For all you stereo guru's I have a question...
Would it hurt anything or would I be running a risk of noise issues by running power wires for an eq along with the rca cables that interconnect the eq with the stereo and the amps?
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For all you stereo guru's I have a question...
Would it hurt anything or would I be running a risk of noise issues by running power wires for an eq along with the rca cables that interconnect the eq with the stereo and the amps?
Yes. Seperate if possible. Always keep your power away from everything else. That includes the remote wire.
If you had to route the wires wayyyy around the long way and have trouble hiding them, would you still try to keep them seperate? Is there some ways to ensure better shielding so they can be run together or somewhat near each other?
When I wired my 420 I ran the rca's around the bow and was able to fish the power wires fairly straight under the floor and come out under the dash. Have not started the boat yet so I'm hoping no alt noise. I did get lots of ground loop noise so I rewired the head unit and the 420 off of the acc battery. Seemed to take care of all of it. It's a pita to keep the rca's seperate but have always had better luck doing so.
Maybe I'll play around with it before I finalize the wiring to see if I'm getting ground loop noise or any other transient noise. My choices are a little limited, but I might be able to run the eq power around the long way to keep it away from the rca's. The way I built my amp rack the amp power wires and rca's almost have to be somewhat near each other. They will exit the amp rack on opposite sides, though. The only other wire to consider is the power wire going to to eq. It is essentially needing to end up in the same place, which was why I was thinking of running it with the rca's. That power wire, by the way, is a 3 conductor insulated style so it will have a little more protection as far as emitting noise, I would think.
Something to add to this...
The amp rack is built so that the wiring comes out of each corner, essentially. It provides a path for me to hide some wires that need to "pass thru" that area. I need to run my rca for the sub amp and the deck through there and it would work best to run my power for the eq through there. The wiring will only be near amp power wires for a few inches. It will run right along with the eq power wires, which are pretty low power. My other option on the eq power wires is to run them along the other edge of the compartment where the power wires for the main battery are. Keep in mind, my second battery powering the stereo system is not connected to the electrical system of the engine at all. Wouldn't I run more risk of picking up noise in the eq by running it's power wires near the main battery engine wires than I would having it running near the rcas being connected to it?
Only way to know for sure is try it. The best way for me to check for noise was to turn my ballast pumps on for a few sec.. Must have been wired and grounded on the drivers acc panel. You asked and interesting question about shielding. When I was temp wireing my setup I could pick up ac noise thru the vacum cleaner wire laying accross the rcas.Should have tried foil and other thigs to see if they could be insulated from noise. Like to know the answer to that
By the way...sneak peek at the amp rack so far.
Nice start, Okie.
Also, not to jump in on you, but what about picking up noise on the speaker wires? I should have options available to separate power & signal wires when the time comes, but ran my rear cabin speaker wires along side all the new wires to the transom when I prewired the top cap.
Don't know. I haven't had problems before, and many of the speaker wires are running somewhat near certain power wires.
All my cabin speakers were factory run with power leads and have been lucky maybe but don't pickup noise from them. Just the grounds and rca's. Nice job okieQuote:
Originally Posted by Okie Boarder
I added wire tie clamps to the bottom of the amp rack so I can run the rca's along there if needed. I also have the option of running the eq power around the other side. I could also shield it or the rca's more and run them together. I'll play with it to see.
I did my first trial connection last night without the eq. Haven't gotten the eq yet. I had a little issue with the connections to the new cabin speaker amp. Accidently had the power and ground switched for some reason. I'm kicking myself for that one after all the care and time I took getting everything routed properly and looking good. I popped both fuses before I realized it. Replaced the fuses, switched the wires back to the proper way and everything seems fine. I ran just the cabin speakers and did an initial settings tune. I'm definitely getting much cleaner and louder sound versus running off the deck. It should compliment the system much better.
New sub box should arrive today. My other one managed to get enough moisture in it to start mildewing. I'm going to have to look into how I mount it this time to prevent that. Hopefully I will have the amp rack all in and everything ready to go this weekend. As soon as I get the eq, I will just need to connect it up. I'm going to run all the wires over to where it goes and have everything ready to go for it.
I'll post some more pictures of the amp rack and progess when I have a chance.
Here's a few more pictures. I'm still finalizing some of the wiring. So far I don't have any noise issues. I ran it quite a bit last night with a variety of music and it seems like it is roughly tuned pretty good. Once the eq is in, I'll fine tune.
I did notice my head unit is still getting pretty hot. I would have thought it wouldn't now that I have no speaker connected to it. Everything is running on the pre-amp outs. Any thoughts on this?
Not sure about the heat, but interested in the T shaped power blocks you have there? where'd they come from?
Hey Okie, looks good, my head unit just gets warm. Even if I run it a long time. Ran it one night till I drained one of the batteries. Wanted to see how warm my amps got. Head unit was just warm. Don't know if different brands are different in heat. Don't remember what year your boat is or what kind of head unit you had but mine is an 08 with a kenwood marine. It has a menu function to turn off the internal head unit amp. Should help. Also had the head unit level set to about 2/3 max volume when tuning and adjusted the gain on the amps for volume. Had eq set to flat. Your gonna like the 420. Isn't earth shatteringly different but gives you great controll. Also if you head unit has lower preoutput voltage it'll boost that to 5v.
My Supra is an ol skooler. I have a cheapy Sony head unit. Doesn't appear to have the "amp" out turn off. That would be the ticket right there.
Also, not doing the 420...doing the Clarion unit. I still should get a little more voltage out than the head unit so it should help.
Here's some more pics. It's basically done except for fine tuning. I big thanks to my son for crawling up in te compartment to help me route and tie back wires. The tunes sound really good. Loud and clear.
