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For the audio folk, a question/revelation

BulldogsCadillac

BulldogsCadillac

Just some guy
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So I mentioned on another topic that I finally installed 2 more Wet Sounds XS-650 RGB's up front. Very happy with the output. Quite a difference, and after the initial 5" hole drilling, not all that difficult. BUT, once I got everything hooked up I went and took my multimeter and double checked the impedance. 1.9-2 Ohms, just as expected. So then I went and checked the factory wired four rear speakers(2+2) and I am getting a reading of 7.3-7.4 Ohms! I take a closer look under the helm and trace the one helm mounted speaker wires and I can see that they seem to have wired it in Series instead of Parallel! I am completely baffled why they would do this since the HT4 amps that originally came with, nor my SYN4's are meant to be running at 8 Ohms and are both 2 Ohm stable amps! So did Bennington screw up, or did they mean to give less volume output to the 6.5's? I can not figure out what the idea was for this. Any thoughts?
 
The only thing I could think of was to reduce the volume of that individual speaker a bit.  But then I just went and reread your post thinking it was only the helm speaker that was wired different.  You said the other 4 speakers so I really don't have a clue other than not making the amp work as hard.  Yeah it doesn't make a whole lot of sense especially if the amp isn't designed to run speakers at 8 ohms.
 
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Yes, but then all 4 mid and rear ship speakers are putting out far less sound, so you have 4 speakers putting out the volume of 2
 
Yep exactly.  Maybe it was just an oversight and they wired it incorrectly.  Does Bennington typically run an amp for the speakers or just run them off the deck?  I know you get an amp with the sub upgrade but I haven't seen anything that says they run a speaker amp as well.  I upgraded my stuff to the Wetsounds so will I expect to see an amp?  I just thought they ran the speakers off the deck.
 
Havasu said:
Yep exactly.  Maybe it was just an oversight and they wired it incorrectly.  Does Bennington typically run an amp for the speakers or just run them off the deck?  I know you get an amp with the sub upgrade but I haven't seen anything that says they run a speaker amp as well.  I upgraded my stuff to the Wetsounds so will I expect to see an amp?  I just thought they ran the speakers off the deck.
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Hmmm, not sure actually. Does the Wet Sounds upgrade have a sub too, or is it just the speakers? Normally they don't install an amp to just run in boat speakers. I have the tower model, so it came with two amps. I know the sub upgrade has an amp, plus the self powered amp on the sub enclosure. Now with the Kicker sub, I really don't know. 

As far as wiring incorrectly, well they had to want to wire it in series but why? They already had to run one wire from the rear speaker to the mid speaker, why not just run 2? It actually would have been cheaper because they are now running split loom from the helm to each speaker, plus loom from one speaker to the other.  Dunno. Just know it sucks because now that I found the problem, I can't stop thinking about it and will have to figure out a way to run a wire from one speaker to the other!
 
Was it wired at the factory or the dealer?
 
Rockie69 said:
Was it wired at the factory or the dealer?
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100% factory, well, besides all the crap I did. Just sucks because if I had known originally, I could have pulled wire when I ran my sub wires and made the connections under the helm.
 
I have the stock stereo still installed.  I have 6 speakers 2 front, 2 mid and 2 rears.  The rear 4 are ABSOLUTELY lower volume than the front 2. It is bad enough I actually fade to the rear 4-5 to even out the sound!  I think Me Derrick may have stumbled onto something here! Im gonna have to crawl under my helm now and check it out.
 
BulldogsCadillac said:
Hmmm, not sure actually. Does the Wet Sounds upgrade have a sub too, or is it just the speakers? Normally they don't install an amp to just run in boat speakers. I have the tower model, so it came with two amps. I know the sub upgrade has an amp, plus the self powered amp on the sub enclosure. Now with the Kicker sub, I really don't know. 

As far as wiring incorrectly, well they had to want to wire it in series but why? They already had to run one wire from the rear speaker to the mid speaker, why not just run 2? It actually would have been cheaper because they are now running split loom from the helm to each speaker, plus loom from one speaker to the other.  Dunno. Just know it sucks because now that I found the problem, I can't stop thinking about it and will have to figure out a way to run a wire from one speaker to the other!
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Well, I'm assuming (and you know how that can go) that the 4 Wetsounds speakers will be running off the deck and the Kicker sub off the Kicker amp.  I'm not a huge fan of Kicker but I'd rather the factory wire it initially.  I installed the system in my wakeboard boat with three amps so I'll most likely be redoing some of the Bennington stuff.  I'll see how it sounds stock but anticipate adding 2 more speakers and a 6 channel amp.  If the sub is underpowered (which I'm expecting) then I'll redo that set-up as well.  I guess I won't know anything until I get the boat in roughly 2 months and see what it needs.  That will give me the winter time to do some upgrades.
 
