Home theater sub-woofer in my car?

Question

OK so i have a $2,000 Klipsch RT-10d Sub-woofer in my home theater which I am going to swap out for a better sub(nothing wrong with it just need more power. like a 30" sub lol) and I'm putting a brand new Alpine system into my car so I had a crazy idea. Is it possible to take the sub-woofer apart and construct a sub-woofer box for my car from this? It has a 700-watt amp inside of it already as well as three 10" woofers so theoretically, it seems feasible to me but I need some help as I have never done any work on a car audio system before.

As a side-note, please do not post what sub-woofer I should buy as I already have a backup if this can't work. Just post what could help make this work please. I don't mean to sound rude but past experiences with Yahoo! Answers has proved that people just write whatever they want even if it has nothing to do with the question being asked.

Answer 1

Several things to consider....a home theater subwoofer is not geared for Car audio play. It MAY sound good...or it may sound REALLY Bad...

Why?

Several things...the car makes noise....smaller enclosure...road noise...box size and physical room size. Obviously in your house...your room is....what....like 8 foot by 6 foot on a small sized room. Doesn't have much stuff in the way like car seats and bodies....in a car, you might have 4x5 feet?! clear out all the seats...and make some room....

The subwoofers may need to breath.

Now the other issue, is providing power to the sub...and if you plan to use the 700watt amp built in....how do you or how will you power it up?

Now if you plan to get a Car amplifier instead, then the issue is finding out what Ohms the three 10" subs are. And see if your car amp or find a car amp that would be able to give you the proper ohms for your three subs.

Otherwise you could damage the amp, head unit, subs etc....



Most of the time...from past experience....had a few friends try this...and you get some bass...but just that it turns muddy...and just not clean like it was in the home. If you plan to strip the woofers out of the original enclosure, you'd need to make sure your new box is built to the specs of the 3 10's....

So finding out more info about those subs are going to be required, if you want to build a box appropriately.

Answer 2

About anything CAN be done with car audio. The question is usually how much sense does it make and is it worth the effort.



What you have is a single 10" sub -- the other two are passive radiators (they are not powered).



What you woudl need to power it is a large AC inverter. How large is the question.



The amp is 700w rms, and as any amp, has some degree of inefficiency. I was not able to find any specific efficiency info on the 700w bash hybrid amp, but it is likely better than standard a/b efficiency (~%60) but not as good as high end class D efficiency (~90%), so I ll take a WAG and figure it s around 75%. You don t need to know exactly, you just need a power supply capable of providing something a bit more than the max demand of the amp.

At 700w and 75% efficiency you d need a power supply capable of a little over 900w.



Harbor freight has some cheap modified sine wave inverters in that power range for <$150, but for a component that expensive you should probably look for a pure sine wave inverter. A quick web search found some options for $230 or so.



The inverter would install basically like a car amp -- then you d just plug in the sub.



Alternatively -- If you wanted to get creative you could explore the option to remove the plate amp, and seal the hole with something. That way you could power the sub with a standard car amp. The only other thing you d need to know is the impedance of the sub. If it s high (8 ohms) that could add to the difficulty (cost) of finding a capable amp.

Answer 3

A 10" woofer, two passive radiators and 700 watts is overkill in a small space like a car. If you're comfortable with that kind of bass pressure and you aren't deaf yet, go on and do it. Start carrying tools to tighten up hardware that shakes loose, until you figure out you can turn the volume down some and still feel the rumble.



Beyond the transformer and rectifier in the system, you'll probably find the circuit runs on 10-14 volts DC. Wire in there to run it in your car, but realize it is going to make its 700 watts from high current. Find 60amps extra current just for your entertainment.

Answer 4

12v amp is going to be easier than recycling the ac amp and trying to convert. My main concern is if the llipsch can withstand constant vibrations, moisture, and extreme temperature swings like a car sub. My second concern is passive radiators are rarely seen in the trunk. I wonder if you would actually have worse sound results vs just using a dedicated car sub.

Answer 5

This is crazy. But i think iths good. You can try.