Stereo System Upgrades

[cyclone]

I am on a quest to play Humble Pie live at the Fillmore West louder than any of the spoiled overfed punks driving around Lake Lanier in Daddy's boat can play the crap they listen to. I have looked at a lot of installs on the other big wakeboard sites and on car audio dork sites. Our boats have a very different configuration than most comp boats, and I know from personal experience that it is a bitch trying to stuff big amps through that storage compartment door and mount them.

I'd really like to see pics of your installations, and details like the gauge of wire that you ran and how you routed it, etc.  Also, details and pics of the brand and model components that you've used, successfully or not. I haven't taken any of mine so far, it is pretty high skool lookin. I am going to fix that soon.

It is worth noting that Shawn has the baddest Epic system on the planet. His system is the benchmark. I'd really like to know more specifics about what amps he used and where and how he mounted them.
He has posted a bunch of pics on the Photos page for reference, the rest of us should do the same. this is my favorite:

[cyclone]

Nuff said.

I am thinking about using Phoenix Gold amps, they are pretty reasonable and look bulletproof. They post details like the brand of transistors they use, all kinds of specs, on their site. Anyone have experience with them?

[cyclone]

Shawn,
A couple of questions for you, I know you are in transit right now so no hurry, but:

It looks like you mounted the batteries in the stock location but lying on their side, is that the case? That is an issue for me, the stock Group 58 battery is too wimpy, and the terminals on an Optima push against the insulation on the bottom of the battery panel, which doesn't give me a warm fuzzy. I had to cut a notch in the floor panel to fit the Optima in there in the first place. I may modify the battery tray to fit an Optima in there sideways. Dang, I need that new welder!

What kind of amps did you use, how many, what're they driving?

Did you have to remove the windshield to put in those cool component 5.25's up by the glass?

Hey, you Vdrive guys. Where is your battery and what size is it? Us DD guys have a wimpy one mounted where the ski locker should be. It sucks because you can't get a beefy one that fits in there.

My wife is still pissed at me for buying the Marauder last yr, and she thinks the boat system is already too loud. HAH !

[phenom_1819]

Hey Pete, Phoenix gold amps kick ass.  But you don't need to spend that much money to build a good boat system.  Since our systems are outdoors, you can get away with lesser-quality amps and 99.95% of people cannot tell the difference. I consider myself in the audiophile group and can barely tell.   I recommend Sony amps -- they are cheap as hell and have high-output.  I have a Sony running my six Infinity Kappas, and it does a pretty damn good job.

Optima -- mine fits in the stock location with about 1/4 inch from the insulation.  I didnt' have to do any cutting, it slipped right in there.  It was tight, but fit.

I'll try and take some pics of my setup tomorrow. But being that I have the ballast in the trunk, and the heater under the drivers feet, I had no choice but to use the side locker. So I filled it.  I have a JL10W7 powered by a Kenwood Excelon 150x2 amp and 6 Infinity Kappas powered by a cheap 4x50 Sony that rocks.  And a 1-farad capacitor.  I'm debating throwing the tower speakers back on again...but don't like hitting my head on them.  If I were to throw them up there, the Sony could handle one more set at 2-ohms.  You can't even tell the difference.  Seriously.

I do wish I had a little more juice, but have no room left without sacrificing storage space or my heater.  I don't miss not the side-locker storage at all, to be honest. We just throw backpacks,etc on top of the ballast once it's full.  Or in the corner behind the drivers seat.

I'll try and get you pics tomorrow.

[phenom_1819]

Oh, and one kind of nifty gadget that I had the local shop rig up -- i bought one of those battery level indicators from Crutchfield for like $15...it has a small LED that changes from green, to yellow, to red as your battery begins to die.  Once it turns solid red, it's time to restart your engine.

I had them mount it right next to the stereo receiver, into the plastic molding that the stereo slips into.  

I have one Optima but have never killed my battery once.  It was a much simpler, cheaper alternative to the dual-battery/isolator set-up.

[toyotafreak]

So, since Cal's made the point that cheaper amps are coolio....

check out the Kenwood 7201 - http://www.epinions.com/pr-Kenwood_KAC-7201_Car_Audio_Amplifier?zip=92882&x=5&y=12

Cheap Internet price $130 delivered, usually around $150, but seems like a hell of an amp for the money (even though I don't pretend to know anything about stereo stuff).

