to be certain that you knew what you were saying.
My dad builds amplifiers for a living, and ive built my own a few times... so i may not know some of the most technicle stuff... but i know what im doing.
I hate the look of most computer speakers but i love the look of the car audio speakers, thats whats motivating me to do this project! But for the boxes does there need to be a specific shape? I know theres some sound dampening tuff to line the inside to prevent annoying vibrations.
It is not they should be a specific shape, I would read up or google around on building your own boxes for your speakers. I assume they are between 6 and 7'' inches. Mine are 6.5''. But you will want them in some sort of box. And trust me I hate the way those other speakers look to Here are a few things I found that may help you out during a quick google: Building Speaker Boxes DIY Speaker enclosures It is vastly a learning experience though. You quickly learn what works and what does not. As with most things experimentation is quite fun. And produces that unique sound you desired that no storebought item can Mod on!
