Audio upgrade Yamaha AR250

[MillsyMO]

I’ve got to clean up under the helm and zip tie some wires and mount the port side amp, but here are photos of the setup. It bumps and sound great.

 

[KCAR250]

I installed a Revo 12. It was a tight fit so if I had to do it over again I would’ve put a 10 in.

 

[MillsyMO]

View attachment 186057

I installed a Revo 12. It was a tight fit so if I had to do it over again I would’ve put a 10 in.

Free air?

 

[KCAR250]

Free air?

It is

 

[LukeDames]

I finished the install late last night. It sounds great! I’ll get photos today when I get home. I ended up with 6 Polk audio 6.5” speakers 1k watt Jensen D block amp mounted in helm where factory amp was located, 2 10” Polk audio subs in a sealed enclosure mounted in the engine bay with a 1200 watt Jensen D block amp running them mounted in the port side compartment next to the battery switches.
I was able to tune the amps to the stereo at full volume with zero distortion. I’ll also include photos of my amp settings this evening.

Awesome !!

 

[LukeDames]

View attachment 185966
I’ve got to clean up under the helm and zip tie some wires and mount the port side amp, but here are photos of the setup. It bumps and sound great.

Looks great man. Can’t wait to get home and finish my install. Bought a pair of Rev12’s to put on the tower also.

 

[MillsyMO]

It is

How does it hit? that 12” looks massive mounted in the seat like that. Another worry I had were passenger feet and legs getting slapped by the subwoofer and causing damage to the woofer like that. Any issues?

I wanted to free air mine but didn’t want to cut a big whole in my seats and then not like the sound. My 10’s in the sealed box hit hard but when I open the engine bay they hit a lot harder. Yamaha did an amazing job of sound dampening that area. I thought for sure the rear vents on the swim/seat area would vent the engine bay with bass but it doesn’t. I’m currently trying to decide how to port the bay to allow more bass to come through.

 

[MillsyMO]

Looks great man. Can’t wait to get home and finish my install. Bought a pair of Rev12’s to put on the tower also.

12” subs on your tower?! Wow I haven’t seen that. Send photos when done for sure.
My final (maybe) audio upgrade this winter will be 4 kicker 8” on the tower. The wife says “it’s loud enough, we don’t have to be the loudest on the lake”, I say, “NONSENSE”. ?
How are you planning on running your wires, zip tie to outside of tower or drill and run internally? I’ve been running scenarios in my head how to fish through internally but was curious what your idea is if so.

 

[KCAR250]

How does it hit? that 12” looks massive mounted in the seat like that. Another worry I had were passenger feet and legs getting slapped by the subwoofer and causing damage to the woofer like that. Any issues?

I wanted to free air mine but didn’t want to cut a big whole in my seats and then not like the sound. My 10’s in the sealed box hit hard but when I open the engine bay they hit a lot harder. Yamaha did an amazing job of sound dampening that area. I thought for sure the rear vents on the swim/seat area would vent the engine bay with bass but it doesn’t. I’m currently trying to decide how to port the bay to allow more bass to come through.

I had a 210 with the sub in the same spot and never had an issue with it getting damaged even with kids. It sounds great but I don’t have an equalizer so I can’t adjust it other then from the amp. I might add a 10 in the front though.

 

[MillsyMO]

I had a 210 with the sub in the same spot and never had an issue with it getting damaged even with kids. It sounds great but I don’t have an equalizer so I can’t adjust it other then from the amp. I might add a 10 in the front though.

Thats good, I was worried it would get damaged.
I’ve never been a fan of Jensen amp’s necessarily but I bought these D block amp’s bc this was a bit of a budget build and I’ve been very impressed with the power that these little guys have. They’re Bluetooth so all the settings are done on the app and it has a built in EQ to fully adjust each amp to that specific speaker. That’s how I was able to fine tune it to play at max volume on the head unit and not distort. I normally wouldn’t do that but the rear remote on the aft doesn’t show you the volume and I didn’t want someone turning it up too loud and blowing the speakers.

