Trayson's adventures in stereo upgrades

[trayson]

Well, I figured it might be fun to start a thread on the system in my 2008 XLV.

When I bought the boat it has the following setup:


MB Quart Nautic CD/MP3/USB/IPod headunit
MB Quart remote for Helm
MB Quart remote for swim platform
Kicker 700.5 five channel amp
Kicker 350.4 four channel amp
Polk Audio db651 Cabin Speakers (4 in main area, 2 in bow)
2 pairs of Ariel Tower speaker cans with Polk db651 coaxials
2 Polk Audio db1040DVC subs with dual 4 ohm voice coils
Exile ZLD MK2 zoned line driver EQ


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-qGKrG40SKR4/VA8vteQqarI/AAAAAAAAUN4/hLeVlU785YU/s400/20140908_202603_resized.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-JoSPmgH96aI/VO3ztTpMcII/AAAAAAAAYFg/UeU1bSGa1PM/s640/20150225_074718.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-KiHOBl4av24/VAnltyE86_I/AAAAAAAAUHM/mVkW-nd-pd8/s640/20140903_182417_resized.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-42JrpeWiGB4/VA8vs5HmoxI/AAAAAAAAUYI/dbcOnfJI8uY/s800/20140908_202500_resized.jpg

[trayson]

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-1zQTxFx6UEM/VAnlrSnDlMI/AAAAAAAAYK8/Zhpuk-CEiEI/s800/20140903_182303_resized.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-H0oOZMibcjI/VA3TxG-10HI/AAAAAAAAUK0/oDa2Xt19AkQ/s800/VP3333681_5_large_resized_zps49c81514.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-fbUa6p6Aw4A/VAnlrriX-yI/AAAAAAAAUGM/QVZ-CTd5zNM/s800/20140903_182310_resized.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-jha4Yrpc4FY/VA3TvSYVEyI/AAAAAAAAUKU/eqHre_8FyYY/s800/20140907_132232_resized.jpg

[trayson]

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-LVzgbJNwK10/VA8vpK1aEOI/AAAAAAAAX6Q/NgzkUJJ7O0g/s800/20140908_201901_resized.jpg

So with all of that, it was a good baseline to have as a starting point. However, when I got the boat, there was a short that would cause one side of the tower speakers to cut in and out. Turns out it was a bad RCA so I spliced a new end onto the cable to fix it for the time being. I also found that one of the tower speakers wasn't putting out any sound despite the RCA fix. And lastly, I realized that the bow speakers were powered via deck power and controlled only by the headunit volume while the two amps were of course controlled by the ZLD. That drove me CRAZY so I rewired the bow speakers to the 700.5 amp so everything was controlled by the ZLD.

I also found that the headunit had an unused RCA auxiliary input, so I took a spare RCA to 3.5mm cable and wired that into the glove box. Likewise, the deck had a rear USB input, so I got a USB extension cord and wired that into the glovebox also.

I like to use my phone as an audio source, and I have a handful of phone docks, so I dedicated one to the boat. I connected the phone dock to the ZLD's Aux input and ran the micro USB charging cable to the driver's 12v outlet.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-4neCkX13XLE/VO3ziUiOHrI/AAAAAAAAYEw/fO0o2U-petE/s800/20150225_074727.jpg

On my last boat I had a pair of 8" Bazooka Compression Horn Tubbies. They did a good job and I wanted to have HLCD speakers on this boat. Since I already had the 6.5" Ariel cans, it was a quick, easy, and cheap upgrade to put in a set of Kicker KM6500.2 components into the Ariel cans. I was able to get the kicker components for a great deal and to make sure I had clearance, I relocated the crossover from the back of the horn so that I'd have enough mounting depth for them. In the process of installing them, I found that the reason why one of my Polk's wasn't playing in the can is because the connection had become unsoldered.

Finished product and once again, I have tunes at wakeboard length.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-sexXZBa6ci0/VEVgpELMY8I/AAAAAAAAYLE/oibkQDljt7w/s800/GOPR1309.JPG

I only had the boat for a couple months before my season ended, so that was all the upgrades for 2014.

[trayson]

While the ZLD Mk2 is a good unit, I'd gotten used to the WS420SQ I had in my last boat. I like the ability to set the EQ separate for the cabins vs the towers. I also like the PA system (my 9 year old son loves it!).

So I figured I'd sell my ZLD Mk2 while it was still a new and attractive item and I swapped it for a 420SQ. On my last boat I had a Bluetooth deck, but it was honestly more hassle than it was worth. When I started the boat's engine, the BT would blip just long enough to have my phone pause the music. Then I'd have to instruct someone from the water on how to unpause my phone when they couldn't see the display in bright sunlight and also change the volume back up on the phone. All that to say, that since I have a phone dock, it's easy to use the phone as a source and the BT just wasn't worth the extra money to justify a 420BT.

