12V Shop Stereo

[chasestg]

I wanna build a large stereo for my shop using car audio components. (Think about the size of a juke box). I’ve got a few questions and concerns though. And first and foremost I know I can easily accomplish this by going get a home theater receiver and some home speakers and call it a day but that’s not the goal. I wanna use car audio components only. Most likely a 1000 watt Rockford mono amp and another 1000 watt Rockford four channel. Source unit will be some type of single din, probably an 80 PRS. I’ve looked into using 12-14 volt power supplies, and even though they’re expensive they have some 100-125 amp models that I think would be sufficient. I’m worried that the amps may draw to much dynamic power (quick burst hits) and wither damage the amp from not having the current to draw or damage the power supply from trying to pull what it can’t deliver. The second route I’ve thought about is using a bank of 12v or 14v batteries. I know I could parallel enough of them to run it off charger for a few hours but I don’t think I need to be come XS Power’s best customer for this project. Is they’re anyway to charge a bank of 12v agm or lipefo4 batteries at a fast enough rate to keep them going without an alternator? I’m guessing running two 1000 watt amps will probably pull about 250-300 amps but music and efficiency adds lots of variation to this. Any feedback would be very helpful! Thanks in advance. 

[slowfkncar]

Its always pricey to run high current 12v gear indoor, this is why most of us just go with home audio equipment and call it a day.

 a 200-250A supply or a bank of g31's would probably be the cheapest option, good luck adding a breaker for that 250a supply.

[Casparado]

How long do you plan on listening to it before needing a charge, and at what volume? Remember power consumption is 10x for every 3db of volume, so low listening levels will get you a lot longer time than full tilt listening. You'd be surprised how much volume you can get out of low wattage with efficient speakers. 

[White Lightning]

You would be much better off with industrial rack mounted amplifiers. Shops collect dust easily and industrial amplifiers have built in fan networks designed for applications like this.

[chasestg]

6 hours ago, Casparado said:

How long do you plan on listening to it before needing a charge, and at what volume? Remember power consumption is 10x for every 3db of volume, so low listening levels will get you a lot longer time than full tilt listening. You'd be surprised how much volume you can get out of low wattage with efficient speakers. 

Haven’t really considered that. I have a large shop but I still don’t think it’ll need to be ran at more than 60-70% volume. Is it possible to charge lithium batteries at a rate equal to their discharge though? It doesn’t have to be constant and I do want it to be able to run without a power cord. 

[chasestg]

5 hours ago, White Lightning said:

You would be much better off with industrial rack mounted amplifiers. Shops collect dust easily and industrial amplifiers have built in fan networks designed for applications like this.

I’ve thought about this but I don’t even know where to start with rack amps. I would be comfortable doing that if I could find one with four channels that was bridgeable. Ideally I’d need 150-250 watt per channel for what I’m trying to do. I wanted to use car audio components and make it a bit of a showpiece but if I could find a rack amp with the right specs that would maybe work. Just wanted it to be cordless though. 

[White Lightning]

5 hours ago, chasestg said:

I’ve thought about this but I don’t even know where to start with rack amps. I would be comfortable doing that if I could find one with four channels that was bridgeable. Ideally I’d need 150-250 watt per channel for what I’m trying to do. I wanted to use car audio components and make it a bit of a showpiece but if I could find a rack amp with the right specs that would maybe work. Just wanted it to be cordless though. 

Industrial amplifiers do not work like Car Audio Amplifiers. You buy the power you need without bridging. They make specific mono channel Amplifiers. 

Btw ... I’ve never seen an amplifier cordless ... just Saying 

[chasestg]

2 hours ago, White Lightning said:

Industrial amplifiers do not work like Car Audio Amplifiers. You buy the power you need without bridging. They make specific mono channel Amplifiers. 

Btw ... I’ve never seen an amplifier cordless ... just Saying 

When I said cordless I meant like throw it on the charger and get some run time without it plugged up... I looked into the rack amps though and holy shit do they put out some power. I don’t get how people run these without tripping breakers. Even using 110 volts some of these 2 channel ones are putting out more than 3k watts per channel through class A/B circuitry. Surely that’s gotta pull more than the 20 amps a 110 wall socket will let you have. 

[paidnfull]

I'm with the other guys who think you'll be better off going a different route.  Rack mount or pa type amps are really going to be the way to go.

That being said, we have used powermax converters on our bowfishing rigs with great luck.  They are very reasonably priced and have worked great for us even in really bad environments for electronics. 

https://powermaxconverters.com/

You can stack them. We run two of the 120a ones on one of my buddy's rigs.  Run them off small suitcase genny's, and these let us run all our lights and a troller pretty much indefinitely without having to head in early with dead batteries or having to worry about recharging a bank of batts to go again the next night.

 

[White Lightning]

43 minutes ago, chasestg said:

When I said cordless I meant like throw it on the charger and get some run time without it plugged up... I looked into the rack amps though and holy shit do they put out some power. I don’t get how people run these without tripping breakers. Even using 110 volts some of these 2 channel ones are putting out more than 3k watts per channel through class A/B circuitry. Surely that’s gotta pull more than the 20 amps a 110 wall socket will let you have. 

Class A/B amplifiers do not draw high currents like Class D Amplifiers. Rack mounted Amplifiers are designed to work exceptionally well with A/C voltage. My personal favorites was the Peavey Electronics Industrial models. Ran, sold, and installed many with very few call backs. Mostly to reinstall to new locations and retune. 

What I use for indoor charging on my competition vehicles is the Astron Power Supply. Same ones Linear Power uses to power their test bench. One of these may suit your application.