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Car subwoofer w/conventional receiver ?

DoctorJon

DoctorJon

Member
Hello all. I am posting because I want to try using a two speaker pioneer car subwoofer in my den. The sub consists of two - 4 Ohm speakers. My NAD reciever has a power option of 4 Ohms. I can get it to work just fine but I am wondering.... can I add any smaller speakers to gain a bit of definition without stressing the reciever out? A+B speaker option is available. Is there any way I could add some smaller speakers to bring the mids and highs out a bit more without messing with the distribution of power?

Ty for reading.. comments would be appreciated.
 
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Yes, but you would need to add a crossover as well. Unless the speakers you wanted to add were also 4Ω, you'll either have to build your own or get separate low pass and high pass passive crossovers. Since both drivers are in a single box, you'll want a low crossover frequency, preferably 100hz or lower. There's not a huge selection of passive subwoofer crossovers, unfortunately; most passive crossovers are designed for woofers, mids and tweeters, not subwoofers.

What's the model of your NAD? Do you have any other amplifiers not currently in use?
 
DoctorJon said:
Hello all. I am posting because I want to try using a two speaker pioneer car subwoofer in my den. The sub consists of two - 4 Ohm speakers. My NAD reciever has a power option of 4 Ohms. I can get it to work just fine but I am wondering.... can I add any smaller speakers to gain a bit of definition without stressing the reciever out? A+B speaker option is available. Is there any way I could add some smaller speakers to bring the mids and highs out a bit more without messing with the distribution of power?

Ty for reading.. comments would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Not sure about the NAD specifically, but generally the A+B switch just wires A and B speakers in parallel -- so if they mains were 4 ohms and the subs are 4 ohms, that would be a load of two ohms.

I don't think you will have any success driving the passive subs with the NAD amp because you won't have any sub crossover control (necessary for getting the sub tuned to seamlessly match the main speakers) or any level (volume) control for the sub to balance its output with the mains.

You can use the Pioneer sub, but you'd need to add a separate subwoofer amp with crossover and level controls built in to use it effectively. Dayton makes some inexpensive sub amps. You'd want the sub amp to have separate left/right RCA inputs (instead of a single LFE input) and/or separate left/right high-level inputs. Most sub amps are mono out, so you'd need to wire the pioneer sub drivers in serial (creating an 8-ohm load) or, if the sub amp can handle a 2-ohm load, wire them in parallel, but wiring serial for 8 ohms is probably safer for the sub amp.
 
I'd consider using a separate amp with an adjustable crossover to feed the subs. Makes it much easier to tune and balance things out. It also won't stress out the NAD.
 
the skipper said:
How are those two subs connected in the box? If they are in parallel, then the amp will see a two ohm load right there. Could be troublesome.
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They are connected seperately. I have one in the left channel and one in the right channel of my receiver. If I bring the power setting up to 8 Ohms will these two speakers in my channel A divide the load into 4 Ohm each?

Also, the power output stated for NAD 7130 is 30w per channel. My sub speakers are 500w. I dont mind them being underpowered, but will this effect the quality drastically?
 
swechsler said:
You didn't answer the other part of my question.
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I don't have another amp around unfortunately.

Update: I don't plan on using anything on my NAD receiver other than the two 4 Ohm 500w Pioneer sub speakers. No other speakers need to be hooked into the receiver than that.

Will this simplify things to the point where my NAD 7130 with 30 watts per channel will be able to power my 500w Pioneer sub speakers x2. Will the low watt output of the receiver affect sound quality of the high watt subs?

Should I be running this on 4 Ohm power setting or 8 Ohm with just the two subs?

Thanks
 
Also, I would not use car subwoofers in a home application. Unless your house happens to be a car, truck, van, or SUV. Acoustics in homes and vehicles are different, vehicle has a smaller space to cover.
 
DoctorJon said:
Hello all. I am posting because I want to try using a two speaker pioneer car subwoofer in my den. The sub consists of two - 4 Ohm speakers. My NAD reciever has a power option of 4 Ohms. I can get it to work just fine but I am wondering.... can I add any smaller speakers to gain a bit of definition without stressing the reciever out? A+B speaker option is available. Is there any way I could add some smaller speakers to bring the mids and highs out a bit more without messing with the distribution of power?

Ty for reading.. comments would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

be careful, those 4ohm drivers might be wired in parallel so actually 2ohm, this is not unusual in the mobile audio world. You don't want let the magic smoke out of your receiver.

Ok, I see this was already brought up and addressed.
 
DoctorJon said:
I don't have another amp around unfortunately.

Update: I don't plan on using anything on my NAD receiver other than the two 4 Ohm 500w Pioneer sub speakers. No other speakers need to be hooked into the receiver than that.

Will this simplify things to the point where my NAD 7130 with 30 watts per channel will be able to power my 500w Pioneer sub speakers x2. Will the low watt output of the receiver affect sound quality of the high watt subs?

Should I be running this on 4 Ohm power setting or 8 Ohm with just the two subs?

Thanks
Click to expand...

The lower power will just limit output; use 8 ohm setting.
 
KentTeffeteller said:
Also, I would not use car subwoofers in a home application. Unless your house happens to be a car, truck, van, or SUV. Acoustics in homes and vehicles are different, vehicle has a smaller space to cover.
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Agreed; and first hand experience showed me that this is true. I tried a backseat boombox loaded with a pair of 12's and it sounded terrible in my room.
 
Years ago I set a young family friend up with a car subwoofer and a low power Yamaha receiver (that had a channel out), he was very pleased with it.
 
swechsler said:
Yes, but you would need to add a crossover as well. Unless the speakers you wanted to add were also 4Ω, you'll either have to build your own or get separate low pass and high pass passive crossovers. Since both drivers are in a single box, you'll want a low crossover frequency, preferably 100hz or lower. There's not a huge selection of passive subwoofer crossovers, unfortunately; most passive crossovers are designed for woofers, mids and tweeters, not subwoofers.

What's the model of your NAD? Do you have any other amplifiers not currently in use?
Click to expand...

Sometimes an amplifier is required to drive large resistive loads such as a loudspeaker or to drive a motor in a robot and for these types of applications where high switching currents are needed Power Amplifiers are required.
 
It does not matter if the driver is designed for automotive / residential or commercial use as long as it is in a properly tuned enclosure.

Having said that, it's no surprise some have used a car audio sub enclosure in their home with lackluster results. Car audio enclosures are typically tuned to take advantage of the vehicles transfer function.

You CAN use your Pioneer subs with your NAD but I doubt you will find the experience satisfying. The NAD does not have enough power and you may damage your Pioneers by forcing the amp to do things it wasn't designed to do.

If you insist on persisting you should seek some sort of low pass filter. You can use a simple choke coil to act as a simple 6db low pass filter or you could design a more complex passive low pass filter. You could also use some sort of electronic crossover but that would be considerably more expensive.
 
Your NAD was not designed to drive a subwoofer. Buy a plate amp from Parts Express or similar outlet. Your box will probably be fine. Wire the woofers in series, set the crossover to come in below your main speakers effective range, and push "play".
You may have to experiment with room placement, especially in a smaller room
 
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