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advice on 2nd amp and wiring

Emmett

Jet Boat Lover
Messages
37
Reaction score
16
Points
67
Location
Mount Pleasant, SC
Boat Make
Yamaha
Year
2016
Boat Model
Limited S
Boat Length
24
I know I should have gone through Odin at Earmark before randomly purchasing stereo equipment, but I found this forum too late. So far I have bought the Wet Sounds Icon 8 tower speakers to be powered by the same brand HTX-4 amp. I bought 6 polk audio MM651UM's to replace the DB651's. What amp would be best to power these 6 speakers? I thought the speakers were 4 ohm, but they say 3 ohm on the back? Last question. I want to mount the amps behind the helm area, so can I have a single 2 gauge wire off the battery mount to a distribution block a few feet away and split into two 4 gauge wires that run to the helm/amps, or should I run the 2 gauge all the way into the helm and then into a distribution block. I'm asking because I already purchased two 20' section of 4 gauge wire. I apologize if this is confusing.
 
The mm651um should have a 4 ohm rating while the non um should have a 2.7 ohm rating and I think have 3 ohm printed on the back. Regardless a good class D 2 ohm stable 6 channel amp is what you need for those speakers. Wetsounds or JL audio are both good. I recently did somthing similar what you are thinking from a wiring perspective. Some have used high grade 4 guage to a setup
like yours. I opted for 0 guage to be on the safe side (melting wire or fire on a boat especially near the fuel tank is less than ideal) and in case I wanted to add another amp for tower speakers or another sub. I found the best 0 awg there is for less than I saw good 2 awg. Make sure that you don't use cca wire and beware of most of the kits in Amazon, Ebay, walmart, etc. I am partial to the knukoncepts kollous flexs wire that I used and I think the Jl audio stuff is exactly the same. Using some kind of conduit in the engine or fuel bays would not be a bad idea either. I used sump pump hose for mine. Check out this post for some ideas and search the site as others have recently done similar things like @MattFX4.

https://jetboaters.net/threads/detailed-2016-242-ls-1k-audio-upgrade.9400/


Good luck and post pics / review your results.
 
Oh yeah don't forget a water proof heavy duty fuse or breaker within 18 inches of the positive battery connection on top of the fused distribution block at the amps. This is in case you get a short between the amps/distribution block and the batteries.
 
Ok, so you did run the 0 gauge all the way to your distribution block/amp in the helm area. I wish I hadn't purchased all the 4 gauge already. I did buy 100% copper wire thanks to reading some of the previous threads about the CCA. Thanks for the detailed link to your install! Also noticed you installed SeaDek throughout the cabin! That's my next upgrade, I'm tired of lugging around the heavy wet carpet and stepping on the snaps with bare feet!!
 
Thanks to this site I negotiated the seadek install with my dealer when I ordered the boat. They did the install before I ever saw the boat. Anyone want to buy a never opened package of carpet?

Like I said some people have gotten away with 4 awg. Do the math on length of run and power draw from the amps you have now plus what you will likley add in the future. Less cost in time and money to do it right the first time then to have to redo it. I really like knowing I have all the power I could ever need at both the batteries and the helm. I did run the 0 gauge off the house battery switch btw.
 
My main power wires are 4ga that go from the battery to a distribution block. From there, I route shorter wires from the amps to the dist block. I think thats the best way to go to minimize power wires routed all over the place.
 
My main power wires are 4ga that go from the battery to a distribution block. From there, I route shorter wires from the amps to the dist block. I think thats the best way to go to minimize power wires routed all over the place.
What gauge wires are you running to your amps? My amp says it's recommended for 4 gauge. I wish I thought this out a little better, but I have learned alot (hard way).
 
Here is a link to a calculator. http://circuitwizard.bluesea.com
Find the total draw of your amps by adding up the onboard fuses or the recommend fuses for your amps. Use that as your load. My load was 80-100 amps but I could see it being 120-150 someday which made 0 guage a no brainer.
 
Here is a link to a calculator. http://circuitwizard.bluesea.com
Find the total draw of your amps by adding up the onboard fuses or the recommend fuses for your amps. Use that as your load. My load was 80-100 amps but I could see it being 120-150 someday which made 0 guage a no brainer.
I agree and am going to run the 0 gauge as well. Now I'll have alot of 4 gauge left over haha. In your parts list you had 110' of speaker wire. Is that a good estimate for me as well to rewire all 6 speakers (stock locations) since we have the same boat? I'm going to use the knuconcepts site and don't want to run short. Thanks again for all your advice.
 
Won't 4awg will give you 160amps for a 15 foot run (per that url) ....check your distance before you toss out that wire. Or just install your amps by the batteries.
 
Won't 4awg will give you 160amps for a 15 foot run (per that url) ....check your distance before you toss out that wire. Or just install your amps by the batteries.
I thought about installing my amps by the battery's but i heard long RCA cables could cause distortion?? thoughts??

My initial thought was to run 0 awg to a distro block in the battery compartment, then two 4 awg to each amp, but that does sound like a lot of wire to pull through.

I like to hit every branch down on the learning tree.
 
I thought about installing my amps by the battery's but i heard long RCA cables could cause distortion?? thoughts??
With my last boat I installed the amp by the battery and never noticed any issues at all.

My new boat's amps (242X) are installed by the battery and it sounds fine. Many cars put the amps in the trunk and run RCAs back there. I think you'd be hard pressed to hear anything. About the only thing I could think of would be interference from the engines...but if you are running over the gas tank I think you'd be far enough away from them. Easy enough to test.
 
I thought about installing my amps by the battery's but i heard long RCA cables could cause distortion?? thoughts??

My initial thought was to run 0 awg to a distro block in the battery compartment, then two 4 awg to each amp, but that does sound like a lot of wire to pull through.

I like to hit every branch down on the learning tree.

If you have decent source unit preamp output voltage, 100% shielded cables, an amplifier with a balanced-differential input section, and with RCA cables up to 20 feet, you should have zero consequences running long RCA cables.
I'm pretty sure that long RCA cables are less expensive than long primary & quality OFC power cables.
So you have this freedom to go either way without much concern.
Now if I was running an EQ with four pair RCA cables (one to and three return) then I would be tempted to keep the amplifiers closer to the EQ.
 
So running new 14 guage to all but the back deck may have been overkill. I have since read a post on here about a vw harness adaptor working so you dont have to run new wire or splice. I did leave the back deck and tower tweeters on the head unit by splicing the stock rear cabin wires together after I ran new wire to those. This allowed me 6 amp channels for my cabin speakers and two more channels bridged into one for the sub.

If you run new wire to the rear deck you will need more and if not 100 ft should do.
 
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