The eq really helps to boost the levels so the stereo volume can stay down quite a bit. We're going to love having the fader to be able to adjust the loudness between tower and cabin speakers.
I also got my new steering cable and helm put in. No pictures of that...nothing to see there really. Man, I will tell ya it is a huge improvement (at least off water). Our steering was about as tight as a front wheel drive care with no power steering. Now it can turn with 1-2 fingers. I had bad news with my oil drain hose set up I bought from DIM, so I'm trying to figure that one out. I'm going to look at some hydraulic supply places and see if I can get a couple fittings to finish the job. If not, I need to raise the engine a bit to install the fitting.
Almost ready to go.
More pics....
Was going to see if you got it put together already. Looks good.
Thanks.
I did end up running the power to the EQ and the RCA's together. So far, no noise issues, but if it becomes a problem I can always re-route the power around the other side to get it away from the RCA's.
I ran the system quite a bit the other day and I am noticing everything getting fairly warm. I'll have to keep an eye on that and see if I'm going to need some form of venting to cool things down.
Quick update...
Decided to just put in a regular drain plug and I'm going to buy a Pela pump for oil changes. Got oil in and fired her up the other night. She started right up no problem and ran fairly well. I plan for an on water test tomorrow.
I also figured out a way to get the sub box further back under the helm so we can have a little more leg room for whoever is driving.
Maiden voyage went well with no problems to report. I'm still trying to dial in and tune the sound system. I'm trying to find a happy medium between the cabin speakers sounding real tinny or getting too much low end that they struggle.
Hi pass and crossover set at 100. Maybe 80.Sound systems are like drugs. It's never enough.
I have it set high pass and about 200 hz. Anything lower than that and the speakers seem like they struggle getting some of the bass and being able to handle it. Should I be trying to filter that out with the eq and increasing what the sub is getting to compensate?
Even cheap coax should run ok at 100. You sure your set at hp and not on lp. Sub is independent and should pick up all low freq below 100. Sounds like your not set right on the amps.
I'll double check and see this next weekend, but I'm almost certain it is set to HP. If I have the sub and tower off, tuning the cabin speakers, how much bass or movement should they see? I did most of the adjustments at a pretty high volume level...should I be keeping that on the lower side? Should I fine tune with the eq for additional frequency cut off?
Also, what would be the recommendation for volume levels on the stereo and eq to fine tune everything? I set my stereo at about 50% and the eq volume control to about 85-90% then set my amp gains to as high as I could until slight "scream" or distortion sounds, then backed them off a touch.
the head unit should be set flat too. No boost or Loudness on eq on head unit. Wet sounds has a great write up on setting an eq and amp gains.
Link?
I was doing it with the settings on the HU flat. Should it's sub out level be flat too? I set it's LPF at 125 hz. I can select 125 or 80 (I think). Other than the sub out level being up a bit and the LPF at 125 hz, everything else is set flat.
I found this...
http://www.wetsounds.com/media/produ...stallation.pdf
Is that what you're referring to?
I followed the process for the Wet Sounds and it turned out pretty good. I fine tuned a little bit with some different music to get the cabin speakers and the tower speakers as loud as I could without sounding bad. The cabin speakers seem OK on almost all music now. The tower speakers seem to struggle a little bit on certain music that has a lot of mid bass. Some of the Nickelback, Metallica and a few others get a little distorted. I turned up the cut off frequency for the tower speakers to 200 hz and I found that if I lower the level on the 125 hz setting of the eq, it cleans it up. Almost anything will play and sound pretty good now, although I can see where certain music might require a little eq tuning to keep the distortion away.
On a side note, I realized that played loud Toby Keith really has a voice that 'strains' speakers. I played around listening to a few of his songs.
I am in the process now of putting the final touches in. I ordered a large fuse block for the main power lead from battery to distribution blocks. I also built a large cover for both distribution blocks and will mount the fuse block on the front of that. I ordered the Sure Power 1314 and may mount it on the cover, too, if there is enough room.
Almost done for the year and ready to just enjoy it.
glad it worked out. Distortion, need more power. Lots more power. I'm running 205 watts rms @4 to each of my 80's and 550 @ 2ohms to my pro 485. They really like the power. I'm running 129 @ 4ohms to each of my 650 cockpits. Loud and no distortion. Just a butt load of money
Yup. If I had the Wet Sounds or something similar it would be a lot better, I'm sure. I'm running the Kicker KMT6's on the tower powered just right, but you have to have the volume up pretty high to get them loud and distortion can go along with that a bit.
A new picture. I'm making a platform type cover to go over the distribution blocks. I'm using that as a place to mount the main fuse and also the Sure Power 1314. Here is how it looks so far.
Here are some pictures of the completion and installation of the cover along with the blocks the sub sits on.
Got out on the water Saturday and things are sounding good...definitely very loud and the Sure Power seems to be working well to keep the second battery charged. I had a couple little issues, but I think I have them worked out. When we got home, the new IS75 was on the front door step. I played around with that a little yesterday and got it working pretty good with my wife's iphone. I'm still toying with ideas on where the mount will sit. I found a spot that should work for now and we'll see how it goes. It's going to be nice to have our music library easily accessible for the system, plus having iheart radio and pandora will be cool.
sounds like you are always fiddeling around too. Glad you like your tunes. I guess using them are what is really fun. Made a stupid observation on my wet sounds stuff this weekend. Leveled all my tower speakers in the garage but noticed when I'm being pulled the bow is up and the speakers point down. Da. Like I said, always fiddeling.
I had that happen to me last year. This year I set them at level, then went a set amount off level to point them up a little but to compensate for that.