Stereo - To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade

[NautiGirl]

Hard to tell from pics, but don't dismiss it due to age, older does not always mean bad in audio gear. There are a large number of people - myself included - that think older stuff sounds better than whats new on the market.

My primary concern - especially on the speakers - would be that none of that stuff appears to be marine rated. Most likely doesn't matter as much with the amps as long as you mount them in a location that stays dry, but the speakers are going to get splashed and be out in the sun and elements. Additionally that sub box looks to be made of MDF which basically falls apart when it gets wet.

Not saying its Junk gear, just saying dont be surprised if you get a couple seasons out of it before it starts to have some issues from getting wet.

[Homeskillet]

Some good insight. I will likely take all of that gear and see what I can use. I am looking at those kicker speakers too.

[Homeskillet]

Personally I don't think the JL is much above the factory set up. Lol
A amp is a must. Sub. I was ok without it this year. Really when you buy good speakers is really not needed. My 222 had a 8 inch sub in a box the compartment behind the port bow seat. It worked. If you don't want to buy a amp just get the Sony mexbt100 head unit. Or rip all of the crap out and go big and go home and yes be like me and put something in it louder than your wife can yell. If you can still hear her your really in deep crap. I'll let you know where I stand in 4 months.

When you had your sub in there, how did you secure it? Did it cause a lot of vibration and rattling when you turned it up? We store our life jackets in the compartment in front of the passenger console. That's pretty much all we put in there. Other than what Nauti said with the moister (which would likely be present from wet jackets) I'm wondering if that would work. At least it would give me a chance to see/hear if a sub is something that we even want.

I've seen pictures of 220's with their amps mounted to the inside walls of that same compartment, too.

[Big Block Power]

No real issues. Heck anything is going to rattle. Heck mine was mounted in frt of the passenger and it rattled everything. You don't want it to rattle don't add it. My Amps are and are going to be mounted to that wall also. I had a big 12inch kicker sub and box in mine but I didn't like the extra weight. It could have been a bit in my head. I added weather stripping around the fender Storage area because when it rains water enters into that storage compartment gets everything all wet again might be bad for MDF.

[Homeskillet]

Nice pics thx!

What I meant by "rattling" was that sometimes everything rattles and clanks even at super low volumes, like my kid's car lol, and I don't want that. Most of our listening will be at lower volumes and I'm guessing with the acoustics (or lack there of because of the open space from being out on the water) will any rattling I have be more pronounced?

Great idea with the weather strip. Is it keeping water out?

Looks like you were able to use some short screws and screw your amps right to that back wall of that compartment too. Did you take that wall out to run wire, or is there some space there to just push em thru?

[Big Block Power]

That is just a piece of marine grade plywood a few inches of space between that and the fiberglass. You remove that to gain access to all wiring by the radio. At low volumes it may not rattle like your kids car. I will be mounting both new amps to that or the starboard to that. The carpet is also covering a precut round hole for the sub to get permanently mounted.

[Homeskillet]

Install guy says I need more power. That 1000w amp is a 4 channel. My buddy giving me the amp says to "ask my installer about running speakers in series or in parallel."

So what do I need for power if I went with JL Audio and ran that 10" sub?

[Big Block Power]

Install guy says I need more power. That 1000w amp is a 4 channel. My buddy giving me the amp says to "ask my installer about running speakers in series or in parallel."

So what do I need for power if I went with JL Audio and ran that 10" sub?

1 eight channel amp would do it. But let's see what Jeff says. He's the JL guy.

[NautiGirl]

Install guy says I need more power. That 1000w amp is a 4 channel. My buddy giving me the amp says to "ask my installer about running speakers in series or in parallel."

So what do I need for power if I went with JL Audio and ran that 10" sub?

You can run multiple speakers off a single amp channel, which is what your buddy is suggesting. It can get complicated, and you need to make sure you are not putting too low of an Ohm load on the amp. I personally think its way easier to just buy an amp with the appropriate number of channels from the start. Makes things way simpler, but I get it, also costs money.

