Not your typical stereo
 

Hi everyone,
Im new to this board and well basically car stereos in general, but i do need some advice on something that i am attempting to build. Im a Heavy Equiptment Tech by trade so i do have experience in 12 volt systems and have done a few small car stereo installs but nothing major. Well here is my question or project. I am building a custom toolbox for at work and I would like to run a car stereo in it. It doesent have to be anything crazy, I was thinking head unit, 2 sets of 6 1/2' components, and 12 sub amp combo. I have aqquired a ac/dc convertor capable of 40amps continuous output. I was wondering if this is going to be possible and if so what would be some good equiptment to go with. I know it would be a whole lot easier to throw a small household radio on the top of my box but theres no fun in that. Do you guys also think that the ac/dc convertor i have will be strong enough to power this system. I have a ton of other questions but i think that this is enough to start off with. Any help would be great.

Thanks
Chris

I can already hear your tools rattling :appl:

cool idea, thought about doin this many times before. 40 amps should be ok, it should be able to handle about 400 watts(probably more, just stayin on the safe side)

should thump, if u have any problems with it u can alwasy go bigger later, i say try it with wat u have and if u need to step it up.

or u could put a car battery in it and a battery charger.

as for equipment, it depends on ur budget

Thanks for the replys,

I know the tools rattling may be an issue but is something that i can deal with, I plan on having the stereo section of the box seperate from the tools section and will probebly use some dynamat or other sound material. Would MDF be suitable for sectioning off the stereo section from the tool section or should i use metal. Im glad to hear that the convertor will be powerful enough, and if not im sure there are other ways i can go, such as your suggestion for a battery and charger, or even an alternator/ electric motor combo. As far as equiptment goes im not really worried about price, it dosent have to be the loudest thing out there. I would like to keep the total price of all the equiptment under $1500 but Im willing to spend the money if it will make a difference. I know i would like the have a deck with an aux input so i can plug in an ipod, and one with sat radio built in, any suggestions on that and the other gear would be great.

use a bandpass design with the speaker inside the box so it doesn't get damaged.. with a proper design you could go down to a smaller sub and still get some real nice bass. use lots of braces so the box doesn't shake up the tools..

im assuming you're going to install the mids and highs in the top flip up part.. just don't let some polak steal it from the jobsite! :smilie_da

my 2 cents... I would only use 1 set of components, get a 4 channel amp thats current consumption is around 35amps (you'll need headroom for your head units draw), run the speakers off two channels and bridge the other two for your sub... where exactly is this tool pounder going?

This box will be in my shop, which is pretty clean, but i am still a little worried about having everything sealed off so that over time the equiptment dosent get to dirty. For example we do quite a bit of fab work so speakers in the shop tend to become grear collectors of metal fileings. That being said i was thinking of using all sealed type enclosures. Im not going to have a top box just the bottom im planing on having the components build into the top workarea of the box. Thanks for the idea with the 4 channel amp thats a good idea, cause i was wondering if i should run 2 amps (one for the sub and one for the speakers) but that 4 channel should work good. Should i use the headunits speaker outputs for anything? And when they list the volume for and enclosure is the volume they give you with or without the sub in it?

http://www.visions.ca/catalogue/category/Details.aspx?categoryId=52&productId=1073&menuId=1 &parentId1=49&parentId2=''&parentId3=''&menuLevel= 2

What do you guys think of this for an amp. I like the price but is it to big?

as for the volume of the box, if it does include basket displacement, it will usually say total volume (including sub displacement)... look around, I'm sure different companies will give different specifics... If you are only building a sealed box than it shouldn't be too hard to figure out, even if you have to add or subtract the displacement of the sub itself from the given numbers..

mabey look into marine stuff, i know ur not suposed to get this stuff wet, but u never know, roof leak, coolant leak, an idiot with a hose...lol..all that stuff was pretty regular at the last shop i was at, thats y i decided against douing soemthing like this, but marine stuff would be better if it is going to be open to elements, cuz thats basically what there built for.

just one guys opinion