2003 SANTE tower speakers questions

[rweilbacher]

i just upgraded to CMD6 and want to install some tower speakers. Thinking about the JL Audio - M770-ETX-SG-TB. How difficult is it to install and where would I drill holes and run wires.
also open to suggestions on tower speakers.
thanks

[GoBig]

Its not hard at all. Drill into the front cross bar of the tower, run the wiring down with a snake to either side. Mine goes down the forward starboard tower leg and comes out a few inches above the deck and then back into the deck. Get a bag of rubber grommets from Home Depot to put in the tower holes to protect the wiring. Can't remember the size but something like this...
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...&storeId=10051

Done.

[gride]

do yourself a favor and don't spend $900 on those. they aren't bad, but for slightly less you could do better. i don't know if you just want more decibels or to project the sound to the rider, but i've had those with 150w rms and they were simply ok, and absolutely couldn't be heard while riding. also, i had about 6 of them deteriorate(not the foam) after about a year. i suggest wet sounds. any of their horn tower speakers or the iconn's seem awesome if you don't want projection. there are other good brands out there like exile and bullet. assuming your amps are or are going to be in the passenger storage i'd route them down the port tower leg.

[core-rider]

As far as tower speakers are concerned you need to take a step back and really determine what you are looking for as far as sound is concerned. Do you want to hear the sound at 70-80 feet back while riding, just while surfing, party cove machine, etc. You also need to look at how much money you want to spend, and when you think about this part remember you need amps to power the speakers, wiring, fuses, installation material. Money may be your main determination as to what tower speakers you end up with.

The JL's you linked to IMO would not make a good tower speaker unless you just wanted to here them while surfing or kicking back. You would also need to source some kind of can and mount to put them in to mount on the tower. Good and proven brands to look at would be Kicker, Wet Sounds, Exile, and Bullet. These will pretty much run the entire price/type of tower speakers offered.

On to your question about running wires in the tower. As mentioned earlier, the wires on the top half of the tower will need to be ran in the forward tube. Depending on how many speakers, placement, etc. will deteremine how many holes need to be drilled at the top of the tower to route them to the speaker pods, but 2 holes should be fine. I chose to run mine down the port (passenger side) leg to the lower half of the tower since my amps are mounted on that side. You will have to drill 2 holes, one in the top and one in the botom halves of the tower. From there the wires will run down the lower front leg of the tower to the boat. I have seen others drill another hole in the tower leg and then in the top deck of the hull to route the wiring into the boat, but I chose to run all the way down the tower leg and through the base plate. You will need to drill a hole in the base of the tower leg and the backing plate inside the boat. I did this with the tower in place, drilling a hole through the base plate, fiberglass, and then tower leg base. It's a tight fit, but doable. IMHO this is a much cleaner looking install method. From there the wires are in the boat and can be routed to the amps as needed.

Here are a few examples of the wire routes I mentioned. This is for my tower mounted navigation light running down the starboard side, but it's done the same as my speaker wires. I prefer the wires running "inside" the tower break because I don't like the look of the wires on the front or "outside" of the tower legs.



Here is how my wires come into the boat through the tower legs.


This will give you an example of how the hole at the top of the tower might look that will allow the wires to come out of the tower and to the speaker pods.


I can get some more pics of my actual speaker wiring if needed, just don't have them handy right now. Hope this helps you some.