We did this in the 90's. I was a teenager at the time. i would use a car battery hooked up to a car battery charger. i had a punch 200, a punch 150 a 3 way cross over and a epicenter with no knob. i used a land line phone to some what make the audio control epicenter work. And it did. Me and my crew are notorious for having beats in our rooms. Irritating our parents in the mid to late 90's. This is the type of things we did b4 the internet!!!!!!!100%
LOL, I installed something similar in the late 80s for my uncle's mechanic shop tool box. I mounted the Pioneer head unit to his side-attached box, mounted to the top of the box, behind the door, facing forward. The Kenwood amp was mounted to the exterior of the side box to show off the Kenwood amp. The power converted was hidden on the back exterior of the side box. The 6x9 Pioneers were mounted to exterior-mounted steel ammo boxes from a surplus store. All components were used. The quality of the sound was decent and he loved it. Brings back memories. Thanks, I'm going to do something similar to my tool box.
I am still running the 78 amp server power supply that I built after watching your build video from 10 years ago. It has performed flawlessly and has worked as a battery charger after killing batteries during a couple of builds. It was great to see all the products that simply weren’t available back then. Thanks for this very informative video Derek. You have again inspired me and I am restarting a long dormant project, this time it will be 12 volt supply made with two server 75 watt supplies (which I already have) wired in parallel for a total of 150 amps.
The HP DPS-1200sb is the latest readily available supply that will do 100 amps and is easily modified. Have seen these daisy chained to make a 2000 amp supply.
I did this in 1986 when I the service. Mounted 6x9 pioneers in boxes and had a pioneer gm 120 pushing a sub! And a gm5 powering 6x9s. Had the pioneer components deck and equalizer. Sounded great
@@rocknrolljesus3197 I have a battery from a garden tractor, hooked to trickle charger..the battery was about $30 bucks..I haven't noticed any fumes. I also use supplies from old computer towers. There many how to YT videos .
An old head unit, an old pair of speakers, one of these small power supplies, and a tool box, and you've got one heck of a boom box! Finally, a way I can play all of my old tapes.
I did it as a teenager. Had a Rockford hx2 on an mtx road thunder amp. Used an Aiwa home stereo as the head unit. Used my dad's shop battery charger from his mechanic shop and 2 batteries he had laying around. It was nuts. Hit hard AF. Movies were never the same. Car subs have a higher output than home subs. You won't be disappointed.
I love the idea of repurposing dad's stuff from the garage. But in my case, my dad would have kicked my ass until I replaced all his goods with new stuff. I guess that's karma in my neck of the woods. 😶🌫️
I had a 1977 AUDIOMOBILE RACK system running in my parlor in 2024. I also have an AUDIOMOBILE Signature Series 3 amp setup currently running today. It is hooked up to my computer system and projector and does amplifier duties very well. I put a hole through the wall so the Power Source FAN is not heard in my parlor. Great way to KEEP EM RUNNING!!! BDBD/2024
I was doing that back in the 1990 when I was 12 years old by using a battery charger. It was running a crappie old Sherwood 2 channel Amp. Running a 15 w1 JL Audio subwoofer in a manufacture band pass box with a front plexiglass view. Along with a Pioneer Dolby Pro-Logic home theater receiver. Pissed off the Neig. Hbors , at least five houses down from me. Not to mention I put a Avitital Car Alarm System in my bedroom to keep my little brother & snooping parents outta my room! 😉😁
I did this in my first solo apartment in the 90s. Kicker comp 12 in a band pass box running off an impulse 652xi ran off a motor home power supply. Regular home stereo for the highs. Worked pretty good for watching movies.
I did this back in the 80's and 90's. I built my own 12 volt power supplies, custom wood cabinets and used a set of decent speakers. My systems rivaled a lot of home stereo's.
I made a garage sound system using one of those short DIN case head units, pair of nice 2-ways and power supply all of which fit inside a large, plastic Harbor Freight ammo box. Equipment line cord recepticle and cord which you could store inside the box along with an old-school FM antenna and jack. Sits nice on a shelf and sounds good enough for the garage.
I did this back in the mid-80s when I was a teenager. Mounted the deck and 7 band EQ in the headboard of my bed, with 6 * 9's in each side, sliding drawer. Ran off a car battery on the workbench in the basement below my bedroom.
In the 90s it was a gutted old AT tower case where DIN units rather conveniently fit in 5.25" drive bays with little modification and no need for anything to trigger the PSU beyond the A/C ine swich at the front of the case. Grab a yellow for +12. ANY Yellow. want more current? grab more yellows. This setup is still to this day running some big old Cerwin Vega boxes from the late 70s on a Kenwood Excelon head unit from the late 90s and an alpine 3525 driving them (literally my first ever car amp, still alive. Practically taught me how to repair car amps and I first got it dead from a junkyard out of a car that burned when I was like 13) I did the whole garage after I ran a pair of AR-3a speakers under my bed (both tweeters and one midrange were dead but the woofers took a refoam) I actually used automotive line converters off my pro logic receiver's main outs to drive that same alpine 3525 bridged to these 2 4 ohm woofers in series and gutted the old IBM PC clone we had to power it 🤣
Tapping an old desktop/tower PSU is a daunting task for most folks, but at one they were plentiful and literally free and could easily power a small amp all day. Anyone comfortable with a multimeter can ID the paralleled circuits and be in business on the cheap
You are the MAN! I have an Alpine 7289 and 5903 Disc Player that I am wanting to do this exact thing with... Guess I'll move it up on my "project list"... BMX on!
I think it's a great idea to have a bench top power supply! They really do come in handy for multiple purposes! But batteries I think are the way to go! Thank you again for the inspiration, Big D!!!
I have yet to run into any power supply issues in regards to these new converters. Great amperage and steady output voltage. I use older gear that used less power than these power monsters of today. More than enough power straight from the wall, enough to get stoooopid loud in my parlor. Heheheheheh... Just Do It. BDBD/2024
Did this back in the day when working in a garage as a mechanic, a cheap 12v pyramid power supply a car stereo pulled from a junk car, and two 6x9 each in their own box.