Couldn't be an easier swap to throw the 420SQ in place of the ZLDMK2:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-M6Cnqi8kdKI/VO87pmf7fAI/AAAAAAAAYGg/ySzbK-Nwopg/s800/20150225_202731.jpg

I was also messing around with the boat so I decided to pull the Polk subs and take a look at what I really had going on there. I found out that they were dual 4 ohm voice coils wired to give the amp a 4 ohm load for the pair.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-83XZb0IEH1Q/VOVWQoStwCI/AAAAAAAAX9A/WmuatR_RFHc/s800/20150218_191658.jpg
The Kicker 700.5 puts out 210 x 1 at 4 ohms, but puts out 420 x 1 at 2 ohms. it got me wishing I had a 2 ohm load on the amp rather than a 4 ohm load. So I figured, what the heck, another quick/easy/cheap swap to double the power of my amp would be to get a pair of 4 ohm speakers.

I decided on a pair of Infinity Reference 1060W subs each with a single 4 ohm voice coil. They had the best sensitivity specs and had plenty of power handling and excursion ability and were priced right.
http://images.sonicelectronix.com/images/2186339/main/1060w.jpg
They are a little deeper than the Polk's so I had to order up a pair of subwoofer rings. I was going to go with Plexi rings, but the plastics shop would have charged me more for the rings than I paid for the subs by the time I was done. That's okay, I have some ideas and ultimately my subs will have rings that will facilitate LED's. Stay tuned...

[trayson]

After going out in Jester's boat and hearing his set of Four XM9's powered off the 30.2 amp, I was impressed. driving his new Enzo I could hear the XM9's hitting and putting out bass I'd never really heard from a tower speaker (aside from my other friend that has a pair of REV410's! LOL). Yes, Mandley has 6 of the XM9's but there is so much sound and bass coming from everywhere that I didn't realize his towers were putting out some lower frequencies.

Anyway, it got me thirsting for more from my tower (even though I'd only put a month on my current Kicker 6500.2 setup. I started thinking about all the big boy options... XM9, Rev8, Rev10, Rev410, etc. etc. Bottom line is that it really wasn't in my budget this year to throw down on a bad boy system. I had too much going on with my ballast upgrade, hydroturf, etc. I decided that I'd make due with my tower speakers as is for a season...


That decision lasted a couple weeks. I can't resist those "bang for the buck" upgrades, so I ordered up a pair of the Kicker 6500 midrange speakers and a pair of Krypt 6.5" tower cans. at $97 for the speakers and $130 for the cans, it was a pretty damn affordable way to bump up to the Kicker 6500.2 six-pack setup. The Cans will be close enough in appearance to look decent. I wasn't willing to shell out the extra money for the Ariel cans.
http://cdn3.volusion.com/osd9d.dxtc2/v/vspfiles/photos/206-2.jpg

http://cdn3.volusion.com/kplve.lockb/v/vspfiles/photos/Kicker-KM6500-011KM6500-2.jpg?1368540151

I was already powering my 6500.2 setup with the Kicker 350.4 bridged giving 175x2 to the set at 4 ohms. Because the amp is bridged, it's not going to be happy running the extra two mids because that would bring it down to a 3 ohm load. So I needed a 2 channel amp that would be 2 ohm stable and put out enough power for the Kicker 6-pack. I didn't want to hassle with fishing another set of wires up my tower, so having something that was just 2 channels was my preference.

In the long run, I'd love to have something like the Exile 30.2 or even the Harpoon because it would support future tower speaker upgrades. But I can't justify the money for that right now unless I came upon a crazy deal, so in the meantime to get me by, I'm going to try out the Precision Power Phantom P600.2 which is a class D amp with the following specs:

RMS Power Rating (14.4V):
4 ohms: 190 watts x 2 chan.
2 ohms: 300 watts x 2 chan.
Bridged, 4 ohms: 600 watts x 1 chan.

RMS Power Rating (12V):
4 ohms: 100 watts x 2 chan.
2 ohms: 200 watts x 2 chan.
Bridged, 4 ohms: 400 watts x 1 chan.

Sure, I'd like more power, but this should be decent for the time being. And it wasn't a big investment for a mid-tier amp so I'll still be able to upgrade later on if I choose. There's a lot of people running PPI Phantom amps in their boats and while they aren't Exile or WS, they seem to get the job done.
http://images.sonicelectronix.com/images/861069/main/ppi-p6002.jpg

So I'll rock the six-pack for the season and see what presents itself for upgrades in the future. One thing to note about the kicker 6500.2 is that is sports the same size voice coil as the 8" HLCD setups. It obviously isn't going to be able to put out the lower frequencies that an 8" or 10" HLCD speaker will. However, it'll have a decent amount of output from the midrange given that there's no horn taking up any of its area. When I add the 2nd set of mids, it'll substantially increase the midrange output and I'll set the horn to the +DB jumper and get more out of the horn to compliment the added mids. In theory I'll be louder than a single pair of 8" HLCD speakers, but at the expense of a narrower frequency range because a 6.5" will never be able to dip as low as an 8" or larger speaker. In the end, it's a compromise, but one I'm willing to rock because of the affordability.

