Can a Car Subwoofer be used for Home Theater?

Enjoying music while traveling in your car with a subwoofer, is great fun. You can even use a car subwoofer at home. Car subwoofers deliver powerful and deep bass that can be enjoyed at home.

I have been using my car subwoofer at home and O, Boy it is just awesome. In this article, our editors have explained steps to connect a car subwoofer with a home theater system.

Yes, car subwoofers are used for home theater by detaching power supply, remove the car subwoofer, carefully connect it with the home theater system. You will need amplifier, RCA cables, paper-clip, 12 Volts inverter for this.

Subwoofers are actually the loudspeakers. Car Subwoofers handle lower frequencies. Low frequencies are the most important that produce the full, rich, three-dimensional effect.

If you want a better sound quality at your home theater system you can attach a subwoofer meant for your car stereo system. It’s really an easy task and you require only a few things and proper management.

Can a Car Subwoofer be used for Home Theater?

Here I will discuss the procedure by which you can actually hook up a car subwoofer to your regular home theater sound system.

Disconnect the power apply of car subwoofer

First, you have to disconnect all the power because you are going to work on the wire harness. If you do not disconnect the power supply there is a chance of electric shock.

You have to eliminate wires but before elimination any wire you must have enough knowledge that which wire you are going to remove. Wire colors depend upon the model of your car power supply. There may be different color wires like blue, red, green, black, etc. You have to eliminate blue, orange, red and green.

There are some yellow wires with strippers. You have to strip the yellow wires at about 1inch. then twist the yellow wires with yellow cord. There are also the black wires, repeat the same procedure for the black wires.

Disconnect your subwoofer from your car stereo

Once you disconnect the power, you are free to touch wires. There are two types of wires coming from your car stereo to your subwoofer.

First, one is turn on lead and the second one is the actual signal cable that transmits the sound signals. You have to disconnect these two wires. Pick up them and follow the path where they going.

Most of the time, they run beneath the carpet and rim along with the doors of your car. Follow their path and disconnect them very carefully.

Tool required

12-volt power inverter
12 or 16 gauge speaker wire
RCA audio cable
Sounds system with amplifier
Stereo cable
paperclip

Attach a power inverter

Subwoofers usually have two types of connection power and signal. The first thing you require is a car inverter because like a cat battery, subwoofer requires an amplifier that runs on a 12-volt battery.

A home power socket can never be applicable for the subwoofer and amplifier. You must have a part inverter that will cover the power to12 volt otherwise you’re amplifier and subwoofer would fry.

Once you get your battery, you have to check either it can provide enough power to your specific amplifier. There is a sticker on each power supply unit on which its max current rating is listed in amperes for each voltage range.

Here you have a 12-volt battery and you have to notice power according to it. Assume power of 600 watts.

You have to divide your voltage by the power to get current in ampere, in this case, divide 600 with 12 and you will get 50 so requires 50 amp current.

You have to plug the car amplifier to the inverter with caution. An inverter usually comes with three-pronged sockets. First, plug the amplifier into the socket. You also require a wall socket to connect the inverter. Once you have connected the amplifier into the inverter then plug the inverter into a wall socket. Perform this step with caution.

Connecting car subwoofer to a home theater receiver

Subwoofers usually have two types of connection power and signal. As for power, we are using a 12 volts battery as discussed now we will talk about subwoofer cable.

Subwoofer cable provides signals you have to connect subwoofer cable to receivers. Subwoofer output to the low-frequency input on the subwoofer.

Connection of subwoofer to an amplifier

Most of the time you require an amplifier with your subwoofer. The amplifier will amplify the sound waves coming from your subwoofer and eventually you are able to hear loud music with powerful bass. When you are going to the subwoofer to an amplifier, it requires a 12 out 16guage speaker wire. Different car amplifiers require different types of gauge speaker wire.

You should choose according to the subwoofer and amplifier you have. There are two types of wires black and red. You must have to connect the black wire with the black terminal and the red wire with the red terminal. You must be careful about the wires connection.

What is the right place to position a car subwoofer at home?

Positioning the subwoofer to the right place also influences the sound quality to some extent. Most of the people seek a chance to place their subwoofer in front of the speaker but many of the time people put their subwoofer where they find space and I also prefer this idea.

Bass frequencies are the low-frequency waves and deliver powerful deep bass. Usually, these do not depend upon direction as the high-frequency waves generated by the full-range speaker so it does not make any big difference if you are not close.

I also suggest if you have space in your wall corner then place the subwoofer in the wall corner the walls will help out in bouncing back towards the sitting areas. If you have more than one placement option and your subwoofer cable is large enough then place subwoofer at different places and check the response. You will notice that with a change in a location your bass also change

Precautions while connecting a Car Subwoofer with Home Theater

Although it is not a big task to connect your car subwoofer to your home theater, you have to take some preventive measures while doing so because your any wrong step can harm you and your audio system also. Some of these are:

While removing your subwoofer from your car and while connecting it to your home theater, make sure the power has been disconnected, otherwise, there is a risk of electric shock which is dangerous

Whenever you are going to cut the wires, first identify properly which wire has to be cut. If you cut any extra wire, then you have to reconnect it and it will take your extra effort and on the other hand, if not reconnected properly can result in damage to your system.

While you are making connections, then always connect positive terminal with positive and negative with negative, and if you ignore this point then it can fire your subwoofer or any damage to your system.

When you made all the connections then always secure them properly with some electric tape. There should not a single bare wire. If so, then it can be a source of electric shock and on the other hand, it will prove to be a loose connection to secure the connections properly.

Team – Howstereo.com

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