# Carputer And Speakers.



## Chris164935 (Jan 10, 2004)

Well, I'm fixin' to dive into my first major electircal project with the car that doesn't involve the engine: building a carputer. I know how to put together computers, so that part I'm not really that worried about. Mostly, I just have a few questions about the speakers. I plan on removing all the factory speakers and tweeters and hook up an amp to my carputer and run the speakers off the amp. How would I go about hooking up the tweeters? Would I just wire up a tweeter and speaker to one of the channels on the 4-channel amp I plan on using? Or is there a better (or right) way to hook all this up to my carputer?


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## afinley (Dec 29, 2004)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (Chris164935)*

no, thats the way it goes.


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## Chris164935 (Jan 10, 2004)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (afinley)*


_Quote, originally posted by *afinley* »_no, thats the way it goes.

So then each channel will have a tweeter and speaker wired to it, correct?


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## pwnt by pat (Oct 21, 2005)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (Chris164935)*

build me a mk2 aba 16v and I'll build you a carputer


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## Chris164935 (Jan 10, 2004)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (pwnt by pat)*


_Quote, originally posted by *pwnt by pat* »_build me a mk2 aba 16v and I'll build you a carputer









Haha. Deal. You just have to supply the MK2, aba, and 16v head.


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## pwnt by pat (Oct 21, 2005)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (Chris164935)*

Oh, I'm looking, believe me. If you come up or fly me down I'll do it then give ya' a call when I get everything together.


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## Chris164935 (Jan 10, 2004)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (pwnt by pat)*


_Quote, originally posted by *pwnt by pat* »_Oh, I'm looking, believe me. If you come up or fly me down I'll do it then give ya' a call when I get everything together.

Sweet. Sounds good. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif Any idea(s) on the best way for this setup though?


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## pwnt by pat (Oct 21, 2005)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (Chris164935)*

If you remove all of the factory gear and then replace it with aftermarket, all you have to do is get a 3.5mm stereo to rca adapter and run that from the sound card to the amplifier inputs. Set your gain accordingly and you're all set


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## Chris164935 (Jan 10, 2004)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (pwnt by pat)*


_Quote, originally posted by *pwnt by pat* »_If you remove all of the factory gear and then replace it with aftermarket, all you have to do is get a 3.5mm stereo to rca adapter and run that from the sound card to the amplifier inputs. Set your gain accordingly and you're all set









That would be if I decided to keep the stock speakers and tweeters right? I'd rather go with some upgraded speakers as the stock Audi symphony speakers are junk.


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## pwnt by pat (Oct 21, 2005)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (Chris164935)*

stock speakers each run on their own channel, so you would either need to design and build a crossover designed for the stock speakers or replace them with (even the most modest) aftermarket that come with a crossover.


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## TonyZGTI (Dec 29, 2006)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (Chris164935)*

I would use crossovers to separate the signal or at least use capasitors for the tweeters,If you hook up the tweeters directly to the amp they will die within a month.


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## pwnt by pat (Oct 21, 2005)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (TonyZGTI)*

He will have to build a crossover if he intends to use the stock speakers...
That or go active which is a lot harder to properly set up.


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## Chris164935 (Jan 10, 2004)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (pwnt by pat)*


_Quote, originally posted by *pwnt by pat* »_He will have to build a crossover if he intends to use the stock speakers...
That or go active which is a lot harder to properly set up.

Well, I definitely plan on going with aftermarket speakers and tweeters. Any links of some products that would be worth checkin' out for the speaker setup would be awesome as well.


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## sgolf2000 (Mar 2, 2003)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (Chris164935)*

id say go with kicker rs or ss componets. they will take care of your tweets and drivers. i dont know much about the signal that a computer sends but as far as speakers these sound good and powerful from a 300/4 to even a say a 800/4amp.


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## Chris164935 (Jan 10, 2004)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (sgolf2000)*


_Quote, originally posted by *sgolf2000* »_id say go with kicker rs or ss componets. they will take care of your tweets and drivers. i dont know much about the signal that a computer sends but as far as speakers these sound good and powerful from a 300/4 to even a say a 800/4amp.

I plan on using just a basic composite Y cable for audio to connect the carputer to the amp. As for the speakers and tweeters, I'm still a tad bit confused. Any links to specific amps/components that I would/could use for the tweeters and speakers?


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## pwnt by pat (Oct 21, 2005)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (Chris164935)*

If you get 3.5mm stereo to rca then you just run normal RCA's to the amp and you'll get stereo sound, just like it's supposed to be. no y-splitter needed.
Also, what's the budged for components?


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## Chris164935 (Jan 10, 2004)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (pwnt by pat)*


_Quote, originally posted by *pwnt by pat* »_If you get 3.5mm stereo to rca then you just run normal RCA's to the amp and you'll get stereo sound, just like it's supposed to be. no y-splitter needed.
Also, what's the budged for components?