I've got a lot planned with Speaker LED's so I'll update when I get the chance to make progress on any of that. Of course as I get the new stuff (above) installed, I'll post up pics.

[KG's Supra24]

Check the books moderators ... That's gotta be a record :p

All the mods look great. Sharp boat.

I went a similar path on the stereo mods my first season and then fell victim to the larger towers. Beware of jesters boat!

[kaneboats]

What? 5 replies to his own post. You haven't been paying attention. He does that in every thread every day.

[bergermaister]

Images pulled directly from the web do not count. They must be original and unique in nature, preferably done in selfie fashion or shameless self promotion from the end of a telescopic handle, or demerits will be issued.

[newty]

Lol classic.

[viking]

:) wait till someone comes along and deletes the pics! there won't be a happy camper.

[beat taco]

Lmao. I love bang for the buck upgrades.

[trayson]

What? 5 replies to his own post. You haven't been paying attention. He does that in every thread every day.

Well, since I can only post 4 pics per post, of course I had to break my writeup into multiple posts. Plus, Berg gets distracted if there's just words and no pictures... (or beer). Oh crap, I just lost Berg.

[trayson]

Images pulled directly from the web do not count. They must be original and unique in nature, preferably done in selfie fashion or shameless self promotion from the end of a telescopic handle, or demerits will be issued.

Hey now, I posted 17 images. Only four of them were pulled from the web, because I don't physically have the gear yet so I can't post pics of what I don't have in my possession...

Oh wait! My Kickers were delivered today. so here's another original picture. Now I'm at 14/4

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-jgmePZkXkpM/VQJuZ4GY83I/AAAAAAAAYOg/75yjMRV_IUk/s800/20150312_215736.jpg

[trayson]

Check the books moderators ... That's gotta be a record :p

All the mods look great. Sharp boat.

I went a similar path on the stereo mods my first season and then fell victim to the larger towers. Beware of jesters boat!

Oh, I am sure I'll fall victim to larger towers eventually. But I needed an 'upgrade fix' to get me through this summer...

[trayson]

I installed the Precision Power P600.2 amp that I'll be using for my towers. Wowsers, it's TINY. I'm not used to these Class D amps with the small footprints.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-wqnaSf8v2wo/VQkXj6nY-8I/AAAAAAAAYTM/3eMGbFkIXNs/s800/20150317_224714.jpg

My new cans are here as are the kicker mids that will go in them. However, I'm prioritizing my mods and focusing on the things that I NEED to do before I can get on the water. So, the next thing I'll tackle will be installing the new subs. I had to get spacer rings for the subs because they're a little deeper than the Polks I took out. I sprayed them with some rubberized undercoating. Tomorrow I have to get some new screws because the ones I had before are now too short.

[viking]

Since you have to use spacers you should get acrylic rings and LED's?

Is your box going to have enough volume for the new subs? Maybe you already thoroughly checked that out prior? Just a fleeting thought that hit me this am when reading your post!

[trayson]

Since you have to use spacers you should get acrylic rings and LED's?

Is your box going to have enough volume for the new subs? Maybe you already thoroughly checked that out prior? Just a fleeting thought that hit me this am when reading your post!

I priced out acrylic rings and it was going to cost like $90 for a pair and I wasn't willing to spend that. I am going to trim my wood rings with LED's. stay tuned, it'll look good.

Thoroughly researched? Um, I thoroughly ASSUMED! LOL

See how you are? Making me actually do research!

Turns out the Infinitys want 0.1 cuft more than the Polks. the box is built right about to the polk specs. So I have to wonder if 0.1 cu ft is going to make a significant impact... I did get 0.03 additional airspace from the rings though! LOL.

I guess down the road if I rebuild the box, I'll be able to get it spot on. it would be easy enough to bump it a little deeper or taller. I have the room. But in the meantime, rebuilding the box isn't super high on the project list...

[viking]

Ah you should be close enough. I know subs can vary vastly so like i said, the thought just hit me as I was typing :)

[New Guy]

Fill the box with poly fill, that should help.

Also on the kicker 6 pack you are going to like it. We rocked it on our 02 and it was very respectable. With that said it can't hold a candle to our new setup.

[trayson]

Fill the box with poly fill, that should help.

Also on the kicker 6 pack you are going to like it. We rocked it on our 02 and it was very respectable. With that said it can't hold a candle to our new setup.

I had never really done the research on the polyfill. That's interesting and I guess I'll give it a try.


Yeah, the Kicker 6-pack should be a respectable setup. But yeah, certainly not equivalent to a bad boy WS or Exile system.

[mmandley]

I have poly fill in my 15 box, also use it in my Vette subs. Makes it sound a ton better.

