LED lights, amplifiers, and you

[Cuddles]

Alright, so I've been slowly accumulating parts to add to my Forte when I saw some people adding lights to theirs. "Wow," I thought, "that looks really nice." I'm looking at some red LEDs, but I'd like to go a step above simple lighting. Here's my question:

Could I, in day-to-day usage, run LED lights off of the amp-subwoofer positive terminal and have the lights flash to the bass? In theory, I think this should work, but I'm afraid I'll burn everything out. I could always put a resistor into the circuit, but I was thinking I'd field the idea before I started burning holes into my floorboard.

Any thoughts appreciated!

(Oh, and these are the lights I'm looking at)

[mschiavoni]

hmm, i have no relevant info on it, but it would look awesome if you did it

[Cuddles]

(10-12-2010 10:07 AM)mschiavoni Wrote:  hmm, i have no relevant info on it, but it would look awesome if you did it

Haha, I'd hope so I'm pretty confident that I would just need to hook a resistor into the circuit to stop the lights from blowing a few seconds in (since the amp is putting out about 500 watts RMS to the sub), but I was hoping somebody more qualified than myself would be able to help out before I turn my car into a crematorium. Thanks anyway, though

[mschiavoni]

not a problem. somebody that knows more will notice eventually and will chime in

[Rihavens]

Short answer, no.

[Michael77346]

If you really wanted to, autozone sells these little fake neon lights that have a microphone in them that sends out power with the beat of the music. It should be pretty simple to take the power supply end of that light and hook it up to your own lights. Their lights look kinda cheap but the principle is that same as what you are trying to achieve.

[ecko]

Rihavens says no but I say yes but with caution....I only say that because I did run some LED bars and they were in fact hooked up to my Sony Class D amp for about a year before my car was broken into...I had no problems with blowing anything (Amp or LEDS) the whole time I had it hooked up. I just hooked up the LEDS to the Power wire and ground of my amp. I say with caution because I too wasn't sure if it would work until I actually tried it. In my case it did work but I can't say for sure if I was just lucky since I honestly have no clue about ampage or anything like that. As far as them flashing to the bass I am not sure about. Mine was just for continuous lighting....

Rihavens - Wasn't debating your answer, especially if your knowledgeable in the subject...I was just mentioning what I knew worked for me and as I mentioned I may have been lucky!

[mschiavoni]

ah! why didnt i think of this before?! put them in the signal wire (from the sub to the amp)! genius lol

[trooper]

I would say that you don't ticker too much with the wiring. The problem with audio is that any small signal loop can kill the audio. If you want a good and clean sound you should NOT put any resistors or led's in the signal path. resistors generate white noise which can seriously degrade the audio performance. Looping a resistor and a led isn't a wise idea IMHO.

Hope this helps
Mark
mark kia

[autoxwyer]

it will look awsome if you do it