Amp for my DIY sub (1 Viewer)

[Luke_Khuc]

Do I really have to buy a special amp for the sub? I have an old Sony receiver (rated at 120W) and am wondering if it's okay to use it to power the sub. Will the receiver have enough power to drive the sub? I don't really want to spend more money while I have an unused amp sitting around. Thanks for your inputs.

 

[Eduardo]

I'm probably not the best person to answer this question but I think that it ok.

 

[Juan Castillo]

Luke, I too am using a stereo reciever to power my sub for the time being. My sub is a dual voice coil 12" Cerwin Vega, so from the sub out of the main DD, DTS receiver, I used a RCA splitter, and ran a standard RCA cable to one of the inputs on my stereo reciever. Since mine is DVC, using both left and right channels works best. If your is single, than a single sub cable from sub out to either left or right input on your stereo will work fine. If you do this though, make sure to turn the balance all the way over to whatever side you are using. Anyway, I disabled the inline x-over on my passive sub, and am using the main recievers internal crossover only. You don't want to stack them. And... whoala.. I have a great sounding sub (I think) and I did not have to pay for a new amp. However; I will at some point buy a plate amp, and build a sub of my own, and retire this setup to my bedroom. So just cuz you can't do it now, doesn't mean you shouldn't do it later.

 

[Zac_F]

I'm using an old Sony receiver to power my SVS sub. It works, but I've wondered if a more powerful amp would be better.

 

[jeff lam]

A better/stronger amp will cirtainly give you better performance but a small old receiver/amp should move the sub just fine, just don't go clipping the amp constantly.

What sub are you running BTW?

 

[Luke_Khuc]

Jeff,
I am building my own sub with the old SVS driver. I will get a real amp when I can afford the SVS sub.
I can also use one of the channels of the rotel 1095 to drive the sub? It will be 300 watts at 4 ohm. I can use the old receiver to drive the surround channels.

 

[Alexis]

I used a sony that was rated 180 into 4ohms max for an svs, and in pearl harbor, it went into overload.

The sony amps don't have that much power below 20hz, i don't know if it is a filter or what, but my technics receiver is much better as a sub amp.