For my Vette the boxes are part of the car so they are metal. Poly fill makes them sound warm and more natural then nothing.

http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu114/mmandley/40th%20Anniversary%20Edition%20Vette/IMAG0316_zps8mspjqtk.jpg (http://s639.photobucket.com/user/mmandley/media/40th%20Anniversary%20Edition%20Vette/IMAG0316_zps8mspjqtk.jpg.html)

http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu114/mmandley/40th%20Anniversary%20Edition%20Vette/IMAG0317_zpsm878yax6.jpg (http://s639.photobucket.com/user/mmandley/media/40th%20Anniversary%20Edition%20Vette/IMAG0317_zpsm878yax6.jpg.html)

http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu114/mmandley/40th%20Anniversary%20Edition%20Vette/IMAG0326_zpsjhbjgivr.jpg (http://s639.photobucket.com/user/mmandley/media/40th%20Anniversary%20Edition%20Vette/IMAG0326_zpsjhbjgivr.jpg.html)

[David Analog]

Polyester fiberfill (pillow stuffing) is effective if you have an under-sized enclosure....within limits. It can only address the displacement to a degree but 10% is within that range. It converts acoustic energy to low level thermal energy which gets dissipated thereby simulating a larger enclosure.
You know when you have gone too far with too much fill material when the bass gets a little 'flat' or 'dead' sounding, similar to having too large of an enclosure. An enclosure that is too small typically sounds peaky in favor of the midbass. So too small is very 'live' but also becomes a little singular in its tone. These descriptions are probably a better guideline then just trying to judge the difference in low bass extension.

[trayson]

Thanks for the info guys.

The interior volume of the box has 0.60 cuft for each sub.

Each of the subs are spec'd for 0.75 cuft. sealed. so it sounds like the fiberfill should help.

I'm thinking somewhere in the range of 1 to 2 pounds total filling.

[mmandley]

Polyester fiberfill (pillow stuffing) is effective if you have an under-sized enclosure....within limits. It can only address the displacement to a degree but 10% is within that range. It converts acoustic energy to low level thermal energy which gets dissipated thereby simulating a larger enclosure.
You know when you have gone too far with too much fill material when the bass gets a little 'flat' or 'dead' sounding, similar to having too large of an enclosure. An enclosure that is too small typically sounds peaky in favor of the midbass. So too small is very 'live' but also becomes a little singular in its tone. These descriptions are probably a better guideline then just trying to judge the difference in low bass extension.

I agree with you, in the Vette factory was a 6inch and I have 8s now. With no batting material it had a weird matalic echo almost. With the batting its a much deeper natural sounding bass.

For the 15 I didn't add to much, just enough to cover the insides of the box. I felt it made it sound warmer as well.

[David Analog]

Thanks for the info guys.

The interior volume of the box has 0.60 cuft for each sub.

Each of the subs are spec'd for 0.75 cuft. sealed. so it sounds like the fiberfill should help.

I'm thinking somewhere in the range of 1 to 2 pounds total filling.

Wouldn't have a clue as to the weight. So you are way ahead of me. But I would use the loose material rather than the batting for this particular application since you are not just lining the walls. Start by tearing it apart and loosely filling the entire enclosure. I don't have a cover story for you when your wife asks why the couch pillows suddenly seam flat.

[David Analog]

I agree with you, in the Vette factory was a 6inch and I have 8s now. With no batting material it had a weird matalic echo almost. With the batting its a much deeper natural sounding bass.

For the 15 I didn't add to much, just enough to cover the insides of the box. I felt it made it sound warmer as well.

That's not surprising since we agree on virtually everything. I feel like we are brothers of different mothers.

[newty]

Wouldn't have a clue as to the weight. So you are way ahead of me. But I would use the loose material rather than the batting for this particular application since you are not just lining the walls. Start by tearing it apart and loosely filling the entire enclosure. I don't have a cover story for you when your wife asks why the couch pillows suddenly seam flat.
Lol, good one!

[trayson]

You guys are awesome and amusing.

[MLA]

I agree with you, in the Vette factory was a 6inch and I have 8s now. With no batting material it had a weird matalic echo almost. With the batting its a much deeper natural sounding bass.

For the 15 I didn't add to much, just enough to cover the insides of the box. I felt it made it sound warmer as well.

Thats why I use poly in a lot of tower pods, especially aluminum ones. Even a full range will sound tinny without some fill

[viking]

Wouldn't have a clue as to the weight. So you are way ahead of me. But I would use the loose material rather than the batting for this particular application since you are not just lining the walls. Start by tearing it apart and loosely filling the entire enclosure. I don't have a cover story for you when your wife asks why the couch pillows suddenly seam flat.

Great idea. My wife likes to take her pillow with her when we camp. Now it can come with us when we boat too :)

[brain_rinse]

That's not surprising since we agree on virtually everything. I feel like we are brothers of different mothers.
LOL! Post of the week for sure, if we had such a thing.

