Amp & Speaker Questions

Looking for some help fella's:

I'm installing a Wetsounds 420 BT into my 2009 24 with the stock Kicker system with (2) amps: one/2 channel and one/5 channel.

I assume that the 2 channel amp would be driving the Roswell Tower cans? I do realize I can pull the RCA's on the two channel and see what happens.

Assuming that I'm right about the 2 channel driving the tower. Then how is the 5 channel amp is driving the sub and 6 boat speakers (4 in cockpit and 2 in bow)....what I'm after is how are 6 speakers "normally" wired into 4 channels? I ask because I can currently fade sound between the boat and the tower and will be able to do the same with the WS420BT............what I'd really like to do is be able to fade between the bow and cockpit speakers. How can I accomplish this?

The sub is in the normal spot under the helm. With the heater directly behind the sub I would appear to awful difficult to create an enclosure without relocating it. With no enclosure it's uber worthless:

1. Has anyone successfully enclosed it (dealing with the heater) without relocating it?
2. If I relocate so I can enclose it then any ideas on the right spot?

Thanks ;)

You will not be able to fade from bow to cabin with a 420 installed.
For the subwoofer, your local marine installer should be able to help you out. It's a sacrifice of space for sound quality pretty much so you have to decide how much work you want to do.
Off the top of my head you can loose foot space and enclose it.
You can properly IB the mounting facade.
Keep it and tune it.

You need to have 3 sets of RCA's going from your 420 to the amps. 1 set will power the sub. That's easy, it's the sub channel on the 4 channel amp. I'm pretty sure that the 4 remaining channels of that amp are powering your cabin/bow speakers. The 4 cabins will probably be on one pair of channels at 2 ohms, and the bow speakers are going to be the remaining 2 channels at 4 ohms. Since you're only going to run a single set of RCA's to the Bow/Cabin channels of that amp, you'll want to make sure you press the switch to sum the inputs of that single RCA to the 4 channels of the amp.

The last amp would be the tower speakers and it'll get a pair of RCA's from the 420. It's Possible that there's a set of passthrough RCA's going from the 5 channel amp to give an input to the tower amp, but that would kinda surprise me. Bottom line is that you'll have 3 pairs of RCA's leaving the 420 and they need to go to Sub/Cabin/Towers. You'll also have a SINGLE set of RCA's going from your headunit to the 420, so no more fading from the deck itself. (that's why you bought the zone controller in the first place.)

kenny,

The addition of the WS-420 will give you 3 zone volume control: tower, sub and entire in-boat, meaning main cabin and bow as a single zone. if you desire bow volume control, I would suggest running the 420 input from the head-unit's rear output, then run the bow amp inputs to the head-unit's front RCA outputs with a simple line level POT in between. locate that line level controller in the bow area. head-unit volume will typically be near 100% and the 420 will serve as master volume and line level for bow controls their level independent.

I would work to keep the woofer where it is and work the heater so an enclosure can be placed in there along with it.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I did a temporary install to understand what went were (it was a zip tie jungle) so I've got a handle on things. I was shocked to hear how poor the free air sub response was.....blah.

thanks to Mike on the bow volume "how to".

Time to start pulling wires.....

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I was shocked to hear how poor the free air sub response was

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Funny thing is, you dont have a free-air (infinite baffle) sub, but rather a sub intended for a small enclosure screwed to a facade thats likely open at the top and no enclosure behind. So, rather than listening to in infinite-baffle woofer, you are hearing a poorly designed system. Hardly any boat manufacturer gets their sub setups right.

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Originally Posted by Wylietunes

Funny thing is, you dont have a free-air (infinite baffle) sub, but rather a sub intended for a small enclosure screwed to a facade thats likely open at the top and no enclosure behind. So, rather than listening to in infinite-baffle woofer, you are hearing a poorly designed system. Hardly any boat manufacturer gets their sub setups right.

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Poorly worded statement on my part as I do understand the point you make. That said is there an "optimal" enclosure size to target for max efficiency?

Assuming your 09 has the Kicker KM10 woofer. I like that woofer in no more than 1.0 ft3 sealed. Reduced down to .8 ft peaks it up a little, which some people like. I would shoot for the 1.0 as its easier reduce the volume than stretch the box.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wylietunes

Assuming your 09 has the Kicker KM10 woofer. I like that woofer in no more than 1.0 ft3 sealed. Reduced down to .8 ft peaks it up a little, which some people like. I would shoot for the 1.0 as its easier reduce the volume than stretch the box.

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Yep, exactly right. Thanks for the reccomendation....much appreciated. Ken