I love this. I have always messed around with my dad’s power conditioners and power supplies…. Since he worked in defense with Litton back in the day and was a EE. I have a bunch of 1000-1500 Corsair/EVGA/Galaxy PSU’s laying around since GPU’s are now more efficient and tri/quad SLI isn’t a thing anymore…. I might mess around with those and do a set up. Great idea Big-D. Thanks man. Keep up the good work.
when my cd player died on my house system i took an old sony head unit and a 12v supply, wired it up with rcas directly out and put it in a shoebox. sounds fantastic! (on a side note, i gotta buy one of those variable voltage power supplies… could’ve saved me many headaches over the years lol)
Great video. Great information. On and off in my spare time i play with my collection of amps and speakers and i am just using a battery at 12+ volts , eventually would like to try my stuff with 14+ volts. this is very helpful video. Big D you are the best and Thanks for all the videos, keep up the good work.
Great topic bigD this is a must watch for any teenage kid that is even remotely interested in car audio. Also there are LOTS of old xBox and laptop power supplies readily available at thrift stores, all have the input/output specs on a tag. It's just a matter of cutting the proprietary connector off, stripping each wire, and taking a multimeter to each wire and note where the 12-14-15 volt taps are. You da man big D
I've been THINKING about this a lot..but have yet to get into specifics..this video helped answer a lot of my burning questions..that will keep me from burning down the house
Thanks for this. I just bought the Oono ATX breakout box. I have several ATX power supplies and had always chopped the unused wires off. This way I can save the power supply I use, and not have to modify it.
I use the taramps supply myself and a 5 channel amp. Never really had any issues with the supply at all. Ty sir for sharing hope you're having a wonderful Sunday ✌️
I saw the PPI Art series in the thumbnail and immediately hit play 😄. Such great memories of my first "big" system in my Typhoon back in the 90's. 3 JL12W-6's with a PPI A1200 on them, and an A600 on all MB Quart mids and highs.
OMG That brings me way back in my bedroom checking stereo equipment before installing...jm sure this is quite informative to the GEN Z kids out there....
I did multiple projects with ATX power supplies over the years. Many pre-2005 power supplies had issues when not putting any load on the 5v and 3.3v lines. Newer ones don't have this issue much, as many motherboards weredecreasing usage of those rails by this time, so power supply circuits were changed for compatibility. Using that adapter is nice, but as you mentioned the small terminals, you can use that for controlling the power supply and powering the head unit, but just tap into a couple of the 12v wires (generaly yellow) directly for powering the amplifier. Early ATX power supplies, pre-2000 could provide up to 15amps on the 12v rail. Newer ones stared increasing that amount. Some 2010 and later ones can output over 40amps of 12v power.
I'm running a Powermax 100a power supply, Interstate Megatron AGM, Stinger volt meter, Alpine CD head unit, Soundstream Reference 705s, Soundstream Reference 1000sx, (4) 2/3 way Focal 6x9, (2) Rockford Fosgate R1 10", single Skar 18" in ported enclosure. The neighbors love my garage. LOL.
I had 2 10" MTX RoadThunder subs in their own seperate smaller boxes (meant for use in small pickups like a chevy s10 extended cab) and a vintage a California amp - used a battery charger on a big battery (Out of a diesel truck or semi - either or, they are both about the same size - like twice as big as a regular car battery) Deck was powered by a xbox brick power supply the deck supplied the power to 2 6 inch 3 way clarion speakers. 4x50W which is pretty standard - It was all on a tool cart - was fun at house parties back in the day!
A few years ago i put a Pioneer CD car stereo into a small cabinet for use in my office. The power supply I used was a Mean Well MW LRS-100-12 12V 8.5A 100W supply from Parts Express. It fit nicely in the cabinet, and is adjustable so I set it at 13.8V for the stereo. Continues to work well.
I bought a 600w dc power supply from Amazon. It runs two 250 watt amps. One pushes 4 old mtx road thunder, full range 8s. The other pushes two p1 12s. I got a 3.5 mm to rca adapter and run it through my TV. It sounds awesome!
One of the ways that I have found that works well or at least good enough for a quick and dirty power on test is to make a barrel adapter. I used some random wire and a barrel jack I pulled from a old router. I soldered to 2 together and added some heat shrink. Its not good for big hard use, but to make sure I didn't break something I was fixing, its great.
Thanks this is great information! I had the "ATX power supply method" (with on/off switch for ignition lead) running a Pioneer head unit 24/7 in my garage for years. Only drawback was the power supply's internal fan started making noise and eventually died completely, but the system continued to work fine until I replaced it. Will probably try the variable power supply next time, to avoid the fan problems...
Since u asked I have a 120ah deep agm cycle battery and a 300w solar panel running a clarion head unit running Yamaha tower speakers lol {the battery also runs tv and fans lights ect as I’m totally off grid)
Cool video! I like the unconventional premise of the video. Definitely a cool way to get into car audio before even own a car. I remember when I was a teenager I had car subs I was running on a home receiver. Unfortunately, some of those receivers didn’t hold up to the demands of the 4ohm speakers and I ruined some receivers that would be considered “vintage” nowadays
I'm doing this already. Awesome way to get very high quality sound as there's some amazing old school amps that sound better than comparably priced home audio equipment. I have the trifecta of old school 80s/90s SQ amps (Zapco, A/D/S, and Nakamichi) running high end home speakers. I also have multiple sources, one being a Clarion HU. Along with Clarion EQ, RF DSP, and other equipment i swap in and out.
Another option is the '12v' switching power supplies that are often advertised for LED lighting. I've purchased 30A switching supplies for 14.00 ea and the voltage was adjustable up to around 15v. No high freq switching noise in mine as used to be a complaint a decade ago
I was about to comment that. I use the 30 amp switchers that are about 20 bucks still on Amazon. Cranking them up to 14-15 volts lets things run a bit more efficiently. If you are running amateur radio it lets you get a few more watts out I would assume the same with audio amps. Would double check but most vehicles are now in the 14-15 range when running. I think you can parallel them but a lot of guys in that space have moved on to server power supplies. 100 amps at 12 volts. More voltage if you modify them and you can stack as many as you want to get the amps you need.
@@rocknrolljesus3197 Some of them you can buy a breakout board that gets you the 12 volts with no modification and car audio will be quite happy on it. The tricky part is raising the voltage on them above 12 volts. Have to play around with a couple of resistors inside and wouldn't advise it if your not comfortable around high voltage.
I bought two dual enclosed opposed subwoofer boxes powered by two bash 300 plate amplifiers from a guy off facebook marketplace. I have been using them in my home audio for almost two years and it has been amazing. My head unit sits on top of one of the boxes since the subs are opposed, the two subs oppose each other and cancel out the vibrations through the box. Movies are amazing with all that bass. The subs are highly underpowered as all 4 are JBL 1,000w but they are still enough to rumble my house.
