I have made my speaker choice

[baggyman]

K I know everyone gets tired of the audio questions and posts but really is a important part of the boat right... better to be broke down and have good tunes right.

Anyway i am going to get the evid 6.2's for my tower just one pair. (or should i quit bitchin about money and get 2 pair) Then there is a sony deck that has mp3 capibility that i am lookin to get. now for the subwoofer. How big am i going to need to go along with the evids and 4 speakers in the boat. I have read tons about ported and enclosed boxes, stuffing the boxes and all that stuff and my head is spinnin again.

Lastly i need a amp for the tower and one for the subs right? now will the deck run the 4 speakers in the boat or do i need a 3rd amp..... ugh like learning french or spanish for this las vegas whiteboy.

[BigDeal]

Baggy... If I were installing your setup, I'd recommend either of the two following options.

Option # 1
- Run your 4 in-boat speakers off the high level outs on your headunit.
- Run your Evids and sub off a decent 5 channel amp (i.e. Bridge the 4 stereo outs to 2 channels for the Evids, and run your sub off the sub out channel. The advantages to this setup are that it should be less expensive than Option #2, it simplifies your wiring, and you only have to find a place to mount a single amp (sometimes space is a real limitation with installation).

Option #2
- Run your 4 in-boat speakers off the high level outs on your headunit.
- Run your Evids off a good two channel amp and your sub off a good Class D amp. This installation (and wiring) is a little more involved, and will ultimately cost more $$$ to do. The advantage to this setup is that it usually results in a louder / clearer system. Of course that statement assumes that everything is installed properly using good components.

My recommendation regarding a subwoofer would be (assuming you have sufficient power to run it and sufficient space to house it) to buy a good 12" DVC sub. There are plenty of vendors out there that sell good products that meet that spec, so I'm not going to recommend a specific vendor's product(s). In addition, my personal preference for the boating environment is always a sealed enclosure. A good 12" DVC sub set in a 1 / 1.5 cu. ft. sealed box, powered by a good Class D amp should have your toes tingling when you crank it up!

One last thing to remember when sizing an amp to power your Evids. The Evids are 8ohm speakers, so if the amp you're looking at spec's power output of say 400watts x 2 channels @ 4ohms, you'll need to cut that power rating in half to get to what the Evid's will really see. I note this because the Evid's will need a good 200watts per channel to really shine.

[lumpy]

You can have a very good system and not spend a fortune by planning it out before you start buying anything. Make sure you have somewhere to put everything, amps, crossovers, switches, subs etc.

Also remember, the more power you run the closer you get to upgrading alternators and batteries.Get the specs on your alternator and you can then back into how much system you can run. This will primarily determine your sub and amps. Most of the older GM V-8's probably have about a 55 amp charging system. Running a switch to the remote turn on/off can save a little power also because you have the option to run just the boat speakers when you are sitting.

I will second BigDeals option 2. Run your boat speakers off the head unit, just get a HU with at least 15 true rms per channel. It can actually be cheaper to buy two smaller amps than one large multi channel amp, especially one that can carry a sub on one channel. Remember your lower frequencies (sub) require most of your power. Most subs will require a minimum of 100 rms, and the nicer DVC will generally start making good sound at 250-500rms. Again by planning you can figure what you will need. Just as BigDeal pointed out on the Evids 8ohm requirement, a single DVC sub can also require special attention when buying an amp. If it is dual 4 ohm set up then you either have to run it as two separate 4 ohm speakers, which requires two channels, or you can run it at 2 ohm or 8 ohm. 2 ohm requires a very high end amp because you need something that is 1 ohm stable, 8 ohms just reduces the amount of power the sub actually gets from the amp. Generally, enclosed boxes require less power than a ported box or band-pass.

Again just plan out what you think you want.

[acurtis_ttu]

Great choice w/ the evid's. Another way to wire them is run them in parallel, that way the amp sees a 4ohm load not 8ohm. Most car audio amps run their best/coolest in 4ohm as opposed to 2ohm and 8ohm. The wattage will still be cut in half due to the parralle wiring. I have the old punch 200ix DSM bridged to one channel running them in parralle, approx 400 watts @ 12.6 volts not 14.4. They scream, by far some of the loudest speakers I have ever heard for an outdoor application. Very clear and loud 75 feet back