Stereo Upgrade thought check

[CraigH]

Ok, so I have been reading and measuring and reading and diagraming, etc. I have a 2003 216 with a standard Clarion XMD1 head unit and 6 speakers. I am trying to upgrade a bit and add an amp, sub and a couple of tower speakers, without breaking the bank or blasting the entire lake. I think I am clear on wiring the tower and speakers but I am still sifting through all the information on the basic amp and sub wiring and setup and could use a check on my thought process.

My plan is to leave the head unit powering the interior speakers and use the amp to drive the tower speakers. Will this result in too unequal of a setup? I will install the sub and amp (Clarion 480M) under the observer seat and am trying to lay out my wiring. As I see it, the best choice will be to add a second battery (my thought is also under the observer seat) and connect the amp and sub directly to the 2cnd battery. I would connect the 2 batteries (1st is in a floor battery box between the driver and observer seats) with a Perko selector switch. 0/1 battery cable for the battery to battery connection and 8 guage for the amp and sub power connections (with fuses).

Any comments or suggestions on this set-up are certainly welcome. Also, any tips on running the wire from the battery 1 box to the observer seat are also welcome.

One last kind of stupid question - if I dont move the head unit power from the factory wiring harness to the second battery, wont I have an issue of not having head unit power when the battery switch is on battery 2 (floating and listening to the stereo)? Conversely, if I do move it, wont I have no stereo when running normally on battery 1? This is probably very basic but I cant seem to wrap my head around it.

Thanks

[Mikeski]

RE: Stereo Upgrade thought check

I don't like powering any boat speakers off the deck, the deck just does not have the power to push the speakers over the ambient wind noise.

I would suggest two 480's, one powering the 6 boat speakers, the other powering the tower and the sub. The Kicker KMT6's are not a bad choice given your objectives and financial goals.

In any case I could abandon the factory power wiring to the stereo, including the factory wiring to the deck. The speaker wires are fine but the power wires are too small for the amp and the deck's power is from a load center that already has too much voltage drop. Using factory power wires is asking for engine whine.

[EarmarkMarine]

CraigH,

I agree with Mikeski. You should power the in-boat speakers with an amplifier also. Here are some additional reasons. You'll never be able to fully fade away from either the in-boat speakers or tower speakers...even if you have a H.U. with dual preouts. In order to keep the H.U. from premature and blatant clipping, you'll have to set your amplifier gains way too sensitive which can result in the introduction of several types of noise.

David
Earmark Marine

[Socbum]

Craig,

I did the same thing on my '02 last month. I added 4 tower speakers, a kicker 10" sub and two amps (Kicker KX300.4 & Clarion AP5250 5 channel). All purchased through this site I have a nice sounding setup that did not cost me much.

I ended up running the cabin speakers and sub from the clarion and the tower speakers are powered by the Kicker. I ran RCA cables from the gray/front to the clarion and the black/rear to the Kicker. That allowes me to use the head unit to fade between cabin and tower.

I'm also interested in the answer to your power question. Seems simple, but I'm stuck in the same place as you.

[CraigH]

Thanks for the responses. SocBum, I followed your previous thread while I was planning and got some good ideas (as well as MikeSki's wiring thread and several ideas from Earmark). I finished the install for now with a new sub and new amp under the passenger seat and tower speakers. So far I really like the overall sound, at least in the driveway. I tried to get what I have installed and leave my options open for adding another amp in the future.

The tower wiring was a challenge. I tried using a shop vac and air compressor but ended up taking the top portion of the tower off to "aid" in the wiring. We spent some fun moments of contorting the tower around trying to get a fishing line weight back through a 3/8" hole, after it fell off the string . What is the kids game that you try and get a marble through an obstacle course?

I didnt add the second battery yet but set-up all the wiring to do so easily as I am still trying to figure the best option on how to connect via the perko switch.

[TravisFling]

Once you run the batteries to the switch the power is effectively pulling from the same pool. The switch will direct the power to go to/from a certain place. I know I'm not explaining this well, but if you have a amp running directly off a battery and the batteries are connected, even though you're pulling from battery one, or two they are effectively like one big battery and the power will pull through the cables tying the batteries together. Let me know if that doesn't make sense.

[EarmarkMarine]

CraigH,

The standard for dual batteries is:

All positives that used to access the battery directly are now moved to the battery switch common post. This includes the helm buss, breaker panel, alternator feed, and stereo/amplifiers. Do not circumvent the switch with any part of the stereo. This will avoid many potential problems.

Only run one battery at rest in order to preserve your starting battery.

Drive the boat with the switch in the "all" or "both" position so you are charging both batteries.

Store the boat with the switch in the "off" position.

Get an AC charger for storage.

Don't rotate the battery switch once the engine is running.

That's about it for the switch system.

Combiner/separator schemes are a little more complex and are wired totally different.

But with only two total batteries you can keep it simple with a dual battery switch.

David
Earmark Marine

[TravisFling]

that's a much better explanation.