# Car audio setup in the house



## ebrahim (Sep 21, 2009)

I know this going to sound wierd. I have several pieces of equipment that I want to put together and use it through a bluetooth source preferably my MAC or iPod. If there is anyone who could help me I would truly appreciate it thank you.

*Headunit*
Alpine old school unit but need to dig in the garage to find the model number off hand but it has preamp outputs plus iPod hookup to.

*Speakers*
Hertz Hi Energy 6.5 drivers from their HSK 165 XL set.
Tweeters unknown yet as the tweeters got stolen so I am looking at HAT for tweeters right now.

*Subwoofers*
Boston Acoustics G1 12 single 4 ohm voice coil
I got a pair although one of them is in a sealed enclosure

*Amp*
Arc Audio 2080 XXD

*Future pieces*
4 channel amp from Alpine, Arc Audio or Zapco.

*Reason for setup*
I just need something that jams in the garage since most of my work is in the garage and do not want to use my MAC since it is not that great because it does not get loud enough for me.

Thank you for all your help.


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## hurrication (Dec 19, 2011)

I'm not sure what the question is, but I run car stuff in my house. It's running off of a DC power supply like this one

The one thing I will advise is to find yourself a small 12v battery and a battery tender to wire in with the head unit's constant 12v. Otherwise, every time you turn the DC power supply off your settings in the head unit get erased.

There are also some universal din housings on ebay that are for underdash or boat installs that you can get to house the head unit and clean things up.


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## ebrahim (Sep 21, 2009)

Where did you wire your remote wire to, where did you ground and your turn on wire? Your info helped. I do have a Kinetik KHC 600 and a Red Optima battery to.



hurrication said:


> I'm not sure what the question is, but I run car stuff in my house. It's running off of a DC power supply like this one
> 
> The one thing I will advise is to find yourself a small 12v battery and a battery tender to wire in with the head unit's constant 12v. Otherwise, every time you turn the DC power supply off your settings in the head unit get erased.
> 
> There are also some universal din housings on ebay that are for underdash or boat installs that you can get to house the head unit and clean things up.


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## Lycancatt (Apr 11, 2010)

you would do the remote wire just as normal from headunit to amp.

it would likely be cheaper and easier to get a basic home receiver from a swap meet and a small plate amp designed for home theater rather than try to wire up a dc power supply, battery, trickle charger and two amps. Thiswould illuminate the headunit too.

If you did want to try it, no reason not too..just more complex than its usually worth.


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## Sine Swept (Sep 3, 2010)

Find a surplus place that carries computer power supplies. I get mine from a local electronics recycler. It usually costs me more for the cable than it does for a 20 amp power supply. Though I do agree having a battery with this setup would be a better option. The other nice thing with the computer power supplies is usually if the 12 volt power leads are shorted the supply will turn itself off.


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## hurrication (Dec 19, 2011)

I run all the power and grounds straight to the DC power supply, and the remote turn on from the head unit just like you would in a car.

You only need the battery if you want to retain the settings in your head unit. If you are not going to tweak anything in the head unit you can just run everything off the power supply without a battery. If you do use it, the only wire you need to run to the battery is the 12v constant from your head unit. I use a small 12v backup battery like this one. I got mine new off ebay for 11 dollars shipped, and also won an auction for a battery tender for like 15 bucks. 

Almost everyone will tell you "just get a receiver and a plate amp", but that's a couple hundred dollars or more of stuff you have to buy when you can spend a lot less for a power supply and use the gear you already have laying around. I went this route because I had everything already laying around and it was stuff that's impossible to sell on this forum so I put it to use.


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## Sine Swept (Sep 3, 2010)

I've got a Kenwood MP7032, a JBL LC 2 channel and a pair of JBL GTO 5.25 components in a small box I built for it all. I already had $650 into all this stuff so why not keep it in use.


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## mdavis83 (Feb 17, 2014)

Not to thread jack, but I am thinking about doing this as well. Been googling it to figure out how to do it. I have a couple questions. 1. How do you know how big of a power supply to get (wattage wise)? 2. Is it possible to use 2 amps? Do you have to have 2 power supply's? I have an extra 4 channel amp with 4 speakers but ill probly only use 2 speakers. And I also have a sub and sub amp. The sub amp is 800 watts rms but I doubt I'll ever crank it up loud enough to need that much. I'm trying to decide whether to use the sub with the other speakers in the garage or replace the sub on my surround sound in house. Just not sure how I'd hook it up to my receiver.


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## miniSQ (Aug 4, 2009)

Lycancatt said:


> you would do the remote wire just as normal from headunit to amp.
> 
> it would likely be cheaper and easier to get a basic home receiver from a swap meet and a small plate amp designed for home theater rather than try to wire up a dc power supply, battery, trickle charger and two amps. Thiswould illuminate the headunit too.
> 
> If you did want to try it, no reason not too..just more complex than its usually worth.


agreed something like this....and a plate amp

http://www.amazon.com/Lepai-LP-168H...cp_1_86AN?ie=UTF8&refRID=00048QC1S5P4SY692182


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## Victor_inox (Apr 27, 2012)

I`m in favor of using car amps with power supplies. some , not all car amps build better than el cheapo receivers. 
head units with internal amps deactivated rarely take more than 1A of current.
Each amp needed as much current as fused.


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## cubdenno (Nov 10, 2007)

I run assorted gear in my garage. 

I use a Sears platinum battery charger on auto that feeds an interstate megaton battery.

The battery feeds a power and ground distribution block.

Simple rocker switch powers the remote turn ons

Amps installed on the wall are a sundown saz1500d, saz100.4x2, jbl gto300.1 ( or some 300 watt mono sub amp.
Also installed is an alpine h701/c701 combo. An old Sony AVR as well.

I can test about any speaker configuration or rock my garage with some serious sound. 

Like you, I figured, since I got it, why not use it...


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## BoostedNihilist (Mar 3, 2008)

converting the power supply from a computer is definitely your best bet. You can get some heavy current (15 a) out of one of those things if you gang the leads. 

Knowing you can use 15a you're probably looking at multiples. 

If I was doing this project myself, I would consider rack mounting everything... but I wouldn't do this project myself. Rabbit. Hole.


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## mdavis83 (Feb 17, 2014)

I bought a power supply and did it this weekend. Bought a 600 watt that does 23amps at 12v. Just hooked a kicker 200.4 to it to hook a couple 6.5s up in the garage. It was very easy and works just fine. Gonna buy a bigger supply and try it on my sub in a few weeks.


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## RMAT (Feb 13, 2007)

I've bought one of these power supplies from ebay and it works great 12V 12 Volt 62 Amp DC 750W Power Supply RC Charger Boat Car Audio RV Ham CB | eBay


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