Starting my sound system update journey. Please bear with all the questions that will follow

[tabbibus]

Alrighty then. Amp is on hand. Speakers, harness, cables, tools, all in route. This is gonna be fun!

 

[tabbibus]

These things are sexy compared to the polks. Hefty too

 

[Julian]

These things are sexy compared to the polks. Hefty too

Which model are those?

 

[tabbibus]

Which model are those?

JL Audio M3-650X-S-GM (Gunmetal with "Sport" grilles)

6-1/2" marine speakers

www.crutchfield.com

 

[212s]

These things are sexy compared to the polks. Hefty too

At 3x the price over the Polks I would hope so.

 

[tabbibus]

It's all here. Now the most difficult part. Finding time.

 

[kgower]

It's all here. Now the most difficult part. Finding time.

View attachment 178900

LMK how you like the Klien Tools. Agreed time is the hard part.

 

[RNYCLV]

It's all here. Now the most difficult part. Finding time.

View attachment 178900

I hear you on that one....I have everything sitting in the house ready to go as well... however with so few people at work we are all stretched so thin the only day I get off we hit the lake, and that's more important for sanity at this point ....lol

 

[tabbibus]

So I started scoping out how to move my batteries back and noticed the wiring. Seems that all the ground wires are hooked up to the starting battery (to the left), and one power wire coming from the switch.

The house battery (to the right) is simply hooked up with a power wire from the switch and the ground goes to the starting battery terminal.

So I make the following assumptions. Please correct as needed. Disclaimer: I didn't have enough time to pop open the switch.
1. The power for the engines goes to the switch and then to the starting battery.
2. The power for the radio, connext, blowers, and everything else goes to the house switch and then to the house battery.

Questions:
A) when I hook up the amp, do I hook the power to the switch or directly to the house positive terminal. Also the ground, do I hook that up to the starting battery where all the other grounds are or do I hook that up to the house.
B) should I transfer all the grounds to the house?
C) I don't have bus bars. Do I need them?

 

[TimW451]

Always multiple ways but what I would do:

Questions:
A) when I hook up the amp, do I hook the power to the switch or directly to the house positive terminal. Also the ground, do I hook that up to the starting battery where all the other grounds are or do I hook that up to the house.

I would want the amp after the house switch, so if house is off, the amp is off. For grounds, see next answer.
Edit: I skipped something here, you obviously should fuse between the amp and power. You may want to consider a breaker of the appropriate size. So, Battery-—-Switch——Breaker——Amp. You may want a distribution box in there too.
B) should I transfer all the grounds to the house?

All your grounds need to come together, it doesn’t matter how, electrically speaking, but the boat should have one common ground. How they are now is fine. You could connect the amp to either, the cable between the two grounds brings it all together. But, next…

C) I don't have bus bars. Do I need them?

You don’t need them, but they can make your life easier and simplify the wiring. Instead of a cluster of wires going to a battery terminal you can consolidate them at a bus bar and then have a single, or less wires going to the battery. Changes and troubleshooting can be easier as you can remove wires with futzing (technical term) with the battery posts. This is sorta why all your grounds go to one battery and then the two are connected, less chance of error.

 

[TimW451]

At the risk of confusing you, here is my “work in progress” diagram of what I plan to do.
Notes

• My DVSR is a single 1/2/1+2 switch.
• This also assumes a high watt HU or amp in the helm, I’d rather have the amp in the battery compartment to avoid running the 6 AWG wire across the boat.
• Not showing ground/negative, but they are there.

 

[tabbibus]

Thanks for the input @TimW451

I moved my batteries aft, as well as repositioned my NOCO. Now I have space for the amp.

 

[tabbibus]

Hey y'all. This may be a dumb question, but how do I wire speakers in parallel? I know the theory. Negative to negative and positive to positive. But how do I actually do it? Do I have to splice the cables before they reach the amp?

 

[JBehrens]

No you can just combine them at the same amp terminal.

 

[tabbibus]

No you can just combine them at the same amp terminal.

So both cables simply plug into the amp directly?

 

[JBehrens]

So both cables simply plug into the amp directly?

Yep that's all you need to do.

 

[TimW451]

This pic should help. The “magic” is in what you do at the speakers, not the amp.

 

[Julian]

@tabbibus One of the benefits of bus bars are that its simpler to connect and disconnect the batteries. I have a ground bus bar that all the negatives in my boat connect to, then I have ONE wire from the bus bar to each battery. Super simple.

I have a Positive fuse block too. One wire from the house battery to the fuse block, then everything is fused there and connects to the rest of the boat. This also makes it easier if you want to add things to the boat later (like USB charge ports, marine radio, fume detector, bilge alarm, amps, etc).

The "magic" at the speaker can be made easier with dual spade adapters. Not sure if these are the right size (they are electrical piggy back - not speaker ones) - but I have to assume they make speaker ones too.

This pack give you an assortment of sized piggybacks.

 

[tabbibus]

@tabbibus One of the benefits of bus bars are that its simpler to connect and disconnect the batteries. I have a ground bus bar that all the negatives in my boat connect to, then I have ONE wire from the bus bar to each battery. Super simple.

I have a Positive fuse block too. One wire from the house battery to the fuse block, then everything is fused there and connects to the rest of the boat. This also makes it easier if you want to add things to the boat later (like USB charge ports, marine radio, fume detector, bilge alarm, amps, etc).

The "magic" at the speaker can be made easier with dual spade adapters. Not sure if these are the right size (they are electrical piggy back - not speaker ones) - but I have to assume they make speaker ones too.

This pack give you an assortment of sized piggybacks.

So is simply combining them at the amp terminal a bad idea?

 

[adrianp89]

So is simply combining them at the amp terminal a bad idea?

I would combine them at the amp. No issues doing this, also if you decide to put them on individual channels later, your wires are already run.