2017 242X Stereo upgrade

[jcyamaharider]

The 242X stereo are decent and get the job done but leave a little bit to be desired to some of us that have had large stereos before. Naturally I am upgrading the entire boat. I am taking a different route then my last boat. 6 JL MX650, 1 10" M series JL IB sub, 2 Rev10's, a SYN-dX4 amp, and a WS-420SQ to round out the install.

So my questions/concerns on how the factory has everything positioned and wired are starting to come into play. When I disconnected the rear interior speakers the Wetsounds sound bar also shut off. It did not play again until I hooked it back up. So this has me thinking that they actually have the 2 rear speakers and sound bar wired in series. So I am going to have to either A) cut the factory harness to the sound bar and re-run wires, or B) look at the loom of wires and find the connection point.

I know that I will run new wires to the two rear interior speakers because of above.

I need to run bigger speaker wire to the tower because the old speaker wire for the cans were a smaller gauge.

The head unit placement and amp placement is also an issue. I will need 4 RCA to run from the head unit, which is under my port seat, all the way up front, and then 3 sets back to the amps from the 420.

I guess I will just prepare myself for all of the shards of fiberglass in my hands now.

So this thread will be to document what must be done to those of us that want to attempt the task of audio upgrade in a 242X.

I would like to give a big thanks to Odin @Earmark Marine for getting me all setup and the advise. You defiantly have another customer for life!

 

[Mainah]

I highly recommend putting one more set of 650s in the combing as @Julian did in his 242x. World of difference for the captain and co-captain.

 

[Julian]

I highly recommend putting one more set of 650s in the combing as @Julian did in his 242x. World of difference for the captain and co-captain.

I followed someone else's foot steps on this one, and glad I did! It was funny as I asked the dealer to install them while they were trying to root out the wiring issue with my boat, and they came back and said there wasn't enough room.....so I went super anal and measure a million times before cutting those 5" holes!!!! I even drilled small pilot holes to stick wire though and measure to be certain (and it gets very close...especially where the cleat is!). This is where my photos for this are.

I'm watching this thread though....as I'm curious to see what you do. On my list for the fall is to also find those wires to the sound bar, and cut them and wire my Wetsounds amp directly to the sound bar (as I have two channels sitting there unused!)

 

[jcyamaharider]

So I did some more digging today after work and I did indeed find the harness!!

It is behind the port rear speaker and I did conform they are wired in series. So that means they are getting less wattage then first thought. These speakers will be running at an 8 ohm load on the amp making the amp put out about half the wattage.

I am going to cut into the harness and rewire the amps to accept a speaker per channel at a 4 ohm load which should be a normal load.

The wires are the green set and the red set and are labled " xxx" series. Xxx=lrs or something like that, going from memory.

 

[Rod5]

There are a lot of threads on this very subject, but you might find this one interesting. Search for:
242X Stereo - How to Exploit Free Unused Watts

 

[jcyamaharider]

There are a lot of threads on this very subject, but you might find this one interesting. Search for:
242X Stereo - How to Exploit Free Unused Watts

I have read through that post, I really don't want to add another IB sub if I can get by with it but if I do then the 5000.5 is going and I will get another 4000.4 and a dedicated sub amp.

 

[swatski]

I'm on my second WS420 and think that some degree of interference is a given with that system and all the RCA runs required. I needed to do some trouble shooting each time. This time, I developed a loud buzz right after the first trip with new tower speakers, took me few hours to nail down the source. Turned out to be one of the RCA cables connecting the WS420 to tower amp. I replaced that cable (it was a $35 high end RCA shielded/gold plated blah blah cable) with a $3 non-shielded cheapo from Menards and the issue went away completely (go figure...).
I still have a tad of white noise of 2 different varieties that appear to be induced by engines and aftermarket cabin LEDs, respectively, and a substantial 3rd (distinct) tone/noise induced by the blower running. The first two are hardly noticeable, the blower interference is more noticable but not too bad, and the blower itself is pretty loud (so I just decided to live with).