The ATX breakout adapter is awesome, adding it to the cart! I'm running an AB and two class D amps off the GPU outputs, they're rated for higher amperage than the 24pin CPU outlet.
My home audio receiver died about a month ago, and grudgingly I bought a new one... I had thought of computer power supplies but realized that's not enough for much more than head units... Had I seen this video before I would have dug into the rack full of car audio stuff I have and had JL audio powering my living room... Hell, I might still do that. That taramps does look pretty dang good!
I ran an old Blaupunkt headunit that i repaired as a teenager off of a 12v wall wart way back in the before times, even had a cheap 30w amp running off of a second one. It all ran, sounded, ok, got fairly loud.
What I use in my garage is a deep cycle battery for trolling motors from Walmart keep a charger on it all the time have 4 bookshelves running off pioneer receiver Bluetooth adapter plugged in back and rca cables split off it to 7 band eq and jp8 running 4 skar 10s and it rocks
I’ve done this for years, I ran different setups, my favorite was my Sony XR-7200 cassette radio Sony XE-744EQ… Sony XEC-1000 Crossover network. I used a series 8 Hifonics Odin to drive an American Made PPI 12 inch 8 ohm sub. I used 2 PPI 2050AM amps for front and rear. They were driving a pair of Sony 8 inch 3 way’s and a pair of Old School American made HK 6.5’s. It was awesome.
I originally did this with a simple battery charger (charge-off-start) and a 100 watt amp and 2 12"s and it worked great, didn't need a tone of power to be frank. I just got done hooking up a pc power supply as a bench power supply, 12 volts and roughly 45 amps on tap isn't anything to sneeze at, ran hid ballast without flinching.
Best bang for the buck.👍 I highly recommend it.👍 Custom make speaker cabinets yourself or have a stereo shop do it for you or cabinet maker 👍 Stereo shop can bang them out very quickly, they have all the needed tools. 👍 order the speaker connector plates online for the shop to install for you.👍 have the shop mount the crossovers externally on the back of the speaker cabinets, you can make changes later on if needed.👍 Ask the stereo shop what they use for their demo board for power. 👍 If you are using a a/b amp, remember, it needs airflow. 👍 Can you use a turn table ❓That I don’t know. It is beyond my IQ.😄
@@rocknrolljesus3197 True👍 I tried to cover all scenarios as best I could without writing a book. You can use home speakers instead. Car head units and amps can power 8ohm no problem. Back in the early 80’s Sony Head Unit, 2 watts RMS, powered my 10 inch home speakers with Horns no problem in my car. Sorry, no back seat passengers.😄 Later I used it as my home system for awhile Some people have enormously expensive after market car audio systems. They total the car, don’t leave that system in the car for the junkyard. Focal Utopia car speakers 6K a pair. Ouch.😄😎 I have Focal’s K2 165’s 1295 a pair , now they are 1349 a pair. Inflation is a bummer.😄 my after market system in my Semi tractor sleeper cab. $3000.00 all custom made speaker cabinets.
@@rocknrolljesus3197 Both 😄 plus my ego got the best of me. I forgot to add the $500.00 for cables, speaker wire and installation cost. That is what happens when you have more money than Brains.😎😄👍 I was helping the Economy 👍😄😎
@@davidfromamerica1871 yeah even though I COULD afford i REFUSE to. I research and find comparable for less. Your ears can only tell any minute differences if you have both models of speaker in the exact same setting...and that's unlikely to happen. 😀
I was doing this when I got my first apartment. Because I was already collecting car audio in high school and didn't have good quality home audio yet. Now days i do the opposite for fun i put my jackery in my car. Vintage home amp and large bookshelf B&W speakers
I can't believe you showed a Blue Thunder. I literally was just on ebay searching Blue Thunder, Terminator, and Road Thunder. all old school of course. I even searched Super pro 3 for the hell of it.
Ever since I was a teenager, I've just used wheeled battery chargers to test amplifiers... unfortunately my latest charger played out recently after 22 years. I preferred the manual instead of the automatic chargers and used the 50 amp charge setting and watched the needle on the gauge bounce up to 200 amps when needed. 😎
In my shop I have a home theater receiver, but for bass I have a 750watt PC power supply powering a small 500watt car amp and 12” sub. It’s been going great for many years now. I did all the modifying of the PC power supply though, didn’t know about these breakout options.
i have a built my own sound system. using a 12v 10amp switching power supply (regulated to 14v) and its price was around 200 MXN (10 Dlls) . those sold in Chinese stores like Aliexpress. I only have an old school pioneer unit working with 2 pairs of speakers and it actually sounds very good. I have heard advice from friends that to connect an amplifier you need a minimum of 25 amps for it to work. For that uses server power supplies and they are sold at a very good price on the black market. and in the future I will make that purchase
I have that same stereo in my wall, a cheap walmart mono amp, and a sony X-Plod 12" from the early 2000's still bumping today all running off a 650 watt PSU out of a PC. These PSU's have clean power. The only issue I have is I need a filter on my Aux in from the computer so I don't get any hissing. I also have a couple of small mini amplifier boards that power the porch speakers and the back yard speakers. I also have a hodge podge of yamaha book shelf speakers I took the woofers out of in the porch ceiling and Pioneer 6x9's in the dining room area. Saved me thousands in a distributed audio.
I'm rocking an old Dell PSU that's pushing two 12s in their own ported boxes, whilst aiming at each other and placed in the corner beside my desk. Room does not allow many options for placement, this works best from what I have tried, I do not get the flat spots. But yeah, works great. If I had any advice for someone going this road, I would say get some vibration dampening feet or materials to keep your box from making solid contact with the floor :D
I did this with a 300 watt computer power supply and i ran a 1 farad cap on the amp which was a 1500 watt crunch powerzone amp on 4 kicker L5 squares. I had them lag bolted to the floor behind my couch for my surround sound subs !!
I use plate amplifiers from marketplace Home Theater subwoofers. The plate amp in some is up to 250wrms if you know what you are looking for. This has 120v plug, signal sense, and other onboard processing that's ideal for HT. Most HT subs I have found are 4ohm, so it can be a perfect fit.
this is invaluble info im on the verge of building 2 subs most likely some super crazy car audio subs in custom tuned enclosures built by me also plan on using a crown XLi 3500 or 2500 to power the subs then plug that into my Schiit Syn Processor
An ATX power supply has a bunch of +12V outputs that can be paralleled for amplifier use. All of the yellow wires on the auxiliary connectors (SATA drives, PCI Express, etc) are +12V. So, if you enable the power supply by connecting the the green wire on the ATX connector to one of the COMs, you can parallel all of the yellow wires and draw significant current without melting insulation. I've been powering a '99 Punch 150 in my garage for about 10 years using this method.
i have an old seasonic 1000 watt powersupply from like 2008 that whatever reason doesn't fit in any of my newer cases it seems to be ever so slightly thicker, it's been sitting there i tested it a while ago it still works, i'm gonna try and hook it up to a 12v amp I have, i been using an old laptop charger but it's only 80 watts, this amp can handle up to 400 watts, thanks for linking all the stuff very useful.
