Just started digging into the 2021 SX250/AR250 audio system

[anjboyer]

2022 AR 250 has a 4 channel amp. Cabin speakers are wired in series

 

[Adrian @ JB Solutions]

Amp is in the helm - almost impossible to miss.

 

[ddonoso]

Thanks,

I checked there, but I was looking for the wetsound amp I thought it had.
I think I know what to look for now, pretty sure it does not have an amp though

 

[ddonoso]

How hard is to connect an amp there ?

I've never done it

 

[ddonoso]

Amp is in the helm - almost impossible to miss.

I think this is it, correct?

 

[Farny]

$2 to 3k max

You can get a nice system for 2-3k

 

[Adrian @ JB Solutions]

I think this is it, correct?

Hard to tell - just realized you have a 190 series. The wire colors on the far side of the unit look white/green/purple. If there is 8 wires going into 2 of white/grey/green/purple then 99.9% chance its your amp.

 

[Farny]

How hard is to connect an amp there ?

I've never done it

Connecting an amp yourself is fairly easy and saves you tons on install labor. Just be sure to follow marine recommendations for wires etc. lots of threads on here with audio upgrades. The basics apply to all model boats, but mounting location and wire routing will vary some.

 

[ddonoso]

You can get a nice system for 2-3k

thanks

 

[KCAR250]

My 2021 has the wet sounds 4ch amp however it’s detuned from the factory so it’s basically junk!

 

[ddonoso]

Thank you.
I read another post from someone that was saying that the AR 250 does have a wetsound HTX4 .
That's not correct?

All I found was an AQUATIC AV CS 1002 amp, no wetsound amp to be found anywhere, what a dissapointment

 

[KCAR250]

All I found was an AQUATIC AV CS 1002 amp, no wetsound amp to be found anywhere, what a dissapointment

I’m sure they had supply issues and just threw something in to get the boat out of the factory. Don’t be disappointed, the Wet Sounds Amp is detuned and is basically junk!

 

[Jdorta]

I am trying to upgrade the speakers on my ar250. If I swap the factory Wetsounds HTX4 with a HTX6 and run parallel wiring with new ws speakers replacing the factory speakers, will that do the job ? Not interested in tower speakers or a sub woofer. What all do I need to watch out for ? Thanks a lot.

This is my query too. I look forward to following the answer.

 

[benny]

Hey Guys, I have a 22 AR250 and I am installing 2 AMPs...A 5-channel amp and a 4 channel. The 5 channel will power the tower speakers, middle 6.5 and a sub, the second 4ch will power the front/rear 6.5s. I just ran the power/ground and all the speaker locations back to inside the helm. Took the cover off and realized there are no RCA jacks to use. What have you guys used to tap into or access RCAs? I have installed stereos before, but this is the first time I do not have RCAs. I do see one set of RCAs in there in use. I have RCA splitters for the AMPs, but need to tap into something . Any help would be great!

 

[benny]

Quick question that hopefully someone can give me advice on. I have started to put my audio in my AR250 and I have some questions on the battery setup. I will be using 2 XS power 3000 batteries hooked up in parallel and I currently have 1 starter battery and two house batteries on the perko switch. Should I just replace the two house batteries with the XS 31 series batteries or is there a reccomendation on how to leave the house batteries as is and add the new batteries separately? Would I need to install another perko switch for the audio battery bank and If so any issues while driving with the boat charging 24 series house batteries and 31 series audio battery bank at the same time? Pictures so far of the install

Question for you, where did you tap into for RCAs? And what did you use?

 

[anjboyer]

Hey Guys, I have a 22 AR250 and I am installing 2 AMPs...A 5-channel amp and a 4 channel. The 5 channel will power the tower speakers, middle 6.5 and a sub, the second 4ch will power the front/rear 6.5s. I just ran the power/ground and all the speaker locations back to inside the helm. Took the cover off and realized there are no RCA jacks to use. What have you guys used to tap into or access RCAs? I have installed stereos before, but this is the first time I do not have RCAs. I do see one set of RCAs in there in use. I have RCA splitters for the AMPs, but need to tap into something . Any help would be great!

No RCA's available with Factory Unit. Most people run a LOC (Line out converter) from a pair of speaker leads then feed the amp/amps. Also, the boat has 2 zones fed from Connext screen. The way you want to wire bow and stern off one amp will kill the zone control from the head unit. Some people have actually just installed a separate head unit and bypassed the entire factory system all together.

 

[benny]

1wetboat, the RCAs you saw are coming from the aux port on the helm into the connext system. I was hopefully when I saw them until I chased the wire back.

Jeebus, 2 black plugs on the amp. Then that harness goes about 2 feet back to the 2 white plugs, which connect into the boat harness. I de-pinned the power wires on the white harness, and am cutting off the input black plug to wire to the RCAs. (#1 written in marker on the pic of the amp) I am not gong to use the stock wiring so I will just leave that plug (#2 written in marker on the amp pic) going to nowhere.

Cambo, agreed. That's why I decided to go with the Rockford DSP. Let's me split 4 channels to 8, and configure crossover and EQ individually for each channel. All with just a smartphone connection. Seems like a winner, we'll see.

No RCA's available with Factory Unit. Most people run a LOC (Line out converter) from a pair of speaker leads then feed the amp/amps. Also, the boat has 2 zones fed from Connext screen. The way you want to wire bow and stern off one amp will kill the zone control from the head unit. Some people have actually just installed a separate head unit and bypassed the entire factory system all together.

I want to keep the factory unit as its built into the screen on the 22 AR250. I just want to know what wires off of the shitty AMP (aquatic) I can use to tap into for the red/black RCAs. The remote (blue is there). Most people are also using a LOC from what i can tell as you said to convert it, I just want to figure out who did what I am trying to do and what they purchased to hook it all up correctly. TY!

 

[Jdl110]

I took the factory amp out and used the wires coming into the factory amp and an audio control LC2 to convert to RCAs. Regarding zones, I wired the tower as a zone, front bow and rear swim platform as a zone, main cabin as a zone, subs as a zone. To control all zones I used a 220BT wet sounds controller mounted in the pocket next to the driver. I still use the factory audio connext screen for volume control and selecting tracks etc.
The inputs are in the plug labeled plug 1 going to the factory amp.

 

[benny]

I took the factory amp out and used the wires coming into the factory amp and an audio control LC2 to convert to RCAs. Regarding zones, I wired the tower as a zone, front bow and rear swim platform as a zone, main cabin as a zone, subs as a zone. To control all zones I used a 220BT wet sounds controller mounted in the pocket next to the driver. I still use the factory audio connext screen for volume control and selecting tracks etc.
The inputs are in the plug labeled plug 1 going to the factory amp.

For the LC2 did you just get a 2ch one like the "AudioControl LC2i 2 Channel Line Out Converter with AccuBASS and Subwoofer Control" and just use RCA splitters to the AMPs? I am not worried about controlling the zones separately, I just want to get both AMPs working and then tune the gain using the AMPs settings. Do you think that would work or do you think I also need the sound controller also?

 

[Jdl110]

Yea I used the two channel LC2 one and used only one channel as I was going to use the zone controller and I reran all new speaker wire. I think you would need to splice into two of the channels in the factory input plug if you are wanting to use the factory amp and add an additional one via LC2. Hopefully some one who has kept the factory amp can chime in how they did it.