PVC and amp questions (1 Viewer)

[Matt Weyen]

I'm on a VERY tight budget and want to build up a very cheap, but quality sub. My dad a head city engineer and can get ahold of just about any size PVC pipe I want. I told him that a piece of 15" wide pipe by 3ft long by 1/2" thickness would be about right. Now I just need to find a cheap driver (which shouldn't be too hard since car sub drivers are plentiful at the local pawn shops). As for tools, friends and family can cover all that. I can afford stuff like end caps and glue and what not. Here is the major question as to my $$ savings, I have a little shelf speaker system (philips) that can put out 175 watts that I don't use anymore. Can I run the sub out on my reciever to the auxilary in on the shelf reciever/amp and then run the speaker's out to my PVC sub? If I can't, this project could take considerably longer to complete.

Also, I was wanting to hear more thoughts on PVC than what I found in the last thread about it I found in here. I have read that putting insulation or pillow filling in the sub will greatly reduce resonance and/or standing waves (a little unsure if there is a difference). If I put the filling in between the 3 metal rods I plan on putting in to tighten up the endcaps, will PVC likely sound pretty good?

Thanx for any and all replies

 

[Mike_A]

i highly doubt that philips minisystem actually puts out 175W and almost definitely not that much into each channel. Then there's the question of whether it can drive a four ohm load, as most subs are, and the answer is also probably not. i recommend picking up a partsexpress 250W plateamp - they run about $130 on sale.

as for drivers - there are some car audio drivers that work well for HT, but not many. remember that a car has significant cabinet gain down low that you won't get in room, so they're designed different. i've also noticed that most car drivers don't have much travel compared to what most are using for HT here.

 

[Ryan Schnacke]

Even the 120W parts express plate amp (I think its on sale for $80) would be better for powering a sub. This thing actually measured at 150W into 4 ohms.