[newty]

Now that David has retired, I like that his sense of humor is getting better. Best post ever from David. Where's Andy when you need him.

[trayson]

I agree with you, in the Vette factory was a 6inch and I have 8s now. With no batting material it had a weird matalic echo almost. With the batting its a much deeper natural sounding bass.

For the 15 I didn't add to much, just enough to cover the insides of the box. I felt it made it sound warmer as well.


Thats why I use poly in a lot of tower pods, especially aluminum ones. Even a full range will sound tinny without some fill

So, I know that Mandley has recommended that I put fiberfill in my tower pods for my KM6500.2 system. Should I just put it into the cans with the midrange speakers, or should I also put it into the cans that have the horns?

[jmvotto]

Trayson, I lined mine with dynamat to take the sting out of them, plus added a bit of poly.

just the mids., I believe

[David Analog]

You are really using polyfill in a tower pod for different reasons than you would inside a sub enclosure.
Polyfill inside a pod is effective in muting some of the interior reflected waves since those wavelengths are within the bandwidth of the midbass driver. Since the pod is round you have an extremely coincidental and very pronounced standing wave at a particular frequency. Reinforcing at one frequency and canceling at another frequency.
However, the polyfill does nothing to reduce any resonance from the aluminum pod. Dynamat or Hushmat is effective for this. Just a few strips is all it takes. You do not need to cover the entire interior surface with sound damping material. For this purpose, there is probably nothing more effective than just a small spiral pattern of polyester-based expansion foam (Great Stuff) in the forward cone. Don't overdue it because you don't want to reduce displacement. Be careful because you don't want this getting on you or anything else. Btw, the same thing in a latex version will not provide the same benefit.
There's no purpose in doing either within the tweeter pod.

[philwsailz]

So, I know that Mandley has recommended that I put fiberfill in my tower pods for my KM6500.2 system. Should I just put it into the cans with the midrange speakers, or should I also put it into the cans that have the horns?

The horns do not use the enclosed air in the can as a compliant element, so it would be fine to leave the poly out and not change the sound of the horn. If you want to be really anal, go ahead and do it, but it would only be to try to damp any sympathetic ringing of the metal. I doubt you could hear it, much less measure it. If you think you could hear horn can ringing, a mass-added damping material like dynamat as jmvotto suggests wold be better in the horn cans, but really, you are chasing unicorns at that point...

Phil
Kicker

[David Analog]

But still preferable to being chased by a unicorn.

[slipperyrockTKE300]

"chasing the unicorn" ....that's runner's jargon for racing a marathon to try to qualify for Boston.

"Being chased by a unicorn".... is what the slower runners at Boston are fear full of - the sweep wagon (being pulled of the course and not allowed to finish)

[trayson]

"chasing the unicorn" ....that's runner's jargon for racing a marathon to try to qualify for Boston.

"Being chased by a unicorn".... is what the slower runners at Boston are fear full of - the sweep wagon (being pulled of the course and not allowed to finish)

I only run if I'm being chased by someone.

Okay, I only run if I am being chased by a zombie.

[Edward]

Let me know how the p600.2 and the km6500.2 sounds!! I just purchased the km6500.2 and should arrive this weekend.. I am thinking I want to order the p600.2 as well. I paid $194.00 for the kicker km6500.2 which I think is a good price. Also paid $160 for 4 aluminum cans. Now I just need to get my boat out of the caves to start installing everything.

[trayson]

Let me know how the p600.2 and the km6500.2 sounds!! I just purchased the km6500.2 and should arrive this weekend.. I am thinking I want to order the p600.2 as well. I paid $194.00 for the kicker km6500.2 which I think is a good price. Also paid $160 for 4 aluminum cans. Now I just need to get my boat out of the caves to start installing everything.

so far so good. I have had it out once with just the 6500.2 and the p600.2 and we'll be going out again after work today. When I have more install time, I'll be adding the extra mids to make it a 6pack!

[trayson]

FINALLY, I had a chance to install some stuff. I put up another pair of cans and did a LOT of wiring and fishing wires. In the end, I have the tower speakers wired and the LED's for the cans.

I added the 2nd set of mids and upped the Jumper for more DB on the horns. I put polyfill in the cans for the mids.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-hcIBEirjlnM/VTW6lRafiFI/AAAAAAAAYpM/Prx0pfS5MtI/s800/20150420_165055.jpg

I painted the grills for the mids black to match the horn.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DAiJjpqkTzk/VTW6m-Qn70I/AAAAAAAAYpU/GHtCIgoeLsY/s800/20150420_194611.jpg

For the speaker rings I had six 1/4" acryllic circles laser cut and used a hot glue gun to glue a thin LED strip to the inside of the ring. The LED strips I found have 1 LED per CM.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WmR_MMK1z0M/VTW62Z7tsyI/AAAAAAAAYp8/-qLSD39kFjY/s800/20150420_154156.jpg

[trayson]

