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Amp - Subwoofer - speaker recommendations

It's no better or worse to power sub with different amp, but I can tell you this, you want a quality amp over quantity. The recommendation for 700/5 is a good one...I was only sharing my experience with friend's 6 channel. JL is quality amp.

Speaking from experience I would go with fewer amp just to reduce the number of power cabling runs.
 
@mark_m that's what I was thinking, it would be easier to have one amp, even if I had to spend more, I would rather have a single amp. I don't want to sacrifice sound though.

As of now it looked like I should pick up the m700/5 amp, maybe hold off on the sub and see what the amp delivers.

Looking at the JL speaker upgrades as well, I wonder what getting 4 new speakers instead of a sub would do?
 
@mark_m that's what I was thinking, it would be easier to have one amp, even if I had to spend more, I would rather have a single amp. I don't want to sacrifice sound though.

As of now it looked like I should pick up the m700/5 amp, maybe hold off on the sub and see what the amp delivers.

Looking at the JL speaker upgrades as well, I wonder what getting 4 new speakers instead of a sub would do?

If you want sound then get the sub. Properly blending sub with coaxials with the crossovers will let the coaxials do what they do best and the sub picking up the lows.

You could go with 700/5 and drive it without s sub and add in later. If it were me I would do all at once, my family got tired of me working in the boat and want to boat! Not see me cutting holes and running wires.
 
alright, I'll get it all at once lol

one more question, will my stock speakers work with the amp? I don't mean sound quality, I mean will they blow out because of amperage?
 
One vs. two amplifiers? Two amplifiers can have an advantage when you are running a single chassis amplifier to its absolute limit. Like bridging every channel or running every channel at the minimum impedance. This can tax both the common power supply and heat sink thermal capacity. Especially when running a combination of tower speakers and subwoofers off the same amplifier, as these two zones tend to work the amplifier hardest. A few multi-channel amplifiers, such as a JL Audio MHD900/5, have dual power supplies in a single chassis. But from the system description thus far I so no indication that two amplifiers are required. Also, the JL Audio XD/M & HD/MHD amplifiers use cast heat sinks rather than extruded (this is rare) and that helps. Bumping up to the JL 700/5 effectively provides the same power to a single 4-ohm subwoofer as the 600/6 but has a larger power supply. That should end any question as to whether separate amplifiers are needed.
I agree that JL Audio should be the amplifier choice. Looking past the more obvious attributes there are just too many other genuine advantages to the JL Audio amplifier.
You should be able to tune the amplifier at a power level that will offer some protection for the factory speakers. Get with Odin @ Earmark Marine as your equipment source. His technical and installation support will really pay off for you. Odin can provide you with a test signal via disc or thumb drive and give you an exact voltage that will coincide with the factory speaker power handling. Then when you do upgrade coaxials later, you can re-tune the amplifier.
 
I have an sx 192, which came with the clarion m502 head unit. Its an ok unit. The boat also came with the polk speakers which seem to be just ok.

I want to add an amp/amps and subwoofer than gives a nice deep base, what brand/model?

should I go with the amp and sub and see if my stock speakers can hang? I can always upgrade those later....

I have the same boat. Initially, I upgraded the speakers to the Polk mm651um speakers. Great improvement. Then I wanted more, so naturally I installed a clarion xc1410 class d amp. Did that for a year and then realized I wanted even more so replaced the small amp with a wetsounds htx 4 amp..... Wow, liked it so much that had to replace a speaker because I blew it. The stereo sounds amazing for just 4 speakers. You can actually hear some music near the boat.

Bottom line is: plan for the future and get yourself an amp or amps that can use two speakers in parallel per channel so you can add tower speakers, after you get a tower, and a sub.

