# Hook up car sub/ PA speakers at home



## snazzyD (Jul 13, 2008)

I know there are a previous posts regarding this, but i wanted to know specifics on what i need to do with what i have so that i can hook everything up as best as possible. 

I have 2 yamaha PA speakers each with 300 watts, 600 watts peak power. I dont have a PA/powered mixer. 

I have Lanzar 12'' enclosed car sub with 4 ohms and 1000w connected to a sherwood amp with 100w rms x 2 or 250w rms x 1.

I wanted to run everything through a sony home theater receiver with 8 ohms and i think 185watts. If the PA speakers wont work, ill just use my surround sound speakers.

Can someone tell me how to hook all this up? Ive heard that you can use a plate amp, a power inverter or a power supply but i dont know how to hook it all up regarding amps and watts.

Thanks


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## Soundy (Feb 17, 2006)

First of all, I don't think you'll find PA speakers sound all that good in a home theater situation - they're generally designed for loudness more than quality. 

Second, if your receiver is rated for 185W *total* it probably won't have enough power to get any kind of level out of the speakers. If it has a built-in sub amp, the power is likely split at 25W to each of the surround speakers (two front, two rear, one center), and 60W for the sub, or something like that - and that assumes it's a 5.1 amp, rather than 7.1. This is just a guess though, as you really haven't provided any details about the receiver.

Finally, if you want to use the car sub with this setup, you'll almost certainly need a separate amp, because the home theater amp definitely won't deliver enough power, and probably wouldn't like the four-ohm load the sub presents. You can use your Sherwood amp if you can deliver it enough current at 12V. Fortunately that shouldn't be a lot, since at 4 ohms the amp will only be outputting about 50W, although the with the Sherwood it should be 50 very clean watts and will probably need up to 15-20A at peak output. Some will suggest using a surplus computer PSU, but personally I've found an old battery works well, as it can deliver the current peaks well when demanded, and can just be maintained with a cheap trickle-charger.


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