Stereo Upgrade Help

ckdollar · Criminal Joined: 28 Mar 2010 Posts: 75

I changed the topic/question in order to save some spam here.

I am upgrading my stereo on my boat and wanted to see if anyone had some advice on the best way to hook everything up, settings, wiring, etc...

I know nothing about stereos. I have spent he last day taking all of the equipment out of my boat, seeing what each wire does, trying to figure it out etc. I have an idea of what most of the stuff does, but not totally yet.

Equipment that I have:

Clarion M255 - http://www.clarion.com/us/en/products/2006/marine/source_units/M255/us-en-product-pf_1132912143003.html

Alpine MRP - http://www.crutchfield.com/S-UtLePY2DsJi/p_500MRPT220/Alpine-MRP-T220.html

Two side boat Panasonic speakers, not sure on the model, just standard side speakers.

Kicker KMT6 - http://www.kicker.com/kmt6

Kicker ZXM450.2 - http://www.kicker.com/zxm_amplifiers

Bazooka EL260 - http://www.amazon.com/Bazooka-2-Channel-300-Watt-Vehicle-Amplifier/dp/B000067AVR

Bazooka 8'' Bass Cannon

My first thought is to just run the two side speakers off of the Alpine amp (or is it even needed? should I just run them off the deck?)

KMT6's will run off of the ZXM

Bazooka sub off the bazooka amp

Some thoughts...would it be better/easier to run the KMT6's + sub off of the ZMX (can I even do that?)

Should I just chunk the bazooka sub?!

What kinda of settings should I be using?

Last thing is...battery.

I don't really do the party cove thing so long sessions of sitting with the radio going won't happen much if at all. Could I get by with a dual purpose battery? Should I install a deep cycle?

Currently all I have is a starter batter in there.

jjaszkow · Posted: Jul 22, 2010 9:48 am Post subject:

I would reccomend installing an ACR so that it charges only one battery at a time.

ckdollar · Criminal Joined: 28 Mar 2010 Posts: 75

updated original post.

joedirt00 · Posted: Jul 27, 2010 4:45 pm Post subject:

If you have the room I would install a 2nd battery with a isolator. I have mine set up with a starting battery and a deep cycle and a surepower 95 amp isolator. I run my system turned up while sitting and never had to worry about the boat not starting.