I also wanted to light up the cones of the speakers. So I bought some LED angel eyes off ebay and attached them to the inside of the grills.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DAiJjpqkTzk/VTW6m-Qn70I/AAAAAAAAYpU/GHtCIgoeLsY/s800/20150420_194611.jpg

I painted the bottom of the angel eyes the same black as the grills, so you really don't notice them.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Ya-VSFUeZeY/VTW6pvFDAHI/AAAAAAAAYpk/GMMbebg5rBo/s800/20150420_163556.jpg

Yes, I love how it turned out:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Lr_HkrD8alM/VTW6irQJ2yI/AAAAAAAAYo8/fGA6XX7TGdc/s800/20150420_163657.jpg

[trayson]

And installed
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-EMdO-id_7tw/VTW6q79-UxI/AAAAAAAAYps/N65WtI6AwPk/s800/20150420_194052.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-vWz8SVaKpd0/VTW63l5PmnI/AAAAAAAAYqE/SP9iLOzRmns/s800/20150420_192736.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uKxOWa1InYg/VTW61UMnznI/AAAAAAAAYp0/30OUbi__MBE/s800/20150420_192757.jpg

[newty]

Looks great Trayson

[trayson]

Looks great Trayson

Thanks. I cheaped out on the Supra's LED's, so I wanted to step it up this time since this is the boat I'll have for a LONG time. I'm really happy with how the LED's turned out and I can't wait to get out on the water tomorrow to test out the new speakers.

[BrettLee3232]

I also wanted to light up the cones of the speakers. So I bought some LED angel eyes off ebay and attached them to the inside of the grills.

Looks good man! Do you have a link to the angel eyes? My subs and 8" have leds but I didn't want to buy extra 6.5s with LED since I already had 5 without....now I wish I would of ordered them haha


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bergermaister]

Nice and clean. Well played.

[mmandley]

Looks sweet, I always think about adding LEDs to my tower, but then I remember how much if a pain it was to wire it for speakers, much less for LEDs lol.

[moombadaze]

That turned out great, if i ever though i would be on the water after dark i would do something like that

[mmandley]

That turned out great, if i ever though i would be on the water after dark i would do something like that

Thats the other thing, we are never on the water after dark, only place we are at that even allows after dark boating is Lake Billy. Or the River which I would never do after dark unless it was the big 4th of July event downtown..So fare though Claudia said no way, no bathrooms and she refuses to get in the water in downtown Portland.. LOL

Even though she surfed the SA450 when we water tested it in Downtown portland..Can never understand her rationalizations.

[brain_rinse]

Great idea on the angel eyes. Looks like it turned out very nice.


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[kaneboats]

Ditto here-- looks great! We do not boat after dark in FL.

https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=21867&d=1429623982



21867

[trayson]

Looks good man! Do you have a link to the angel eyes? My subs and 8" have leds but I didn't want to buy extra 6.5s with LED since I already had 5 without....now I wish I would of ordered them haha


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Well, I got mine on Ebay. the key was that I measured the diameter I thought I'd need. I also got some for my Polk inboats (they aren't all done yet) but hose had to clear the tweeter. I'm likewise going to do some for my subs. I think I used 70 and 110mm respectively.



That turned out great, if i ever though i would be on the water after dark i would do something like that
We seem to be on the water at dusk all the time. We live about 15 mins from the launch so after work boating happens quite a bit.



Thats the other thing, we are never on the water after dark, only place we are at that even allows after dark boating is Lake Billy. Or the River which I would never do after dark unless it was the big 4th of July event downtown..So fare though Claudia said no way, no bathrooms and she refuses to get in the water in downtown Portland.. LOL

Even though she surfed the SA450 when we water tested it in Downtown portland..Can never understand her rationalizations.

Well, this year I'll have access to a slip in the riverplace marina for the whole 4th of July weekend. They have bathrooms and even showers. Woot!

[trayson]

So, I decided to finally change out the 5 channel kicker amp that was powering my cabins and subs and get dedicated amps for those. The PPI amp has been doing quite well for the towers, and I couldn't beat the value for the price, so I went with PPI amps for my cabins and subs also.

The tower amp is a PPI P600.2 giving 300x2 @ 2ohms to the Kicker KM6500.2 six pack.

I Currently have 6 Polk DB651 cabins but will be adding two more later. The new cabin amp is a PPI P900.4 and will be putting out 225x2 @ 2ohms to the 4 cabin speakers in the main area and 145x2 @ 4 ohms to the two speakers in the bow. Eventually I'll add another pair of DB651's and power them off the same channels are the bow.

The new Sub amp is a PPI P1000.1 and will be giving 725 watts @ 2ohms to my pair of Infinity Reference 10" subs.

All the amps match and I took the time to clean up all the wiring. I put in a new distribution block for the power wires that will also give the voltage. I ordered a new distribution block for the ground as well and that arrives today so I'll be able to take pics when that last piece is in. I used my label maker to label all my speaker wires so it'll be easier to troubleshoot or make changes down the road. I also re-wired my Perko switch because they had the stereo system wired directly to the battery and not using the Perko at all.