My current set up atm using xd800/8v2 using a evga 80+ gold 1000 watts power supply connecting it to boost up converter to 14.4v 50A the my components using now are morel tempo ultra 602 for highs and mid highs then c5-570 from midlows and 8w3v3 for bass and i did not even experience lacking in power
I am running 2 (GM - A3702) Pioneer 60x2 amps bridged to power my main speakers (4 ohm) for the pc. They get there power from a slightly modified 500 watt computer power supply. I took the PCIe power leads and cut the connector off them tied the + together and the - together with a nice 8G wire soldered on for output and heat shrinked them. Get a solid 41 amps at ~11.97. I am planning on switching round to running one amp for the sub box I'm building to set the TV on.
Excellent tutorial. Great into for people that have not really thought about using mobile equipment for the home. BTW, a question: On those cheap mechless head units, is there just one amp chip for all 4 speakers, or is there a chip for each stereo pair? I guess those things will never get over lying about the power output! If it says 200 watts max, just move the decimal point one click to the left, which makes it 20.0 watts. LOL.
You created a monster Big D....now EVERYONE remembers they ran multiple 4000w RMS class AB amps on their Dad's spare car battery and a trickle charger. 😂🤣😂🤣😂
I've had good results with the silver 12v 30a fan cooled power supplies you see on amazon for around 20 bucks. There is a newer model out that has alligator clip/screw posts and is rated at 50a. It includes a computer style power cable instead of having to make your own. I basically have an old school replica sales floor in my garage and run many of these. None have failed after a few years of use. I have one running an a600 4 ohm stereo on subs with no issues.
I built a 12v sound system for parades. Houston Art Car was my first. Over the years it got bigger. From 2000 watts in the early 90's to over 8000 watts by late 90's. I would run at least 4 large car batteries and generator with a bank of eight 12v power supplies. My Radio Shack sound meter pegged at 127 decibels, so sound was measured at distance. We easily got 127db at 50 feet! The bank of 120v AC to 12v DC power supplies could put out almost 5000 watts for just a moment! When at my apartment, I split the AC power bank into 2, then use two different breakers! I can still trip both if I crank too much BASS! Neighbors mess with me only once! (Evil Laugh!!!)
Damn big D I wish you had came across used server power supplies before making this video. You can get a 1400ish watt PSU for like 35-40$. Thats what Ive always used.
I'd like to add the meanwell style powersupplies since they were not mentioned in the vid. A bit more tedious to wire but you can get them in any voltage or current you can think of and are voltage adjustable in a small range.
Back in the day i used multiple iron core downlight transformers in parallel with full bridge rectifier and capacitor. With everything going to electronic power supply and then LED the old iron cores were just getting thrown out so were virtually free.
Also keep your eyes peeled for used linear regulated power supplies from Astron and other makers. These days people like the smaller lighter SMPS and often unload the big heavy counter parts cheap. Have an Astron 50A and 70A supply I picked both up for less than $100 each. Clearly only need that kinda amperage for powering larger amps and not head units. Heck used computer PS are a dime a dozen these days. And some of those can even drive mid sized power amps
I used quite a high power 'slab' style car power amp, wired to an old ATX PSU. I found some home HiFi speakers which were 6 ohm. ( car speakers are 4 ohm, so pu;; more power through the amp circuitry.,Home HiFi speakers are 8 or 16 ohm) so these 6 ohm ones worked well & didn'd stress the amp. The ATX PSU seemed up to it and I usually used an iPod as the source.
We did this in the 90's. I was a teenager at the time. i would use a car battery hooked up to a car battery charger. i had a punch 200, a punch 150 a 3 way cross over and a epicenter with no knob. i used a land line phone to some what make the audio control epicenter work. And it did. Me and my crew are notorious for having beats in our rooms. Irritating our parents in the mid to late 90's. This is the type of things we did b4 the internet!!!!!!!100%
I do it now, although I use a 100Ah LifePO4 battery, charged with solar panels.
We all did it lol
Same here 😆
I'm doing that now, but powered by some random power brick that outputs 13.5v 😅
@@Iowa599nice I've got a whole bin of power supply bricks I just can't bring myself to part ways with
LOL, I installed something similar in the late 80s for my uncle's mechanic shop tool box. I mounted the Pioneer head unit to his side-attached box, mounted to the top of the box, behind the door, facing forward. The Kenwood amp was mounted to the exterior of the side box to show off the Kenwood amp. The power converted was hidden on the back exterior of the side box. The 6x9 Pioneers were mounted to exterior-mounted steel ammo boxes from a surplus store. All components were used. The quality of the sound was decent and he loved it. Brings back memories. Thanks, I'm going to do something similar to my tool box.
I am still running the 78 amp server power supply that I built after watching your build video from 10 years ago. It has performed flawlessly and has worked as a battery charger after killing batteries during a couple of builds. It was great to see all the products that simply weren’t available back then.
Thanks for this very informative video Derek. You have again inspired me and I am restarting a long dormant project, this time it will be 12 volt supply made with two server 75 watt supplies (which I already have) wired in parallel for a total of 150 amps.
The HP DPS-1200sb is the latest readily available supply that will do 100 amps and is easily modified. Have seen these daisy chained to make a 2000 amp supply.
@@jonathanjackson1962 thanks for the info
Same here j.
I did this in 1986 when I the service. Mounted 6x9 pioneers in boxes and had a pioneer gm 120 pushing a sub! And a gm5 powering 6x9s. Had the pioneer components deck and equalizer. Sounded great
OMG...Where has this video been all my life?!? Thank you for making this! I HAVE been wanting to do this, but I just wasn't sure how. 👏🏼👏🏼🤘🏻
I think it's better to use a 12-volt car battery and a 2 amp trickle charger. You get lots of current and it only cost you what a trickle charger uses
@@southern_merican a car battery is 150.00 these days....emits fumes...a couple 20.00 30A switching supplies perhaps?
@@rocknrolljesus3197 not worried about fumes, I'm immortal lol.
