Hi all how are we doing?

I was curiose i have two spare subs in my garage that are just gathering dust... I was thinking about buying a surrond system and whacking them under the bed in a semi perspex enclosure (thats the dream) seeming as im an electrical idiot whats the best way to run the subs?

Best place for subs is under the north sea or covered with meat and salad

Plug them in?? They have a mains lead and (usually) one or more RCA sockets for audio input. (more info required).

Best to run them from an A/V receiver/amp, good cable.

Most amps will only have one low frequency output, so you'll probably be better off with one sub, or maybe running in series?

Do i need the car amp that went with it or not?

Im a complete novice to home cinema/surround sound systems "/

I'm a hifi wizard, but you are talking about AV not hifi!

Most but not all surround systems come with a sub, so you are probably better off just buying a full system and the lower end ones aren't a lot of money. Something like this maybe: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pioneer-Compact-Speaker-Bookshelf-Speakers/dp/B003OQ4I1O/ref=sr_1_12?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1340364586&sr=1-12

Car amps work on 12v, you don't really want to be messing with mains invertors to be honest.

Of course, if you have big speakers like mine, you don't need subs anyway!

Car subs are of really poor sound quality (regardless of price), and are optimised for cars, not houses.

Sound's like you have a pair of drive units needing an enclosure to me?

Do you have any manufacturer details on the subs?

Have to disagree with the 'poor sound quality' remark regarding car sub's as some of them come from the same manufacturer's as home cinema hifi.

Mark Levinson, kEF,Dynaudio to name but a few.

If they are' bare' subs then you will have some work to do as the enclosure is as important as the sub itself. Once youve sorted that you will need either a simple passive crossover to filter out the high frequencies and connect them up to an amp or use an av amp with built in active crossover which will give you a little more control .Either way its a bit of a task and as jezf1000 remark's its probably better to invest in a 'ready made' system which will have everything properly matched.

Ebay is as good place to look, if you can pickup an Elac\Canton Cinema 1or 2 system(usually see them between (£80-£200s/h) you wouldnt go far wrong for value and size.

Ok thanks everyone the subs are inphase(not had them out in a while so dont know specs) just thought wile i had two spare it would be nice to actualy use them rather than them collecting dust il take a look at some AV systems then if its not worth the hassle? thanks all!

Sound's like you have a pair of drive units needing an enclosure to me?

Do you have any manufacturer details on the subs?

Have to disagree with the 'poor sound quality' remark regarding car sub's as some of them come from the same manufacturer's as home cinema hifi.

Mark Levinson, kEF,Dynaudio to name but a few.

If they are' bare' subs then you will have some work to do as the enclosure is as important as the sub itself. Once youve sorted that you will need either a simple passive crossover to filter out the high frequencies and connect them up to an amp or use an av amp with built in active crossover which will give you a little more control .Either way its a bit of a task and as jezf1000 remark's its probably better to invest in a 'ready made' system which will have everything properly matched.

Ebay is as good place to look, if you can pickup an ElacCanton Cinema 1or 2 system(usually see them between (£80-£200s/h) you wouldnt go far wrong for value and size.

I have got an enclosure for it allready, bog standard mdf, thought i would be nice to make a perspex one :p

Hi all how are we doing?

I was curiose i have two spare subs in my garage that are just gathering dust... I was thinking about buying a surrond system and whacking them under the bed in a semi perspex enclosure (thats the dream) seeming as im an electrical idiot whats the best way to run the subs?

As we're talking low background noise as opposed to the car (the opposite), couple them in a push-pull arrangement to play lower (i.e. mount them face-2-face on the baffle, wired so they move in tandem).

i linked a car amp up to a pc psu to run a sub from a 240v mains,it still works today