I had these car audio components for 15-20 years and many have been sitting in the basement for over 10 years collecting dust. Well, due to life style change I couldn’t put the subwoofer in the car due to various reasons.
Recently I bumped into “Romanian House Club Mix” on YouTube and it brought me back to the old days of Euro Dance, so I decided to spent some time to setup the mancave in the basement. LOL. Using old computer power supply for 12V is not new, there are tons of information on Internet on how to start an ATX power supply, GFGI on keywords like “how to start atx power supply”, so I am not going into the details. The photos include detailed description, it’s pretty straight forward with no challenge at all. Well, after so many years, the JL Audio 12″ W6V2 is still amazing, if I remember correctly I hard wired the Dual Voice Coil (DVC) as 2-Ohms and the bass is SO SO SO DEEP.
Why disconnected the 1F capacitor?
In this basement setup, you saw me intentionally disconnect the amp. from the 1F capacitor. Indeed, I did try to charge it, please see photo I was using a light bulb provided 20 years ago. Yes this was a very OLD model, new cap nowadays is more advance, even with LCD screen and remote switch. The cap. actually worked if I kept the 12V power running. However, unlike in the car the 12V lead acid battery runs 24/7 to keep the cap full, in my basement I do want to turn the power off completely. As soon as I turn off the computer power supply, the amp draws the current and empty the cap. So this is useless and that explains why I disconnected the cap. completely.
Car Audio 12V, what you need to know?
I have seen many people complain they went to the shop to install a subwoofer and didn’t get the expected, the primary reason is that you need to do your in-depth research. You need to understand everything below from inside and out, don’t believe everything the shop trying to sell you. Back then 15-20 years ago, Internet didn’t have a lot of information and I got ripped off by those shops in the very beginning. As you can see in one of the photos, what’s why I had a passive crossover with a shitty pioneer subwoofer on a ported box.
My recommendation is: If you want deep quality bass, instead of loud bass. Forget about bandpass and ported boxes as well as 8″ subwoofer. Now, what left are 10″, 12″ and up, then get the matching amp. The basic rule is, you pay for what you get. Do not get the generic amp. which can power both front/rear speakers, my advice is to buy the MONO amp purely designed for subwoofer by matching the RMS and Ohms of the sub. If you follow these, you will be happy. Note that it is a myths that 12″ sounds better than 10″. In fact, a pair of high quality JL 10″ beats a single JL 12″ hands down on SPL and quality bass. These are the key points you need to know:
- Difference between Ported vs Bandpass vs Sealed box
- Understand Mono amp, Dual Voice Coil, 8/4/2 Ohms
- Difference between RMS (continuous) vs Peak rating
- Dimension of sub (8″, 10″, 12″) loud vs deep
- Understand SPL (Sound Pressure Level)
- Wiring gauge (4, 8, 10 awg) and 20/30/40/etc amp fuse
- Use of capacitor and understand the unit Farad
It’s time to make something new by old machine.
Thanks for it, I also have Kenwood KAC-9106D at store room for a long time.
Now, I will make it run by your cool stuff.
Great DIY. I will try this and will share my feedback with you. I’m a bit confused about the 1F capacitor but I’ll try to check some videos on YT. I have got a 5 channel amp with JBL 12in subwoofers.