• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Project CheapBass

L

LadyJaqie

I Have No Title
Joined
Jun 9, 2002
Messages
1,422
I"'ve been looking at a way to inexpensively get better audio for my PC. I got tired of waiting for my next bit of income, so I decided to try a project I had been mulling over in my head hoping it would turn out better then I anticipated.

Project name: CheapBass
Project goal: richen my audio experience as much as possible in the low end with a budget of $0 and the parts I had on hand

My girlfriend had moved in recently, her car is no longer in working order, so no reason to leave the car audio in it. only thing worth saving is the kicker solo-baric dual voice coil 10" square sub, sealed sub box designed specifically for this sub, and a sony mono amp with a rating of about 300 watts RMS into 4 ohms (which is what the solo-baric is when the two 2-ohm coils are in series). I'm thinking, Kicker, Ive heard them, they sound horribly loose, nasty, muddy, the amp is one channel not two, I don't even want to bother. And then I read the specs on the sub... the cone is made of a much more stout material then I thought, it's got a very well built surround despite my first thoguhts, it's very well built... Maybe it won't sound as bad as the old kickers I knew...but jeez... OK Ill check the amp... can't find stats on whether it's mosfet drivers or even discreet but that high of a wattage it's gotta be discreet at least.... and it's got a low-pass... line level ins, and voltage level adjusts. Maybe just maybe I can make it sound half decent... After all the box is sealed, very thick, and made of very dense material, making for a good sub box... so off I go, project CheapBass has begun despite my misgivings.


First step was creating a passthrough for my speakers which also linked the sub amp via dual RCA jacks...
homespun_adap.jpg


And then, I had to reinstall my AT 230 watt PSU I had previously rigged to run the SCSI array that had failed... and run power from that to the amp...
test_psu.jpg


And testing it to see if it can handle the load...
test_wire.jpg


Yowch! look at the voltage! better tie off the other molex so I don't try using this to power other stuff...
volts.jpg


and more testing...
testing.jpg


yet more testing...
more_testing.jpg


Yeez, more testing... seems to be going good though! I may pull this off!
almolst_done.jpg


finished product... (just got the mouse and KB today wheeeeeeeeeeee! :D
done.jpg

check out the rest of my comp stuff / images, just browse these dirs
http://jaqiejean.mine.nu/pics/demia2/
http://jaqiejean.mine.nu/pics/server/
 
How is the sound quality? And how well can that 230W PSU handle the load? I'd be careful with that, as that wattage value is most likely split between all the rails, so the 12V rail probably can only feed about 150W at the most. Lastly, your 12V was way low, so you might have to put a load on the 5V line to boost it up; that's a common problem with some PSUs. You can get a big power resistor and put that on the 5V rail, and that should boost your 12V line.

Anyways, nice worklog, those are always interesting =]
 
I know very well about wattage and what each rail can handle, it was no big. The testing I did was to see if it could handle the load at decent volume... There is almolst always overload protection built into power supplies where they just cut out if overloaded, at least in good PSUs and its more common the older you go with PSUs. this old 230W AT has the best kind you get, it auto-resets while going. Ive tuned and tuned and tuned the amp, and winamp EQ and everything. ive got it sounding half decent (I am very very very picky, so to me half decent is to an average gamer OOOOOooooooooooooh!) and it goes high enough volume that on some sub-bass frequencies it sounds and feels like a semi truck idling underneath me. I only like that much volume once in a while, most of the time I just want more full, richer sound, which this delivers much better then the original.

pretty much...

Project goals: met
I'm happy for now :D
 
car amps are designed to run under high/low volt situations and im not worried about the long term health about that 230w at psu, so Im fine with it just running like that.
 
I would seriously consider monitoring the current draw with that setup (set the dmm to amps and connect it in between the amp and psu's + rail) that way there is NO guessing about the reliability of the PSU. ;)

Edit... left out the no part.
 
