Question regarding equalizers/crossovers are they needed?

[jocolo21]

I would disagree, my car amps stay dry and already show rust.

Where are yours placed? Keep in mind only the inside board is coated, the outside casing has nothing to do with the inside. Like I said 3 Yamaha boats all with car amps my o7 had it for 5 years 2019 for 2 and now 2021 already 80hrs most in salt water and a full week in the Bahamas.

 

[Julian]

Where are yours placed? Keep in mind only the inside board is coated, the outside casing has nothing to do with the inside. Like I said 3 Yamaha boats all with car amps my o7 had it for 5 years 2019 for 2 and now 2021 already 80hrs most in salt water and a full week in the Bahamas.

So no rust whatsoever on your amps? What brand are they? And where are they installed?

 

[Setec_Fl]

Might be the difference between a fresh water boat and salt water. It is STUNNING to me how quickly a boat on salt water rusts - having had my boat on both. For example, the table mount on my swim platform was spotless until the end of the first Bimini trip - rust on it from one week! Same for the tools I brought along. They were in a sealed tool box in the battery compartment. I never used them, took them out when we got home and they were covered in rust!!!! Just from the "sea air" WOW!

@Setec_Fl - I did a quick look on those big amps....looked like they are both Mono amps (for subs). Post pics as you go. Clearly this "professional" installer was working for beers!!! LOL

I agree. The big “3000w” amp is garbage. I hooked it up to the speakers one set at a time and they all sound like distorted trash.

my plan is for now. The small mono amp will go to the subs. The dual channel amp actually sounds decent. So I tuned it. I’m going to bridge all of the tower speakers into one channel and all of the deck speakers into the other. I’ll keep the PX2 as it has some decent controls on it but ditching the Eq-7. I’ve got all new wires for both speakers and equipment.

This should do me for now until I recover from seats and sea decking and then I’ll start replacing stuff with wet sound.

 

[jocolo21]

So no rust whatsoever on your amps? What brand are they? And where are they installed?

2 JL 700/5 1 JL 800/8 all connected to a wet sound eq stock location on the 2021 252se behind the helm, same i did with the 2019 242, only thing that rust is the tiny screws (2) that holds the gains cover.

 

[212s]

Wrong and big misconception about boating in salt water. I’ve using nothing but car amps in all my boats for the past 10 years never an issue

Opinions vary, but I've been involved in electronics since I was a kid thanks to my dad, and saltwater boating areas are definitely a concern for any electrical wiring, and other metals on the boat such as biminis, cleats, etc. Just because you haven't experienced an issue, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I've never seen oxygen, but I'm confident it exists.

 

[212s]

2 JL 700/5 1 JL 800/8 all connected to a wet sound eq stock location on the 2021 252se behind the helm, same i did with the 2019 242, only thing that rust is the tiny screws (2) that holds the gains cover.

Did you remove the covers and inspect the mother and daughterboards, induction cores, and connectors for corrosion before selling the boats? Corrosion doesn't have to mean the amp blows - that will only happen if the corrosion growth shorts to another point on the board. Oxidation on copper speaker wires doesn't mean they don't work either, but it can lead to poor electrical connections which will affect power transfer or simply cut the signal so a speaker seems dead. Clean up that wire and the speaker works again.

 

[212s]

Is there a decoder ring for the amp controls?

You could google for info on this for more details, but here's the basic tuning for self installers:

HPF or high pass filter higher sends freqs above the setting to the coaxial speakers.
LPF or low pass filter sends lower freqs below the setting to the sub speakers.
FULL sends all of the freqs to the speakers.

Using the HPF lets your amps work less hard to drive your regular speakers as it filters out the low freqs they can't reproduce anyway. LPF is good for the sub speakers because it filters out the highs they can't reproduce. Full is good for large coaxial speakers like 8-10" towers so they can pump full sounding music.

On my boat without subs, I use HPF set to 35Hz to filter out the lower sub sounds the 6.5" coaxial speakers can't use saving some wasted power yet still providing a full enough signal to them for decent bass output.

After figuring out your settings above to match your speakers, turn the gain level to zero on all the amps so you have no sound output. Turn your stereo volume to 80% and then turn the gain levels up one at a time slowly till you start to hear clipping distortion and then turn down one notch. Tune the other amps/speakers the same way then look for big differences in volume between them and adjust them down to fit your needs. Generally you want everything as loud and clear as possible and this simple config will get you really close without a lot of knowledge or equipment.

Fiddling with EQ balance settings is for more advanced installers with DB meters and knowledge of what they're doing. I have a DB and multi-meter to tune my systems but I still hate EQ's because they introduce noise into the signal and I prefer clean pure sound. Good speakers have a balanced sound so I don't ever use Bass/Mid/Treble or EQ settings on stereos or amps - I bypass them if possible. Bad speakers need EQ to sound good at the expense of noise. Good speakers sound good as is.

 

[jocolo21]

Opinions vary, but I've been involved in electronics since I was a kid thanks to my dad, and saltwater boating areas are definitely a concern for any electrical wiring, and other metals on the boat such as biminis, cleats, etc. Just because you haven't experienced an issue, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I've never seen oxygen, but I'm confident it exists.

Didnt said it didnt exist, i said i never ever had any issues, yes make sure the speaker wires are marine rated i use jl wire or they will corrode and break. 1000 islands? Minnesota? i grew up in PR no fresh water lake except for river which here are called creeks so 100% salt water pretty much my whole life. Now your perspective will always be different as you work in electronics, just as a DR will look at a health issue different than you will or the way i look at commercial aviation compared to a passenger. the only amps i had go bad were JL marine and i replaced them with regular car amp. Now did i look at the insides on the amps before i sold the boat, ofcourse just as much as you would open the engine to look at the valve and piston before you sell you boat.

 

[jocolo21]

what works for me may not work for any OCD person here, but it works for me and thats it, my boat my money my experience my choice

 

[jocolo21]

Here you go, 7 month old jl 800/8 so called florida salt water boat, and here is the evidence of no rust. Mind you i sealed the gap between my dashboard and the windshield , just because my personal experience .

 

[Setec_Fl]

Well here is what I ended up with.

 

[jocolo21]

did you do 2hom or 4hms there lots of configs you can do a\to get max rms

 

[Julian]

Well here is what I ended up with.

Nicely done!!!

 

[Setec_Fl]

did you do 2hom or 4hms there lots of configs you can do a\to get max rms

I’ll be honest. I have no idea. My knowledge of car audio is very limited.

I connected all 4 of the cabin speakers into 1 set of wires and did the same for the tower speakers. 1 set of wires went to the + & - on one side and same on the other side. The middle +\- screw on each channel is empty.

Does that answer your question? Think that is correct?