@@rocknrolljesus3197 also lots of other RUclipsrs are using lithium batteries inside and I think those are more dangerous
@@rocknrolljesus3197 I have a battery from a garden tractor, hooked to trickle charger..the battery was about $30 bucks..I haven't noticed any fumes. I also use supplies from old computer towers. There many how to YT videos .
An old head unit, an old pair of speakers, one of these small power supplies, and a tool box, and you've got one heck of a boom box! Finally, a way I can play all of my old tapes.
If you use 12 power tool batteries for power, it makes it a portable system.
@@marimbadaddy 8 track forever!!!!
I did it as a teenager. Had a Rockford hx2 on an mtx road thunder amp. Used an Aiwa home stereo as the head unit. Used my dad's shop battery charger from his mechanic shop and 2 batteries he had laying around. It was nuts. Hit hard AF. Movies were never the same. Car subs have a higher output than home subs. You won't be disappointed.
@@stormyrain995 wonder who imagined that rule about subs..... Lol
I love the idea of repurposing dad's stuff from the garage. But in my case, my dad would have kicked my ass until I replaced all his goods with new stuff. I guess that's karma in my neck of the woods. 😶🌫️
My brother did I this when we were in high school. Good times. Thanks D
I did this in high school too...and still do 40 years later. We would use electric train transformers
I had a 1977 AUDIOMOBILE RACK system running in my parlor in 2024. I also have an AUDIOMOBILE Signature Series 3 amp setup currently running today. It is hooked up to my computer system and projector and does amplifier duties very well. I put a hole through the wall so the Power Source FAN is not heard in my parlor. Great way to KEEP EM RUNNING!!! BDBD/2024
Did this as a teenager back in the 90's. I had access to lots of stereo equipment. I had a car battery and charger that I used to power everything.
I was doing that back in the 1990 when I was 12 years old by using a battery charger. It was running a crappie old Sherwood 2 channel Amp. Running a 15 w1 JL Audio subwoofer in a manufacture band pass box with a front plexiglass view. Along with a Pioneer Dolby Pro-Logic home theater receiver. Pissed off the Neig.
Hbors , at least five houses down from me. Not to mention I put a Avitital Car Alarm System in my bedroom to keep my little brother & snooping parents outta my room! 😉😁
Been running a car radio for over a year with a Taiwanese 10 amp supply and a car battery as backup. Works brilliant.
I did this in my first solo apartment in the 90s. Kicker comp 12 in a band pass box running off an impulse 652xi ran off a motor home power supply. Regular home stereo for the highs.
Worked pretty good for watching movies.
Wow those painted precision power amps are a throwback! I have 3 of those sitting in storage right now lol
Want to sell them?
Want to sell them?
I did this back in the 80's and 90's. I built my own 12 volt power supplies, custom wood cabinets and used a set of decent speakers. My systems rivaled a lot of home stereo's.
I made a garage sound system using one of those short DIN case head units, pair of nice 2-ways and power supply all of which fit inside a large, plastic Harbor Freight ammo box. Equipment line cord recepticle and cord which you could store inside the box along with an old-school FM antenna and jack. Sits nice on a shelf and sounds good enough for the garage.
I did this back in the mid-80s when I was a teenager. Mounted the deck and 7 band EQ in the headboard of my bed, with 6 * 9's in each side, sliding drawer. Ran off a car battery on the workbench in the basement below my bedroom.
Did this in my shop. Sold a car and used the head unit from it and house speakers powered with a 12v regulated power supply. 🤘🏼
In the 90s it was a gutted old AT tower case where DIN units rather conveniently fit in 5.25" drive bays with little modification and no need for anything to trigger the PSU beyond the A/C ine swich at the front of the case. Grab a yellow for +12. ANY Yellow. want more current? grab more yellows.
This setup is still to this day running some big old Cerwin Vega boxes from the late 70s on a Kenwood Excelon head unit from the late 90s and an alpine 3525 driving them (literally my first ever car amp, still alive. Practically taught me how to repair car amps and I first got it dead from a junkyard out of a car that burned when I was like 13)
I did the whole garage after I ran a pair of AR-3a speakers under my bed (both tweeters and one midrange were dead but the woofers took a refoam) I actually used automotive line converters off my pro logic receiver's main outs to drive that same alpine 3525 bridged to these 2 4 ohm woofers in series and gutted the old IBM PC clone we had to power it 🤣
i Hated rewiring those old AT switches!
Tapping an old desktop/tower PSU is a daunting task for most folks, but at one they were plentiful and literally free and could easily power a small amp all day. Anyone comfortable with a multimeter can ID the paralleled circuits and be in business on the cheap
You are the MAN! I have an Alpine 7289 and 5903 Disc Player that I am wanting to do this exact thing with... Guess I'll move it up on my "project list"... BMX on!
I think it's a great idea to have a bench top power supply! They really do come in handy for multiple purposes! But batteries I think are the way to go!
Thank you again for the inspiration, Big D!!!
I have yet to run into any power supply issues in regards to these new converters. Great amperage and steady output voltage. I use older gear that used less power than these power monsters of today. More than enough power straight from the wall, enough to get stoooopid loud in my parlor. Heheheheheh... Just Do It. BDBD/2024
Did this back in the day when working in a garage as a mechanic, a cheap 12v pyramid power supply a car stereo pulled from a junk car, and two 6x9 each in their own box.
Big D saves the day!
Dude, I’ve been looking for a power supply to hook my Atari 2600 again. Pretty sure this will do the trick thank you man.
I love this. I have always messed around with my dad’s power conditioners and power supplies…. Since he worked in defense with Litton back in the day and was a EE. I have a bunch of 1000-1500 Corsair/EVGA/Galaxy PSU’s laying around since GPU’s are now more efficient and tri/quad SLI isn’t a thing anymore…. I might mess around with those and do a set up. Great idea Big-D. Thanks man. Keep up the good work.
I have been wanting you to make this for awhile thank you Big D
when my cd player died on my house system i took an old sony head unit and a 12v supply, wired it up with rcas directly out and put it in a shoebox. sounds fantastic! (on a side note, i gotta buy one of those variable voltage power supplies… could’ve saved me many headaches over the years lol)
Giving me some ideas! Been wanting to put together a test bench. Thanks for the thorough explanations of the pros and cons at each price point.
Great video. Great information. On and off in my spare time i play with my collection of amps and speakers and i am just using a battery at 12+ volts , eventually would like to try my stuff with 14+ volts. this is very helpful video. Big D you are the best and Thanks for all the videos, keep up the good work.
