Easiest way to add/amplify music at the helm

[Mainah]

Sweet!!! Now try Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes and see if you get any bad vibe or reverb artifacts. Also around 2 minutes in the higher register is meant to be empahised but not overwhelming while the rest of the range should sound about the same level.

I am so jealous that you are doing mods in February. At least I will be landing in SC in a few hours to finalize house shopping.

 

[Julian]

Yeah... was in the high 70s today...i was sweating working on the boat!!!

 

[Julian]

Stereo install is finished and sounds awesome! Here is the battery compartment with the new wetsounds amp in it (I angled it so it would be easier to adjust the settings on the end of the amp).

 

[MattFX4]

Stereo install is finished and sounds awesome! Here is the battery compartment with the new wetsounds amp in it (I angled it so it would be easier to adjust the settings on the end of the amp).

View attachment 52005 View attachment 52006 View attachment 52007

Looks good. What amp is that? What do you have running off of it? I'm about to put a Syn dx4 in my battery compartment.

 

[Julian]

It is a Wetsounds HT-4, right now I just have it running the two 6.5" JLs. I am considering disconnecting some of the boat speakers from the stock Polk amps and running them from the wetsounds amp. Just need to figure out which are being run where.

 

[Julian]

Sweet. Good job @Julian glad to see they fit. Mine come in Wednesday and I will be following suit. The white looks good. Makes me second guess my decision to go with the titanium colored ones. Oh well we will see.

So where are the photos????? Want to see how the Titanium color looks! Share!!!

 

[kjchmay]

Guys, I have a 2016 242 LS E Series. I want to swap out the Polk amp (prob for a JL) speakers later. Would you recommend wiring up to the stock wiring or run new? Also where is the crossover located. Or is it better to just add another amp.

 

[swatski]

Guys, I have a 2016 242 LS E Series. I want to swap out the Polk amp (prob for a JL) speakers later. Would you recommend wiring up to the stock wiring or run new? Also where is the crossover located. Or is it better to just add another amp.

Check out @Rod5 post - I think it is quite brilliant. Don't know if you have the same setup, but at least worth a consideration.
https://jetboaters.net/threads/242x-stereo-how-to-exploit-free-unused-watts.13256/#post-230620

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[skrip345]

So where are the photos????? Want to see how the Titanium color looks! Share!!!

Got it in finally. I went a little further back than you. Fit great.

 

[Mainah]

As others have already proven I stand corrected about there not being enough space in the black panels. I got a pair of polk mms installed there this weekend. Not hooked up to an amp yet but looking forward to it and then taking some photos to share. Thanks again to @fraserjr for pioneering this speaker location and posting about it.

 

[TheGilster22]

Finally finished my install last week and have a chance to add photos. Installed JL speakers at the helm and a new JL M200 amp to power them. Upgraded the batteries to the Optima Blue Tops. Added the battery switch to isolate the amps.

Thanks to @Julian and others for the great ideas.

I tried tuning the system but as others have mentioned, the existing Polk amps are difficult to reach. I adjusted the level of the new JL amp and that seemed to work the best. I plan on adding a remote level control for just the helm speakers.

 

[kjchmay]

Guys I have decided to add a JL 800/8v2. The stock HU has 4 RCA outputs (front left and right and rear left and right). I am not a wiring expert, but do I need to plug all 4 RCA plugs into the new amp? I am going to run all new wire except to the tower. Thanks in advance

 

[SCP1]

View attachment 49318

This tower is only used for speakers it's at max capacity! I've seen this before somewhere.

 

[firecap797]

So I finally cut in my mid speakers last night. What a mess. And as you can see from the photos below, I got lucky and didn't cut the wire on the port side.

 

[swatski]

So I finally cut in my mid speakers last night. What a mess. And as you can see from the photos below, I got lucky and didn't cut the wire on the port side. View attachment 62399View attachment 62400View attachment 62401View attachment 62402

Wow that was close! I came about that close with one speaker hole cutout in my swim deck.
I use a big shop vac whenever cutting into that FRP, while cutting.

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[Julian]

So I finally cut in my mid speakers last night. What a mess. And as you can see from the photos below, I got lucky and didn't cut the wire on the port side.

What was the clearance in that port side spot? Looks less, but hard to tell in a photo.

 

[firecap797]

What was the clearance in that port side spot? Looks less, but hard to tell in a photo.

I didn't measure it. In all the excitement of inspecting that wire, I forgot to. It appeared to be at least 6 inches. I'm going to add a charging station on the port side and when I do, I'll measure it then.

 

[firecap797]

Wow that was close! I came about that close with one speaker hole cutout in my swim deck.
I use a big shop vac whenever cutting into that FRP, while cutting.

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I needed a third hand for that, lol. It was dark so I was using a dremel and a "rotozip" type blade and had the flashlight in my other hand.

And the bit is now stuck in the dremel. When I push down the little tab to hold the dremel shaft in place, it slips by when using the wrench. Guess I needed an new one anyway.

 

[Bruce]

Guess I needed an new one anyway.

I have had to replace a few dremel parts and have found them easy to obtain.

I used a pneumatic automotive body saw which is basically a smaller than a Dremel jog saw to cut speaker holes. My experience is that it cuts faster and with less mess.

 

[swatski]

So I finally cut in my mid speakers last night. What a mess. And as you can see from the photos below, I got lucky and didn't cut the wire on the port side. View attachment 62399View attachment 62400View attachment 62401View attachment 62402

Here is my "wire close call" - in the swim deck. I've been using a drill/ hole saw kit, works very well up to 5" easily.


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