Amp install dont want my Sony to XPLOD

Steelerguy · Addict Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 518

I went to the near by SONY outlet and picked up an amp and 4 speakers.
Walked out less $160. My old speakers were toast so this is better than what I had.

.Can someone varify that my amp is wired correctly. I am using RCA's from the deck (rear) and spit them into the 4 channels on the amp.

. Also my deck when turned past volume number 23 the display starts to pulse. What is causing that? 26 is about as far as my speakers can handle.

.Another thing I set the base to -3 on the deck cause the new sony speakers dont like base.
and thats fine for now. If I want bass i will introduce a Sub. What can i do to limit bass from the speakers in the boat?

. Lastly there are two switches on this amp LPF and HPF What do these do and how should I set them?

As for wiring, the deck is powered from the Key terminal and the amp is power from the battery,grounded to the engine where the battery terminates.

Tomorrow I will start the boat to see if I get any dreaded engine noise.

AND OH YEAH! I know my accessories adapter under the dash is cheesed up but Im not ready to commit to drilling 1 inch hole just for my Sirius install.

Thug Hunter · Outlaw Joined: 08 Jun 2005 Posts: 134 City: Austin

I would recommend not bridging the two channels and running all four channels. One channel per speaker. This will get you a more quality sound w/less chance of distortion.

The reason your deck is starting to "pulse" when volumes are higher is because it's drawing more power from your battery, which drops your voltage.

The LPF is Low Pass Filter and HPF is High Pass Filter. Since you're using coaxial speakers and no subs, set the switch to HPF. This will keep the unwanted bass from blowing your speakers.

Turn your gain down (labeled level from what I can see) as low as possible without sacrificing loudness to avoid blowing the speakers as well. Then turn it up at a level just before distortion is heard.

Does your deck not have 2 sets of preamp outputs (RCA's)? If it does and one set is for front speakers and the other set is for rear speakers, you should run two sets of RCA's rather than spliting them like you have now. Anytime you split a wire to add another, it adds distortion and sound quality suffers.

Final, invest in a tuning CD and some better wires/cables.

ttuclint · Addict Joined: 12 Aug 2003 Posts: 984 City: Lubbock, TX

new head unit.

Steelerguy · Addict Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 518

The speakers in the boat currently run from the deck. I picked the Deck up at a garage sale last week for 30 bucks. It retailed for $300 a couple of years ago.

The amp pictured is powering 2 Tower speakers. However I am now thinking about using it for the Boat speakers and getting something decent for the tower speakers.

My deck does have 2 sets of Preamp outs but I wanted to get as much out of the amp as I could ( bridged ) I always set the fader on my deck to be a little louder in the rear. so using both preouts would not work, thus split the one set.

Another question. Could I effectivly run 6 speakers off this amp. Two Tower Speakers bridged as pictured above then run the four boat speakers off the other two channels? Does this change the ohm load from 4 to 2. I know nothing about ohms just read that its best to stay at 4.

Please keep in mind that this is a project on a super duper budget, When I get $600 or so I will do it right. As for now I happy with hearing something other than the wind and engine.

Thug Hunter · Outlaw Joined: 08 Jun 2005 Posts: 134 City: Austin

Your pictures are deceiving cuz you don't have any pics of the tower speakers. If you run the six speakers the way you mentioned above, you would be pushing the amp over it's ability and to a sound quality that I wouldn't settle for, but that's your own decision.

I still recommend running each of the channels on the 4 channel amp to their own speaker. Buy a 2 channel amp for the tower speakers. Adding amps to your system adds cleaner/louder sound.

kstrongsyj · Outlaw Joined: 19 May 2006 Posts: 119 City: Lincoln

kstrongsyj · Outlaw Joined: 19 May 2006 Posts: 119 City: Lincoln

Oh yeah. the pulsing is because your power/ground wires suck. They are not supplying enough power and it is straining youe whole boats electrical system

Dip_Krew · Posted: Jun 11, 2006 9:21 am Post subject:

i dont see the purpose of splitting the rca cable into 4 if the source is only a 2 cable set up, all your doing is weakening the signal

Steelerguy · Addict Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 518

Ok, Im going with the concensus on the board. Im going to run the Tower speakers only off this amp. Hoever, I just tested with the boat on and didnt get any dreaded feed back from the engine Very Happy

But what I did notice was that when I cranked it up to listening levels the Volt meter dropped from a little over 12 to just below 10. Is this amp hogging up that much power. Is my altenator not keeping up? My volt warning light also lit up Sad

The Power and ground wires are #8 and to the battery.
The deck is powered and ground as factory.

wakehopper · Criminal Joined: 02 Jun 2006 Posts: 66 City: louisville

run your 4 boat speakers off of the amp using your front preouts that will split at the ampand keep it set to hpf.
Get you a 2 channnel amp and run your tower speakers off of the rear preout.
The only bad thing about the whole setup is that you are already dragging your power down and if you add another amp it will be worse and you can damage the electrical system.
To get all six going on one amp you would have to bridge channels and run them in parralell, and most of the time cheaper amps and speakers do not like to be ohmed down to 1 or 2, and that is what you would have to do.

Steelerguy · Addict Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 518

I will work on setting up all the speakers to the amp another day. Today I got the tower speakers working well. I took the RCA splitter out. Wired the Power wire from the deck to the battery. What I dont like is my volt meter and temp gage dance to the music.

Do I have to move the Yellow and ground wire back to the battery also?