Great topic bigD this is a must watch for any teenage kid that is even remotely interested in car audio. Also there are LOTS of old xBox and laptop power supplies readily available at thrift stores, all have the input/output specs on a tag. It's just a matter of cutting the proprietary connector off, stripping each wire, and taking a multimeter to each wire and note where the 12-14-15 volt taps are. You da man big D
I've been THINKING about this a lot..but have yet to get into specifics..this video helped answer a lot of my burning questions..that will keep me from burning down the house
Thanks for this. I just bought the Oono ATX breakout box. I have several ATX power supplies and had always chopped the unused wires off. This way I can save the power supply I use, and not have to modify it.
Awesome video as always!
We love Big D!!!
I use the taramps supply myself and a 5 channel amp.
Never really had any issues with the supply at all.
Ty sir for sharing hope you're having a wonderful Sunday ✌️
I did this kind of thing as a kid! Used a model train power supply set to just the right "speed" to get the right voltage. Worked surprisingly well.
Doing this now and has been my preferred stereo system.
That precision power amp is so sick with the giant shapes on either side. 🤩
I saw the PPI Art series in the thumbnail and immediately hit play 😄. Such great memories of my first "big" system in my Typhoon back in the 90's. 3 JL12W-6's with a PPI A1200 on them, and an A600 on all MB Quart mids and highs.
Please do the atom 1300.1 deaf bonce bench test. You have THE best bencb setup ive seen on youtube!!!! Love the work man!
If you look on RUclips NOT 1 PERSON has done a bench test on it yet! And I'd love to watch your knowledge shine on the peice of equipment
OMG That brings me way back in my bedroom checking stereo equipment before installing...jm sure this is quite informative to the GEN Z kids out there....
I did multiple projects with ATX power supplies over the years. Many pre-2005 power supplies had issues when not putting any load on the 5v and 3.3v lines. Newer ones don't have this issue much, as many motherboards weredecreasing usage of those rails by this time, so power supply circuits were changed for compatibility.
Using that adapter is nice, but as you mentioned the small terminals, you can use that for controlling the power supply and powering the head unit, but just tap into a couple of the 12v wires (generaly yellow) directly for powering the amplifier.
Early ATX power supplies, pre-2000 could provide up to 15amps on the 12v rail. Newer ones stared increasing that amount. Some 2010 and later ones can output over 40amps of 12v power.
I'm running a Powermax 100a power supply, Interstate Megatron AGM, Stinger volt meter, Alpine CD head unit, Soundstream Reference 705s, Soundstream Reference 1000sx, (4) 2/3 way Focal 6x9, (2) Rockford Fosgate R1 10", single Skar 18" in ported enclosure. The neighbors love my garage. LOL.
I'm glad you finally made this video!
I have an older smaller Alpine Halo ran by a yellow top and a trickle charger in my shop. love it. never had an issue
I had 2 10" MTX RoadThunder subs in their own seperate smaller boxes (meant for use in small pickups like a chevy s10 extended cab) and a vintage a California amp - used a battery charger on a big battery (Out of a diesel truck or semi - either or, they are both about the same size - like twice as big as a regular car battery) Deck was powered by a xbox brick power supply the deck supplied the power to 2 6 inch 3 way clarion speakers. 4x50W which is pretty standard - It was all on a tool cart - was fun at house parties back in the day!
A few years ago i put a Pioneer CD car stereo into a small cabinet for use in my office. The power supply I used was a Mean Well MW LRS-100-12 12V 8.5A 100W supply from Parts Express. It fit nicely in the cabinet, and is adjustable so I set it at 13.8V for the stereo. Continues to work well.
Awesome 👏
I bought a 600w dc power supply from Amazon. It runs two 250 watt amps. One pushes 4 old mtx road thunder, full range 8s. The other pushes two p1 12s. I got a 3.5 mm to rca adapter and run it through my TV. It sounds awesome!
I put one in my garage and I love it!!!
One of the ways that I have found that works well or at least good enough for a quick and dirty power on test is to make a barrel adapter. I used some random wire and a barrel jack I pulled from a old router. I soldered to 2 together and added some heat shrink. Its not good for big hard use, but to make sure I didn't break something I was fixing, its great.
Thanks this is great information! I had the "ATX power supply method" (with on/off switch for ignition lead) running a Pioneer head unit 24/7 in my garage for years. Only drawback was the power supply's internal fan started making noise and eventually died completely, but the system continued to work fine until I replaced it. Will probably try the variable power supply next time, to avoid the fan problems...
BRO!!! GREAT VIDEO!!! VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!!! YOU DA MAN!
Parker has a similar setup like this in his garage also that seems to work great
Since u asked I have a 120ah deep agm cycle battery and a 300w solar panel running a clarion head unit running Yamaha tower speakers lol {the battery also runs tv and fans lights ect as I’m totally off grid)
I didn't know Dr. Phil did Car Audio. Good stuff!
ha...i thought the exact same thing.
Cool video! I like the unconventional premise of the video. Definitely a cool way to get into car audio before even own a car. I remember when I was a teenager I had car subs I was running on a home receiver. Unfortunately, some of those receivers didn’t hold up to the demands of the 4ohm speakers and I ruined some receivers that would be considered “vintage” nowadays
I'm doing this already. Awesome way to get very high quality sound as there's some amazing old school amps that sound better than comparably priced home audio equipment. I have the trifecta of old school 80s/90s SQ amps (Zapco, A/D/S, and Nakamichi) running high end home speakers.
I also have multiple sources, one being a Clarion HU. Along with Clarion EQ, RF DSP, and other equipment i swap in and out.
Another option is the '12v' switching power supplies that are often advertised for LED lighting. I've purchased 30A switching supplies for 14.00 ea and the voltage was adjustable up to around 15v. No high freq switching noise in mine as used to be a complaint a decade ago
Great to know thanks
I was about to comment that. I use the 30 amp switchers that are about 20 bucks still on Amazon. Cranking them up to 14-15 volts lets things run a bit more efficiently. If you are running amateur radio it lets you get a few more watts out I would assume the same with audio amps. Would double check but most vehicles are now in the 14-15 range when running. I think you can parallel them but a lot of guys in that space have moved on to server power supplies. 100 amps at 12 volts. More voltage if you modify them and you can stack as many as you want to get the amps you need.
@@JamesHalfHorse yeah I considered mentioning the server supplies but thought the modification part might put people off. 😁
@@rocknrolljesus3197 Some of them you can buy a breakout board that gets you the 12 volts with no modification and car audio will be quite happy on it. The tricky part is raising the voltage on them above 12 volts. Have to play around with a couple of resistors inside and wouldn't advise it if your not comfortable around high voltage.
