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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Location
    North Mississippi
    Posts
    217

    Default Adding 2 tower speakers...Amp setup question?

    First of all, I'm somewhat of a stereo noob so please bare with me.

    Here's my current equipment (stock 2008 LSV):
    2 - Kicker zx200-4's
    6 - main cabin speakers
    1 - 10" sub under the helm
    2 - Roswell FCT tower speakers

    And how it's set up:

    One kicker zx200-4 is powering the 6 cabin speakers. That in itself is a mystery to me as it's a 4 channel amp powering 6 speakers? Maybe someone could shed some light on that...

    The other kicker zx200-4 has 4 of it's leads powering the 2 Roswell FCT tower speakers (i.e. 2 leads or one speaker wire per speaker). 2 more leads, or one speaker wire, is powering the 10" sub under the helm. And the other 2 remaining leads were powering a kicker box that was in a rear locker of which I've removed and don't plan on using.

    So, I want to add a pair of Roswell R6's to the tower so I'll have four tower speakers. Is there a way to run the four tower speaks utilizing the existing 2 speaker wires (4 leads) that are currently in the tower? Or do I need to run more wires? And, how do I wire the amp for these new tower speakers?

    Thanks
    Steve
    2008 Mobius LSV
    1100#er's in the lockers
    ski locker sac
    IBS
    Johnson reversibles
    3 vent heater (which my family loves)

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Location
    North Mississippi
    Posts
    217

    Default

    Sorry, meant to post in "audio and electrical".... Maybe one of our fearless leaders could relocate it. Apparently marine audio isn't my only short coming...
    2008 Mobius LSV
    1100#er's in the lockers
    ski locker sac
    IBS
    Johnson reversibles
    3 vent heater (which my family loves)

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Lake Wylie NC Area
    Posts
    2,467

    Default

    Ok, youve got 8 amp chnls and 11 speakers to drive, including the sub.

    One 200.4 driving the 3 pair of in-boats, so that amp is done, lets move on to the next.

    Sub-woofer: this should be bridged across 2 chnls on one half of the amp, so this leaves 2 chnls to drive the 2 pair of tower speakers.

    This is doable, but its asking a lot of any amp, as the tower zone is typically the hardest driven zone of a boat stereo, fallaowed by, you guessed it, the sub. You will have one pair wired in parallel on each of the remaining amp chnls. This can be done by just making that parallel connection up on the tower at the speakers, thus eliminating the need to run additional wires up the tower. Given the 2 ohm output of those amp, id say you are good to go, unless thats some super small wire there already.

    Ideally, a 5 chnl to drive the 6 on-boats and sub would be perfect. This would leave the 2 zx200.4's to drive the 4 towers in 2 chnl mode for 100W rms to each.

  4. #4

    Default

    As MLA noted, the tower and sub are the two zones that typically work the amplification the hardest. Plus, 2-ohms stereo (four speakers on two channels) or 4-ohms mono (bridged sub) is more workload than 4-ohms stereo (speaker per channel). So for now, if you are going to make the existing amplifiers work, then re-distribute the power more evenly among highpass vs lowpass and 2-ohm stereo or 4-ohm bridged vs 4-ohm stereo. This will balance the load and improve thermal performance this July and August. Run the two bow speakers and four tower speakers off one amplifier while running the four cockpit speakers and subwoofer off the alternate amplifier.
    If you do add another amplifier for either the tower (most likely) or the sub, maintain both of the existing amplifiers with a lightened load.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Location
    North Mississippi
    Posts
    217

    Default

    Thanks for the replies guys. Based on your info I'm leaning towards leaving the 200.4 with the 3 pairs of in boat speakers as is. Then, use my remaining 200.4 to only drive my 2 pairs of tower speakers. For budget and time constraint sakes, I'm going to unhook my sub for now as my priority is my tower speakers. Ultimately I'd like to add an amp for the sub alone as I'd also like to add a ws-420sq down the road and be able to control the 3 zones independently.

    So, how do I go about setting up the 200.4 for my two pairs of tower speakers? Is it still ok to use just two speaker wires (4 leads), if so, exactly how do I do that (i.e. what lead goes to what terminal)? Or, is it beneficial to run two more speaker wires? Also, how should I set up the amp as far as dialing in the various knobs and switches. Again, I'm an audio noob so please bare with me and please tell me what wire to put to what terminal (I kind of understand "bridging" but don't want to smoke anything)



    Thanks again!
    Steve
    2008 Mobius LSV
    1100#er's in the lockers
    ski locker sac
    IBS
    Johnson reversibles
    3 vent heater (which my family loves)

  6. #6

    Default

    The easiest way to proceed is to use the existing 4-conductors up the tower. Series the two 4-ohm speakers on each side for an 8-ohm load. Bridge the four amplifier channels into two channels. You will not get any more power with any other configuration using the equipment that you have. Your power and thermal stability will be identical to a 4 X 4-ohm stereo load. When bridging you will only populate four of the eight amplifier speaker terminals. The owners manual or nomenclature on the opposite side of the amplifier should make the correct bridging connections clear.

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