What are we trying to do here? We started at just replacing speakers with head unit power now we are throwing 1000w amps in the boat. As I said earlier the speakers look like the tweeters are rusting and that they have seen better days. I would replace those. I get doing all new speakers and then adding amps is a big investment. What if we did JL speakers off the head unit then added amps next season? Are you even set on JL? WetSounds makes nice stuff, they just sound different than JL's. You need to side by side them before you chose.

Help me figure out where we are trying to go and I can put something together.

[Big Block Power]

Home skillet your treading on dangerous water here. Careful free isn't cheap. Lol here ya go. Myself and Mr. Nauti guy great deals from creative. I think we each have discount codes for ya if needed. I would upgrade your 6 inboats with marine speakers. Here are a couple of options on the 8 channel. Remember you will want to replace your pwr and gnd cables as Cobalt didn't do us any favors in that dept. They are easy under sized from the factory. So that's another $200.00 also.
This puts a 100w to each inboat and 200w to the sub.

[Bfun220]

If your not cutting a hole for a sub, you could always look at going with 6 channel amp for speakers and add this.

[Homeskillet]

Well I started thinking about upgrading because my friend was/is handing over some equipment that I wouldn't otherwise have purchased (yet anyway haha). I figured I could use my little "nest egg" to get decent speakers and wire, since I'd be saving on the amps and sub. I may have misread, but I thought someone said I couldn't run the JL's with just the head unit. I will most likely keep that head unit no matter what direction I go. I don't mind it and I added bluetooth to it last year and it works great!

My install guy has installed hundreds of systems, I'm told. I like him and completely trust him. He recommended JL or Polk momos. I agree with everyone in that we all have different ears - I need to find a place to listen to whatever I put in (and I will). But I also know a good speaker can sound very bad without enough power. Kicker was mentioned as not needing amperage. What about JL, Wetsounds or Polk? If those amps turn out to be so out dated that they suck, I don't want to be stuck with crappy sounding speakers because I didn't have enough juice running to them, for a season.

So I guess here's where I am at. I think I will get my hands on those amps and sub and have my install guy test em??? That would dictate the direction this potential job will go. If they're good, then I'll will start listening to speakers that fit their power rating. If they're not good, chances are I will just do 6 new speakers this off season, and I'll have to find decent speakers that can be driven by just the head unit.

If any of the speakers mentioned above will sound decent enough with just the head unit (at least better than my current Sony speakers) and then superb with more power, I'd get the best I can afford and cobble the rest of it together in the future.

[Big Block Power]

I'm supprised bfun didn't say more about his polks. I think he used them without a amp. I have 6 Kenwood speakers that I used before my upgrade. I used them without a amp for a season or 5 minutes in but sure which. They are better than the Sony's. I was going to keep them in case I buy a new boat that needs a upgrade but I'm in pretty deep to remove this new system so I'll let them go reasonably if you're interested. But really Kicker - more bass then I like, Polk, JL or Wet Sounds you can't go wrong for future upgrade. Take baby steps then hit it hard next year.

[Homeskillet]

That is a very generous offer with respect to your old speakers. But I think I will look for something new. The idea of those kickers having little more bass is intriguing. Perhaps those would be a good fit for me without an amp and sub. I wish all this would have been done by the previous owner lol.

If the deal with the boat I own now would have fallen through, my backup plan had all JL audio stuff in it, including amps and a sub. I would have had to drive to Detroit to get it haha. But I wouldn't have had to worry about any of these decisions Kind of fun tho I guess.

Anyone know if there are any 6.5 speakers that are basically "plug and play" in terms of screw holes etc? Thought I read that Nauti had to drill new holes for his speakers. Not a huge deal but if the Kickers for example matched perfectly, I'd probably look at those 1st

[Bfun220]

I'm supprised bfun didn't say more about his polks. I think he used them without a amp.

I have Polk Audio MM651UM they are discontinued.
Already had 6 of them when I bought the boat and I liked them better than the kickers that were in the boat.Yes, I ran them for 1 season without an amp. Without an amp they were ok. Speakers are only as good as the signal going in. An external amplifier does a much better job of providing a clean audio signal to your speakers than your head unit.