Sounds good. So, any places where I can find amps with rca inputs for speakers and the adapters that you are talking about?


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## pwnt by pat (Oct 21, 2005)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (Chris164935)*

almost every amp (except the extremely EXREMELY budget amps, some of 'em) have RCA inputs.
http://www.amazon.com/3-5mm-ST...KR5Q0
You'll need one for each channel you run, so one for the front's one for the rears (if you choose to use rears), and one for the subwoofer. You'll also need a 5.1 sound card like the Creative Live 5.1 which can be ebayed for like $10, orretailed for like $20. Check with any local PC shops, or send me a PM. I should be able to hook you up with one for like $10 shipped from my computer shop.


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## Chris164935 (Jan 10, 2004)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (pwnt by pat)*


_Quote, originally posted by *pwnt by pat* »_almost every amp (except the extremely EXREMELY budget amps, some of 'em) have RCA inputs.
http://www.amazon.com/3-5mm-ST...KR5Q0
You'll need one for each channel you run, so one for the front's one for the rears (if you choose to use rears), and one for the subwoofer. You'll also need a 5.1 sound card like the Creative Live 5.1 which can be ebayed for like $10, orretailed for like $20. Check with any local PC shops, or send me a PM. I should be able to hook you up with one for like $10 shipped from my computer shop.

Alright, bare with me here a bit, I'm still somewhat new at speaker setups. So, the stereo plug would go to the amp correct? Would this whole speaker setup be plug and play or do I have to wire it up?


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## pwnt by pat (Oct 21, 2005)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (Chris164935)*

Those little adapters would plug into the computer speaker output. Then you would run RCA's to the amplifier. The amplifier will have RCA inputs and speaker level outputs. You just wire the component set together as their directions show, set your gains following the link in my sig that says "car audio basics" and you're all set.


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## Chris164935 (Jan 10, 2004)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (pwnt by pat)*


_Quote, originally posted by *pwnt by pat* »_Those little adapters would plug into the computer speaker output. Then you would run RCA's to the amplifier. The amplifier will have RCA inputs and speaker level outputs. You just wire the component set together as their directions show, set your gains following the link in my sig that says "car audio basics" and you're all set.

Okay. I was thinking of something else. So, then I would wire up the driver door tweeter and speaker to one channel on the amp and the passenger door tweeter and speaker to another channel on the amp? Basically, I'm trying to figure out how I should wire the tweeters into the whole scheme.


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## pwnt by pat (Oct 21, 2005)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (Chris164935)*

tweetwers and woofers get wired to the crossover that comes with the kit. The crossover then gets wired to the amp (like a speaker would)


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## PhReE (Sep 16, 2004)

*Re: Carputer And Speakers. (pwnt by pat)*

2 ways to do this. With one amp or two. (I will only show the fronts, but the rear is exactly the same.)
You can use aline level crossover, and split it from the pc to high and low and then into the amps, or get a speaker level crossover and run from pc to amp to crossover to spekers. Like:
Mono Amp (less complicated, less expensive)









Bi Amp (more complicated, more expensive)


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## Chris164935 (Jan 10, 2004)

Perfect.
One last question (until the next one), what about the remote wire? Do I have to use one or no? If I have to, how would I go about wiring that up since the PC wouldn't have a hook-up for it (or does it?).


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## pwnt by pat (Oct 21, 2005)

*Re: (Chris164935)*

yes, you'll need one to control the turn on of the pc.

_Quote, originally posted by *pwnt by pat* »_Finally, you'll want two relays. The first relay will go up in the dash. This will control the switched ignition and a strong 12v source to the computer/amps. The second relay will use the PC power suppy 12v as the switched 12v signal so, again, the amps will turn on-off with the computer. If you don't, your computer will still stay on for 10-15 seconds playing music while your amps are shut off.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3097097


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## Chris164935 (Jan 10, 2004)

I plan on using the M2-ATX power supply which has a built in startup/shutdown controller. Could I wire the remote wire to that? If not, do you have any wiring diagrams on how to set up these relays (and what kind of relays are they)?


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## pwnt by pat (Oct 21, 2005)

*Re: (Chris164935)*

Yeah, that's actually what you'll want to do. What I quoted would be for if you have any extra devices, like amplifiers.


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## Chris164935 (Jan 10, 2004)

*Re: (pwnt by pat)*


_Quote, originally posted by *pwnt by pat* »_Yeah, that's actually what you'll want to do. What I quoted would be for if you have any extra devices, like amplifiers.

So, then I could wire up the touch screen and remote wire for the amp to the M2-ATX power supply so that everything turns on with the car or will they all have to be wired up separately to, for example, the fuel pump relay?


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## pwnt by pat (Oct 21, 2005)

*Re: (Chris164935)*

You'll want to wire the touch screen directly in to the power supply for the computer. It should have a setting to turn on automatically when it sees power.
If you wire the relay up to switched power and a strong 12v source, you can run as many devices that need a switched 12v signal as needed.


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