--

 

[jcyamaharider]

The one thing that I hate about the connext is the volume control for the stereo. It is very small adjustments until you get to about 90%, then it all turns up at once. I hope the Ws-420 cures that.

 

[jcyamaharider]

Got in the boat this evening and terminated my sound bar speaker wires that is going to get switched to the 4000.4

I also added a wire to the other side of the harness so I would have my port interior speaker already wired. I also ran new 12awg OFC speaker wire up to the tower for the Rev 10's. I just need to run one more speaker wire over to the starboard interior speaker and then each speaker will be on its own channel.

 

[Julian]

Got in the boat this evening and terminated my sound bar speaker wires that is going to get switched to the 4000.4

I also added a wire to the other side of the harness so I would have my port interior speaker already wired. I also ran new 12awg OFC speaker wire up to the tower for the Rev 10's. I just need to run one more speaker wire over to the starboard interior speaker and then each speaker will be on its own channel.

View attachment 63752


View attachment 63753

So can you describe what goes to what in the photo? Looks like you cut 5 wires? I assume the 4 wires in the foreground go to the sound bar and the new wires connected to those 4 run to the new amp?

 

[jcyamaharider]

So in the picture I only cut 4 wires. There is a LRS +, LRS series, RRS +, RRS series.

I connected the speaker wire that will be tied to the amp ( for the sound bar ) to the top portion of the wire closest to the connector. So yes you are correct there @Julian .

So the other wire that you see is tied into the bottom portion of the LRS + wire because that wire already goes to an amp thru the factory harness. The connection on the port interior speaker has the LRS - connection so hooking these 2 up to the speaker will be one channel on the amp.

All connections are soldered, liquid black tape, and then for grins I put a layer of regular electrical tape over the connection.

All items get here today so stay tuned for more install pics.

 

[geohil]

First off - nice work JC!
You have me thinking of following suit, at least starting with the amps. I have a conceptual question - why would Yamaha choose to wire our speakers in series? Seems from what I've read parallel would be better to pull power out of the class D amps? If I understand my concepts and we take the tower speaker and swim platform speakers that are wire in series we would add the impedance together, correct? So assuming the sound bar is 4 ohm and the rear speakers are 4 ohm that would be a 8 ohm load. That seems un-necessarily underpowered - hence why I see the need to do what you are doing.

Do I understand my concept of wiring in series correctly?

 

[jcyamaharider]

First off - nice work JC!
You have me thinking of following suit, at least starting with the amps. I have a conceptual question - why would Yamaha choose to wire our speakers in series? Seems from what I've read parallel would be better to pull power out of the class D amps? If I understand my concepts and we take the tower speaker and swim platform speakers that are wire in series we would add the impedance together, correct? So assuming the sound bar is 4 ohm and the rear speakers are 4 ohm that would be a 8 ohm load. That seems un-necessarily underpowered - hence why I see the need to do what you are doing.

Do I understand my concept of wiring in series correctly?

You are correct. The other side of the hat is if they wire parallel it would be a 2 ohm load and put more strain on the amps and they might have a potential to over heat. Yamaha took the safety aspect with the wiring.

 

[jcyamaharider]

Let the fun begin!!!!!

 

[0627Devildog]

Let the fun begin!!!!!

View attachment 63794

Indeed!

 

[jcyamaharider]

Indeed!View attachment 63795

Lol!!! Those like familiar.

 

[jcyamaharider]

This evenings progress.

 

[0627Devildog]

Lol!!! Those like familiar.

Going to have to drill a lot more holes than you to install though.

Need to pick up an Amp/EQ to power them too. . . What do you recommend?

Best packing job I've ever seen BTW. . . . .

 

[jcyamaharider]

For a cheap and easy amp I really like the polk class d amps and the wetsounds 420 eq. I had those in the last boat powering everything.

The wife did the packing job. I am sure she appreciates it.

 

[jcyamahariders wife]

Best packing job I've ever seen BTW. . . . .[/QUOTE

Oh thanks I am an experienced packer all I do is come home from work and pack wedges every night ! That's my part in the business I used to help build the wedges but didn't really enjoy that too much.