adding rear speakers and controller

peoriaone

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Has anyone added rear speakers and a controller that can be reached from the water to their Bennington?  I am interested in what equipment you used.  I also want to make them their own volume control so I can turn down the volume on the other speakers for people on the boat that want to talk but allow the rear speakers to be cranked up.  Thanks for any input
 
I can't comment specific to the Bennington (waiting on one) but I had a Wetsounds zone controller (WS-420SQ) in my wakeboard boat.  With the zone controller, I was able to control the in-boat speakers, the sub and tower speakers all independent of each other.  I had the stereo remote on the rear transom for adjusting the volume and changing songs (IPOD control).  When underway just cruising I'd turn down the tower speakers to nearly nothing and just run the in-boats and sub.  When I beached, I turned the towers up and the in-boats way down but typically left the sub as is.  The controller was under the left dash.  Once I did that, I could fine-tune the volume of the tower speakers from outside the rear of the boat.  Worked very well.  The controller even has a PA mic for the rear speakers so I could talk to someone that was wake boarding or tubing.  It would cancel the music from those speakers when keyed up and then come back on when finished.  Pretty slick little unit.  I was very happy with it.  Just my .02.
 
I have the above mentioned equalizer by Wet Sounds in my boat. I used the V-lock mount to put two Icon 8's on the back rail. Thus, I have my 4 in-boat speakers and the two Icons in back and I can control them separately. It sounds fantastic!
 
I don't have a rear remote, but I imagine it would not be that hard to add. Derrick could probably make a recommendation. My Icon speakers in back swivel completely around and actually sound great in the boat and also during tubing. I can disconnect the speakers and I store them under the helm when not in use. I can then cover the boat normally with the cover.
 
Were you planning on having them on their own amplifier or tied with the signal from the other speakers? If just running in parallel with the other speakers, than I don't really see any easy way to do it. Now if they are powered off their own amplifier than I think either the Bluetooth controller from Wet Sounds, 

https://wetsounds.com/pages/products/WW-VC-BT.html

Or even the inline input/output volume control could work.

https://wetsounds.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?preadd=action&key=WWLCONTROL

I will say upfront that I have never seen these in person, nor spoke with anyone who has them, but probably a quick call to Wet Sounds customer service would answer if they would work for you. 

I do want to get one of the eq's jsur mentioned as I know they are a great product, especially for differentiating the zone volumes, but you were asking about a rear control to do that.
 
I have a Wetsounds BT-420. It's a great unit.

Also I have installed a few of the line level controllers and they work great for doing exactly what your wanting to do.

How ever this requires you have a separate amp or zone to be controlled. Example you make choose to have your head unit control all 4 interior speakers and they buy a separate small 2 or 4 channel amp to power the rear speakers your talking about. You could add the volume control at the back of the boat or at the dash where ever it's good for you and that way you could have music going backwards and facing you while in the water and have the boat shut off for "Quite Time" we have it set up this way in our family boat. Works awesome for kids nappy time.
 
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