Need help wiring Evid Tower Speakers, 6.5's, sub, amp!!!

[JWAT]

I just purchased some Evid 6.2 speakers to run as tower speakers and now I need some help with amp selection, etc. These are the outdoor speakers that run 300w RMS at 8 ohms. I currently only have a single battery in my boat and want to keep it that way for this summer, so I really don't want to be running 3 different amps, etc. Below is what I will be setting up...

1. (4) 6.5" interior speakers (50w RMS, 4 ohm)
2. (1) 12" sub (75-300w RMS, 4 ohm)
3. (2) Evid 6.2 Tower Speakers (300w RMS, 8 ohm)

What I really need to know is what would be the cheapest way to hook all of this up to an amp? I wouldn't be opposed to hooking the interior speakers directly to the cd deck in the boat and then running the tower speakers and 12" sub off an amp. The main thing I would really like to do is to be able to fade from the tower speakers to the interior speakers so I'm not blasting people out in the boat when the tower speakers are on.

I can get a good deal on a JL 500/5 (~$200). Here are the specs... http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_amps.php?amp_id=256
Could this amp be used for this setup or are there better/cheaper options out there? Thanks for any help!

[Sinkoumn]

The JL will be great to run everything inside of the boat (and that's a pretty good deal, I love JL's stuff and haven't ever gone wrong in going with them in boats or cars).

If you want to fade between the tower speaks and the interiors you can do that off of the headunit (maybe, it depends on the deck), but your best bet is picking up a preamp unit as well - that way you can fine tune the audio in the boat as well as fade the tower speaks in/out whenever you want.

However if you wanted to do this as cheap as possible, you can just wire the tower speakers to the rear output on the 5 channel amp and run the interior speaks off of the fronts. The problem is that if you are getting tower speaks to hear while riding you might not be able to because the amp isn't pushing enough power to them - Most tower speakers can barely be heard behind the boat, and you'll usually need a good, dedicated amp to run the tower speaks.

If you can get the JL, you can still use your current amp for the tower speaks ( I forget what your other amp was). But the easiest way to set it up for what you're looking to do is just get the 5 channel for the interior, and then either use your old amp for the tower speakers or just buy a cheaper used amp for the tower speaks.

Since the tower speaks are 8ohm, and the JL 500.5 is a 4ohm (I think that's right) you're going to have to setup the tower speaks in parallel. See here: http://www.bcae1.com/spkrmlti.htm

You can try and get away with the single amp, but odds are you will be unhappy with how loud the tower speaks are and end up buying another amp anyway to push the tower speakers.

Here's a basic diagram of what I did for my system, if you went with the latter suggestion your setup will be the same except you just wont have the JL 500.1 style sub amp:

[LT206]

Look at this thread and I think you can follow how I did mine. PM me if you have any questions.

http://www.planetnautique.com/index....ghlight=#56406

[JWAT]

LT206,

Thanks for the link, that is perfect. How do your Evids sound with the zx450.2? I was thinking of getting a couple kicker amps like that. I was actually thinking about going with the zx350.2, but do you think I should go with the bigger one? Can you hear your Evids really good while riding?

[JWAT]

LT206,

One other question, did you ever update your electrical system or no? Are you running one battery or two? One thing I do not want to do right now is update my electrical system.

[JWAT]

Sinkoumn,

If I am reading the specs on that JL amp correctly, will it put out 100w X 2 to the front channels anywhere from 1.5-4ohms?

[Sinkoumn]

yus

[LT206]

If I recall correctly the Evids want to see around 300 watts each, but not more than that or they will self destruct. So I decided on the 450 to give them around 225 watts each. Obviously,I went with the 450 and if I were to do it again I would not give them less power.

They do get loud, but I would not say they are great for listening while riding. You can hear them, but it's not the best. Also I am not exactly sure that I've heard them at their best - when I'm driving, I'm not afraid to crank them wide open, but when I'm riding and someone else is driving, my driver (read wife) won't crank them up wide open so I may not have ever heard them correctly.

I still have my stock electrical system. I did not add a second battery and have had no problems. I do not park and listen to the system for long periods of time, though.


I am very happy with my setup overall - it does great for me.
Hope that helps.

[Mikeski]

JWAT,

I prefer to run the tower off a four channel amp. I also like the look and versatility of using two identical amplifiers. Your setup would work very well off two Clarion APX480M amplifiers, they are readily available off e-bay for less than $200 each. I run one in my truck driving the entire system, 4 MB Quart components off the front channels and an MTX sub off the rear two channels (bridged mono). You can run one of the Clarion's to the tower and the other to the boat, then it's easy to fade between.

Running the Evids you should engauge the high pass filter on the tower amp, set the crossover around 100hz.

Any other decent 4 channel amp would also work in this configuration.

[JWAT]

Couple more questions...

LT206,
When you purchased your Evids, did they come with tower clamps or did you add them yourself? If you added them yourself, how did you attach them? Also, do you happen to know if there is a way to take the grilles off of these speakers? When I got the speakers, they were in worse condition than I thought. I would like to take them apart and paint the housing and also the grilles.

Mikeski,
How would I use a 4-channel amp with these speakers? As I mentioned above, the speakers are 8 ohm each, so I would need to run them in parallel to get them down to 4 ohms. If I bridged a 4-channel amp into two channels, and then ran each speaker to the amp, the speakers would still be running 8 ohms. Would this be ok for the speakers and amp? If it is ok, how would I calculate how many watts the speakers are getting?

[Mikeski]

Running a four channel amp in two channel mode:

LF+ to evid L+
LF- not connected (center speaker terminals)
RF+ not connected (center speaker terminals)
RF- to evid L-

LR+ to evid R+
LR- not connected (center speaker terminals)
RR+ not connected (center speaker terminals)
RR- to evid R-

This is actually the design load for most four channel amps (identical load to 4 ohms per channel, amp doesn't know the difference). If the amp is rated at 100 watts per channel (at 4 ohms per channel) each evid will see 200 watts. Surprisingly some amp technicians get this wrong.