Oh yeah, don't forget that you'll need to add a bank of batteries for this.
 
alright, I'll get it all at once lol

one more question, will my stock speakers work with the amp? I don't mean sound quality, I mean will they blow out because of amperage?
Yes, you'll blow them up eventually because you will want to play them louder and louder. :)
 
Disagree that a single amp powering everything at its absolute limit can tax it's power supply and heat sinks of that amp. A quality amp it doesn't matter, it's been designed to be used in a non ideal environment (tucked away somewhere on a boat) and can take the abuse and can produce it's rated power for more then likely longer then the batteries on the boat can last.

The disadvantages of using two amps is more cables and technically some can argue due to more stuff on that amp sq can't be as good. However we all know a boat is less then ideal thus sq isn't a issue.... There is also the added space two amps take up as well as the added cost.

Yes stock speakers will work wi a amp, preferably if the amp has a xover use it to cut out the bass... And be cautious with the volume.

Any amp can run speakers series or parallel
 
@viggen, not every amp can run speakers in parallel. Remember that the amps output impedance must match the load (speakers) to maximize power transfer. So if you take two Polk mm651um speakers, which they claim have an input resistance of 3 ohms (mine measure 2.7 ish ohms) the total equivalent resistance would be 1.5 ohms. I do think know of an amp that'll operate at 1.5 ish ohms per channel.
 
Yes every amp can be run in parallel, it's a matter of buying the proper speakers to match what the amp can run. If the amp is only stable to say 4ohms then obviously you simply need to use 8ohm drivers. If using a sub then you can do two DVC drivers and wire them series/parallel or whatever combo that gives the desired outcome.

Speakers are sold with ohm loads ranging from 1-8 ohms thus when doing research you simply find the speaker and amp combination that works best for your goals/setup/etc

My pheonix gold elite.2 and elite.4 can both run under 1.5 ohm, my old Adcom amps were also stable below .5 ohm and there are numerous other options out there however the majority are class A/B which are less then ideal on a jet boat. For a non A or A/B amp, you are correct most can't be driven safely below 1.5-2ohms and often times they produce the same power at 2 or 4 ohms thus no reason to drop the load. Thus you need to find the correct speaker for the given amp...
 
Disagree that a single amp powering everything at its absolute limit can tax it's power supply and heat sinks of that amp. A quality amp it doesn't matter, it's been designed to be used in a non ideal environment (tucked away somewhere on a boat) and can take the abuse and can produce it's rated power for more then likely longer then the batteries on the boat can last.

So here are a few things to consider.
When you half the impedance load, the amplifier produces more power but it does not come close to doubling the power, even though Ohm's Law states that it should. That's mostly a product of the amplifier's power supply and it's fixed limitations. The DC to AC to DC switching power supply contained within all amplifiers, and not the boat's supply. So batteries aren't part of this equation.
When you test one channel driven in isolation, and then test all channels driven, all channels driven will produce less power per channel. This is solely a product of the amplifiers internal power supply reaching its limit.
When you run at the lowest permissible output impedances the amplifier runs less efficiently. It consumes more power at the supply end as a ratio of what it delivers at the output end. The difference is just wasted heat that the heat sink must dissipate.
The lower operating efficiency and greater ratio of heat to power taxes everything.
Can you get by running the amplifier at its permissible limit with all small coaxials run in the highpass mode? Sure. Those smallish speakers with tiny voice coils don't represent a monumental challenge. But when those channels are comprised of more difficult and more complex workloads such as subwoofers and tower speakers that are typically run at the threshold of clipping, the amplifier challenge is very different.
Do some amplifiers have a self-protective rollback feature? Sure, the better ones do. Which keeps the user from destroying his equipment or exceeding the heatsink dissipation capacity.
This is an open-field environment where the equipment is driven significantly harder than in a car/truck/SUV. And there's no air conditioned compartment in a towboat.
Heat kills electronics. Running electronics at their thermal threshold for the long term is damaging. Maybe the equipment still operates but the audio quality is eventually compromised.
People in the industry understand these issues and look at it realistically, and not they way they hope it is.
 
