Stereo - To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade

[Big Block Power]

I wouldn't set up anything that required moving your battery switch with the engine running.

Agreed

[cmattj]

No worries. "It's easy" they say. "Think of the money you'll save" they say. "And its fun!"
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Tomorrow class we will be pulling RGB wiring along the inside of the hull using a fiberglass wire pull.

This will be done in complete darkness to sharpen your skills, as we push through other unknown objects blocking your path

Geeze id struggle with the cap off the boat. Lol. You guys are motivating!!

[Homeskillet]

Really appreciate all the insight and suggestions with this.

Anyone who has pics of their install I'd love to see them!

The pic above is awesome! I really do need to tour the factory someday!

Also, any pointers about pulling the speaker wire? I'm thinking I should hook a string to my fishtape so I can pull it back through for the next wire.
Going around the bow might be tricky, too? Will I encounter any floatation on the sides?

I'm thinking I'll put a wire nut/cap on the ends of my old speaker wires and just tuck them back in there. Shouldn't be a problem since they'll be disconnected, I wouldn't think.

[NautiGirl]

Really appreciate all the insight and suggestions with this.

Anyone who has pics of their install I'd love to see them!

The pic above is awesome! I really do need to tour the factory someday!

Also, any pointers about pulling the speaker wire? I'm thinking I should hook a string to my fishtape so I can pull it back through for the next wire.
Going around the bow might be tricky, too? Will I encounter any floatation on the sides?

I'm thinking I'll put a wire nut/cap on the ends of my old speaker wires and just tuck them back in there. Shouldn't be a problem since they'll be disconnected, I wouldn't think.

Pulling the wire isn't bad, at least it wasn't in our 2007 model year. The newer boats have a lot less room between the interior and the sides of the hull so those could be tougher.

We tried to use a fish tape, and in the end it was more a pain in the ass than just reaching and grabbing wires. There are enough openings down the side of the boat that you can just pull the wire by hand. Around the bow was easy, cobalt ran the factory wires through some wire loom inside our bow storage compartment, we just followed those.

Our factory wires were terminated /w connectors from the factory I just left them disconnected and tucked them out of the way.

[Homeskillet]

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Pulling the wire isn't bad, at least it wasn't in our 2007 model year. The newer boats have a lot less room between the interior and the sides of the hull so those could be tougher.
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Interesting... I just assumed I'd be pushing and pulling that fishtape all over the place!

[NautiGirl]

Nope, not sure how your boat is setup, but on our 222 you can reach up under the trim from inside the boat and get to the raceways where they ran all the wire in the factory. I tried using a fish tape but it immediately got caught on a bolt for one of the bow grab bars.

I spent about 30 minutes yelling screaming and cursing trying to get it to work. Katie walked up, said I can reach behind here and just grab it, calm down. Turns out she is very good at running wires through boats. Who knew?

[Big Block Power]

Like Jeff said it's pretty easy. Leave the speakers out so you can get your hand up there and run the new wires up in the loom the factory has there already.

[Bfun220]

Like Jeff said it's pretty easy. Leave the speakers out so you can get your hand up there and run the new wires up in the loom the factory has there already.

+1
I tried a pull wire. Ended up running by hand.

[Homeskillet]

That's great info. I will have help so that part should go quick.

[Homeskillet]

So I received my amp and speakers yesterday! Everything appears to be in good shape with that refurbished amp.

I pulled out the owner's manual and directions and started confusing myself! I am no longer confident in my ability to connect 6 speakers, and I'm not sure about connecting RCA's. They show all sorts of configurations in the directions. For example they have one scenario where they have 2 speakers hooked into each of the 1st 4 channels for a total of 8 (on 4 channels). Is this how I should hook up mine, doubling some up on channels 1 and 2? Or should I put a single speaker on each channel?

Then there was some reading on "Bridging" where mono vs stereo was mentioned (y adaptors was in there too). Apparently left and right (stereo) is effected by connectivity, and so is fading from front to back?

In my elementary brain, before unpacking my equipment, I thought I would be able to put each speaker on it's own channel, connect the amp with 2 RCA's (clearly that was correct - looks like multiples according to the directions), wire up the power leads and boom! Done! But it doesn't look like its going to be that simple lolol

[Big Block Power]

Do it simple. Your reading to much into it. Yes each Speaker to each channel. Pos and neg and turn on wire. Rca from head to amp done.

[Homeskillet]

I do tend to over think things like this. I think because it has typically been way out of my wheelhouse. But I want to learn and I want to do this right.

These are the connections on back of my amp, as well as the back of my head unit. If I run 1 speaker to it's own channel (6) how do I connect the RCA's from the back of the head unit, to the amp RCA's?

Thanks for continuing to be patient with this inexperienced audio guy

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[Big Block Power]

You will prob have to buy a dual y connector. Which channel will you want the bow speakers. And which speakers do you want the cockpit speakers on.
Do you want the cockpit diskettes to be your rear speaker channel and you bow speakers on your front channel. You will run from your head unit out to the amp in.

[Homeskillet]

The guy I was going to get the audio equipment from texted me and said:

"Just plug one set of RCA's from the "front out" of your head unit to channel one and two on the amp, and then hook up 6 speakers to 6 channels and see if it transfers. Lot of amps do."

I was thinking I needed to run an RCA for each channel I was using. I'll get to work on this in a week or 2

[jhnmdahl]

Edit - I thought you had the JL, not the Wetsounds. In your case, there are two switches, one for channels 3/4 and one for channels 5/6. Switch them both to 2 channel and you’ll be set.

Original msg:
Home skillet, he’s pretty close to right. There’s a switch on the amp marked “input mode” - make sure it’a Set to “2 ch” or 2 channel, and it will split the two input channels up to each of the three pairs of speakers. You can also provide four inputs or six inputs as the switch suggests - the manual describes how they work,

John