NEW *** Can you use high quality car speakers for a home system.

Hello, I am new to the home audio thing, so be nice. We are planing a
middle of the road home theater in out home. I have observed that you
can buy two high quality car speakers for what a single home audio
speaker costs. Can you use a car speaker with a home system. The
dude @ Bestbuy said there might be a voltage issue. If so could you
visit a Radio Shack type place and rig someting together? Any help is
nice.

-J

(Judd) wrote in
om:

Hello, I am new to the home audio thing, so be nice. We are planing a
middle of the road home theater in out home. I have observed that you
can buy two high quality car speakers for what a single home audio
speaker costs. Can you use a car speaker with a home system. The
dude @ Bestbuy said there might be a voltage issue.

Resistance, not voltage. Car speakers are usually 4 ohm; home ones
usually 8. Unless you have a high current amp that can drive 4 ohm
speakers, there's a reason why home speakers are for home and car speakers
for car :-). And if you're using a high current amp, you have enough in
your budget to afford quality home speakers.

As demonstrated by the Best Buy "dude"'s ignorance, that's a store to stay
away from (so is Radio Shack).

"Judd" wrote in message
om...
Hello, I am new to the home audio thing, so be nice. We are planing a
middle of the road home theater in out home. I have observed that you
can buy two high quality car speakers for what a single home audio
speaker costs. Can you use a car speaker with a home system. The
dude @ Bestbuy said there might be a voltage issue. If so could you
visit a Radio Shack type place and rig someting together? Any help is
nice.

What were you planning to use for enclosures?

RichC

"Judd" wrote in message
om...
Hello, I am new to the home audio thing, so be nice. We are planing a
middle of the road home theater in out home. I have observed that you
can buy two high quality car speakers for what a single home audio
speaker costs. Can you use a car speaker with a home system. The
dude @ Bestbuy said there might be a voltage issue. If so could you
visit a Radio Shack type place and rig someting together? Any help is
nice.

-J

To make a long story short, no. Just buy a home theater package. You'll be
much happier with the results.

In article , Judd
wrote:

Hello, I am new to the home audio thing, so be nice. We are planing a
middle of the road home theater in out home. I have observed that you
can buy two high quality car speakers for what a single home audio
speaker costs. Can you use a car speaker with a home system. The
dude @ Bestbuy said there might be a voltage issue. If so could you
visit a Radio Shack type place and rig someting together? Any help is
nice.

-J

Sure you *can*, but that doesn't mean you *should*. You can hammer a
nail with a lemon but a hammer gets the job done a helluva lot
better... the point being that you really should use the right tool
(er, equipment) for the job. You don't need to spend $1000 on a speaker
system (even though it would be worth the money) but using car speakers
is going to give you car sound, at best, and quite likely much worse
than that (since your family room is completely unlike a car in every
respect).

Brian

Brian wrote:



In article , Judd
wrote:

Hello, I am new to the home audio thing, so be nice. We are planing a
middle of the road home theater in out home. I have observed that you
can buy two high quality car speakers for what a single home audio
speaker costs. Can you use a car speaker with a home system. The
dude @ Bestbuy said there might be a voltage issue. If so could you
visit a Radio Shack type place and rig someting together? Any help is
nice.

-J

Sure you *can*, but that doesn't mean you *should*. You can hammer a
nail with a lemon but a hammer gets the job done a helluva lot
better... the point being that you really should use the right tool
(er, equipment) for the job. You don't need to spend $1000 on a speaker
system (even though it would be worth the money) but using car speakers
is going to give you car sound, at best, and quite likely much worse
than that (since your family room is completely unlike a car in every
respect).

Brian

The individual drivers used in home and car systems are no different except the
car speakers have additional environmental engineering. However most car
speaker systems come without an 'enclosure' so you'll need to design and build
that to turn them into a speaker 'system.'

In article , Nousaine
wrote:

The individual drivers used in home and car systems are no different except
the
car speakers have additional environmental engineering. However most car
speaker systems come without an 'enclosure' so you'll need to design and build
that to turn them into a speaker 'system.'

Exactly - the speakers themselves are very similar, except that they
are engineered to sound good in a *car*, not in a room, and there is
very little that can be done simply and cheaply to get around this. By
the time Judd designs and builds his own enclosures (assuming he has
the skills, tools, technical knowledge etc. to do this - cabinet design
is not something to take lightly) he might as well have just bought the
proper HT speakers in the first place.

You get what you pay for.

Brian

I have a Denon/Jamo HT at home. I always thought that the Kenwood
speakers in my car sounded crispier than the Jamo floor standers at
home. So just for the heck of it, while building my new house I had the
carpenter construct a pair of solid wood enclosures as per my design
(please note that good carpenters are comparatively cheaper in India,
and I had some idea about speaker enclosure designs). The results were
quite good! In each box I had two speakers connected in series, so that
takes care of the impedance issue.

This didn't really save me much money as the Kenwood drivers were more
expensive than the drivers available in the audio stores, and wood
doesn't come cheap too.

regards,
Sharad

Brian wrote:

In article , Nousaine
wrote:



The individual drivers used in home and car systems are no different except
the
car speakers have additional environmental engineering. However most car
speaker systems come without an 'enclosure' so you'll need to design and build
that to turn them into a speaker 'system.'



Exactly - the speakers themselves are very similar, except that they
are engineered to sound good in a *car*, not in a room, and there is
very little that can be done simply and cheaply to get around this. By
the time Judd designs and builds his own enclosures (assuming he has
the skills, tools, technical knowledge etc. to do this - cabinet design
is not something to take lightly) he might as well have just bought the
proper HT speakers in the first place.

You get what you pay for.

Brian