This is kind of a weird question, but here it goes. I have car subwoofers that are powered by an amp.

My first question is, is there a converter that I could use to plug my amp into which then allows me to plug into a normal outlet, rather than a car battery?

My second question (and more importantly), on the back of my receiver there is an 'Output' port for a subwoofer. Is there some kind of converter I could use to plug the 'Output' from the receiver into my car amplifier?

Any replies would be much appriciated.

I read about computer power supplies being slightly modified to hook up to car amps alolowing them to be plugged into the wall outlet.

My car stereo has standard RCA plugs out of the headunit to the amp for the subwoofer channel. You should be able to plug it in. You may need a splitter to feed signal to the L and R inputs on the amp unless it only has a mono input.

What you would need is a DC power supply that puts out almost 14 volts like these:

http://www.baproducts.com/pyramid.htm

Cheaper to sell the auto amp to buy a pro amp like a Behringer to run the sub.

I figure the rca splitter should do the trick to run it from the amp to the home receiver.

bool, I also read that computer power supplies can power car amps.

"I use a spare computer PSU with all the 12V rails running into a terminal block and into my amp, with a lead from the power to the remote switch. Of my Jaycar amplifier.

Bridge the green lead to a black lead on your ATX connector block and it'll start up.

Don't push it unless you've got a 500W PSU or higher."

I'm still confused on how to wire it though. Anyone know how, exactly?

Cheaper to sell the auto amp to buy a pro amp like a Behringer to run the sub.

x roughly a billion.

Ditch the car amp for home use...it's pointless.

:( I just want to do it for fun to see what it sounds like, cause I have 1600 wattz RMS worth of subs. It would just be interesting.

Any one know how? Would it damage my amp in any way? Give the right amount of power?

Well, the real question is what amp do you have?

To run a true 1000W RMS car amp through an AC->DC conversion you'd need a few power supplies wired up.

Our test bench here consists of 4 60A power supplies to QC car audio amps. You'd need at least two if you've got a true 1000W amp and that'll run a pretty penny.

http://www.baproducts.com/asccustompages/products.asp?ProductID=3073

Two of those will offer up to a 40A surge, 480W available at 12V assuming 100% efficiency on the amp...

But wait, I thought I could run the amp off of COMPUTER power supplies (which I have plenty of). I was just wondering the exact wiring involved.

I'm pretty positive this is my amp:

http://www.electronicexpress.com/product?prod_id=11127

If not, it's close to it. Correction, I have 800 watts RMS worth of subs.

THANKS FOR THE REPLIES!

Unless you can wire your computer power supplies together to get a higher current load, you won't be able to do that. Or you'll only be able to run on ~40A out of the CPU power supply which will end up at about 400W of power for the subs assuming 80% efficiency. If you try to drive them too hard, you'll either put the amp into an under voltage protection or just straight up fry it.

But wait, I thought I could run the amp off of COMPUTER power supplies (which I have plenty of). I was just wondering the exact wiring involved.

I'm pretty positive this is my amp:

http://www.electronicexpress.com/product?prod_id=11127

If not, it's close to it. Correction, I have 800 watts RMS worth of subs.

THANKS FOR THE REPLIES!

Be very careful. There are only a few older computer PSUs that output more than 35A on the 12V line. The power rating of the computer PSU includes cummulative power over different voltage lines. That is, many of the older PSUs concentrated a bit of power into the 3.3V and 5V lines so that 12V only got maybe 50% of the rated current.

Modern computer PSUs can handle 40A on the 12V lines. If you want more, you have to pay much more than 100$.