@viggen, not every amp can run speakers in parallel. Remember that the amps output impedance must match the load (speakers) to maximize power transfer. So if you take two Polk mm651um speakers, which they claim have an input resistance of 3 ohms (mine measure 2.7 ish ohms) the total equivalent resistance would be 1.5 ohms. I do think know of an amp that'll operate at 1.5 ish ohms per channel.

You're correct. It's the Polk Audio MM651 (non 'UM') that is normally a 2.7 ohm speaker. That's the nominal impedance. You will often find that the DCR is actually lower. Two in parallel would be a 1.35 ohm nominal impedance. Nominal is the average. At some frequencies the impedance dips lower. There's no future in running most amplifiers into a 1.35-ohm load.
 
My elite.2 if I recall went from 301w X 2 rms at 4ohms to 510w X 2 at 2ohms (it was rated at 250x2 rms @4 ohms), yes very rare for a amp in a car/boat to truly double its power for numerous reasons. The amps also become so large and power hungry that they become totally impractical for mobile use.... Heck my elite amps weigh just shy of 30lbs each and require 0/1 gauge wire for power, dam did they sound awesome though! For the money I doubt there is a better amp even at 2-3 X the price

I wouldn't consider a car ideal either even though the AC is on, most people mount the amps in the car in their trunk thus in a area that is hot, no or minimal airflow etc often times loaded up with other crap back there. If the amp is under the front seats it's not exactly getting lots of cool air.... :) it also gets quite warm in cars when they sit outside in the summer with the windows up....

For myself I have always preferred building a stereo where I reach the speakers limit well before I hit the amps limit. Thus no chance of being anywhere close to sending the speaker a clipped signal, it's often times extremely difficult to hear when this happens however it's usually very easy to hear when the voice coil is being pushed to far :) with enough power it's also more likely our ears say it's to much well before the amp is close to clipping or reaching the speakers limits. Also, when cranking the stereo for hours at high volume it puts a big load on the batteries/charging system thus if you crank the music at the beginning and are at the amps limit.. that limit drastically lowers as voltage drops so being at the limit of clipping now in say 30 minutes cranking music you could send a clipped signal. Depending on how many batteries and how strong the alternators are determine how quickly the power will drop off, could be 30 minutes or 3 hours :)
 
Now retired from the marine audio business for over 3 years, I did have intense experience in marine audio for 15 years and in mobile electronics for over 3&1/2 decades. Being from the south, I have seen countless amplifiers that went into thermal protection as self-preservation during July/August afternoons. It can easily become 140 degrees in a boat locker.
It definitely pays to operate your electronics on the conservative side.
There are large cruisers and motoryachts that have huge party systems that are depended on to run hard and nonstop over a long holiday weekend. They may have dedicated generators, large AC to DC power supplies, and massive battery banks. In the end, when using consumer grade goods in near commercial level applications, the reliability normally comes down to operating the amplifiers at conservative levels. The norm was a dedicated amplifier channel for every individual 4-ohm speaker. Those systems never failed and lasted season after season.
That degree of conservative operation isn't cheap and really isn't necessary for the typical towboat system. However, there's a smart middle ground.
 
I didn't say stereo equipment have a better thus cooler life in a boat vs a car... Just that a car isn't ideal either

Heck rarely is a room in a house ideal for audio stuff :)

I would expect a large cruiser or party yacht running generators to power audio would use home audio amps or other type of home/club/PA electronics, cheaper and more powerful. Lot of bang for buck running a behringer pa amp powering a sub vs a car or home amp.

I have been in the hobby for 30 years, with 6 years selling home/car stuff and 20 some years operating a funeral home...... That's what I miss most about selling electronics, employee discounts! Getting speakers and amps at cost was awesome....... Owning a funeral home my discount sucks.... I really don't want to take advantage of a free casket or funeral service :)
 
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