Best Way to Power 6 In-Boat Speakers

[Superduper1974]

Need some suggestions on the best way to power the 6 in-bout speakers in my SV-211. I'm a newbie at this and was hoping someone could help me.

Plan is to do an overhaul on the system. I'm in the process of acquiring all the components.

Here is what I have so far:

Head Unit - original Clarion HU
Sub - Wet Sounds HT-AS10 (amp included)
6 In-boat Speakers - Wet Sounds XS-65i
AMP - Rockford Fosgate M400-4D
Wet Sounds WS-420SQ

Tower Speakers and amp will be done as phase II project next year.

Here is my dilemma. I purchased the M400-4D this past week for a really good price on Amazon. So original plan was to power the 6 in-boat speakers by running 2 of the channels in parallel to power 4 speakers and dedicating the 2 other channels to the remaining 2 speakers.

After making the purchase I did some more research and found some sites/forums where others had suggested that running an amp at a lower impedance (due to running in parallel) may cause the amp to run hot and may even lead to damaging the amp and/or speakers. The amp is rated at 75x4 at 4ohm as well as 100x4 at 2ohm. After getting the amp and reading the manual there was a disclaimer stating that they recommend not running the amp in lower than 4 ohm.

Here is my question:

Should I…

1. Go ahead and install the amp – 2 channels run parallel (4 speakers) and the other 2 dedicated to a single speaker (2 speakers).Any truth to running the amp in lower impedance may damage it or speakers?
2. Return the amp and purchase a 6 channel amp. From what I can see a decent 6 channel marine amp is in the $500 - $600 range.
3. Buy another M400-4D.Use 1 amp to power 4 of the speakers the other to power the remaining 2 leaving 2 unused channels. I purchased the M400-4D for $180.

Any suggestions/recommendations are greatly appreciated.

[kend]

You definitely want your resistance to match for good sound and not frying components. I would wire 4 of the speakers to the M400-4D 4speakers x75rms at 4ohms and just get another M400-4D. 1) At that price it is as cheap as a decent 2 channel 2) It does not hurt anything to leave 2 channels open 3) You may find a use for the other two down the road (bridge for sub?)

[Fast351]

You could just run it like they did from the factory on my 2007. Front speakers in the bow area are off the headunit, the 4 in the main cabin are off a 4 channel amp.

Yes the bow area is quieter, but I don't find it distracting at all.

[rlwagens]

You definitely want your resistance to match for good sound and not frying components. I would wire 4 of the speakers to the M400-4D 4speakers x75rms at 4ohms and just get another M400-4D. 1) At that price it is as cheap as a decent 2 channel 2) It does not hurt anything to leave 2 channels open 3) You may find a use for the other two down the road (bridge for sub?)

I don't see how its much different from the standard setup with a SYN4. Three pairs of speakers would put the front bow speakers at 125 watts at 4 ohms and four cabin speakers 100 watts at 2 ohms.

Putting this setup to use with the M400-4D in stereo: Front bow speakers in series on ch1-2 at 4 ohms would give them 75 watts rms each, and four cabin speakers in parallel on ch3-4 at 2 ohms would be 100x2 split into 50 watts rms to each.

I had the front speakers in the bow running off the headunit in my boat when I got it, and it complicates things if you are going to quickly control volume with the ws420 because master volume will turn down the tower and cabin speakers but the bow speakers will be left blasting. Will just always have to turn down the volume with the head unit and then turn it back up to your 70% max again.

[MLA]

What are the thoughts of the marine audio specialists at amazon? They have Wet sounds and Rockford product knowledge for sure.

IMO, that M400.4 could drive 8 XS-65i just fine. It could drive 16 if wired properly. No need for 2nd amp of any kind.

[soonerbilly]

Are 2 of the inboats on the dash? If so I would wire them with the bow speakers, since they are closer to their intended audience they can use the lesser power. Saving the extra power for the lower rear inboats. Then gain them appropriately for balanced sound. It's a slight pain to do alone but I thought it worked out well in my boat.

[SuperSquirt]

I agree with Kend on option #3. I added a second 4-channel amp for my in-boat speakers. I wanted them all to have 100 watts at 4 ohms. It also opens up room for expanding your system with another pair of 6.5s or tweeters if you wanted to

[Superduper1974]

Thanks to those who responded. FYI... I went ahead and purchased another M400-4D a few days back. I did call RF and spoke with someone in their tech support. The person I spoke with told me that running 2 of the channels in parallel while running the amp hard for several hours may lead to the amp shutting down and going into protection mode. But if running at 4 ohm (not parallel) the amp should run with no problems.