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From the factory, my 2 mids and 2 rear speakers were wired together as the stock headunit only has front and rear outputs.

I'd guess that every boat is wired the same without regard for optional amp upgrades.
 
spinzone said:
From the factory, my 2 mids and 2 rear speakers were wired together as the stock headunit only has front and rear outputs.

I'd guess that every boat is wired the same without regard for optional amp upgrades.
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You only have 4 speakers total?  I have 6. Im assuming the front 2 are on the front channel and the back 4 are on the rear channel based off of the sound change when I fade front to back. 
 
spinzone said:
From the factory, my 2 mids and 2 rear speakers were wired together as the stock headunit only has front and rear outputs.

I'd guess that every boat is wired the same without regard for optional amp upgrades.
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I completely understand having to wire them together, I just don't know why it would be in series. Maybe decks aren't stable at 2 ohms? The output of the mid/rear speakers would be atrocious on deck power alone! I've been getting by fine since I had the SYN4 powering, but wow. I might have a way to fix the issue without too much trouble. It all works out in my mind. May just have to run one wire through the back of my port rear lounger, into the garbage can area, then into the seat base. Sounds good in theory! Haha. Now to find the time, and the desire, to spend some quality time in the helm!
 
Yeah its not great thats for sure.  Im looking into deck and speaker options for the off season upgrade.  
 
BulldogsCadillac said:
I completely understand having to wire them together, I just don't know why it would be in series. Maybe decks aren't stable at 2 ohms? The output of the mid/rear speakers would be atrocious on deck power alone! I've been getting by fine since I had the SYN4 powering, but wow. I might have a way to fix the issue without too much trouble. It all works out in my mind. May just have to run one wire through the back of my port rear lounger, into the garbage can area, then into the seat base. Sounds good in theory! Haha. Now to find the time, and the desire, to spend some quality time in the helm!
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I don't know why they did it either. Probably easier to wire them halfway than running all the way.
 
JIm_Andrea said:
You only have 4 speakers total? I have 6. Im assuming the front 2 are on the front channel and the back 4 are on the rear channel based off of the sound change when I fade front to back.
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Stock: 6 speakers. Just the 4 rear speakers wired together.
 
spinzone said:
I don't know why they did it either. Probably easier to wire them halfway than running all the way.
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I don't know how much easier it could be to wire this thing then during construction!!!  Lazy if you ask me.  For what they charge 6 speaker models should get proper wiring and extra amp/amps if needed to do it properly.  Just my 2 cents
 
This 6 speaker setup is a puzzle for me too as I consider upgrading the stereo over the winter. I assume my R has 2 pairs wired to rears and 1 pair wired to the front. If they're all the same impedance, it takes a lot of balancing to make it sound decent. I wondered if I should look at 6ch amps or just go with a 4ch again  :unsure:

An amp is more likely to be stable into a higher impedance than going down to 2 ohms, though it typically makes more power that way. Wiring them in series is the safer way to go IMHO.
 
Sony head units are not rated below 4.

I caught that when i put my 6 channel amp in. It's a pain to run speaker wires to correct it. Wasn't happy at all
 
So adding the 2 extra speakers really didn't do much good then.  With half the power from the head unit no wonder they sound so AWESOME!  Guess I will waiting till winter for sure before I do any upgrades. I may do a little investigating. If the helm speaker and side panel speakers are the first in the series I can just disconnect them and just connect the leads together.  
 
We ordered ours (6 speaker R series boat) with just the head unit (no amps) as we want to do our own amp and subwoofer setup this winter. Not that Bennington doesn't offer good amp setups, they just weren't exactly what we want and we have the ability to do our own. Haven't checked ours with a multi-meter but based on the fader control, the front 2 speakers are front channels and the 2 nearest the helm and 2 between the rear loungers are the rear channel. Since the head unit isn't 2 ohm stable, I would hope they wired them in series and would certainly think they did.

I'm wondering if with all of the different boat and stereo configurations they offer, maybe they always do the rears on a 6 speaker system in series, such that there would be no issues (other than the loss of some power to the rears), regardless of head unit power, 4 channel amp, etc. Now if they did a 6 channel amp on a 6 speaker boat, I would certainly think and hope they would wire them each independently.

I'm not saying it is the best way sound output-wise for those that have a 6 speaker boat and 4 channel amp that is in fact 2 ohm stable but with all the possible configurations, continuous changes in equipment, the fact that these boats are mass produced, etc., I can maybe see why the more consistent way could prevent some build errors and issues. This would of course be at the sacrifice of some power for some configurations that could actually handle it, noting that many wouldn't notice the difference anyway. And for the small percentage of us (keeping in mind their total annual volume) who do really want the true high-end system and it to be 'just right', we typically have the means to make it that way ourselves anyway.

Keep in mind, we only have 1 boat, wired 1 way. So I can't confirm how they build the others. Just wondering if the above may be the case...
 
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