Running Home Theater Speakers Out of Car Stereo.

I wanted to see about getting some insight on an idea I'm trying to incorporate.

Ifinally replaced the stereo in my truck and was pleasantly surprised to see RCA output jacks for front, rear, and subwoofer channels.

Since I only have a set of speakers in my doors, and a rear set in top rear corner of the top bunk, I don't get very good sound dircetion leading to the bottom bunk, where I like to watch videos before going to sleep.

I tried hooking up a few of my RCA home theater speakers (left over from a Logitech 5.1 system computer sound system) to no avail. No sound.

I did some research and found that apparently there are usually different resistances between car and home audio systems, as well as the need for an amplifier when trying to use the RCA jacks on a car stereo.

My biggest question is, can I use an AV amplifier such as this with the lines coming from my head unit? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...A1TXJ8YQ6MM9JH

I'd prefer to keep any power option to a normal 110V outlet as it's much easier to plug something into my APU than it is to mess around with the wiring in the truck, or even worse, leading any wiring out to the battery.

My ultimate goal is to add 4 speakers I can mount onto the underside of the top bunk, and most likely on the underside of the storage compartments to make 8 total speakers running from my head unit through which I'll have wireless receivers (probly just one, maybe 2) hooked up through the aux jack on the stereo. I want an all in one car stereo/home theater system with as seemless of a transition as possible between the 2.

You need speakers that are capable of 4ohms. All car audio equipment it 4ohm. Cheap all in one box set speakers are usually 16ohm.

The RCA outputs are pre-outs and are unamplified. You would need an amplifier for them. Though most car stereos are capable of 4 speakers directly wired.

You have two choices.

1) Purchase an additional amplifier to wire to your speakers.

2) Run two pairs of 8 ohm speakers in parallel to the amp car stereo itself on one input using a volume control for the bunks.

Two pairs of 8ohm speakers on one output makes a 4ohm load. Which is why it is never recommended to run that setup on home system which is 8ohm. Some home amps, like Onkyo, are set at 6ohms but can be altered to 4ohm.

Make sense? If you need more info, email me:

[email protected]

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Originally Posted by AOD_RTMPro

2) Run two pairs of 8 ohm speakers in parallel to the amp car stereo itself on one input using a volume control for the bunks.

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Another option, although I'm not sure of the cost in USA, you could use one of these:

http://russound.com/product_detail.php?i=1755

It would provide impedance matching protection for your 4ohm car amp, provide selection between top or bottom bunk speakers, along with independent volume control separate to the car amp.

In New Zealand I sell them for $261.49+tax. I would think US pricing would be around $149 +/-

Yes you can use home audio speakers for your car and visa versa but there are side affects. The 8ohm speakers in a car will play at a lower volume. If you try to up the volume to compensate for this it can cause the amplifier/headunit to overheat since it is using lower resistance in the unit instead of at the speakers. Also if your speakers are using incorrect impedence, then your crossover frequencies get all messed up.

So in summary, if you don't care about the crossover frequency and you don't plan on playing it loud then it should work fine.

As mentioned before the RCA plugs on audio equipment is for sending unamplified signals. The only thing that those RCA outputs could power without amplification is a pair of cheap headphones. Logitech decided to use RCA plugs to simplify installation but this will serve to confuse consumers because of this unconventional use. I am afraid that someone somewhere may have plugged that Logitech amplifier RCA into a line input on a receiver (smoke and fire)

If he uses the Russound SDB-2.1, he can still use two pairs of car speakers with having the ability to select top or bottom bunk. As long as you don't run both sets together, in theory, you will not lose any volume or damage the amp.