2003 SANTE Stereo Advice

[ck1105]

I recently acquired a 2003 SANTE, below is a list of equipment I have on hand. I DO NOT want to put all of this in the boat, I am seeking advice matching components. I only want to use 2 amps total in order to power the in boat 6.5” speakers(6), One 12” Subwoofer in box at helm, and Tower speakers which are older ones that have the MB Quart 3way Component speakers w/ 3lights in-between. When I got it the tower and sub were only thing working and they were powered by the Exile S400.4, sounded pretty dang good. Additional equipment will be going into our Pontoon Boat (yes that day hurt).

I have been searching the forums for so long I feel I know less now! Any help with my questions below would be awesome.

Head unit is a clarion marine single din. Don’t have model available. And cabin speakers are all original clarions (will swap eventually).
Amps:
Precision Power PSX5800, 5-Channel

• 4ohm STEREO, 4x50, 5/CH 4ohm MONO 1x200
• 2ohm STEREO, 4x100, 5/CH 2ohm MONO 1x400

Exile S400.4, 4-Channel

• 4ohm, stereo, 4x100
• 2ohm, stereo, 4x200
• 4ohm bridged, 2x400

Rockford Fosgate, Mono

• 300 Watts x 1 @ 4-Ohm
• 500 Watts x 1 @ 2-Ohm
• 1000 Watts x 1 @ 1-Ohm

Subwoofers
12” Rockford Fosgate, P3D412, HAVE 2 OF THESE

• Dual Voice Coil
• 4ohm
• 600W RMS, 1200 Max

12 JL Audio, 12w1v2-4

• 50-300Watts RMS, Peak Power Handling 600Watts

I would like to add a WS420, does this take place of the head unit for all volume control or can I still use the wired remotes and use WS420 to adjust tower/boat/sub ratios? I'd prefer to keep the wired remotes operational, just need to replace them because the screen is out.

The 5th channel on the PPI amp has + + - - terminals, if it is only one channel then why are there connections for 2 speakers?

If I wanted to use the 5^th channel to power one of the RF subs, how do I wire it down to 2ohm and would 400watts be sufficient for a 600RMS sub.

Besides Wetsounds what 6.5” is most recommended for cabin speakers? I don’t have $1200 beans to upgrade right now. Looking at $150-$200/pair budget.

Which battery is the house battery starboard or port?

I have been writing this post in my head for several days not but I am drawing a complete blank now so I am sure I have forgotten something.

Thanks in advance for all of your help.
Cameron

I will be posting another thread soon, asking tons of questions about this boat in general. I don't know when, but I got old and all of this stuff confuses me. For those of you long time planetnatique folks, this boat is going to go through a Spring Cleaning Part Deaux type of overhaul this winter.

[MLA]

CK,

An EQ like the WS-420 SQ or BT, is not really intended to take the place of a head-unit but rather supplement it. A system can be built around the EQ in which a traditional head-unit is not needed is you do not want tuner, CD, USB, etc. If the head-unit still functions, I would retain it as the main source unit and have the EQ in a more traditional role as a Pre-amp.

That PP 5 chnl will certainly drive your 3 pair of in-boats and a sub just fine. The questions is, which sub is the best match or will you be better to go with a mono for the sub and a 4 chnl. For this reason, you may end needing 3 amps. How many tower speakers are there?

Both the Wet Sounds 65 series and 650 series are excellent speakers. Also, the JL MX650, Kicker KM65, Polk and Rockfords are worth looking at

To get the available 400W @ 2 ohm from the sub chnl of the PP, you need a single coil 2 ohm sub or a 4 ohm DVC sub. Having 2 pairs of terminals makes it easier to connect multiple subs.

Good luck finding replacement remotes if that head-unit is more then a few years old. Good chance the screens are out because they are the old gen remotes and the head-unit is a new gen.

A 600W rms sub will play just fine with 400W RMS but certainly not driven to its potential. The questions is as noted, is one of them a 4 ohm DVC?

If the boat has a 1/2/BOTH/OFF switch, then house battery is both and neither. If wired in the most ideal manor, then you can select which to use while at anchor, unless one is a deep-cycle, then you just need to determine if its wired to the #2 or #1 spot.

[David Analog]

The peak power specs given for the Exile S400.4 are double the RMS rated specs. There is no basis for 'maximum', 'peak', 'music', or 'dynamic' power. It's simply a fluff number. This amplifier is an inefficient Class AB and will not achieve its RMS specs. Consider it to be more like 4 X 40 watts @ 4-ohm and 4 X 70 watts @ 2-ohm.

