home therater in car

**hachacker5024** · 05-17-2009, 07:17 PM

what do you guys think of putting a home theater system instead of amps powering regular car speakers. ex home theater unit and the home theater sub in trunk and car speaks ran to that unit carputer hooked up to home theater setup in the back with optical hooked up.

think about that

**malcom2073** · 05-17-2009, 07:30 PM

http://www.interforcesystems.com/car...t/IMG_3272.jpg
One guy near here at the DC meet did just that. I can't for the life of me remember his mp3car name though

**PaulF** · 05-17-2009, 07:46 PM

This question pops up over and over again. Hell, I've even brought up this question in the past. It probably pops into everyones head at some point.

The reason for not having home audio systems in a car, is that they're not designed to be used in cars. Simple as that. They're not designed to be used in cars, as they cannot deal with road noise and vibrations.

A while back, I tried using a home subwoofer in my car. In the house, it was powerful enough that it caused pictures to fall off the walls (yes, this actually happened), but in the car it was audible in only the hardest-hitting songs while driving. While the car was parked, it did sound great however.

Stick to cat audio products in a car.

**nobb** · 05-17-2009, 07:51 PM

I would have thought that a home theatre sub would be louder inside a car due to the fact that the cabin inside a car is smaller than a living room. But yea, definitely stick to car audio products in a car.

**bobdole369** · 05-22-2009, 09:24 PM

But yea, definitely stick to car audio products in a car.

IMHO - Terrible advice. Feel free to experiment - some of the best sounding speakers come from the home audio world. With a little bit of help electrically (think sine wave inverter + big ole filter) I could see a Denon or something working well in a car. It's all about how you do it.

**PaulF** · 05-24-2009, 10:50 PM

Originally Posted by bobdole369

IMHO - Terrible advice. Feel free to experiment - some of the best sounding speakers come from the home audio world. With a little bit of help electrically (think sine wave inverter + big ole filter) I could see a Denon or something working well in a car. It's all about how you do it.

I guess it's terrible advice if you have plenty of money to blow on expensive home theater equipment and expensive power inverters. A good pure sine wave inverter which can run a powerful stereo system is up around 400 bucks. Plus the audio equipment is extremely expensive.

Plus there are the physical incapabilities... with home speakers, the enclosure is the speaker, you can't just take the speakers out of the enclosures and mount them in the doors, you have to mount the whole enclosure in the car, or experiment with making alternative enclosures.

A car is still an entirely different environment from a house. I guarantee you can make a home audio system sound excellent while the car is in park, but once you start moving around, it will be terrible, unless of course you dynamat the entire vehicle.

But hey, if you have the money to carry out that kind of experiment, go for it. But I would rather just blow that kind of money on some serious products designed for the car.

**Injector** · 05-24-2009, 11:04 PM

Originally Posted by PaulF

I guess it's terrible advice if you have plenty of money to blow on expensive home theater equipment and expensive power inverters. A good pure sine wave inverter which can run a powerful stereo system is up around 400 bucks. Plus the audio equipment is extremely expensive.

Plus there are the physical incapabilities... with home speakers, the enclosure is the speaker, you can't just take the speakers out of the enclosures and mount them in the doors, you have to mount the whole enclosure in the car, or experiment with making alternative enclosures.

A car is still an entirely different environment from a house. I guarantee you can make a home audio system sound excellent while the car is in park, but once you start moving around, it will be terrible, unless of course you dynamat the entire vehicle.

But hey, if you have the money to carry out that kind of experiment, go for it. But I would rather just blow that kind of money on some serious products designed for the car.

you guys are missing one thing, the OP stated he wanted to use a home theater unit as well, i see nothing stopping him from using the home theather unit on the car but with car speakers, and a power inveter.

**PaulF** · 05-24-2009, 11:16 PM

Originally Posted by Injector

you guys are missing one thing, the OP stated he wanted to use a home theater unit as well, i see nothing stopping him from using the home theather unit on the car but with car speakers, and a power inveter.

I did miss that, good catch. A power inverter is still noisy and expensive, but this would at least work. The issue you need to watch out for here is speaker impedance. Car speakers usually have an impedance of 4 ohms, while home speakers vary between 6 and 8 ohms. There are exceptions in both areas, however.

If the impedance of whatever is powering the speakers, does not match that of the speakers, it will cause clipping to occur and at least one of the pieces involved will get damaged.

**Flaring_Afro** · 05-24-2009, 11:34 PM

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/faq-...akers-car.html

next time check the faqs. and its absolutely terrible advice to experiment with it. it'll never sound as good for the $$$ as real car audio. dont waste your money trying. just go to amazon and get some speakers. they are half the price of best buy and audio shops.

**bobdole369** · 05-25-2009, 12:10 AM

experiment with making alternative enclosures.

This.

with home speakers, the enclosure is the speaker, you can't just take the speakers out of the enclosures and mount them in the doors, you have to mount the whole enclosure in the car, or experiment with making alternative enclosures.

Sure you could. It won't sound anything like the original enclosures as you mentioned. Whether bad or good depends on the circumstances and the drivers themselves! When talking about doing this of course I meant experimenting with alternative enclosures.

once you start moving around, it will be terrible, unless of course you dynamat the entire vehicle.

Nah, this again depends on circumstances and how the speakers and electronics work in the new environment. You can't say with certainty that it will be "terrible". As for sound deadening the entire car, why wouldn't you already have that done? Are folks seriously trying for decent SQ car audio without at least a layer or 3 of basic sound deadening?