digital sol

iTrader: (1)

So bare with me but im an audio noob but am working on my brothers 27ft sea ray slx this week while on vacation. Heres the run down

1st amp>4 channel 100w-xper channel
2nd amp>4 channel 750watt amp
cmd4 clarion head unit
ipod adaptor


Now the boat has 2 fronts, 2 mids, 2 rears & we just installed some overhead wakeboard rack speakers.

Now the goal is to have all the factory boat speakers powered off amp 1 and the overhead speakers off amp2 with the option of running them all at the same time or have one or the other installed.

Now what i have done thus far is installed the 2nd amp & overhead speakers. We shared the ground from amp 1 to amp2 and ran a seperate power cable to the distribution block in the rear of the boat and its fused with a 60amp fuse.

Now the front speakers were running off the head unit directly instead of the amp1 which posed an issue as if we are running the amp2 with overhead speakers the fronts are still always on.

So i cut & spliced the front speakers after the headunit & ran them to the amp1 location. I used heatshrink and solder to make the connections solid and ran them through the factory oem plumbing.

Now my question is this....in order to have the option of having both amps on & running at the same time or 1 per time my idea was to take the REM cable going into the amp rack section and solder 2 points off this 1 cable. Run 1 point to each switch then from each switch to each amp. Then ill have the rem cable hitting 2 switches, 1 per amp using factory oem switches on the dash. This should in my mind give us the option of running amp1 or amp2, or flipping them both on.

Now on my head unit amp1 is connected to the following
-grey/red= right front line level output (full range)
-grey/white=left front line level output (full range)

now for amp2 i can assume I should run the rca's to the following at the headunit
-black/red=left rear line level output (full range)
-blacl/white=right rear line level output (full range)

Correct?

Now the last part to this is my 2nd amp which is dedicated purely to the overhead speakers is a 4 channel amp and we have 4 speakers but they are 2 per enclosure with 1 set of wires coming off each set of speakers so I have to then bridge them at the amp to use all 4 amps for both sets of overhead speakers. In order to do this I also have to take the red/white aux cable from the headunit and use a splitter/adapter to split that into "4" rca outputs, 2 for each channel on the 2nd amp right?


Sorry for the long read, im rather new to audio but believe I at least have a decent grasp on what needs to be done for our needs. Everything was ran, tied, loomed, heatshrunk and inline fuses etc ran so its not a half *** job im just not 100% sure on the configuration and all the damn options on the amp itself !!

Any help is very very very much appreciated! The shop I bought everything from of course is gone for the 4th of July week to answer my questions!

HondaAccordKen

The switches will work. if you wanted to control the volume in each area you could add volume controls between the HU and the amps.

http://davidnavone.com/zencart/index...products_id=25

One per pair of speakers. Could also remote mount in area of speakers to be controlled. If boat is used in salt water then I would advise marine grade $$$ or keep in dry location.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-L8jsmaY...l-Control.html

You could also just use the fader between the amps. Use 2 Y adapters to feed the front outs to both front and rear of one amp and do the same from the rear out of HU to other amp.

Make sure that the ground you used can handle the load of the amps. I always run the negative to the battery on boats with same size wire as the positive.

digital sol

iTrader: (1)

Thanks man, option 2 looks great for what we need! I got the 2nd amp all wired in and working an temporarily we just remove the rca's from it when we dont want them on but i noticed today on a 3 hour relaxed cruise on the lake with the overheads on amp2 got pretty damn hot. We were not blasting the radio at all but it was on for several hours. It was too hot to touch for more than a few moments. How do you know how hot is too hot? Its installed in a storage compartment but its mounted on the wall next to amp1. There is no circulation in that area but its a decent size area..enough for me to sit inside and have room to work etc.

Its a kicker 650.4 i believe. Anything I can do to help this? The shop we bought the amp from said it would be perfect for us but they also sold us a install kit that was missing a ton of what we actually needed

That shop is closed for another week over the holidays.

Also, when i mounted the amp to the wall I cut some 2-3" thick wood so where the mounting holes are it gets screwed into the boat but the backside of the amp is not directly on the carpet/wall. It does have a nice 1-2" gap on the backside of the amp between the amp and the wall.

It makes me nervous for an amp to get that hot against a carpeted wall in a fiberglass boat....if thats normal for that amp I may need to see about exchanging it for a different amp/brand amp. Thoughts?

HondaAccordKen

How hot was it on the lake? Amps make heat and need air. Any way you could maybe vent the area with tasteful [Marine white lovers/stainless screws] vents with a fan behind one of them. Need one in and one out like a computer case and you could use two fans, one in one out. Bigger size and most CFM you can get. You could use a relay on the amp turn on to power it vie fuse from the battery feed to your amps. Most trunks have one way air outlets in the wells. Air from the cabin vents into the trunk and out the vents. Your amps need air!!!! They will most likely shut down if too hot but running hot shortens amps life.

If water splash is concern use white ABS /brass/stainless hull vents, the type open on one end so they could be mounted pointed down. Hole saws works on fiberglass. Make hole for good fit for fan then mount vent over hole. You could also use a fuel vapor vent fan. they move lots of air but tend to be load.

Are you only using one speaker per amp channel? Two in parallel would be a two ohm load, more heat. If you were doing that you could try putting them in series for a eight ohm load and less heat. Also class A/B amps make more heat and have bigger, thirstier power supplies then class D amps per watt. AMP OEM site can also tell you what type it is..

Many cheep point and shoot inferred temp guns out there. Even Harbor Freight has them. Check amps OEM for spec temp.

The other problem is do you have the power/current for the amp's load. You don't want to drain the battery when aloft. I've installed many duel battery switches in small craft.

Another tip, never ever use a automotive charger on a vessel in water. Could be the last thing you ever do. Only use an USCG approved charger. They have zero leakage from line to battery and ground/water.

Just want you to be safe and have fun.

digital sol

iTrader: (1)

Ok, we installed the amp next to amp1 in the front cabin of the boat. Unfortunately there is no real air flow into this cabin, its basically a storage space for the table etc. There are very few options as to where to install the amps and seeing as how amp1 was installed there we kept them next to each other on the same wall. I will definitely look at some fan options. It was probably low 90's all week, the amp got hot enough to make scrambled eggs on it! Eventually the amp did turn itself off for a few minutes from getting too hot. Even with that cabin door open it was getting really hot, especially compared to amp1.

Ill have to look at the amp site later tonight to see which kind of amp it is. Its a 4 channel amp and we have 2 overhead tower speakers but its 2 speakers per casing but only has 1 positive/negative per unit. So 4 speakers total, 2 per casing, but only 1 positive/negative terminal per casing. So when we connected to the amp2 we wanted to use all 4 channels therefore we did 1 set of speakers/1 positive/1negative per side on the amp. Then use a splitter to turn the red/white rca connection in 4 rca connections to enable all 4 channels on the amp.

The boat has 2 batterys and a switch to turn on 1, 2 or off. When floating with the engine off we turn the boat to 1 battery so we dont drain both using the speakers etc. We had no issues with the batterys etc all week. Im back from vacation today but we spent nearly 5 days straight on the water for 5-8 hours a day

Im going to call the place we bought the amp from as well. I think Ill try a fan or two & see if that helps. Unfortunately we are only down there during the summer which is 90+ degrees outside and we are usually on the boat for 5+ hours at a time so the speakers will definitely get some usage

Thanks man!