@@JamesHalfHorse it's an easy mod but as I mentioned most aren't gonna want to do that. It's nice they can parallel when you need 2000 amps. Lol
I'm currently running this kind of setup with a generic 20A power supply and it rocks
I bought two dual enclosed opposed subwoofer boxes powered by two bash 300 plate amplifiers from a guy off facebook marketplace. I have been using them in my home audio for almost two years and it has been amazing. My head unit sits on top of one of the boxes since the subs are opposed, the two subs oppose each other and cancel out the vibrations through the box. Movies are amazing with all that bass. The subs are highly underpowered as all 4 are JBL 1,000w but they are still enough to rumble my house.
The ATX breakout adapter is awesome, adding it to the cart! I'm running an AB and two class D amps off the GPU outputs, they're rated for higher amperage than the 24pin CPU outlet.
My home audio receiver died about a month ago, and grudgingly I bought a new one... I had thought of computer power supplies but realized that's not enough for much more than head units... Had I seen this video before I would have dug into the rack full of car audio stuff I have and had JL audio powering my living room... Hell, I might still do that. That taramps does look pretty dang good!
I got mine in and will be testing it out soon and trying the 18" subs in my home theater. Gonna be killer!
I ran an old Blaupunkt headunit that i repaired as a teenager off of a 12v wall wart way back in the before times, even had a cheap 30w amp running off of a second one. It all ran, sounded, ok, got fairly loud.
What I use in my garage is a deep cycle battery for trolling motors from Walmart keep a charger on it all the time have 4 bookshelves running off pioneer receiver Bluetooth adapter plugged in back and rca cables split off it to 7 band eq and jp8 running 4 skar 10s and it rocks
I bet your neighbors love you! 😅
@@ChadLitsch you spent far more on a deep cycle battery and charger than creating/purchasing a proper dc supply.
Hey thanks!! I have a new in box Pioneer DEH-S4010BT sitting around that I've been wanting to test out. Just ordered the adjustable voltage unit.
I’ve done this for years, I ran different setups, my favorite was my Sony XR-7200 cassette radio Sony XE-744EQ… Sony XEC-1000 Crossover network. I used a series 8 Hifonics Odin to drive an American Made PPI 12 inch 8 ohm sub. I used 2 PPI 2050AM amps for front and rear. They were driving a pair of Sony 8 inch 3 way’s and a pair of Old School American made HK 6.5’s. It was awesome.
I did this back in the 90's powered HT subwoofer. I used a 30 amp supply. good times.
I originally did this with a simple battery charger (charge-off-start) and a 100 watt amp and 2 12"s and it worked great, didn't need a tone of power to be frank.
I just got done hooking up a pc power supply as a bench power supply, 12 volts and roughly 45 amps on tap isn't anything to sneeze at, ran hid ballast without flinching.
Best bang for the buck.👍
I highly recommend it.👍
Custom make speaker cabinets yourself or have a stereo shop do it for you or cabinet maker 👍
Stereo shop can bang them out very quickly, they have all the needed tools. 👍 order the speaker connector plates online for the shop to install for you.👍 have the shop mount the crossovers externally on the back of the speaker cabinets, you can make changes later on if needed.👍
Ask the stereo shop what they use for their demo board for power. 👍
If you are using a a/b amp, remember, it needs airflow. 👍
Can you use a turn table ❓That I don’t know. It is beyond my IQ.😄
@@davidfromamerica1871 you aren't doing it on the cheap ....the whole point of car audio indoors....when you have professional cabinets built. 😂
@@rocknrolljesus3197
True👍 I tried to cover all scenarios as best I could without writing a book. You can use home speakers instead. Car head units and amps can power 8ohm no problem.
Back in the early 80’s Sony Head Unit, 2 watts RMS, powered my 10 inch home speakers with Horns no problem in my car. Sorry, no back seat passengers.😄 Later I used it as my home system for awhile
Some people have enormously expensive after market car audio systems. They total the car, don’t leave that system in the car for the junkyard. Focal Utopia car speakers 6K a pair. Ouch.😄😎 I have Focal’s K2 165’s 1295 a pair , now they are 1349 a pair. Inflation is a bummer.😄 my after market system in my Semi tractor sleeper cab. $3000.00 all custom made speaker cabinets.
@@davidfromamerica1871 they use a gun or a knife when they robbed you?
@@rocknrolljesus3197
Both 😄 plus my ego got the best of me.
I forgot to add the $500.00 for cables, speaker wire and installation cost.
That is what happens when you have more money than Brains.😎😄👍 I was helping the Economy 👍😄😎
@@davidfromamerica1871 yeah even though I COULD afford i REFUSE to. I research and find comparable for less. Your ears can only tell any minute differences if you have both models of speaker in the exact same setting...and that's unlikely to happen. 😀
I was doing this when I got my first apartment. Because I was already collecting car audio in high school and didn't have good quality home audio yet. Now days i do the opposite for fun i put my jackery in my car. Vintage home amp and large bookshelf B&W speakers
I can't believe you showed a Blue Thunder. I literally was just on ebay searching Blue Thunder, Terminator, and Road Thunder. all old school of course. I even searched Super pro 3 for the hell of it.
Been did diz way bck in da 90's 2 car batteries 1500watt 30amp car battery charger on 2 punch 18's on a targa 800.
Ever since I was a teenager, I've just used wheeled battery chargers to test amplifiers... unfortunately my latest charger played out recently after 22 years. I preferred the manual instead of the automatic chargers and used the 50 amp charge setting and watched the needle on the gauge bounce up to 200 amps when needed. 😎
In my shop I have a home theater receiver, but for bass I have a 750watt PC power supply powering a small 500watt car amp and 12” sub. It’s been going great for many years now. I did all the modifying of the PC power supply though, didn’t know about these breakout options.
