Car Audio gear for Home System

[Bigpete123 1]

Hi Everyone. It has been a while since I've posted here...

You may (or may not) remember my build log (start on page 5ish)

The old Mercedes has reached a point where I need to sell it. It's sad after all of the work I've done, but it's getting too expensive to maintain. I spent a lot of money on the audio gear in that car, and I'm sure I won't get anything near its value when I sell it. So my current plan is to remove the audio gear and replace it with inexpensive stuff.

I don't have a car to transplant the gear into, so I was thinking that maybe I could make a nice little stereo for my woodshop using my 3 way front speakers, my sub in a new sealed enclosure, and my JL Audio 500/5 Amp.

I've never done anything like this before. My question is how to convert 12v DC power to 120v AC power while meeting the amperage requirements of the amplifier. In the car installation, the amp requires a 50 amp fuse. I'm not knowledgeable when it comes to electricity, so I don't know how to determine the equivalent amperage requirement in a 120v AC configuration. Is it still 50 amps, or does that value change when you go from 12v to 120v?

I know that amperage drops by half when you double voltage (from light experience wiring my woodshop with 120v and 240v breakers/etc), but I don't know how AC vs DC plays into it.

Has anybody done this before? Can you point me to a good power converter that will work in my situation?

Thanks!

Peter

[todd.brust 29]

You just need a 12V power supply with a high current rating. A nice one could get pretty spendy though. You might be better off just buying a cheap receiver.

We have a pretty good size power supply at the audio shop I work at with a nice bank of batteries to run our car audio display room.

[///M5 2,833]

Bummer on the car The M is about to go up for sale as well, probably tomorrow in fact.

You'd save money by selling it all and buying home gear most likely. Power supplies are really expensive.

[Bigpete123 1]

Bummer on the car The M is about to go up for sale as well, probably tomorrow in fact.

You'd save money by selling it all and buying home gear most likely. Power supplies are really expensive.

Good luck with the sale.

Yeah, I think you're both right. I guess I could just sell the HU and the amp and get a cheap 2ch receiver and Dayton sub amp. It's going in a woodshop so it's not worth spending much money on since I'll be wearing ear protection much of the time I'm out there anyway!

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Pete, that is sad news about the ce. Mine is still going strong with 176k and no issues other then needing a new O2 censor. You going to find another old MB?

[Bigpete123 1]

Pete, that is sad news about the ce. Mine is still going strong with 176k and no issues other then needing a new O2 censor. You going to find another old MB?

Nah, I actually think I'm going to get a small truck. Woodworking has become a big hobby for me so being able to pick stuff up at the hardwood supplier easily would be nice.

I bought a 2005 BMW 3 series wagon a few months back, so the MB has become the secondary car (and is hardly driven). It has 210k miles on it and is 20 years old, so like any car that age, things just start failing. But the parts and labor are super expensive... The car's only worth like $2,500, so there's a point when I just have to let it go. I've put way too much money into this car already, and if I were to get into even a small accident the car would be totaled and I'd lose a lot of money.