Hey all, Im moving soon and finally get a TV in my room so I came over here to ask for some help
How do you convert car speakers for home theater use?
I am aware that I will need some sort of crossover and amps

but am confused at how to piece everything together and what kind of power supply will I need to power something that requires so much power?
(subwoofer, 3 pairs of speakers)

Any help appreciated!
Thanks

Really, there's little functional difference between car speakers and home speakers. There are some differences, but really, not that much.

The primary change is impedance. Home speakers are typically 8 ohm impedance, whereas car speakers are typically 4 ohm impedance. This puts different demands on the amplifiers, so you need to be sure that your amplifier is up to handling the lower impedance speakers, or you'll damage it. Alternately, if you still really want to do this, you can put 2 car speakers in series, at which point the amplifier will see the required 8 ohm load, and work just fine.

Another thing to consider is this: Car speakers are made for a very hostile environment. Because of this, they cannot use what is arguably the best cone material for speaker use: Paper. The world's best sounding speakers use paper cones, but because a car has to endure extreme temperature ranges, not to mention the humidity factors, paper becomes a poor choice in a car. So car speakers are made with heavier materials which have acceptable properties. The problem is that the heavier the material, the more demand it puts on the voice coil, plus the more demand on its own compliance and rigidity. As such, car speakers will never be as good as top notch home speakers are, no matter how good they are in a car environment.

However, if you take all this into account, you can still use the car speakers. All you really need to do is put them into a box.

For a woofer, you can get the Thiele/Small parameters, and use box software to determine the box parameters, which will result in the best possible sound. For the midrange/tweets, most likely, just a box that holds them in place will do.

I recommend that you do not use the car amplifiers. I further recommend that you use a pair of the full range speakers, wired in series, as stated above, and connect that to your amplifier. The subwoofer can be connected (in an enclosure) to an amplified subwoofer output, many home woofers are also 4 ohm, after all. If your system requires an amplified woofer, you're probably outta luck.

There are AC supply systems that will supply power for 12V accessories, they use these in car audio stores, however, you'll find that you can go buy a very nice home amplifier for less than the price of one of these systems. You're looking at $350-$500 for a power supply that will provide 60-80A of current for a 12V amplifier, and they go up from there.

thanks for the quick reply, so if I do not use a "car" amp then I just use a AC->12vDC power supply but then would i just connect all my speakers to the power supply with cross overs in between?

or how will i regulate the constant 12v to speakers while putting the RCA plugs in there?

No no no...

If you do not use a car amp, then you don't need a 12VDC supply. Instead you need connect them to an amplifier that can handle 4 ohm speakers, or wire them in series to get an 8 ohm load so that your amplifier can handle them.

If you DO use a car amp, then you need 12VDC to power the amplifier, and you wire the speakers to that amplifier.

You do NOT wire your speakers to power.

oh haha ok i got it
your talking about amps for home theater right? those recievers

but dont they give out very little power?

Many of those are several hundred watts. Typically it is car stereo that is "underpowered." Though there are car systems out there that pump a few hundred, possibly up to a thousand watts out there, those are few and far between. Car audio is also subject to numbers that are pure hype. Amps are rated for up to 4 times the amount of power that they're actually capable of in real terms. Home amplifiers are as well, but it's far easier to push 400 or 500 watts when you're dealing with the kind of voltage that you have in your household AC than if you're starting with 12V. This is one of the primary reasons that car speakers are typically 4 ohms -- they need to be in order to get any power out of them, with the relatively weak voltage that goes into them.

This is also why it's difficult to get a system that pumps out enough 12VDC to power a car amplifier in a home environment. It is far more efficient to work with the higher voltage to start with than to drop it down, and then bring it back up again.

Wait, what are you using for a reciever? Its sounds like your wanting to use a car radio with rca inputs.

man.. use a car amp. and

find an old pc and rip the power supply out.

its just a decent sized power inverter.
and use that. done it b4 but i can't remember what order the wires go in. something like this: cut off the molex connector and run the 5v into the power and the 5v into the memory and ground into ground.
if the amp gives u dim light and no sound you've hooked up the 3.5 line.
but please please...google this. as we did blow up 1 amp testing it.

i mean if your doing it on a budget this is good. but id still probably rather have some house speakers in my house.