08 speaker wiring and amp questions?

[kevfran99]

I have the two factory Clarion amps installed in my boat with the six interior polk momo speakers, the factory polk sub, and two alpha 2 tower speakers. Does anyone know how they powered these speakers? There's only six channels between the two amp and 9 speakers. I have a JL M660 which is rated at:

Rated Power 14.4 V Stereo: 75 W RMS x 6 @ 4 ohm
100 W RMS x 6 @ 2 ohm

Rated Power 14.4 V Bridged : 150 W RMS x 3 @ 8 ohm
200 W RMS x 3 @ 4 ohm

Rated Power 12.5 V Stereo: 55 W RMS x 6 @ 4 ohm
75 W RMS x 6 @ 2 ohm

Rated Power 12.5 V Bridged: 110 W RMS x 3 @ 8 ohm
150 W RMS x 3 @ 4 ohm


Should I use this amp and replace one of the other two on the boat? Or should I just sell it and keep it the way it is? I'm not too good with this ohm thing. Cars are more my expertise. I don't plan on doing anything to the factory system other than adding two more factory alpa 2 tower speakers next summer.
Thanks for your help!

[SuperSquirt]

RE: 08 speaker wiring and amp questions?

If you love your Nautique as much as I think you do, you should replace both amps and go with a better brand. You won't be disappointed. I had the Clarion sub/amp combo on my new 210 and it absolutely sucked. I decided to stick with the car stuff.

[kevfran99]

Re: RE: 08 speaker wiring and amp questions?

If you love your Nautique as much as I think you do, you should replace both amps and go with a better brand. You won't be disappointed. I had the Clarion sub/amp combo on my new 210 and it absolutely sucked. I decided to stick with the car stuff.

.........you didn't really answer my quesitons? Yellow_Flash_Colorz:

[SuperSquirt]

Sorry Kev, my boat only had the Clarion 480M amp originally, and it powered the interior speakers and the 10" sub. I have no explanation for how/why CC installed it this way (ghetto fab install). I pulled it out and hooked up this setup myself........

[OHLNautique]

I could be mistaken but I think the Clarion amps are a 4 channel and a 2 channel. The bow speakers are running off the head unit. (not good) The 4 rear interiors are running off 2 channels of the four channel and the Alpha 2's are running off the other 2. The sub runs off the 2 channel Clarion. Somebody please correct me if this is not right. Regardless of how it's wired, these two amps have no where near enough power to run the Momo speakers efficiently. Your JL Audio amp would run the interiors very well in 6 channel mode. For the second amp I would get a LARGE 4 channel to run the four Alpha 2's and the sub. Also, if you have that Momo sub in the factory nautique enclosure, throw it in the trash. Get someone to build you a ported box for that Momo sub. It will sound awesome with about 300watts going to it ported.

[OHLNautique]

By the way, if done right you can run the whole thing off one amp. I've got 11 speakers running off one old Alpine 5 Channel. It's very loud. 4 Titan Alpha 1's, 6 interior Momo's, and one 12" Alpine Type S sub.

[kevfran99]

I could be mistaken but I think the Clarion amps are a 4 channel and a 2 channel. The bow speakers are running off the head unit. (not good) The 4 rear interiors are running off 2 channels of the four channel and the Alpha 2's are running off the other 2. The sub runs off the 2 channel Clarion. Somebody please correct me if this is not right. Regardless of how it's wired, these two amps have no where near enough power to run the Momo speakers efficiently. Your JL Audio amp would run the interiors very well in 6 channel mode. For the second amp I would get a LARGE 4 channel to run the four Alpha 2's and the sub. Also, if you have that Momo sub in the factory nautique enclosure, throw it in the trash. Get someone to build you a ported box for that Momo sub. It will sound awesome with about 300watts going to it ported.

You are correct on the fact that the two amps are a 4 channel and a 2 channel. I was thinking of running the 6 interior speakers off of the JL amp I have. I was thinking of running the six interior speakers off the three bridged channels. Two rears for one channel, two mid speakers for another, and the bow speakers for the third channel. That would be 200watts rms at 4 ohms. and then taking the other 4 channel clairon and running the tower speakers and sub.