Cool vid, I’ve doing car subs in the home because they’re cheaper and I love building
I run two 15" Soundstreams on a concert amp that needs to be replaced. I am definitely going this route.
i have a built my own sound system. using a 12v 10amp switching power supply (regulated to 14v) and its price was around 200 MXN (10 Dlls) . those sold in Chinese stores like Aliexpress. I only have an old school pioneer unit working with 2 pairs of speakers and it actually sounds very good. I have heard advice from friends that to connect an amplifier you need a minimum of 25 amps for it to work. For that uses server power supplies and they are sold at a very good price on the black market. and in the future I will make that purchase
I have that same stereo in my wall, a cheap walmart mono amp, and a sony X-Plod 12" from the early 2000's still bumping today all running off a 650 watt PSU out of a PC. These PSU's have clean power. The only issue I have is I need a filter on my Aux in from the computer so I don't get any hissing. I also have a couple of small mini amplifier boards that power the porch speakers and the back yard speakers. I also have a hodge podge of yamaha book shelf speakers I took the woofers out of in the porch ceiling and Pioneer 6x9's in the dining room area. Saved me thousands in a distributed audio.
been using the prv sc-120 for a few years now for my home system. Feels light and cheap as it mostly is but quite surprisingly powerful
I'm rocking an old Dell PSU that's pushing two 12s in their own ported boxes, whilst aiming at each other and placed in the corner beside my desk. Room does not allow many options for placement, this works best from what I have tried, I do not get the flat spots. But yeah, works great. If I had any advice for someone going this road, I would say get some vibration dampening feet or materials to keep your box from making solid contact with the floor :D
I did this with a 300 watt computer power supply and i ran a 1 farad cap on the amp which was a 1500 watt crunch powerzone amp on 4 kicker L5 squares. I had them lag bolted to the floor behind my couch for my surround sound subs !!
I use plate amplifiers from marketplace Home Theater subwoofers. The plate amp in some is up to 250wrms if you know what you are looking for. This has 120v plug, signal sense, and other onboard processing that's ideal for HT. Most HT subs I have found are 4ohm, so it can be a perfect fit.
this is invaluble info im on the verge of building 2 subs most likely some super crazy car audio subs in custom tuned enclosures built by me also plan on using a crown XLi 3500 or 2500 to power the subs then plug that into my Schiit Syn Processor
An ATX power supply has a bunch of +12V outputs that can be paralleled for amplifier use. All of the yellow wires on the auxiliary connectors (SATA drives, PCI Express, etc) are +12V. So, if you enable the power supply by connecting the the green wire on the ATX connector to one of the COMs, you can parallel all of the yellow wires and draw significant current without melting insulation. I've been powering a '99 Punch 150 in my garage for about 10 years using this method.
i have an old seasonic 1000 watt powersupply from like 2008 that whatever reason doesn't fit in any of my newer cases it seems to be ever so slightly thicker, it's been sitting there i tested it a while ago it still works, i'm gonna try and hook it up to a 12v amp I have, i been using an old laptop charger but it's only 80 watts, this amp can handle up to 400 watts, thanks for linking all the stuff very useful.
My current set up atm using xd800/8v2 using a evga 80+ gold 1000 watts power supply connecting it to boost up converter to 14.4v 50A the my components using now are morel tempo ultra 602 for highs and mid highs then c5-570 from midlows and 8w3v3 for bass and i did not even experience lacking in power
I am running 2 (GM - A3702) Pioneer 60x2 amps bridged to power my main speakers (4 ohm) for the pc. They get there power from a slightly modified 500 watt computer power supply. I took the PCIe power leads and cut the connector off them tied the + together and the - together with a nice 8G wire soldered on for output and heat shrinked them. Get a solid 41 amps at ~11.97. I am planning on switching round to running one amp for the sub box I'm building to set the TV on.
Nice, I have some A/D/S gear (PS5 and 325is). Now I can put them to use,thanks.
Excellent tutorial. Great into for people that have not really thought about using mobile equipment for the home. BTW, a question: On those cheap mechless head units, is there just one amp chip for all 4 speakers, or is there a chip for each stereo pair? I guess those things will never get over lying about the power output! If it says 200 watts max, just move the decimal point one click to the left, which makes it 20.0 watts. LOL.
I have 30A modular power supply plugged to kicx amp, works for most amps in home
You created a monster Big D....now EVERYONE remembers they ran multiple 4000w RMS class AB amps on their Dad's spare car battery and a trickle charger. 😂🤣😂🤣😂
I've had good results with the silver 12v 30a fan cooled power supplies you see on amazon for around 20 bucks. There is a newer model out that has alligator clip/screw posts and is rated at 50a. It includes a computer style power cable instead of having to make your own. I basically have an old school replica sales floor in my garage and run many of these. None have failed after a few years of use. I have one running an a600 4 ohm stereo on subs with no issues.
I built a 12v sound system for parades. Houston Art Car was my first. Over the years it got bigger. From 2000 watts in the early 90's to over 8000 watts by late 90's. I would run at least 4 large car batteries and generator with a bank of eight 12v power supplies. My Radio Shack sound meter pegged at 127 decibels, so sound was measured at distance. We easily got 127db at 50 feet! The bank of 120v AC to 12v DC power supplies could put out almost 5000 watts for just a moment! When at my apartment, I split the AC power bank into 2, then use two different breakers! I can still trip both if I crank too much BASS! Neighbors mess with me only once! (Evil Laugh!!!)
Damn big D I wish you had came across used server power supplies before making this video. You can get a 1400ish watt PSU for like 35-40$. Thats what Ive always used.
I'd like to add the meanwell style powersupplies since they were not mentioned in the vid. A bit more tedious to wire but you can get them in any voltage or current you can think of and are voltage adjustable in a small range.
Nice video. Very informative
Back in the day i used multiple iron core downlight transformers in parallel with full bridge rectifier and capacitor. With everything going to electronic power supply and then LED the old iron cores were just getting thrown out so were virtually free.
That old PPI STILL BEAUTIFUL
Also keep your eyes peeled for used linear regulated power supplies from Astron and other makers. These days people like the smaller lighter SMPS and often unload the big heavy counter parts cheap. Have an Astron 50A and 70A supply I picked both up for less than $100 each. Clearly only need that kinda amperage for powering larger amps and not head units. Heck used computer PS are a dime a dozen these days. And some of those can even drive mid sized power amps
AND most importantly... You can still get parts from Astron to repair them. Love mine.
Thanks, great video 👍
I made myself a distribution block for my test bench but basically had the same setup with 100 amp power supply and a huge marine battery
You forgot the $5 12v goodwill power adaptor wired to a head unit with haphazard electrical tape.
I used quite a high power 'slab' style car power amp, wired to an old ATX PSU. I found some home HiFi speakers which were 6 ohm. ( car speakers are 4 ohm, so pu;; more power through the amp circuitry.,Home HiFi speakers are 8 or 16 ohm) so these 6 ohm ones worked well & didn'd stress the amp. The ATX PSU seemed up to it and I usually used an iPod as the source.