If so now I have no fail safe way to turn the radio off. I must remember to turn it off manually vs just pushing the ignition and accessories buttons to the off postion.
additionally with the memory wire hooked the battery there is a better chance of a dead battery if I dont use the boat for a while. Now i know why there are audio pro shops Idea

Dip_Krew · Posted: Jun 11, 2006 5:50 pm Post subject:

what you are in dire need of is a capacitor, from then you wont have any power draining issues there about 100 bucks i belive

kstrongsyj · Outlaw Joined: 19 May 2006 Posts: 119 City: Lincoln

Steelerguy · Addict Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 518

Great now can you help recomend which one to buy. Preferalbly Some thing I could use if I grow the system.

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductList.aspx?CategoryID=26

joedirt00 · Posted: Jun 12, 2006 5:47 am Post subject:

I agree with the 2nd battery set up. IMO, I don't think a cap is actually needed on a boat.

You would be better served by a 2nd deep cycle battery and a true battery isolator, not a stinger type relay isolator. This will truely separate your batterys and the alternator will charge the battery that needs it. This way you could potentially run your stereo battery down and still fire up the boat off the other one to start charging. It is a much safer setup in regards to be ing stranded with a dead battery.

You should be able to ebay a isolator and buy a battery for around the $100 mark.

If possible a higher amp alternator would be a good idea. Thats next on my list although I have not run in to any issues with my stock 65 amp. I guess I'm just upgrading for peace of mind.

tmbrown · Outlaw Joined: 03 Jul 2004 Posts: 218 City: East Roseville

Wow - that came out long... sorry guys...

If replacing your alternator, keep in mind that marine alternators are much more expensive than automotive because they're shielded to not create spark.

The dimming of the lights is either a weak battery (Low CCA), poor gauge to the amp, though 8 should be fine, as long as you have that to both the power and ground, or just the need for a cap. One key thing I picked up on - ground the amp to the battery direct, not to the block. By grounding to the block, the amp now has to share the same ground path as everything else in the boat back to the battery. This is commonly misunderstood - but it doesn't matter if you run 2 gauge power and and a 2 gauge to the block - if the one from the block to the battery isn't big enough to handle the amp's load and the rest of the boat's, it'll limit you.

As for which wires from the deck to move to battery... on most decks, the battery is a next-to-nothing power lead just to maintain the memory and settings, while the accessory is the 15-amp that draws all the juice when the power is on - but once in a while, like the most recent one I put in my boat, the battery one is the one that draws all the juice, and the accessory is just to trip the relay... nevertheless, the deck probably won't pull enough to dim the lights enough to care about - especially if it didn't before you installed the amp. I think you were fine with how it was before. I personally leave the battery lead to the battery to maintain the memory, knowing I have to charge leave a maintainer on the battery if it sits too long, or disconnect it.

Dual batteries and caps are great, but honestly it doesn't seem like your system is big enough to make that a necessity just yet. Though both of those are in my near-future goals, currently I'm running a single battery and no cap, with 2 amps (1 running my two 10" subs, the other running a pair of separates) plus 4 more 6.5" speakers running off the deck - and I don't really have those issues. I put a decent amount of $$$ on your poor ground being a major culprit - and an extremely easy fix. For now, I'd keep it like you have it with the 4 speakers off the deck and the 2 off the tower.

Also - you mentioned the sony speakers not liking bass... if you want to fix that, find a method of enclosing them. For me, I used acryllic cans for 2 of mine that I made out of parts from tap plastics - 6" tube with a 6" cap then a "doughnut" shaped piece for the other end that extends out the same diameter as the speaker and has an inner opening big enough for the speakers to mount in. For the bow speakers, I used PVC with caps from home depot - I don't like the way they look as much, but they were much cheaper (all of these are cut to fit in the depth I have available) - then in the rear speakers, they're built into mini enclosures. The sound is 10,000X better because it brings out the mids and some minor lows... without that, all you're getting is the highest of highs. All of mine are enclosed - it sounds great, and you can't see any of the enclosures. If you want a simple test to see the difference, here's how I proved it to a few people - take your speaker out and find something it fits pretty snug in - a 2qt. pitcher, a tupperware container, etc... and turn it on - take the speaker in and out of the container and observe the difference... you'll be sold instantly.

On the amp, you mentioned HP and LP, and the Level knobs... one person mentioned they think that's the same as the gain - and I can't tell 100% from the pictures, it looked to me like that level is actually what adjusts the level of the crossover. In other words, run your tower speakers on the HP setting... what that does, is cuts off the lower half of the frequencies (ie - bass). The level would be the adjustment that decides how low to cut off. Adjust that with the music on and you should see your lows come in and out (though minimally with the bass set that low)... that you'd want to adjust 'till you get the optimum sound range out of the speakers.

So - my vote - leave the speakers on the deck, adjust the amp correctly and fix the amp, and enclose your speakers, then fix that -3 bass setting... it'll sound tremendously better, won't require re-wiring everything, and cost you about $50 if you're creative with the enclosures. When you're ready to spend some cash, bump up the amps and speakers, and add a sub... add a cap when you add a sub and sub amp, and add a battery when you see that you're draining too much when you're parking (depends on how much you do that).

Not to knock anyone's advice - there's a lot of good advice here - I just think some essentials may have been overlooked. If the ground is an issue, caps and batteries won't matter... and if there's a way to get better sound without buying anything else, try that first and see if it makes you happy before dropping more cash.