How do I hook up an amp?

How can I hook up my home stereo speakers with an amp in my car.?

• I have a number of extra home speakers lying around and would like to hook them up through a small amp. They would be set as either simply rear speakers or more ideally to receive bass frequencies (as subwoofers) if possible. know a little bit about electronics: Ohms law, simple circuit analysis etc. but have no real practical experience when it comes to stereos. General specs for my stereo: max current consumption is 10.0 Amps; continuous power output: 20 W per channel min.; Max Power Output is 45W x 4; and load impedance is 4 ohms but allows up to 8 ohms. I have a set of 4 ohm speakers (don't know the power rating) and a set of 8 ohm speakers rated for 1.2 W. I also have a small amp it is a "bridged type" amp rated for 25 W per channel max. I am assuming it has two channels. I am also not sure how the Wattage ratings work between the car stereo and the amp. So can I hook up the speakers through the amp and be ok or would I have to perform further mods? All help is appreciated!

• Answer:

  The Simple answer is Yes you can. Plenty of people have done it and it should work. There are certain limitations as far as the quality of the sound but if its bass you want, bass you shall have. Your Amp, well it could be better but it should work. You will need an 8 guage power wire, a fuse, ground wire, rca cable, remote wire, and some speaker wire. All of this can be purchased at a swap meet, auto zone, walmart, etc for $20-30. Make sure you fuse the power wire next to the battery using the supplied fuse holder and get the power wire to your amp. Sounds like you have an aftermarket radio so connect the rca to the rca output and connect the remote wire to the blue with white strip (remote out). If factory radio, use a rca adapter "high/Low", and connect remote wire to an accy wire (key swithed on/key switched off) At the amp, connect the power, remote, ground, and rca cable. When connecting to the amp, connect 1 speaker to the left and 1 to the right. If you are wiring as bridged, you must be "certain" that the speakers are 8 ohm. If the speakers wind up being 4 ohm speakers and you wire 2 speakers in "bridged mode", you will be droping the resistance to 2 ohms and the amp WILL blow up on you. left to left and right to right is much safer when dealing with an unknown home audiio speaker. otherwise, good luck