Upgrade to factory stereo in 2005 sante 210?

[andycriner]

My boat has the stock radio, speakers, amps, just like it left the factory. My budget for upgrades is totally shoot for the year since I just bought the boat, boat lift, slip fee for another boat, boards, ropes, jackets... So what if I added a 3rd amp to the system to seperate the cockpit speakers from the sub? I currently have the clarion 4 channel for the tower, clarion 5 channel for the cockpit and sub. My 3rd amp is a 4 channel jbl taken out of a buddies boat. Where can I locate the third amp?Which amp should be used for the cockpit speakers? (I would guess the 5 channel). What would the settings be for the cockpit speaker amp? Thanks

[andycriner]

Last night I installed the 3rd amp and everything went very well. It really cleared the cockpit speakers up to almost zero distorotion. Prior to the install I was convinced the cockpit speakers needed to be replaced.

Couple of questions:

I ran a new postive lead all the back to the battery switch. I did not run the ground back. I piggy-backed it on one of the other amps. Is this okay?

What should I set the filters at for High pass and low pass? I have read alot about this and the low looks like ~80hz and the high ~150hz? Another guy suggested that you should set High and low the Same @ ~100hz. I have it set at 80/150 right now and the sound is pretty good.

[ski4evr]

Depending on the current flow of the new amp, you could be overloading that piggybacked wire. Current flows equally in both the positive and negative conductors in a circuit.
With the filter settings you have you are eliminating all signal between 80 hz and 150 hz from the sound output.

[Mikeski]

Last night I installed the 3rd amp and everything went very well. It really cleared the cockpit speakers up to almost zero distorotion. Prior to the install I was convinced the cockpit speakers needed to be replaced.

Couple of questions:

I ran a new postive lead all the back to the battery switch. I did not run the ground back. I piggy-backed it on one of the other amps. Is this okay?

What should I set the filters at for High pass and low pass? I have read alot about this and the low looks like ~80hz and the high ~150hz? Another guy suggested that you should set High and low the Same @ ~100hz. I have it set at 80/150 right now and the sound is pretty good.

No that is not OK. Run a ground too, both able to handle the full current capacity of the amp. I actually oversize all amplifier power wire since the amps will be running at 12.3-12.6 volts when the boat is not running and therefore pulling more current than the are designed to do at 14.4 volts.

I run my boat and tower speaker amps at 100hz highpass, sub amp at 80hz low pass. Get yourself a copy of a bass mechanic test CD and run the test tones to see if you have any gaps or too much overlap with your crossover points. You can also test the sub phasing while you are at it. So many subs are wired out of phase, it really depends on so many factors you can't really tell unless you test it. Just did my truck, it was out of phase when wired normally.