232 Limited Audio Upgrades - Rounds 1 (Polk), 2 (JL), and 3 (JL)

[Chris Miller]

Hi Thanks for the quick reply. Your reasoning for not changing the head unit is exactly the same as mine. Can control volume/tracks/ switch between different music providers all from watch! More questions: 1) Curious about the splitter and why use that. Does the head unit not have two pre amp outputs. So needed to do that and while it should switch between the channels it actually doesn’t on the splitter, meaning you plug one male into red and then use the two females to each red on the amp and same for second splitter? 2) how is the sound from the rear deck speakers could you hear them if wakeboarding or still need tower speakers? I’m trying to avoid towers simply for the pain of routing wires and having to cut holes in tower unless there’s a way to reuse the wiring for the tweeters that are mounted in the tower? 3) how did you mount your amp board to the back side of the helm just screws it in?

TIA for advice!

 

[captainhook]

1) I can't remember exactly but I don't think the head unit has two RCA outs. Doing it this way I don't have any front/rear balance control. I planned on adding a knob like this to adjust the volume, but thus far I've been able to get away without it. https://store.roswellmarine.com/products/dual-zone-volume-control
2) The sound from the rear deck speakers is very good, but you cannot crank it while you sit there so that's a little disappointing. I do feel like I have to turn it up a little bit loud to get the bass rocking since I don't have a sub, but I think that's more to do with the volume of what has become the speaker box. The ones in the cockpit sound like I have an actual sub at the same volume, which I think is due to the amount of air it's pushing inside the hull (it's a better speaker box). I don't wakeboard, my kids do but I've never asked them if they can hear the music. I can tell you if I turn it up I can hear it on the shore at the sandbar (I don't beach my boat but anchor in a few feet of water) but if you really want to hear it on a wakeboard, I would expect that you'd need to add tower speakers. I don't have a tower on mine (sure wish I did) but if it were me, I'd probably use the existing wire to pull new wire by tying it together. I might even consider putting in a pull string so when I inevitably wanted to add something else I'd be able to do it more easily.
3) Yes, I screwed it right into the back of the helm. I tried all sorts of ideas to make it easily removable but I realized I probably won't remove it much at all and there's often no substitute for just screwing something in somewhere sturdy. You can see one of the screws in the bottom right of the last pic in the first post.