I would but I honestly dont care if I bomb that psu.
I used to have a clamp-on no-cut amp meter attatchment till someone stole it. :mad:

anyways its just temp till I can get an HT unit and replace this amp with one I like. the sub impressed me enuff I might just keep it but I dont like the amp.

Ill be looking into making my own 12v supply for it, unregulated. just a huge butt 14.4v transformer, some barrell diodes, and some huge caps. like a 'monster cap' for car audio. that should level out any bumps from the ac->dc conversion :D
 
thanks but im planning on getting one of the amps from the company that used to be called california mosfet. they are still around but I doint remember their new name.. they sounded good when I listened to them, anbd their stats rock.
 
I found kicker comps sound very tight (almost too much), when placed in a sealed box about 2/3-1/2 the volume they reccomend.
 
ooh are you kidding? that's exactly what I want! thanks for the info!
now to find out what volume this one is sposed to be in and if this box is too big or not... and how to fill it...maybe some of that spray-in house insulating (crack sealing) foam...hmmm
 
for what it's worth an 8" Comp VR being corner loaded in the hatch of a 92 mustang LX was almost too tight when being used in a over-cut 6-1/2 truck box.

I chose to try that out on reccomendation of the guys at the shop I went to....I was skeptical but they said if I didnt like it, they wouldnt charge me...so I went ahead, and man it was nice...I lost some extension, but it was worth it.

edit: solobarics are small box woofers, at least they were when I was still a newb that drooled at anything that could take umpty-ump watts.

OMGWTFBBQ editfest!: I guess I cant stop editing today, so here we go...

I forgot a mention that car woofers have an innate frequency hump at the low end (most are at 40hz, the resonant frequency of the car body). You may want to get a one band parametric EQ of some flavor to iron that out, or some creative venting tricks. I used a HP filter at 30hz on mine with a 4Db/Octave slope to iron out the 40hz hump that the C-V12s I used on my first large PC audio system had...any x-over that low is money...I think I paid nearly $100 for the parts alone...so if you have a way of equalizing at the PC end, it's highly reccomended to do so unless your some sort of enclosure design wiz.
 
yah actually I do have. mostly I use it for winamp, so I just use the winamp EQ.

as in my previous thread about going with a good HT system for my pc setup, I want to go digital in with my setup... I want to get a HT headunit. Im still browsing. I found the mobo I want.

I ended up looking at the abit NF7-S v2.0 (**NOT** the nf-7s2) and started drooling as I read the specs (yes a girl drooling at pc specs god ima geek :eek: ) so imma go with that. now to find a cheap amp that takes opt in thats refurbed. I found an amp that does, for $200 refurb, and it has more bells an whistles then I want, its 5 ch, its got 100w rms per ch, its basically what I want eventually, not to start with. I need to go to radio shcmack online and lookie there, and then check out some lower stuff too. maybe chrutchfield.com has some good stuff too...

anyway back onto my original topic of the eq...
I hate the analog EQs so much loss of quality / addition to THD... so I figure eventually once I get the cash I can add in a digital EQ in the optical (I know itll be a lotta $$$ but eventually Ill have enufff to get it and my earsll thank me) and thatll just rock.
 
Yamaha has some pretty nice ~ $200 5.1 recievers with optical in that you might like. Lots of nice features as well. Given at that price range they are mostly 65-75wpc, but even at that wattage, it should be more than plenty for nearfield use like that.
 
man this thread is making me miss my hifi....I need to fly back to cali and smack the crap outta the manager at the moving company that delayed my stuff getting here....Creative Travelsounds are acceptable...but darnit, this has been half a month :(
 
thanks, no. I'll not bid on things, ive been scammed on ebay and other bidding sites way too much. I would rather spend more and get them new/refurb. thanks for the info though.

*keeps trying to get the notebook working that was sold to her and her girlfriend*
perfect working order. Feh. indeed. damn scammers.
 
I think you missed something.... Ubid is a Business-to-Consumer auction site.
All of the products listed on their site ship from their warehouse or from their "Certified Merchants"......not from private individuals so there is no risk of being ripped off by a shady seller. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top