Speaker wiring

[Bigbopper]

Another wiring question from the newbie.....

I got my boat without any stereo installed except for 4 of the 6 crappy stock speakers. The PO took the HU out, and must have taken the factory speaker harness and plug that connects to the rear of the HU. I am left with only the boat-half of the speaker connector.
Anyone have any idea what the pin-out on the plug would be? Or am I stuck metering all the wires to determine which wire goes to which speaker?

Thanks,
BB

[lewisb13]

A few questions since I have the same boat as you and just did 6 db651 and a 6channel amp. What are you trying to do here, hook up your speakers to a new head unit or to an amp? What is your setup going to be like? On our boats, if you get inside there and really look, the front speakers are completely evident as to which wires those are, youll see what I mean when you look, and the cabin speakers are the other 8 wires. Theyre sort of separated and you can see which wires head towards the front of the boat and which head towards the rear. Dont overthink it. I just cut off the boat side connector and it was really easy to figure out what was what without a multimeter. The wires that go to each speaker are in coupled pairs, so no guessing which is which either.

[cab13367]

Another wiring question from the newbie.....

I got my boat without any stereo installed except for 4 of the 6 crappy stock speakers. The PO took the HU out, and must have taken the factory speaker harness and plug that connects to the rear of the HU. I am left with only the boat-half of the speaker connector.
Anyone have any idea what the pin-out on the plug would be? Or am I stuck metering all the wires to determine which wire goes to which speaker?

Thanks,
BB

Big,

Take this opportunity to rip out the stock speaker wiring and install new, higher quality, thicker gauge speaker wire. That's what I did - I now have nothing left of the stock stereo, not even the speaker wires.

Or like lewis says, it's easy enough to trace which wires go where.

Al

[sandm]

cab's advice is the best. stock speaker wire is ok, but it's not top end by any stretch. if you are planning an audio upgrade, do the wiring as well. it's amazing how many just think amps/speakers/hu and forget about the lifeblood of the system..
nice thing is next summer when you are bumpin the tunes, you don't have any gremlins ruining the sound on the lake from someone elses' poor install..

[Bigbopper]

I'm installing a 4ch amp and new HU as well (see my other post). I thought I could cheat using the stock speaker wiring, but after reading your recommendations, I think I will just go ahead and replace all the wiring too...probably make the install easier anyways.
Any recommendations on wire gauge for this application? I'm thinking reasonably heavy as it is a fairly long run around the bow......

Thanks for your help,
BB

[Razzman]

A quality 16ga is more than adequate for a boat cabin speakers. If you want to overkill it use 14ga.

[cab13367]

Yup, 16 ga is plenty. I went thru the ski locker instead of around the bow. Shorter run to the starboard rear speakers. Got my wire at monoprice.com. Cheap but good quality.

[sandm]

knukoncepts.com as well

[kaneboats]

Notice that the stereo guys who sell the wire don't chime in on this one. We all need our Xmas bonuses, right?