Fixing Speaker or Amp issue?

[homer12]

Little background to start - this is in a 2004 SV211 but pretty sure it's all non-OEM now. I have a separate AMP running tower speakers separately on channel from head unit. The other amp is a Kicker KX300.4, 300W, 4-channel, running the subwoofer bridged on 3/4 and the boat speakers on 1/2. Boat speakers are qty 6 - Kicker 09KM6000. I'm unsure if they're all running to the same channels 1/2 on the amp or any running off the head unit.
Is that bad if all of them are running from the head unit vs the amp?
Last season all the speakers including the sub seemed to cut out frequently if turned up loud or maybe hot days. It was making me think the amp was going into protection mode. This season, I haven't had that happen, but I also decreased the gain on both Amps 1 and 2 and backed off some bass - seems to have helped. This season though, I'm getting 2 to 3 boat speakers that sound staticky like they sound when blown out. How can I check to see if the problem is the speakers or the amp? TIA

[Tank2112]

If each speaker is a 4 ohms speaker output? a wire to chanel one (all + from speaker to + of channel 1) then you are running 1 ohms to amplifier. Too low for most amplifiers.

With three 4 ohms speakers… you could wire two speakers in series and one paralell… to maintain a 4 ohms load.

Even if two, of the three, speakers are wired paralell to the amp (now a 2 ohms load) and one speaker wired to factory radio?

Or factory radio have 4 channel speaker output…. two speaker wired to left outputs and two speakers wired to right soeaker outputs…. and only two speaker wired to channel 1/2 of amp. If that is the case…two of the six speakers will change in volume as you adjust gain controls of amplifier.

Once you figure out how it’s wired up… you can determine whether bad speaker or amp.

[MLA]

heres how you determine whats powered by amps and whats not. With the system off, note the RCA connections at the amp(s) and disconnect them. Power system up. Any speakers still playing, are NOT powered by that amp.

Three speakers in parallel on 1 chnl would definitely put the amp in protect mode. I would not suggest a series/parallel configuration. The speakers do not divide the wattage evenly, not to mention the sound quality is not great.

I would take the woofer off and dedicate the 4 chnl to the 6 speakers and get a proper amp for the woofer.

[NautiqueTim]

I would have a separate amp just for the sub. If you're really cranking up the volume, you want real copper wire not copper clad aluminum CCA. CCA is 67% efficient as real copper. You have to read the fine print on wire now. Some wire that claims to be OFC oxygen free copper is CCA. I replaced my wiring with real copper. The speaker wire for the tower has a white jacket. If you get a Wetsounds equalizer, you will have a lot of control of your sound. It gives you separate volume controls for the boat, tower and sub.

[core-rider]

That Kicker 300.4 was factory for that era. If it was wired like my 03 SANTE then 4 of the in-boats were wired parallel making 2 ohm loads for each right/left set and wired to 2 of the channels of the amp. The other 2 channels were bridged to the sub. the 2 bow in-boat speakers are wired to the HU.

The your tower speakers are wired to whatever amp you have left, but your description almost makes it sound like they are wired to the HU directly, which I find hard to believe.

[homer12]

thanks all so far. ill verify wiring in a couole weekends. im pretty certain as Core-rider stated, main amp is factory. sub also looks to be factory polk speaker. boat speakers, tower speakers and amp were new 9 years ago.