Re: car audio in cabinet questions

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: : Hi - I'm building a custom cabinet and putting in a car audio system rather than an existing speaker/amp set - figured it would sound better and save some mounting hassle. So, questions: : Alrighty : : 1. Any pros/cons to bottom vs side firing subwoofer? If down, it would be firing down into a 3" toekick area so shouldn't be any airflow problems there. : If you do have the subs firing to the sides, you would hear it well in a large area, but it wouldn't be as loud as if you shot it at the ground. If you shot it at the ground, you might not get the best quality of bass, but you WILL get loud, basically it will shake your floor if they're big enough. : : 2. I was figuring on using an amp that can work as a 3-way with a built crossover. Any issues with this plan? : Don't know enough about amps to comment about this. I got a Kenwood Excelon for my car, 200-watts with stereo output, mono-bridged to the left side to a 12". : : 3. Are there any issues with an 8/10" sub magnet sitting in close proximity to a hard drive? even if I have the system up on a shelf it will still be only a foot or so away from the sub. : Alright, this is the big one you gotta make sure you look out for, DO NOT put your subs inside of your cabinet if you want them loud. The MAIN reason I say this, your cabinet will not only be a video game machine, but it will also act as the box for the subwoofers, and so if you just mount them onto the walls, you will basically make a resonating cabinet that SHAKES! : Alright, try this, take a somewhat loud sub and put it in a wood box, listen to that sucker rattle and roll. What I highly suggest is you make a box for your subs and mount it externally from the cabinet maybe put one facing to the rightish and one facing to the leftish, but so they are both outside of the box as so the cabinet does not act as a giant resonator, although if you have subs period your cabinet will resonate or shake. : : 4. What are the good brands and sources for this equipment? Been 10 years since I shopped for car audio.. : If your in the Seattle area (well, more towards woodinville), look up Magnolia Hi-Fi, they have some GREAT stuff, although they want you to buy expensive of course. I got my lightening audio 12" musical-aimed subwoofer for $125, and it sounds damn good, gets every beat of Radiohead. : : 5. Oh, is a 300W PC power supply sufficient to drive an amp? : I wouldn't run your amp off of your pc power supply, unless you want it to fry. Draining that much constant power is a very bad idea from something that is already being used, plus a pc power supply is being run to delicate hardware, one tiny surge and poof, your computer is fried. Umm.. you can try looking for power supplies at local electronics stores, ask them what they think you should use. If you had a pc power supply that was solely being used for the amp, it might work, but shop around, see what's good and what's not. : : Any other suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance! : Make sure you don't have tooo loud of subs else you will literally shake apart your cabinet apart, meaning all the barely loose screws will become very loose and you'll probably have some future problems unless EVERYTHING is secure, and that means lots of double checking and triple checking and what not. If I was wrong about something with the amp, that's cause I don't have a lot of experience with amps at all, I'm mostly using my judgement. I do know your cabinet will resonate helllla bad if you put the subs in the cabinet, like mounting them on the wall, so external subs might be a good idea, maybe make 2 towers on the left and right of your cabinet, so you can have 2 subs and 2 6x9s in the tower, get some killer sound. : : joe : CthulhuLuke : Good Luck!

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