Budget Stereo Upgrade Questions

[JHutch]

Since I finally got to the boat to see what I have I thought I would start a new thread, sorry for having multiples.

So I have a 20 month old daughter so I wont be getting to blast the stereo all this time so I am looking to upgrade with out breaking the bank. The reason being is one of my tower speakers is blown so I have to replace it anyway so I might as well upgrade it while I am at it if I can.

Here is what I have and am looking for suggestions(All of this was on the boat when I bought it last year):

Cabins-
6- Kicker KM613
Amp- Crunch PZ1800.4
Sub- Kicker KM 10

Tower-
2- Kicker KM620.2 In Roswell Cans(1 is blown)
Amp- Kicker ZX250.2

Like I posted in my previous thread I was thinking of replacing the cabins with Polk PD651's if that would be better than the 613's.
I can still get the 620.2's on Ebay if that is the best option for the tower?

Thanks for all the help!

[MLA]

Hutch,

What are your goals? In other words, where is the current system lacking? Id doesnt matter how big the speaker and how much wattage there is to power it, its only as loud as how far up you turn the dial. So not blasting the system will always be in your control, just like keeping a corvette at the speed limit.

Here are some potential weaknesses i see:

Blown speaker - confirm its the speaker and find out why it blown.
zx250.2 is driving each tower pod @ 60W+ rms. thats ok for party cove listening when the engines off and boat is anchored, but is kinda light for surfing and certainly not going to cut it for a wake range speaker
6 in-boats and sub and only a 4 chnl amp. You need to either swap with a 5 or chnl amp or dedicate the 4 chnl for the in-boats and add a mono for the sub. The zx250.5 would be perfect for the sub if you make a tower amp/speaker change.
Sub - i have a feeling its running free air/infinite-baffle. A nice sealed enclosure and proper power, and thats a very nice, musical woofer.

2 pair of 6.5 coax are fine for a surf/party cove setup, but not going to cut it for wake-range projection. What are you looking for?

Since you mention budget, I would maybe stick with the KM6130 in-boats and focus funds elsewhere, depending on what your goals are.

[kaneboats]

Agree with MLA on this one. The KM6130 are the best part of your system right now. Make a new sealed sub box yourself on the cheap. Not hard to do or expensive at all. Proper power to the in-boats first, decent amp for the sub in a sealed box and then do something better for the tower. Upgrade each zone separately as you are able making use of what you have.

[trayson]

Hutch,

What are your goals? In other words, where is the current system lacking?

Blown speaker - confirm its the speaker and find out why it blown.


MLA has you on the right track. I agree, stating your goals and even your budget will help.

Also, I had one of my tower speakers not functioning when I bought my boat. The soldered connection to the speaker inside the can had come undone. so the speaker was cutting out and not playing because of a bad connection. So confirming that it's blown would be good. I mean, if it sounds like a bunch of baby seals throwing up, then yeah, it's probably the speaker. :-)

[JHutch]

Budget= >$1,000.

I think the speaker blew because of the aeware transom remote. I went to turn it up in a cove and the button stuck and went wide open. Once I got in the boat and turned it down, I have a had a rattle/broken baffle sound ever since.

With that being said, $350 of my budget is going to replacing the head unit and remote controls. Due to other projects going( Building a Garage, and buying land at the lake) it is limiting my funds. So I think I would like to just buy replacement 6.5 coax for the roswell cans I have. What is a good choice?

So I think my goal would be to replace those tower speakers and look at upgrading my amps? Never installed amps before so not sure I can do it?

[brain_rinse]

... I mean, if it sounds like a bunch of baby seals throwing up, then yeah, it's probably the speaker. :-)
Ha! I might have to use this line in the future...

[trayson]

Budget= >$1,000.

I think the speaker blew because of the aeware transom remote. I went to turn it up in a cove and the button stuck and went wide open. Once I got in the boat and turned it down, I have a had a rattle/broken baffle sound ever since.

With that being said, $350 of my budget is going to replacing the head unit and remote controls. Due to other projects going( Building a Garage, and buying land at the lake) it is limiting my funds. So I think I would like to just buy replacement 6.5 coax for the roswell cans I have. What is a good choice?

So I think my goal would be to replace those tower speakers and look at upgrading my amps? Never installed amps before so not sure I can do it?

Wiring amps is basically just running wires and connecting them. It's really not that difficult.