Tonight I'll be pulling new RCA's for the system. I went with two of the KnuKonceptz Karma Cables (4 channels, 6 meters). I also added labels to both ends of the RCA's.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pURkh_mAXPU/VXkd1krNkrI/AAAAAAAAZVY/20ARVwWPFyA/s800/20150610_223156.jpg

[trayson]

New amps mounted.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8Byj5HPmSRY/VXprkjKNzvI/AAAAAAAAZWU/JTzaZsSDVOY/s800/20150611_212449.jpg

Distribution blocks. The power dist block has a voltage reading. Please excuse the "blue" power wire. I ran out of red, so I had to use a black wire and I didn't want to leave it black so I wrapped it in some blue tape (didn't have red tape, I guess the government has a monopoly on that).
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gmxD8_ZFejc/VXprmaH4uGI/AAAAAAAAZWc/RqAF4N5eqeg/s800/20150611_212509.jpg

Found out that the midrange on one of my DB651 bow speakers was blown. The cone wouldn't move at all. Luckily I had a spare. In the process of replacing it, I found that there were two HDPE spacer rings that the bow speakers were mounted to. This one was just attached to the one below it with staples. So I pried it out with a screwdriver and pounded the staples down and enjoyed a speaker that is now 3/4" more recessed. I've been wanting that for a long time. I hate how the speaker grills stick out further than the vinyl. Now that's fixed. Did the other side to match.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jpyPxFGrYC4/VXprqQ8kJvI/AAAAAAAAZWs/cav_VewPcD4/s800/20150611_203931.jpg

[bergermaister]

Need to teach you how to hide wiring grasshopper.

[ian ashton]

Need to teach you how to hide wiring grasshopper.

This man speaks the truth!

[moombadaze]

agreed on the wireing-except its not worth going back in and hiding it, if you done, its done till the next upgrade, mines the same and I never see it with the door closed, outa sight, outa mind I say

[trayson]

Need to teach you how to hide wiring grasshopper.


This man speaks the truth!

I thought about that. But honestly, I needed to get it done. If I would have drilled all the holes and done that whole thang I'd STILL be working on it, and I'd rather be using my boat on the water with awesome weather like we've been having.

[xBabyJesus]

Looks good Trayson. I'm doing the EXACT same upgrade only using (2) 900.4's and (1) 1000.1 Did you do 1/0 to the dist. block and 4ga to the amps? I haven't picked dist blocks yet.

[trayson]

Looks good Trayson. I'm doing the EXACT same upgrade only using (2) 900.4's and (1) 1000.1 Did you do 1/0 to the dist. block and 4ga to the amps? I haven't picked dist blocks yet.

Well, I had to get this done during a couple evenings of time off the water, so I used the materials I had on hand. Down the road I intend on using the 1/0 to go from the perko to the dist block, and then 4 gauge to the amps, but for now it's 4 gauge for everything. My two batteries are wired together and to the perko switch with 4 gauge currently, so if it's only 4 from the battery to the perko, it seems like the bottleneck is there before going from the perko to the distro block.

The amps are pretty damn efficient. One thing I was surprised at is the fact that in the owners manual for all three amps, they are only spec'd to need 8 gauge to wire the power/ground of each amp. So that gave me at least some degree of comfort level that 4 gauge would get me my for now.

That said, the distro blocks I bought were both 1/0 in and 4 gauge out. I really like the one off Ebay I got that has the voltage display built into it. Very nice to know how much power is making it to your amps. http://www.ebay.com/itm/321224853907

I took the boat out on Saturday and it performed awesome. I was super happy with how efficiently the amps ran. I was in the party cove and was throttling the stereo pretty close to full tilt for about an hour an 45 minutes straight. The only time the boat was running was when I idled for a few minutes to move to another part of the cove we were in. So almost the whole time was engine off with the cabins and subs rocking hard and the towers were between 1/2 and 3/4 on the WS420SQ (3/4 on the tower knob is basically as high as I go with the towers). So the EQ had the subs at about 80% on the knob, the cabins were about half and the towers were between half and 3/4 with the main volume between 1/2 and 3/4. Again, 3/4 on the main volume and 3/4 on the tower knob is about as high as I can go w/o distorting.

The 900.4 is great so far. I would have went that direction, but for my Kicker 6500.2 six pack, I needed to go 2 channels at a 2 ohm load. So the 600.2 was my only real choice for that. what speakers are you going to be running with the new PPI amps? I wish the 900.4 was 2 ohm stable bridged or that I could do a 6-pack at 4 ohms or really I wish that PPI made a 900.2!!! But the 600.2 hasn't disappointed thus far. The whole system definitely sounds like it has a lot more midbass and I'm not exactly sure why aside from maybe I have the amps tuned differently.

