Audio zone control installation

[Soul_surfer]

Hey everybody,
im planning to add 2 manual control zone on my boat.

I’ve seen the previous post (GMLIII) but I wonder if somebody done it by themself.
Or maybe you can help me figure out how connecting it.

Local dealer tech will come at the lake in few weeks to make some minor warranty claim and he said that he can plug that if I pay the extra hours.
Just need to order all the parts I need.
Since I don’t want to miss something or take wrong parts your help would be appreciated.

I’ll be ordering 2 JL Audio HD-RLC knobs, they come with a 10ft phone cable.
And I’m not sure how many and wich wire I need. I’ve done my research and can’t find a simple graphic or picture of this kind of setup.
i know the knobs come with phone cable. But is the amps or head unit have phone cable slot?
Do I need more cable maybe RCA or some like that.
thanks

[charlesml3]

OK, this is REALLY easy and there's no real reason to pay someone to do this. First of all, the HD-RLC comes with an 18' cable which is plenty long enough. Second, you do not need any more cables. This is all you need.

Since you have a 2017 SAN 210, I'm going to assume you have a factory stereo which will have JL-Audio amps. Makes sense given that these RLCs won't work with any other amp. There really are only two things you need to sort out:

- Where are you going to mount the RLCs? There are a lot of options here. You can flush mount them like GML did which looks fantastic. Or you could mount them to some kind of bracket and have them external. This is totally up to you.

- Fishing the cables through. You'll need to get under there and figure out how the cables go from behind the dash over to where the amps are located. Then you'll need to use something to fish the cables through. Last time I did this, I just straightened out a wire coathanger, and taped the wires to that to pull them through.

Then you just plug them into the amps. There's a jack for a plain-old phone cable and it just plugs in there. Next, you need to configure the amps to deal with them. You'll need these:

http://mediacdn.jlaudio.com/media/mf...pdf?1305758648

http://mediacdn.jlaudio.com/media/mf...pdf?1305758648

In the manual, you'll find the setup for the HD-RLC. Basically, you have to tell the amp which channels will be attenuated with the RLC. On the 600/6 for example, you can attenuate one, two or all three channel pairs depending on where you set the switch. This setting will totally depend on what you want to do.

That's about it.

-Charles

[GMLIII]

Yep amps have the phone jack slots. In placing the knobs consider something close to eye level or close to it like I did on my dash vs placing the knobs near the bottom part of the dash. With the location I chose, it is much easier to adjust on the fly while I'm driving vs fumbling around with the knobs near your kneecaps.

[Soul_surfer]

Yep amps have the phone jack slots. In placing the knob consider something close to eye level or close to it like I did on my dash vs placing the knobs near the bottom part of the dash. With the location I chose, it is much easier to adjust on the fly while I'm are driving vs fumbling around with the knobs near your kneecaps.

yep, i’ll Put them kindly at the same spot as you did. But on the 2017 210 it have a spot on the side who is not padded (just plastic) so it will save me drilling a hole in the upholstery.
thanks!

[Soul_surfer]

OK, this is REALLY easy and there's no real reason to pay someone to do this. First of all, the HD-RLC comes with an 18' cable which is plenty long enough. Second, you do not need any more cables. This is all you need.

Since you have a 2017 SAN 210, I'm going to assume you have a factory stereo which will have JL-Audio amps. Makes sense given that these RLCs won't work with any other amp. There really are only two things you need to sort out:

- Where are you going to mount the RLCs? There are a lot of options here. You can flush mount them like GML did which looks fantastic. Or you could mount them to some kind of bracket and have them external. This is totally up to you.

- Fishing the cables through. You'll need to get under there and figure out how the cables go from behind the dash over to where the amps are located. Then you'll need to use something to fish the cables through. Last time I did this, I just straightened out a wire coathanger, and taped the wires to that to pull them through.

Then you just plug them into the amps. There's a jack for a plain-old phone cable and it just plugs in there. Next, you need to configure the amps to deal with them. You'll need these:

http://mediacdn.jlaudio.com/media/mf...pdf?1305758648

http://mediacdn.jlaudio.com/media/mf...pdf?1305758648

In the manual, you'll find the setup for the HD-RLC. Basically, you have to tell the amp which channels will be attenuated with the RLC. On the 600/6 for example, you can attenuate one, two or all three channel pairs depending on where you set the switch. This setting will totally depend on what you want to do.

That's about it.

-Charles

Thanks a lot Charles!

totally understood. Definitely no need of somebody else.
my boat has the mx premier series option. Don’t know if it change something, I guess not both amps are the ones of your manuals

I work in renovation so I have a well base in electricity. Fishing wires ain’t a problem is just in my previous Tige I did the same but it was a **** of a mess.
Electricity is something, audio is another lol.
I was ending up fishing RCA wires from the knobs to the head unit and from the headunit to the amps or the opposite I don’t remember well.
On’ynthing i remember is next time I would make it done by somebody else haha. Glad it’s way more simple in Nautique.

[GMLIII]

Thanks a lot Charles!

totally understood. Definitely no need of somebody else.
my boat has the mx premier series option. Don’t know if it change something, I guess not both amps are the ones of your manuals

I work in renovation so I have a well base in electricity. Fishing wires ain’t a problem is just in my previous Tige I did the same but it was a **** of a mess.
Electricity is something, audio is another lol.
I was ending up fishing RCA wires from the knobs to the head unit and from the headunit to the amps or the opposite I don’t remember well.
On’ynthing i remember is next time I would make it done by somebody else haha. Glad it’s way more simple in Nautique.

