Replacing Polk MM650 speakers

[jkallen21]

I have a 2006 SANTE with 10 MM650 speakers:
4x in Tower
3x on starboard
3x on port

That's quite an investment in speakers alone - so I've decided to save some money and go with the DB651 which lots of people seem to love for the money. We don't ever max out the sound anyway and just generally like decent sound quality so I think we'll be happy. The old speakers are falling apart.

Now comes the part where you're going to quickly realize I have little experience in audio. To be honest, I actually have a history in it, it's just that I haven't done any of this stuff since I was a kid and that would be around 1989 and I have not looked at it since so I do feel a bit lost.

I have 2 stock amps - the Clarion APX480 and APX280. The 480 is a 4-channel and the 280 is a 2-channel.
Some questions:
How are 10 speakers powers by this considering there is also a 10" stock subwoofer?
What does the wiring look like?

The MM650 has 4 inputs on each speaker. There are two for the tweeter and two for the mid-range speaker itself. The DB651 seems to have just two inputs? Does it matter which of the existing 4 wires in the boat I use to power them?

Thanks for the help.

[2009216v]

All speakers, including sub, should be powered by your amps except your two bow speakers which are traditionally powered from the radio.


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[MLA]

For tower speaker are wired to the 2 chnl with each chnl running at 2 ohm

Four main cabin wired to 2 chnls of the 4 chnl, again, each chnls running at 2 ohm

Sub is bridged on the remaining 2 chnls of the 4 chnl.

Bow left on front chnls of the head-unit.

A nice improvement is to install a mild mono amp for the sub, opening up 2 chnls for those bow speakers. This will then allow the fade function to be utilized better.

[jkallen21]

thanks MLA - very helpful.
What about the DB651 only having a single pair of inputs vs the MMC650 having two pair (tweeter and midrange are separate). How would I go about this?

[MLA]

The MMC650 just has a detached cross-over, where as the DB has an integral cross-over. The mid and tweeter of the MMC are wired to their corresponding terminals on the cross-over, and in turn, the cross-over has a pair of terminals that are wired to the amp's chnls.

[jkallen21]

I see. So, inside each speaker cut-out today, there are 4 wires and it shouldn't matter which (matching) pair of those I use for the DB series?

[MLA]

Yes, it does matter and the correct pair has polarity. You need to eliminate the detached cross-over from the old speakers, and locate the 2 conductor speaker lead that runs to the amp.

[jkallen21]

I'm now understanding. I see the crossover on the DB now. I just need to take a closer look at the existing wires and find which one has a crossover attached to it and remove it or use the other pair. Thanks for your help.

[jkallen21]

I hooked up the left tower speakers today after eliminating the remote crossovers. The db651 sounded very "tinny" with no bass. Disabling the filter on the 280 amp improved that substantially. See the attached photo to see how the frequency is set. After all these years who knows what settings people might have changed. Let me know if you see anything that looks crazy.

Thanks

[MLA]

If it was set to HP and is now set to OFF or FP, you have basically defeated that FREQ dial. I would suggest running them on HP at about 100Hz. A little polly-fill in the pod will help with a tinny sound.

[jkallen21]

Thanks so much MLA. Your help was a HUGE HUGE timesaver. The boat sounds great right now - all speakers replaced. I will fine tune it later, but I can't complain right now.