If I do this how can I tell that its wired to 4 ohms? Can I just take two speakers (let's say the two in the bow for arguments sake) and just run both positive wires to one of the bridged channels + on the amp and the two negative wires to the bridged negative?

Then the two tower speakers I could run the same way on the four channel with the amp bridged into two, one channel for the tower speakers and the other for the sub?

thanks for all your help! sorry for all the questions, but I don't want to pay someone a ton of money to intsall an amp when it should be pretty easy if I can just understand it!

[AirTool]

.... Also, if you have that Momo sub in the factory nautique enclosure, throw it in the trash. Get someone to build you a ported box for that Momo sub. It will sound awesome with about 300watts going to it ported.

Just clarifying...he means throw the enclosure in the trash. NOT the sub!

AirTool

[AuMDLST]

kevfran - you will not get a 4 ohm load with two 4 ohm speakers - if you parallel them as you describe you would have a 2 ohm load - in series they would be 8 ohm load. The amp could be wired with one speaker per channel or 2 per bridged channel - either way you are providing 75 watts each speaker when the boat is running. Use the clarion 480 for the tower - use one channel per speaker ( 2 now and 2 for future). You can use the 280 for the sub bridged but might want to get more power.

[kevfran99]

kevfran - you will not get a 4 ohm load with two 4 ohm speakers - if you parallel them as you describe you would have a 2 ohm load - in series they would be 8 ohm load. The amp could be wired with one speaker per channel or 2 per bridged channel - either way you are providing 75 watts each speaker when the boat is running. Use the clarion 480 for the tower - use one channel per speaker ( 2 now and 2 for future). You can use the 280 for the sub bridged but might want to get more power.

So If I understand correctly the best thing I could do now is wire up the JL 6 channel amp with the six interior speakers each going to one channel. Then with the second four channel clairon amp I should run the two tower speakers from channel one and two and bridge channels 3 & 4 for the sub. Am I understanding everything correctly? I want to get this done tomorrow since they say it's going to rain all day.

One last question. I'm assuming when I wire up these amps I will just remove the rear stock 4 channel clairon and put in the JL with the power and ground cables already there and then just move the 4 channel to where the 2 channel amp is and use the same power and ground cables?

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING GUYS!

[OHLNautique]

Not exactly. You are correct on the JL. One speaker to each channel, 6 interior speakers, 6 channels. The clarion four channel should run your two Alpha 2's off of two channels and save the other two channels for when you add two more Alphas. Then use the clarion two channel to run the sub. Just like it is now. Three amps total. If you do this you need to run new power and ground from the battery to the JL. The existing wiring can't carry enough current for three amps. It's barely enough for the two Clarions.

[kevfran99]

So is it ok to run it like I mentioned above until i get the other two tower speakers so I don't have to run any more power wires right now? Or should I just go ahead and get a distribution block and wire the amps up from it?

[kevfran99]

can I use this block for power?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1174091579002

[SuperSquirt]

I don't recommend using the factory's wire for your JL amp, its not very thick and your mutiple amps will love you more if you switch it out.

Kev, this is how I hooked my three Alpine PDX amps and and the 2-farad capacitor:

-From the port side battery, I ran 0 gauge power and ground wire directly off the battery to the Tsuami capacitor with a very large fuse (200 amp i think) in the power line.

-Out of the capacitor, I used one set of 4 gauge power/ground to one amp and the other set to 2 Rockford distribution blocks (similar to the one you picked from Best Buy)

-Then I used 4 guage wire out of each distribution block to the other two amps, connected all of the remote wires together and used Monster audio patch cables to my CMD5

Everything is fairly easy except for having to drill the amps into side wall because you have to use short screws which have little room to bite.

Hope this helps and let me know if you have any other questions

[AuMDLST]

For the potential ease of installation - leave the two clarions alone and just add the JL with independent power and ground wiring. Find a good location and be careful about putting any screws near the hull side of the boat. Too many stories of screw heads poking through when folks got a little carried away.