Polk Momo's, please explain?

[EarmarkMarine]

CD,

Verify and share which amplifier channels are going to which speakers on the '09s. If you can share this info then I can provide a few suggestions.

With the 2.7ohms of the MM series, I'm a little concerned about paralleled speakers (1.35 ohms) in the summer in the southern areas. Have to wait and see on any thermal/load issues.

I'm currently waiting on a response from Polk.

David
Earmark Marine

[Mikeski]

Per your description you have 6 cabin speakers and 4 tower speakers, all Polk Momo MMC650 (no sub?)

I would assume you also have two amps, one Clarion APX480 and one Clarion APX280?

The APX480 is good amp for the boat, four rear main speakers wired in parallel to the rear channels, the bow speakers wired to the front channels. In this configuration you can add a PAC-LC1 inline to the front to attenuate the bow speakers if a quiet space is desired.

You can run the APX280 to the four Polks on the tower but don't expect miracles. In my opinion hearing these speakers at 80' out over the drone of a 300+ horsepower motor would be a miracle. To hear music while riding you will need better speakers and more power. The least expensive solution would be to replace those tower Kicker KMT6 or Electrovoice Evids, this is the bare minimum to have anything audible at the rider. If you want to be able to really hear the music you will need to step up to Wetsounds or equiv. I run the Wetsounds Pro485s and they do a very good job of projecting sound to the rider. I am also running a strong amplifier to these speakers, 400watts to each (400x2).

You should also not expect the Polk speakers to reproduce the bass notes. A single 12" speaker in front of the driver or behind the passenger (with storage compartment vented) will satisfy that requirement, regardless of your music tastes.

Once you have the correct speakers in the correct locations and the amplifiers wired up in an optimal configuration you will need to make some adjustments on the amplifier settings. The amplifiers driving the Polk Momo's should have the crossovers enabled in highpass at 100hz. For the tower, if you are running something a little stronger than the Polks, you can run those crossovers in highpass at 80hz. The subwoofer crossover should be set in lowpass at 80hz.

Set the Clarion deck sensitivity at the highest setting and maximize the input gain if it is adjustable. The least expensive addition that will have the greatest impact on your audio system would be a little EQ. The little Clarion EQS744 is low cost but it adds tons of control to the system ($60 at several online sellers), if you want to step it up a few notches you can get the Wetsounds WS420 that allows individual zone control for the equilization of the tower or the boat as well as a talkback feature that allows you to communicate with your rider over the tower speakers, it retails for $300.

mikeski


edit: Listen to David, he is right-on about the goofy load of the new Polks, that changes everything so much of my advice is rubbish...

[CD]

HI...my boat is a 08 216 Team Edition, i will try to find that out unless someone here already knows this info.

[core-rider]

CD,

Verify and share which amplifier channels are going to which speakers on the '09s. If you can share this info then I can provide a few suggestions.

With the 2.7ohms of the MM series, I'm a little concerned about paralleled speakers (1.35 ohms) in the summer in the southern areas. Have to wait and see on any thermal/load issues.

I'm currently waiting on a response from Polk.

David
Earmark Marine

David, I'm very interested in what you have to say about this. I was looking at the MM651's last year for replacement of the factory Clarion's in my '03 SANTE. Besides running a 1.35 ohm load the only other way I could think of wiring them would be to parallel 2 on the left side, parallel 2 on the right side, and series the two for a 2.7 ohm load at the amp. Does this sound like a good idea or just chancing the 1.35 ohm load on a 2 ohm capable amp?

I was looking at using a Kicker ZX850.4 to power 4 in-boat speakers and the Kicker KMT6 towers I already have. Sorry I'm not that familar with your amps, but do you offer anything in the Syn line that might do this the smae or better than the ZX850.4?

BTW - I live in North Alabama so heat and humidity might be a factor.

[EarmarkMarine]

CD,

Sorry for confusing the issue. I thought you had an '09 with the MM651s. Your '08 should have the MOMOs which are standard 4-ohm and do not present a problem. MikiSki has already profiled your boat. Before we can make concise recommendations can you confirm how many amps you have, 2 or 4-channel, sub or not and tower speakers or not?

core-rider,

I'm not sure I follow you completely. But here goes. 2.7 ohms bridged is as risky as 1.35 ohms stereo. Any series-parallel combination scheme with odd number of speakers will not allow you to level match.

Use the Polk MM651um marine version or Bullet 650 coaxials. Both are 4-ohm speakers and fit a standard 5" to 5 1/4" opening. Both have removeable grills. Both are under $200 per pair. Both sound great. The Bullets come with either silver/gray or black grills and have a spoked pattern similar to the Polks.

I'm a fan of the WetSounds SYN 4 amplifier. It's 800 watts when configured into 4-ohm bridged or 2-ohm stereo. Very efficient. Fan-cooled. Compact. Surprisingly heavy heatsink. Looks awesome.

Don't forget about the forum coupon.

