Posted by Habanera Hal on September 9, 2011 at 6:31pm
Anyone tried to use powered computer speakers for an amp? Any reason for them not to work? I'm thinking about getting a subwoofer set that has a microphone jack, pulling the guts and putting the whole thing into a (large) cigar box with a 1/4" jack. I know very little about electonimal magic, so any input would be appreciated.
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I've used PC speakers and they work ok for a quiet little practice amp or to run a set of headphones through! Can't really push them to hard or they just go all tinny and fuzzy. I run mine on 9Volts. A lot of the cheaper PC speakers have worn out pots and bad grounds, lots of scratching when changing volume and background humming. But at 2 bucks a set you can pick through a few till you get one that works. The signal from a magpup seems to be better than the piezo in the ones I've built.
guitar speakers are designed for voice coil to almost come out much travel first note you hit too loud on comp.speaker she will pop voice coil rite out then all you hear is scratching when pushing lightly through travel a sad sound ive blown lots o speakers .Slim
guitar speakers are designed for voice coil to almost come out much travel first note you hit too loud on comp.speaker she will pop voice coil rite out then all you hear is scratching when pushing lightly through travel a sad sound ive blown lots o speakers .Slim
I use stereo pc speakers WITH a bass woofer unit for my electric 12 string so should be fine, EXPERIMENT. Many digital effect pedals are stereo so you can plug straight in!
I got a set of 4 ohm ,, 3 watt computer speakers from goodwill for 3 dolla ... I tried to get it to work with a 9 volt battery hook up ,,, un hun won t do that ,,,, but will work if u get one the cicuit boards from gitty or anyplace ,, I had a reallly small box that i was fixing to discard ,,, the speakers were about 1.5 wide and maybe 3 long ,, put both of em in this little box and it just booms !!!!! I have several more smaller boxes ,, thinking on this for them ..
I would love to find-out how to make this work too. I tried this with a piezo pup but didn't get much sound out of it. I did not have a mic input in my amped speakers and tried to connect to the main jack. Got a little sound but it seemed like I needed to pre-amp the piezo to make it work. I am not an electro whiz either so I have this shelved at the moment.
You better not use a sub woofer. Guitar amps need a lot of mids. Not much highs or lows! So a 2 speaker set will be better IMHO. Try how it sounds before you pull the guts.
Replies
I've used PC speakers and they work ok for a quiet little practice amp or to run a set of headphones through! Can't really push them to hard or they just go all tinny and fuzzy. I run mine on 9Volts. A lot of the cheaper PC speakers have worn out pots and bad grounds, lots of scratching when changing volume and background humming. But at 2 bucks a set you can pick through a few till you get one that works. The signal from a magpup seems to be better than the piezo in the ones I've built.
swampapple slim said:
David bouydog Brander said:
How about using one of those combined jack plug headphone amps and plugging the speakers into the headphone socket.