But bottom line, I was able to get a TON more play time out of my system with no issues. Before I would have lost my 5-channel after like 30 to 60 minutes and it wouldn't have mattered if I had the boat running or not.

So yeah, if you're starting from scratch, by all means go with the bigger wire. it can't hurt and is always better to overbuild. But so far the 4 gauge seems to be performing okay.

[xBabyJesus]

I was thinking about swapping out my DBOT5 HLCDs for a pair of REV10's. I'm still rocking the kicker in-boats and they're doing ok so far. My stock infinite-baffle sub has got to go, for a sealed 12" I think. Maybe Sundown, or recycle one of my old Rockford RFP-1212's

I priced out 0-GA to distro blocks with fuses and it gets stupid expensive pretty fast. Like WHOA. I have some 2GA from an old install that I might re-use, have to see what else is in my leftovers box :D

[trayson]

I was thinking about swapping out my DBOT5 HLCDs for a pair of REV10's. I'm still rocking the kicker in-boats and they're doing ok so far. My stock infinite-baffle sub has got to go, for a sealed 12" I think. Maybe Sundown, or recycle one of my old Rockford RFP-1212's

I priced out 0-GA to distro blocks with fuses and it gets stupid expensive pretty fast. Like WHOA. I have some 2GA from an old install that I might re-use, have to see what else is in my leftovers box :D

Yeah, no one would ever complain about a pair of REV10's (aside from headroom). if you go that route, your 900.4 would be future proof.

I agree. the infinite baffle sucks donkey. I'd lose that as soon as you can, especially if you already have spare this and that. I wonder if you could stuff a pair of sealed 12's in an XLV??? I know I fit the pair of sealed 10's in mine.

With the PPI Amps, I think that 1/0 would be fine for the trunk line from the perko to the distro, then 4 gauge from the distro to the amp. Likewise for the ground. 2 would be fine too if you have that laying around. But running 4 from the distro a short run to the amp seems legit, especially when the amps say to use 8ga. I found tons of inexpensive options for distros that are 1/0 to 4. My fuse is separate (reused what was installed in my boat). it's two posts with the fuse in the middle, installed on the feed line between the amp and perko.

[MLA]

One word of caution when a "car" amp manufacturer has a suggested power cable ga. This is likely based on the assumption that the amp will be an a road vehicle where the steel chassis is an entire ground plane, therefor, the ground cable can be about 24" or less. In a boat, the battery is the only ground spot for amps. That can be 20+ feet away, depending on the boat. Thats 40ft of power cable that plays into the equation. Do your own math for your particular setup, dont go by some audio clearing house online car calculator.

[trayson]

Good caution. Thanks. I'm certainly not going with "just" the 8 that they recommended. I'm doing 4ga for around 10 feet power, 10 feet ground. Eventually I will swap out to thicker wire from the distro block to the perko and to the battery ground. So my short term plan doubles their reco, and my long term plan exceeds it by an even greater margin.

That was my line of thinking.

[xBabyJesus]

Are you not using a battery bank? My amps are about 18" away from their batteries, behind the observer seat.

[trayson]

Are you not using a battery bank? My amps are about 18" away from their batteries, behind the observer seat.

My power wire is attached to the Perko switch. it is mounted under the observer seat on the inside seatbase wall. The run goes from the perko, up and over the top of that storage compartment, then down to the amps. I could shorten it by going along the floor, but I'd just as soon not have anything on top of my wires. so a few feet of extra length is fine. My batteries are on the right hand side of the storage behind the observer seatback. The ground wire does the same up and over, but of course terminates at the negative of one of the batteries. I have two batteries right now. Might add a 3rd eventually, but we'll see.

[trayson]

Note to self... I need to update this thread.

I've since went from the kicker 6pack to Wetsounds rev410s. I've added another PPI P600.2. I've added a 3rd Infinity reference 10" sub. I've added the Exile BT Controller. I've added 2 more Polk Cabin speakers. I've swapped in lots of 0 gauge and 4 gauge OFC copper wire. I've added a 3rd Group 29 battery. Good times!

[Skee907]

Any tips on how you have your multi-battery bank setup? Looking to add a second battery on mine this summer with my audio upgrades (still a ton of questions on all of that). Do you have your amps under the drivers side bulkhead or under the observers seat storage with the battery bank?

[trayson]

Any tips on how you have your multi-battery bank setup? Looking to add a second battery on mine this summer with my audio upgrades (still a ton of questions on all of that). Do you have your amps under the drivers side bulkhead or under the observers seat storage with the battery bank?

My setup is pretty simple. I have 3 identical group 29 Everstart maxx batteries from Walmart. 2 of them are on bank one, and the other battery is bank 2. I run off the two batteries and the 3rd one is my 'spare' in case I run the other two down too far. I have a prosport 20amp dual bank charger that charges and maintains them when I'm at home. all 3 batteries are in the observer compartment. we all surf regular, so Port side weight is always a plus.