psu to power amp and speakers?

qaz · 05-30-2005, 12:42 PM

i was wondering for my home, if a computer power supply has enough power from the 12v line to power and amp with 4 speakers. thanks
Sean

dan__wright · 05-30-2005, 05:33 PM

yeah it sh ould be ok, but deppends on the psu and amp, but in short, yes it can be done.

EsKALad · 05-30-2005, 06:02 PM

No way man. It won't be powerful enough. If your talking about a 4 channel car amp? Running that 14 guage wire to power it will not have enough power

0l33l · 05-30-2005, 06:05 PM

I hear that AT PSUs have very strong 12v lines. But don't quote me on that.

evandude · 05-30-2005, 06:08 PM

you'll probably find AT supplies with 12v lines around 8 amps max... which isn't even 100 watts. maybe if you go buy one of those HAM radio power supplies, the bench ones that give you a cigarette lighter output.... those are sometimes rated at 20 or more amps output. However, you'll probably want to use a big cap on it, because the intermittent current draw will probably be much greater than the constant current draw...

or you could easily do it if you just get a car battery and a nice heavy duty car battery charger... run it with the charger on and connected and you should be fine.

but the real question is... WHY?

kevinlekiller · 05-30-2005, 07:42 PM

Yes it works, dont put the gain too high on the amp. (I did it to test my subs and radio when I got them to see if they worked).

qaz · 05-30-2005, 10:07 PM

click any of the links on the psu tiger direct page. they say how many amps each one has on the 12v line.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati....asp?CatId=106

is 25 amps enough then?

evandude: i wanna have one central computer in my house to control maybe 12 speakers throughout. ebay has 6.5" speakers for $20 a pair. i figure this is one of the easiest and cheapest ways of doing it. however, im always open for suggestions.

Thanks guys

greenman100 · 05-30-2005, 11:47 PM

you can get 5 channel home theater amps for $50 each used

binary.h4x · 05-31-2005, 09:10 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by greenman100

you can get 5 channel home theater amps for $50 each used

where at?

Nic · 05-31-2005, 09:23 AM

computer power supplies arent designed to deal with a current load that fluctuates as much as an amp will, in short, its a bad bad idea

qaz · 05-31-2005, 09:29 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Nic

computer power supplies arent designed to deal with a current load that fluctuates as much as an amp will, in short, its a bad bad idea

but a cap should smooth it out fine. either way, whats the worst that could happen, itll kill the psu. its only $25 anyway, i figure its worth a shot. i wanna recess the speakers in the ceiling in all the rooms and for the price of 6.5" car speakers it seems like i cant lose. so i guess it comes down to...is 20-25 amps enough to power this?

Hcomplyr · 05-31-2005, 09:41 AM

i've used car speakers on my home stereo before without any issues and i had a relatively crappy reviever

evandude · 05-31-2005, 10:13 AM

I agree, just get a reciever. car amps are designed to run on 12 volts, recievers are designed to run on AC. It would be stupid to convert AC to 12 volts just to run an amp, when you can run straight off AC... not to mention, a reciever is much more suited to home use anyway (can switch between different audio sources, can have EQ, you can use a remote control, built-in radio, etc etc)

using a car amp indoors seems about as smart as using a reciever in the car on an inverter.

qaz · 05-31-2005, 12:09 PM

so i can use a home reciever with car speakers and it would sound and act the same?

qaz · 05-31-2005, 12:23 PM

i was just looking at some on ebay and theyre all 8 ohms as opposed to 4 or 2 like car speakers. is this the only difference? whats the drawbacks? thanks

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