460W RMS into a 4-ohm sub, or
230W RMS x 2 into 2-ohm loads, or
150W RMS x 2 into 4-ohm loads.

Built-in crossovers, line or RCA with preouts and a little fan.

I originally wanted to bridge one for a sub, one as a 2-channel for the four boat speaks and a third to drive the tower speaks.


BTW, the v-drives have the battery mounted under the stbd aft seat cushion. One play I noticed for a second or third battery would be to go into the cubby and turn left - place them in-line, running fore and aft, with the seat back on one side and the hull side on the other. Not sure how the seat is on the ddrives.

On the driver side, I think there's room between the bow seat back and the hull wall so long as you slide them in from the driver's feet area and run them in-line fore and aft. Might only be room for one on the driver's side.

[brad]

I noted Cal's desire to change his deck for an iPod compatible one.

I have the same interest.  I've been using iTrip with my iPod for the past two years.  It works okay, but not as clean as I would like.

It's pretty nice to carry all my music around and play it at home, in my car and on the boat with my iPod.

[2000epic]

It's not marine-ized, but this years model Alpine decks can control an Ipod from the decks' faceplate with an optional device see:       http://www.crutchfield.com/S-8COD9WNiU1o/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?s=0&cc=01&i=500KCA420I&o=&a=

[phenom_1819]

I've been reading about those... dreaming about those.  There's been some discussion on wakeworld that says you really need one of the decks with two lines of text for it to be worthwile. I went checking prices for the two-liners yesterday and they are way out of my budget...plus the $100 for that iPod adapter thing.  

I'm going for the cheaper version, which is basically a cd-deck with an aux-input on the back panel.  There are two decks that offer this and that are marinized, by Rockford Fosgate and by MB Quart.  In the non-marinized decks, Sony, JVC, and Blaupunkt offer Aux inputs.  There may be others.  I'm going for a Sony, cuz that's what the neighbor has in the Avalanche and it works well.

[cyclone]

Kenwood sells a little adapter that gives you line in inputs via the CD changer input. I bought one but it doesn't work on my deck, it's a KAC-4009 I believe. You can't have the CD changer if you use it. If you have a newer Kenwood, gimme your address and I'll send it to you.

THere is another box that costs about 60$ that gives you line in and the CD changer. The same site had a pantload of other line level adapters for all kinds of decks. It was posted on Wakeworld by Grant, I think. I'll try to find it.  

[shawn]

Here are a few specs...

180 amp alternator and three optimas . The tower consists of 4 MB Quart 8" co-axes bi-amped by a Xtant 604. The boat interior system 3 pair MB Quart RKC 116 6.5 " co-ax and 1 pair MB Quart PSD 213 5" separates cut into the dash, all run by another Xtant 604. The 8 Image Dynamics ID max 12' Subs in tne rear are powered by 2 Xtant 1001,the 9th 12" sub is powered by a Rockford BD500

In one of the pics in the photo section, i had a separate input and output connector installed under the throttle so i can run an ipod or link stereos together.

In the amp photo, it's a little blurry, but they fabricated two amp racks to mount on the inner walls.  It is a real tight fit but looks great and i don't looses much room.

In the battery photo, also a custom fabricated rack with three optimas on their side, the two blue run all accesories, and the yellow is a back up.

The windshield did have to get removed, but i really recomend it.  it sound super!

and Pete, i got the hat today, thanks a bunch!

[phenom_1819]

pete, you rule.  Looks like I have the KDC-415S.  But the deck is original in the boat so about 4 years old? Don't know if that's new enough...?  Does it list what models its compatible with?

I'm guessing it might be an Excelon part, but my deck is not an Excelon.

[phenom_1819]

Pete, I did some research and my deck is compatible.  But I have a better idea...  I'd like to send you my cd player, if you're interested, no charge.  I want a reason to get a new cd player, and it would give you the capability to hook up your mp3 player (or whatever you've got) in your boat.  Give me a week or so to get a new cd player and I'll ship mine off to you.

[phenom_1819]

Shawn.  I really  like your ideas.  I might have to copy a couple.  Namely the 5 1/4's in the dash and the output for connecting the stereo to another boat...

Any problems with water build-up in the dash speakers??

[toyotafreak]

Or beer build-up?