Stereo System Upgrades

[cyclone]

http://www.discountcarstereo.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=116

Found the link to all the interface stuff.  Kenwood stuff is on page 9

Shawn, thanks for the details on your system. It is interesting that you have a 180 amp alternator. I noticed that yours is not black like the stock one. Is it a Toyota alternator? Also, what're you running for a head unit?

Glad the tower hat will work for you, I've ordered the right color one for my boat.

Cal, If you send me your head unit, I'll use it! That would solve a big problem I have, I'm running XM through an RF modulator and it sounds like poopie. Plus, my display is crapping out.  Thanks!

Derek, I have been running Kenwood amps for the last couple of years. I agree, they are cheap and a LOT of bang for the buck. The ones I have opened up are all discrete component (no PA IC's) with very beefy power supplies, Elna Cerafine caps, etc. built in crossovers and stuff. There is a Kenwood factory outlet near me that sells scratch and dent stuff for almost nothing.  My main amp was a KAC859 five channel amp, but now I want to run two more tower speakers at 2 ohm so I've got to upgrade. Plus, I got it wet and now it's Blow'd UP.

I'm going to relocated the amp and add another, I'm going to use  better ones, probably Phoenix Gold. They are still pretty reasonable and they are 1 ohm stable.  I have to add more subs, too. Maybe not NINE 12" ones, but more anyway.  

I put my second battery behind the panel up against the hull on other side of the carpeted panel in the left side of the storage compartment. You could probably fit two end to end in there, I put one in a battery box mounted to the carpeted panel. I lost ZERO storage and it is very close to the amps. I still have had a dead battery after running the stereo for 4 hours or so, I think it was the Perfect Pass servo being powered.  I have since moved the head unit from the stock batt to the Optima circuit, so it should fix that problem. I may still have a weak starting battery.

[phenom_1819]

Nice.  Pete, I know I have your address somewhere. I'll hunt it down and ship the cd player out in the next week or so...I'm glad you'll use it.

Wow, I'm impressed with all the interface devices that place offers. I just placed an order for an Alpine Aux-in adapter (for our family's Boston Whaler stereo) and for the Toyota adapter for my 4runner.

Merry Christmas to me and mine!  YEAH, BABY!  

[cyclone]

Well, I got bored and tore into my blown up Kenwood 5 channel amp. I found a shorted output transistor and cooked emitter resistor, so I ordered a matched complementary pair online for ten bucks. Dang, hard to justify buying a new amp now!

"Note to self, don't turn quickly to pick up a rider with 2k and five people in the boat" I scooped up some water, that's what fried it. I had the amp mounted on the bow side of a wall I mounted in the storage compartment. It's going on the other side this time, as high as possible!

I'll probably move the changer to beside the driver, like Shawn has it.  It skips like a beotch on the kick panel anyway, can't get much worse!

I'm gonna replace my Kenwood boat speakers with MB Quarts, Derek, didn't you put the separates up in the bow? That's my plan.

[toyotafreak]

Not me, think it was one of the earlier epicmariners

[cyclone]

You are right, Derek. I went through old posts but couldn't find it. I think it was Sandy, haven't heard from him in a while.

[krejciman]

IU put MB Quartz all-around, but they are not seperates.... they sound pretty nice

[toyotafreak]

Krejci's in the house  

Dude, has this been a ton of rain, or what? I'm thinking it might be good to commute to Anaheim in the boat this week.

[Chris A]

I love MBs, and polks  If you got the dough, SPEND IT

AND DEAR LORD DEREK, DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE RAIN!!!

The bay down here just fills with crap after the rain and it just sux to board  

I was yakN for 2 days after our last outing on Thursday...But you can't argue with the average 18 days of rain a year down here in San Diego  

[toyotafreak]

I'm doing a rain dance. More rain now, more years of Powell!

[phenom_1819]

Shawn -- I was looking through the photos section.  I'm guessing I know where you put it, but do you have any pics of the driver-side install?  Any water or beer build-up problems?

I just ran home and took some measurements, I think that a 6 1/2 will fit in there on the passenger side, with a little help from the dremel tool.  Crutchfield has the Infinity Kappa 62m's for only $99/pair...I paid almost $200 for each set last year, so it's defiinitely a deal.

Also, just an FYI on the MB Quart Nautic speakers -- they are actually more like a 7" speaker (even though they say 6 1/2) and don't fit in our stock speaker holes.  I bought MB Quart speakers first and ended up returning them because of this problem...  They sound great though, my dad has a set in his boat.

[2000epic]

same with infinity kappas I got.  ended up putting them in my grand cherokee.  I'm watching a few NIB marine sets on Ebay, some killlah deals there.

[cyclone]

So, do 5.25's fit in the stock holes? Not that I care much, I'm getting pretty good at cutting holes in a boat:)

I saw the satellite maps and wondered if you guys on the left coast were driving your boats down the streets yet. It's gotta help with the drought, though the weatherdorks always moan that it'll take 2yrs, etc. Our five year drought was over in about three months of wet weather, the lake came up 19 ft.

[phenom_1819]

Drought doesn't mean it's dry...I have 6" of snow in my driveway!  It just means that I should have about 2 feet by now.  I can't wait to roll it out of the garage so that I can get the tower up, and install the board racks you sold me, Pete.  I'm about a week away from starting my stereo project... gonna add the new cd player, some nifty input/output jacks like Shawn, and eventually remove my windshield and install some dashboard speak's like Shawn.  (thanks for the inspiration, Shawn).  I'm going to take some pictures of my current set-up (as promised) in about 30 minutes.

By the way, anybody have a 5" hole-cutter I could borrow for the dash speaks?  

I think I jumped the gun on the first launch last year in late February.  I'm shooting for a mid-March session on Lake Washington.  Leaving it in Seattle this summer, even though I live two hours away in Yakima.

[phenom_1819]

I wish I could figure out the photos deal. I can't.  I posted 5 pics but they didn't show up...?

Anyway, here are a few of my stereo pics, just the basic ones.

[phenom_1819]

obviously Shawn and my mind's were on the same track with that one...