David
Earmark Marine

[core-rider]

Sorry, I guess I was a little unclear. I want to run 4 in-boats. I don't currently have anything running to the bow speakers. So that being said, if I ran the 2 speakers on the left in parallel (1.35 ohms), the 2 speakers on the right in parallel (1.35 ohms), and then wired those 2 sets in series at the amp the load should be 2.7 ohms, correct?

Or I could just go with the MM651um or Bullets like you said. I was unaware the MM651um was 4 ohm load.

[mrbobolina]

I have the Polk Momo's in my '97 SNOB tower. At first I thought they were as dissapointing as the previous 6x9's, then read the Polk forums. Turns out they really really need alot of juice. Once I added in the 600 watt amp all **** broke loose on the speakers. If anything they can be totally overpowering, which is what the Polk people said. Your ears will bleed before those speakers are not loud enough.

[EarmarkMarine]

core-rider,

It would take eight total coaxials to arrive at a final 2.7 ohm stereo load in a series/parallel scheme.

You could do it with four total coaxials but it would be mono.

Running six coaxials at a safe impedance off a stereo amplifier (by adding bow speakers) would create a gain inequity.

Just abandon the 2.7ohm speakers.

David
Earmark Marine

[Mikeski]

For those of you with the 2.7 ohm speakers.

Get three pairs (add the bow speakers), run three speakers in series, this will yield an 8 ohm load.

Now get a four channel amplifier, bridge two channels to the 8 ohm load. This is design condition for the amplifier, it will operate at the specified power, distortion, etc.

Say you had the APX480M and six boat speakers. This configuration would yield a bit over 50 watts to each speaker at 0.05THD, the amp should run fairly cool in this configuration.

You will unable to fade the bow speakers, if any single speaker in the series chain blows, all will stop working. You will not be able to use a two channel amp but you could use 2 two channel amps each run in mono to the left bank or the right speaker bank.

Having given this speaker impedence some thought this is probably what they intended when they designed this load.

[CD]

hi...ok i do have the Clarion APX480 and Clarion APX280 amps, the back does sound pretty good but the bow speakers are pretty quiet. Anyways would appreciate any advice on the setup.

thx,

CD

[AirTool]

are the fronts on the head unit? or one of the amps.

If amp, tune the gains.

If head unit, lower the gains on the amp so you can get more volume out of the head unit/fronts before the rears are too loud.

[Mikeski]

copied from above, set it up like this and it will sound better, simple amp reqwiring.

Per your description you have 6 cabin speakers and 4 tower speakers, all Polk Momo MMC650 (no sub?)

I would assume you also have two amps, one Clarion APX480 and one Clarion APX280?

The APX480 is good amp for the boat, four rear main speakers wired in parallel to the rear channels, the bow speakers wired to the front channels. In this configuration you can add a PAC-LC1 inline to the front to attenuate the bow speakers if a quiet space is desired.

You can run the APX280 to the four Polks on the tower but don't expect miracles. In my opinion hearing these speakers at 80' out over the drone of a 300+ horsepower motor would be a miracle.

[nautiques4life]

As mikeski guessed I have 2 amps, one Clarion APX480 and one Clarion APX280, the way nautiques set mine up is that the APX280 runs the 4 tower 6.5's, and the APX480 runs the 4 rear cabin as well as the Polk sub. The way the 480 is wired it appears that left side cabin is channel 1, right side is channel 2, and that the sub is kinda split with one lead to the area labeled channel 4 and the other to the channel 3 hookups.

I have no idea how amps/speakers/watts work so my stupid question is... which amp is putting out more power to each 6.5" speaker, the 280 or the 480? If its the 480 I'd rather hook up the 4 towers to that amp and put the 4 cabins on the 280. Or if it would be possible could I put just the sub on the 280 and the tower/cabins on the 480. Or better yet, sub on 280, towers on 480, and get a new amp for cabins?
Please forgive my rookieness, and thanks for all the help everyone.

[Mikeski]

I would check to see that the 280 has the crossover enabled in highpass mode at about 100hz. Here are links to the amplifier manuals.

If it were my boat I would start by replacing the 280 with another 480, then add a dedicated class D amp for the sub, then vent the sub, then vent the passenger the compartment, then replace the tower speakers, then... If you want it to sound good and produce music at the rider's point it's probably going to set you back another $3-5k.

280 manual: http://www.clarion.com/us/en/MungoBl...36/APX280M.pdf
480 manual: http://www.clarion.com/us/en/MungoBl...80/APX480M.pdf

[nautiques4life]

Holy cow. Sure miss the days I rode for loud liquid and they sent me a box that was already insane for free. $3-5k is a pretty scary number for me, especially considering I'm currently unemployed. I do like the idea of the Bass rehab thread on this message board- the price is certainly right. After that I guess I'll start saving for more amps and keep my eyes out on ebay, thanks mike

PS those Clarion manuals were SUPER helpful, thanks for those.