I could probably have done it myself but didn't feel comfortable drilling through the side (fiberglass/plastic?) on my dash. The side on your 210 that you are talking about above is the same on the G either plastic/fiberglass but not padded upholstery

[Soul_surfer]

Yes fiberglass haha sorry.
and I guess I seen it wrong I was thinking it was all padded on your pick.

[GMLIII]

Yes fiberglass haha sorry.
and I guess I seen it wrong I was thinking it was all padded on your pick.

Bottom line Soul-surfer it was well worth it for me to pay dealer $199.00 to install the 2 knobs and run wire to the amps. I'm mechanically oriented by nature but just didn't want to risk screwing something up drilling through the fiberglass wrong in an area which everyone views. I know Charles could do this job very easy and I guess at some point he will do the same to his boat.

[nautiques4life]

I agree, super easy job, brain-less plug and play. My only disagreement would be the location. I have 3 knobs myself; tower, cabin, subs. Don't actually like the look of them personally, and I like keeping my boat look factory so I placed them down by my knees. No one ever sees them and minus maybe the first trip of the year I don't bobble around looking for them... Only trying to remember which is tower vs cabin vs subs etc... But unless you have labels on them I'd assume you'd do the same even with top mounted ones. Good luck, it is a really nice upgrade that you'll certainly enjoy.

[Soul_surfer]

I had a question tho. I was considering putting a knob for the sub too.
dont know if other models are different but in my 2017 210 I don’t think I have 3 amps.
Not sure at 100% but 95% I only have two. Is 1 of them have 2 cable slot? For the sub and the other zone in the same amp ( I guess 1 amp have tower speaker and sub, the other all in-boat speakers or some like that)
Sorry for all these questions haha my boat is deeply stored and I’m not gonna open it till May. It’s always easier to figure it out when have it in the face lol.
thanks a lot everybody

[GMLIII]

I had a question tho. I was considering putting a knob for the sub too.
dont know if other models are different but in my 2017 210 I don’t think I have 3 amps.
Not sure at 100% but 95% I only have two. Is 1 of them have 2 cable slot? For the sub and the other zone in the same amp ( I guess 1 amp have tower speaker and sub, the other all in-boat speakers or some like that)
Sorry for all these questions haha my boat is deeply stored and I’m not gonna open it till May. It’s always easier to figure it out when have it in the face lol.
thanks a lot everybody

I had the same question before I placed my knobs. I had 2 amps with a phone jack in each amp therefore I only purchased 2 knobs. One knob controls tower only speakers(4) and other knob controls all cabin, bow and sub speakers. Yes it would have been nice to control the sub separately but with only 2 phone jacks I was limited. Im pleased with how my set up turned out with only having 2 knobs vs 3 although. Other folks may tell you it can be set up so cabin , sub and tower speakers can all be faded separately only using 2 amps therefore I'll let the experts chime in.

[Soul_surfer]

Thanks GM. It mostly respond to my question. 1 knob control just the tower speakers and the other all in-boat and the sub.

that was my main concern if I drop in-boat speakers sound, is the sub will still remain full.
That’s exactly what I want, to control cabin,bow and sub all together.
Sure like you said maybe it can be nice to have the sub separately but I want to keep it simple too.
just being able to drop down cabin and bow speakers when someone is wakeboarding and we want to talk a bit will be fair enough.

[GMLIII]

Thanks GM. It mostly respond to my question. 1 knob control just the tower speakers and the other all in-boat and the sub.

that was my main concern if I drop in-boat speakers sound, is the sub will still remain full.
That’s exactly what I want, to control cabin,bow and sub all together.
Sure like you said maybe it can be nice to have the sub separately but I want to keep it simple too.
just being able to drop down cabin and bow speakers when someone is wakeboarding and we want to talk a bit will be fair enough.

Yep prior to new set up., you blew the crew members out with loud deafening music just so the wakeboarder could hear music behind the boat. Now I can crank the tower speakers up while having cabin and sub low so folks can talk in the boat. I'm not 100% but I think one amp controls tower speakers and one amp cabin and sub which must have been the case with my set up since tower speakers are separate and cabin/sub speakers work in unison. Like you I was pulling my hair out about the sub issue and it just worked out once the knobs were installed

[charlesml3]

I'm not 100% but I think one amp controls tower speakers and one amp cabin and sub which must have been the case with my set up since tower speakers are separate and cabin/sub speakers work in unison.

That's exactly what it is. Specifically: The 4-channel amp drives the tower speakers. Everything from 80Hz down is filtered out. This amp is connected to the "Rear" output of the head unit.

The 6 channel amp does cabin and subwoofer. Channels 1-4 drive the cabin speakers. Everything from 80Hz down is filtered out. The subwoofer is on channels 5&6. They are bridged together and everything from 80Hz up is filtered out. This amp is connected to the "Front" output of the head unit.

I often keep mine faded more towards the "rear" to lower the cabin a bit.

-Charles

[nautiques4life]

Think the separate control of your sub(s) is a personal preference. I will admit it is the one I use/adjust the least, but I definitely like it and use it. If you're into your audio having the control so easily makes it sound better. Especially if you're switching randomly from rap to classic rock to punk etc