Brian, Dave and Kane -

Thanks for the input I really appreciate it. I think I can shed a little more light and answer some questions too. I have generally been disappointed with the system since we bought the boat new in February 2009. I have had a few cars with decent systems in them (for a high school kid) and no where near the kind of quality that this boat came with out of the box so I had high expectations. I never gave it a lot of thought after initial disappointment since my wife is not a huge fan of loud music. However, since having the baby in December I find myself a bit more house bound and in search of projects, thus a pickup in my interest on the subject. I always assumed the disappointment in the system was a result of "low quality, builder grade" components. The more research I do the more I grow convinced something is just not setup right and my current system should be better. I know I have a busted tower speaker which is what prompted this thread for replacement/upgrade ideas. Since I have been looking at my system a bit closer the last few days I realized that the port side main cabin speakers and the 2 bow speakers were not playing at all. With the busted tower speaker that rarely plays and the others not functioning I only had 3 of my 8 speakers working. Also the sub always seemed disappointing/not working. After looking at the amps I decided the RCA's were not installed properly as there were 2 white ports not connected at all. I went and got all new RCA's and hooked them up properly. Additionally the sub channel fuse was blown/bent on zx700.5, so i replaced that. The good news is I turned on my stereo and all 8 speakers fired up as well as the sub. The bad news is that as soon as I turn up the stereo past a whisper the zx700.5 clicks and the power light goes from green to red. It keeps trying to restart itself but does the same thing as soon as it tries to power the speakers again. It sounds like the "short circuit protection" is engaged when I turn up the volume. I am hoping someone can confirm this is the issue and help me figure out how to solve the problem. In regards to what I want the system to be/ideal vision, I don't need something bad a$$ that can blow everyone else out of the water. More so I am interested in having a stereo that has really clean, full range sound for surfing, nice and crisp if we are just hanging out in the boat sipppin' suds and can get some tunes to the occasional wakeboarder if they want them without having to blow out everyone riding in the boat. We are 90% surf, 8% wakeboard and 2% a bunch of cr@p I would rather not be associated with. Other than that we use the boat to hit busy water on hot seattle days so we can take a dip and cool off. I also don't want to over invest in the boat as I find myself constantly mesmerized by the idea of a shinny new toy, which undoubtedly will take the form of a boat after I get my new truck. Probably 3-5 years away from a change, but still worth considering. BTW I will be going Mojo then, once they get the tweaks out. I hope this gives you guys enough info and you can keep steering me towards the right destination. Already started looking into another ZX250.2, they are cheap, so I could have that around for tower speakers 3&4 whenever they show up