Replace Speaker Wires??

[mnovstel]

Hey Forum,

Just wondered what people's thoughts are on replacing speaker wire in older boats. I have a '02 SANTE.

Last summer I put in 4 WS XS-650's powered off a SYN 4. I just used the factory 16 gauge wire as I was in a bit of a hurry to get everything in.

I'm in the middle of adding two more XS-650's in the bow and a HT-AS 10 sub. Now that I have a little more time I wonder if I should replace all the speaker wire? Odin from Earmark said that 16 gauge is optimum for the XS-650's, so is there any benefit to new speaker wire?

I should say I never had any trouble with sound quality. The speakers sounded great with the factory wiring, but I'm excited to have the bow speakers running off the SYN 4 and the new sub should be stealer! Don't really want to spend the money and time on new wire if it is not worth it...

Thanks for any input.

[Mikeski]

There would be no noticeable benefit if you upgraded the factory speaker wires. The bow should be prewired for speakers and I would use those wires too.

[mnovstel]

Cool, thats what I was thinking too... Just wondered what other people's thoughts were. Thanks for the input.

[jtosborn]

Just starting this same upgrade to my 02' SANTE. Have not traced the speaker wire yet, but does the factory amp not power the bow speakers?

[barefootinjimmy]

on my 2005 SANTE the Clarion head unit is used to power the bow speakers. The Clarion 2/3/4 amp powers the four cabin speakers, and the sub woofer too.

[EarmarkMarine]

The only reason I could see to replace the speaker wire would be if it were corroded or deteriorated in some way. Your boat isn't that old, so unless its been submerged at some time I doubt the speaker wires would need to be replaced. 16 AWG speaker wire is perfect for those XS-650, the only reason to go with a larger gauge wire would be if you were making an extremely long wire run (longer than possible in that boat). I think you'll be perfect with the stock wire.

One thing to verify is that some boats that have 6 in-boat speakers and no amp from the factory (head unit power only) will run 2 speakers on each side in series, and only run 4 speaker wires to the radio. If you have a boat wired like that and you are converting to powering all 6 speakers with an amplifier then you probably want to rewire the speakers and run them in parallel (assuming the new amp is 2- ohm stable).


Odin

[MLA]

Just starting this same upgrade to my 02' SANTE. Have not traced the speaker wire yet, but does the factory amp not power the bow speakers?

Its very common to find the bow speakers driven by the head-unit and the 4 main cabin speakers wired to 1 half of the OEM 4 chnl amp and sub wired to the other half.