Okay, since you've eaten $350 on a new head unit and remotes, here's what *I* would do with the remaining $650:

1) PPI P600.2 tower speaker amp = $120 link (http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/p_33875_Precision_Power_P6002.aspx?utm_source=goog le_shopping&utm_medium=Product_Feed&utm_campaign=google_shopping_Price_Comparison&gclid=CjwKEAjwo5OpBRDU64qO07OXq00SJADn5hYnhv7Ahung RZGM_gIlKuk98qRXsZkdZ3vodGhc0ocneRoCljrw_wcB)

2) repurpose zx250.2 for subwoofer, wire up your 4 channel amp to power all your in-boat speakers, no more deck power = free

3) Get a set of kicker KM6500.2 HLCD tower speakers = $370 link (http://www.ebay.com/itm/KICKER-11KM6500-2-6-5-200W-RMS-4-OHM-MARINE-BOAT-HLCD-TOWER-COMPONENT-SPEAKERS-/130968207907?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e7e504223&vxp=mtr)
You could also get them refurbished for $292 link (http://www.halfpricecaraudio.com/Kicker-KM6500.2-6.5-Marine-Audio-Component-Speakers-200-Watts-RMS-10KM6500.2.htm?utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=GoogleBaseFeed&gclid=CjwKEAjwo5OpBRDU64qO07OXq00SJADn5hYnmFoQSdVE V3QHMVpV1C0VeKucIqmS8oSmt9aq5QnwoRoCM4Lw_wcB) but for only about $75 difference, I'd probably go new.

4) get a 2nd pair of speaker cans to facilitate the kicker HLCD setup: $150 for krypt cans link (http://www.ebay.com/itm/331182763518?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT)

and I've pretty much blown all but $10 of your budget. You'll need that (and maybe a little more) to buy the wiring for the new amp... since you already have amps, you might get away with having an empty spot on your power distribution block for your amps and just running a short power lead for your new amp, and another relatively short lead to the battery for the ground.

Then save up and get a zone controller either on the cheap (kicker for $85) or splurge on something like the WS420SQ ($270 new on ebay).


So what you'd have from this setup would be all your speakers would be driven by amps. your in-boats would be getting a reasonable amount of power and your sub would also be getting a decent amount of power for its size.

You'd be making a setup to the HLCD kicker speakers that are able to project sound out to ski and wakeboard lengths and powering them with the PPI P600.2 is about the best bang for your buck on that front. Later on if you wanted even more from your tower, you could purchase 1 more pair of the kicker mids and 1 more pair of cans and make it the kicker km6500.2 six pack which will get you twice the sound and still run it off the P600.2 amp.

You'd end up with a system that would seriously rock out for the money you're putting into it.


But these are my thoughts, and I love being able to have music that can be heard well while I wakeboard and surf.

If you don't want to go the route that I've pitched of the kicker HLCD towers, then you could certainly just throw whatever brand of coaxials up in the towers and use the extra money you "saved" to get the WS420SQ EQ/zone controller.


*you never said if your 10" sub is in a box or not. if it's not, it's always best to build a simple sealed box for it.

[JHutch]

Trayson,

I see we have similar boats, do you have a picture of how your amps are mounted? Did you create an Amp board?

[trayson]

Trayson,

I see we have similar boats, do you have a picture of how your amps are mounted? Did you create an Amp board?

When I got the boat it had a kicker zx700.5 for the cabins and sub, and a kicker zx350.4 for the towers.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-42JrpeWiGB4/VA8vs5HmoxI/AAAAAAAAUYI/dbcOnfJI8uY/s800/20140908_202500_resized.jpg

I sold the zx350.4 to get the PPI p600.2 so that I could power all my kicker HLCD tower speakers (I will have the 6-pack installed soon) off a 2 ohm load with a 2 channel amp. The PPI P600.2 is a tiny little class D, that's for sure:

There is a bit of wiring clutter with the RCA's and speaker wires, but I inherited that with the boat and might clean it up a little someday.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-wqnaSf8v2wo/VQkXj6nY-8I/AAAAAAAAYTM/3eMGbFkIXNs/s800/20150317_224714.jpg

[JHutch]

Will I need to run more speaker wire for the Kicker HLCD? I only have 2 wires on my tower now. If so how difficult is that?

[MLA]

Will I need to run more speaker wire for the Kicker HLCD? I only have 2 wires on my tower now. If so how difficult is that?

The Kicker KMS67/KM6500.2 (new number/old number) only requires two 2 conductor wires. So when you say you only have 2 wires, I gather its a pair of 2-conductor. Thats all you need, providing they are of adequate gauge for the proper wattage.

[trayson]

Will I need to run more speaker wire for the Kicker HLCD? I only have 2 wires on my tower now. If so how difficult is that?

You will be able to use the same pair of wires that you're using now. The only thing you'll have to do is run a short lead from the old can to the new can. I'm doing a similar thing on mine. Basically I'll use the run of wire that goes to the existing can, connect that to the midrange. then run a short new lead that goes from the first can, up into the tower, and down a hole that I'll drill into the tower clamp of the new can and connects to the horn tweeter. So the mid will have the original wires connected to the pos/neg, and also another short wire that goes from that speaker to the 2nd can for the horn. Shouldn't be too hard.


Basically think of the kicker setup as being the same thing as a coaxial speaker, but the mid and the tweet happen to be in two separate cans.