[MLA]

Ok, looking at those subs, the Rockford is going to be the better choice wattage wise, to pair with the PP 5 chnl. Although the rockford mono would deliver a little more wattage to both of your available subs, it would not be an audible difference, so no real benefit here.

[ck1105]

So I would bridge the 5th channel and connect the positive to the 1st positive coil, then daisy chain over to second positive voice coil, and do the same for negative?

Thanks for super fast responses.

[MLA]

Cant bridge a single chnl. It just has 2 pair of terminals for connecting more than one sub rather then cramming a bunch of wires into a single pair of terminals. The two positives are connected inside, same with the two negatives.

[ck1105]

That makes sense. Thanks

[ck1105]

Ok sorry now I feel like I am really kicking a dead horse but I want to wire up everything correctly.

AMP 1: PPI 5-Channel
1/2 - In Boat Speaker RR/RL
2/3 - In Boat Speaker FR/FL
5 - Subwoofer

AMP 2: Exile 4-Channel
1/2 - Bow speakers
3/4 - Tower Speakers

Should I run RCA's from WS420, then split it 3 ways to the Various Channels for in Boat Speakers? Or is there a better way I can wire this?

Or

AMP 1: PPI 5-Channel
1/2 - In Boat Speakers RR/RL and FR/FL
3/4 - Bow Speakers
5 - Tower Speakers (5th Channel does have a HPF setting)

AMP 2: Rockford Mono
1- Subwoofer


Is there anything I am missing? Not really an audiophile the only reason I want the WS-420, is so when we are at the cove I can shut off the interior speakers, or when we are riding at dawn I can shut of the tower speakers. Could this be done using 3 PAC-LC1's?

Thanks everyone.

[MLA]

PPI 5 chnl

1 = left bow
2 = right bow
3 = left mid and aft
4 -= right mid and aft
5 = sub w/coils wired in parallel

S400.4

Each tower pod wired to its own chnls

WS-420

The sub out will run directly to the sub input on PPi 5 chnl

If the in-boat and tower outputs need to be split, do it right at the amp. I am not familiur enough with those amps to recall without looking, if they have a 2 chnl/4 chnl mode switch that allows all 4 chnl to play with only a single RCA pair into the chnl 1 and 2 inputs.

You can have 2 or 3 zone control using simple line level controllers. Rather then PAC, check out Wet Sounds new marine line level controller.

You can also do this with the Kicker Marine ZXM-RLC 2 - zone volume controller. Just tie the sub and in-boats together or have 3 zones by using the amp's sub level controller.

[ck1105]

I have been searching all day long for the thread when Grant West removed the hump behind the helm kick plate. I cannot find it anywhere, does anyone have a link to that thread.

[ck1105]

So I have everything wired up and the stereo works great. I ran 4guage power with an inline 50a fuse to a stinger distribution block , with 30a fuses to each amp, I know this is way under powered but the lake house is in a pretty remote area and there is no place nearby to get larger fuses. Both Amps turned on and the stereo sounded as good as I could hope. Then comes the trouble, I also installed a 36" LED light bar on the tower, which is wired into the same distribution blocks as the amps. With the stereo on but volume on 0, I would get feedback when I shut off the lights. The next morning, with the stereo on and at about 50% volume, when I turned on the lights to test, the Exile amp would stay on but not produce any sound, and the PPI amp would shut off the 5th/Sub channel and channels1-4 would just start cracking. Even when I turned the light off the stereo would not recover. I then shut off the batteries and waited a few minutes. Fired it back up and the stereo works fine. Until I turn on the lights again. The light bar asks for a 30A fuse.

Is this happening because of the under powered fuses?
Should I reconsider using the same distribution blocks for stereo and light bars?

[MLA]

What do you mean by under powered fuse? 4ga may be on the small side depending on the length of the cable runs. The erratic amps sounds like battery voltage. You would want to test the voltage at the battery and at the amps with and without the lights on. The interference from the light could be the PWM at which the LEDs operate at.

[ck1105]

Exile amp calls for 50A, PPI 80A, and lightbar 30A. But whole system is limited by the 50a fuse at the battery. I don't know what PWM means.

[MLA]

Pulse Width Modulation as in on/off cycles x time in seconds, or usually miliseconds. This pulse has been known to induce noise into speaker leads.

[ck1105]

Ok MLA, you were right the voltage on the battery had fallen to 8 and was causing everything to act wonky. Now I have a new issue. When the boat is parked with engine off, and battery fully charged, the stereo runs great. When the boat is on and boat is underway, the PPI amp running interiors and sub periodically shuts off. If I turn system off and on again by entering keypad code it will turn back on and run, until it shuts off again. This is also at about 80% volume. Any Ideas? Am I looking at needing a new amp?