Team-BHP - Adding Creative subwoofer for the existing ICE

Hi all,

I would like to add creative powered subwoffer(17W rms) to the existing ICE.

The woofer is lying unused since i upgraded to home theatre and the idea of putting the creative subwoofer in to my car striked. I feel these are the main advantages..

- no amp required
- small size
- good bass quality
- and i need not spend much cost for this upgradation

Now i need your help in getting this done as i have to calrify few doubts before doing it myself.

- The subwoofer input will be the sub pre-out from the head unit right?
- The ouput from Head unit is 17 W rms per channel. I have connected 2 4'' speakers in front and 6*9 coaxials in the back. So if i connect the pre sub out to woofer will the head unit be able to drive everything(remeber its a powered subwoofer)
- Also the subwoofer needs 12V AC 4.2 Ampere power input. I know car power source is dc. How to get this done? do you have any inverters to do this. Kindly let me know the product links and price for this.

Kindly help me in doing this. This may help many car enthusisastic like me who can upgrade to woofer without spending 10k from our wallet.

Thanks,
Senthil.

wouldn't recommend what you are up to. have just posted some pre-amplified subs in some post, will make a separate thread for reference.

one thing you needn't worry about though. there is no 12V AC. it would probably have an adapter that you plug in AC, but output would be 12V DC only.

The good thing about DIY is that you can try out anything you feel like!

I would suggest that you first try out how it sounds:
- Connect your HU's preout to prein of the sub.
- Park you car, take a long extension cord and use an AC outlet to power the sub. (Using the sub's power adapter, of course)
- Do a little listening test. Atleast an hour. See if you like the sound. It may not sound as nice as you expect it to.

If you like the sound a lot, you might want to try the voltage convertor thing.

All said, I would like to warn you that a pc-sub wouldn't have been designed taking harsh automotive environment into consideration and might conk off after a while.

Happy experimenting!

hi,

what is the size of the sub? the power input would be 12v dc. you can just connect it to the car electricals. but please do make sure it is 12v dc.

imo there is nothing to lose. and do make sure the front and rear speakers are in phase. if it is inverted the bass will cancel out.

i would suggest dont do it your self if you don't know about phase and its effects on sound. sometimes installers wire the speakers with reverse polarity. although they might be in phase(same polarity even if reverse) but they could be out of phase with the sub.

rest please do let us know how it sounds and best of luck.

cheers
clip

Its 12V AC for power input to subwoofer.

Inspire 5.1 5200

Can some one enlighten me on how to connect speakers properly in phase. anyone has wiring diagram or specifications? also how to find out if speakers are in phase in the current setup?

@prakasse:
you can see that i posted on your thread yesterday against your idea and then removed the contents as i wanted to give it a try.

i used a powered sub-woofer that takes in a pre-out and puts-out 65W rms as mentioned by the manual. this one is from singapore and has one of those typically nasal sounding korean names. but it is a pretty good performer while connected to my PC. no jarring in full volume too.

the sub was powered from a AC wall socket in my parking lot via a 12V DC adaptor supplied with the sub. the rest of it was the HU of the car as it was.

my observation:
i could feel a notable difference in the way a particular track sounded while the sub pre-out was switched on and off via the HU's menu.

IMHO,... i will never work out this way, though i have a shallow pocket. it still sounded unjustified to the rest my car speakers' quality. but worth a try for a makeshift sub.

thanks for that prakasse.

Mt inspire 4.2 takes 12v DC as the input voltage, so i think we can connect it fairly safely to the car electricals. but the thing is there are soo many wires at the back of the HU i dont know where to connect it. and what is the rear and the front being in phase? i dont understand that as well. how to make sure that they are in phase?

All you need to do is run a pair of power wires to your subwoofer. 4.2 amps is no problem.

The good thing about the fact that it accepts 12VAC, is that you wont have to worry about polarity (of the power). I hope you have DIYed before.
Just run a pair of wires (16AWG and below) speaker wire can be used. Connect it to the acc and ground.
If you connect it to a direct supply it will always remain on.

Solder a pin to the other end (which is probably in the boot) - be careful with the solder job. If the 2 poles touch each other briefly, your HU will stop working. Changing the acc 10A fuse will fix that.

Apart from this you will need a long RCA cable, connected from the sub out of your HU to the audio in of the subwiifer. In case you do not have a sub out, use the rear pre out.

Good luck.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gopz (Post 624502)

gbps which sub do u have? Can it be connected to home audio?

gopz, the one that i used to test prakasse's idea was some korean brand that has pretty good specifications and is from my 2.1 system that i'm using for my PC.