Car Audio in the House/Garage?

[blockrocker]

My biggest questions are about the ac/dc converters used to power up the gear. Does anyone have experience with these things? Are the cheap Powermax ones as good as the RV chargers that shops sell? Is the converter noise too much for a quiet listening room? Is there any extra risk to having my 12V gear hooked up in such a manner?

This is more of a curiosity question, then anything else. I usually have some extra gear kicking around, or would love to test out some gear, without the hassle of actually installing it into the truck. I know a lot of guys use this setup in garages or even in houses, so I am hoping for any insight or pitfalls into building my own little garage setup. Pros, cons or avoid all together?

[JVD]

Hey buddy.

I'd personally just put your efforts into decent home stuff.

If you're set on car audio at home I'd find a good DC power supply. I actually use a modded (8awg soldered to PCB) PC power supply for bench testing. Never tried it at higher power though. Zero noise issues in my testing.

[Jdunk54nl]

This is the best way to get a nice ac to dc converter that puts out plenty of power!

https://www.wikihow.com/Convert-a-Co...b-Power-Supply

[Grinder]

I've been using these to power car audio gear for five years now:

https://www.evga.com/products/specs/...4-00dac20fef81

I chose this particular model because it's essentially a single-rail 12v output, so 672W (56 amps) of the 700W combined rating applies to that single 12v rail, and I wanted something capable of running 500W class d amp with no trouble I've had zero issues, and no fan or other noise. They're kinda pricey, and dollar per output there are probably better power supply purchase options than a brand new computer power supply, but if you can salvage them from computers and don't mind a bit of DIY, they can't be beat. With the wiki-how tutorial linked in the previous post, you can't go wrong.

[crystalworks]

I have 2 of the 850w versions of that EVGA PS. But they are in my wife's and my gaming rigs. Will need to pick up another to do this to.

[dumdum]

Tbh I have a 1400w server power supply I modified to be on all the time, 100a at 13.8v, hook up five yinlong 40ah cells and you are good for several kw I’d think… currently I’m running a red flash battery and a 14.4v 20a power supply on a helix dsp mini plus a gold modded genesis series III four channel not monitored the voltage if I’m honest, should be rock solid as it’s a solid supply and battery

[Justin Zazzi]

At home I also use the ATX power supply conversion trick and it's awesome.

At the office, we use a lot of these (I haven't tested them in serious home-audio-quiet SQ mode though.):
https://www.progressivedyn.com/rv/po...vertercharger/




Tradeoffs of using 12v gear at home is mostly power inefficiency or potential noise problems maybe, and cost. If you try to buffer a power supply by using a car battery then you have other issues like making sure not to overcharge it, dissipating fumes, avoiding electrolyte leakage, etc.

I ran a car subwoofer (Bazooka Tube!) in my room for a few years with a cheap 12v power supply and it worked just fine. I quickly outgrew the 5A power supply though and wanted more....