 

[LukeDames]

12” subs on your tower?! Wow I haven’t seen that. Send photos when done for sure.
My final (maybe) audio upgrade this winter will be 4 kicker 8” on the tower. The wife says “it’s loud enough, we don’t have to be the loudest on the lake”, I say, “NONSENSE”. ?
How are you planning on running your wires, zip tie to outside of tower or drill and run internally? I’ve been running scenarios in my head how to fish through internally but was curious what your idea is if so.

They’re not subs. It’s Wet Sounds new 12” full range tower speakers. There’s 1 YouTube review on them right now, check it out it’s insane.

 

[LukeDames]

12” subs on your tower?! Wow I haven’t seen that. Send photos when done for sure.
My final (maybe) audio upgrade this winter will be 4 kicker 8” on the tower. The wife says “it’s loud enough, we don’t have to be the loudest on the lake”, I say, “NONSENSE”. ?
How are you planning on running your wires, zip tie to outside of tower or drill and run internally? I’ve been running scenarios in my head how to fish through internally but was curious what your idea is if so.

I’m good to drill holes and fish the wires through the tower

 

[MillsyMO]

We got to test the audio on the water for the first time yesterday. Sound system sounded amazing on the water but after about an hour the house battery dropped to 11.6-7 Volts and the amps started shutting down. I bridged the house and starter battery and it all came back to life. Ran it for about another hour and then had to go pick up some friends at the dock so we ran the boat for about 30-35 mins and got the batteries charged back up. Coved for about 3 hrs and left the batteries bridged with no issues. I just kept an eye on the Volts and we never dropped below 12-12.1 Volts. I’m buying a 2nd battery and tray today for the house side so I don’t have to risk draining the start battery. In all it was a very successful test run and the audio sounded better on the water than it did in my driveway so I’m extremely happy.

 

[MillsyMO]

I’m good to drill holes and fish the wires through the tower

What are your plans to fish the wire? An old Harley trick to fish wires through the handle bars, we use a string with a small bag taped to it and a vacuum to suck it through and then use the string to pull the wires. That’s how I planned on trying but was curious what your method is if that doesn’t work. Thanks.

 

[LukeDames]

What are your plans to fish the wire? An old Harley trick to fish wires through the handle bars, we use a string with a small bag taped to it and a vacuum to suck it through and then use the string to pull the wires. That’s how I planned on trying but was curious what your method is if that doesn’t work. Thanks.

I YouTube’d some videos I did see the method with the bag as you mentioned and another way was tying a nut to the string and then using a magnet from the outside to move it through the pipe. I’ll probably try the bay first.

 

[tdonoughue]

I was prepared to try things like that, but when I went to fish my wire, I was able to just push it. Now, mind you, it was fun to use a hook and pull it through when I got to the other end, but I guess my gauge was heavy enough that I didn't need anything but to push it. So you might try that first...

 

[LukeDames]

I was prepared to try things like that, but when I went to fish my wire, I was able to just push it. Now, mind you, it was fun to use a hook and pull it through when I got to the other end, but I guess my gauge was heavy enough that I didn't need anything but to push it. So you might try that first...

What gauge speaker wires did you run? I’ll be running RGB 18 gauge and 16 gauge speaker wires pretty thick from what I hear.

 

[KCAR250]

What gauge speaker wires did you run? I’ll be running RGB 18 gauge and 16 gauge speaker wires pretty thick from what I hear. View attachment 186440

I wired the speakers with 12ga tinned OFC wire. Might be overkill but oh well.

 

[tdonoughue]

Been a while. 14, I think? And I ran individual wires, not a cable like that (for what that is worth). Twisted pairs...

 

[MillsyMO]

I got the 2nd house battery installed tonight. I played it full blast in the drive for about 30 mins and the Volts stayed stable at 12.2-3. The test will be this weekend at the lake.