Anyone power their DIY Subs with old receivers? (1 Viewer)

Andrew S · Apr 20, 2003

I always read of people power their subs with plate amps, etc,. but I can't afford to shell out the cost for a plate amp, so I just use an old Pioneer receiver.
I was wondering if anyone else was in the similar situation?
Thanks,
Andrew

Michael Hartwig · Apr 20, 2003

I originally powered my Tempest with my JVC receiver that was rated at 120 RMS 8 ohms/channel. I used both L and R to power the DVC of the Tempest. I found by using the DVC capabilities of the Tempest with my JVC I was getting a flatter response down to 20Hz than I do now with my Adire AV250 running 4 ohms with the Tempest DVC shorted to 4ohms. But the AV 250 does give me more slam. So I gain in one area and loose in another.
That's my experience.

Cam S · Apr 20, 2003

I've heard of alot of people powering subs with old receivers. I didn't have an old one that wasn't in use already so I had no choice but to go with a plate amp, and I'm kinda glad I did as it's more of a complete package.

Joel X · Apr 20, 2003

I power my sub and bass shakers with old receivers and think it is a great idea. No problems here...

Jonathan_D · Apr 21, 2003

I power my Tempest with an old H/K integrated amp. While its not a lot of power, it *can* shake shelves on the walls.

I agree, I think its a great idea if you've got spare amplification hanging around.

Jeremy Stockwell · Apr 21, 2003

I power my DIY Tempest Sonosub with an old Kenwood Pro-Logic receiver from college (100W x 2). Works fine. I would recommend using a driver with DVC so that you can use both the left and right channels to get max from the amp.

The only potential problem is HEADROOM. I don't often play DVD's anywhere near reference, but when experimenting with higher levels, I can tell that the sub amp can't keep up as it approaches reference.

If you've got the hardware lying around, I would definitely try it, at least.

JKS

JeffTodd · Apr 21, 2003

I power my SVS based sonosub with my old Aiwa prologic receiver (supposedly 100w per)......it works well, but I am hoping to get a plate amp to push it better.

Stuart A. · Apr 21, 2003

What is everyone using for a crossover?

Andrew S · Apr 21, 2003

Stuart, I don't know about everyone else, but I basically just use the built in crossovers in my receiver and then send it to my older receiver. On my receiver I just turn the treble all the way down the bass at normal. I don't know if this is the correct way to do it, but it suits my tastes well.

Ben Ven · Apr 21, 2003

I power my sub with an old Pioneer receiver, VSX-9500S. It is rated at 125W per channel. You can run 2 subs if you have an A/B set up on your receiver. I wonder if a plate amp would sound better with my set up?? Anyway, I am too cheap to spend the money on a plate amp

. The Pioneer seems to have plenty of oomph.
Andrew, at least on my receiver, the tone controls are bypassed when I input the sub signal from my Yamaha receiver to the Pioneer receiver pre amp input. No need to turn down the treble control. FYI.

Owen Bartley · Apr 22, 2003

I was doing this last year with an old 10" car sub. It was powered with everything from an old mini-system (!) to a Kenwood 1970's receiver at about 80 - 100 wpc.

For a crossover, I just picked up one of those big $10 coils (capacitor, right?) on a little PCB from an electronics store. It was supposed to block out about 100Hz and up. I built a little box for it, and ran it between the amp and sub. For a ghetto solution, it didn't work too badly.

Jonathan_D · Apr 22, 2003

What is everyone using for a crossover?

Like others, I just run it straight off the LFE/Sub out from my H/K receiver. The H/K bass management is pretty good (though not as good as the newer models). I have it set at 60hz (my mains will go down to 50 or 55 hz) and includes the bass from the L+R and rears as well as the LFE. The amp I use has a tone bypass switch that I use as well as a "high cut" filter.

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