Summer upgrades Battery, Amps, and Speakers. (Questions)

THTABE

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[SIZE=12pt]Hello All,[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]First time poster long time reader.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Getting ready for summer with a stereo upgrade and have a few questions. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Installing duel battery system under rear lounge with Blue star add a battery. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Adding two amps, (1) 600W for New Sub and (1) 480W for new Rear speakers under the helm.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Adding 2 6.5 speakers in the rear [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Adding a 10" Sub location to be determined.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]My questions are as follows.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]1. Where and how are you grounding your amps for similar setups?[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]2. Where are you installing your subs? [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Thanks in advance for your time and input![/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Best regards,[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Tarry [/SIZE]
 
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Welcome!

To ground your amps, buy ground and power bus bars. That way you'll only have to fish the one 0ga ground and same for your power wire. Then you can run 4ga or 2ga to your amps, depending on manufacturer requirements.

Boats don't have a frame to ground to like a car so the common ground and common power should run straight to the battery and preferable the same battery to prevent engine whine from your speakers.
 
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[SIZE=12pt]That’s what I was thinking but I didn’t want to fish both the pos and neg in 1/0ga all the way back to the battery if there was another option. I was hoping there would be a large ground under the helm. Wishful thinking! [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Any tips on fishing with a wave shield or routing? [/SIZE]
 
I have all my stereo batteries mounted under my starboard side lounger, so luckily not a huge amount underdeck. That being said, I would check under your helm and see if you have a couple of "boots" where there are holes through the deck. Find the one with the most room and use it! 1/0 cables take up a lot of room, especially after you put in split loom for some added protection. If you have to get the cables all the way to the port side lounge, you are in for some fun! Also get substantially more cable then you "figure" you will need. It's one of those scenarios where being a little short isn't an option! 

As for sub location, the easiest is under the helm obviously. I had originally thought about putting a sub directly behind the helm seat (in the back of my rear lounger) but I decided to mount my onboard Pronautic charger there for my stereo batteries. I put a sub in each side of the lounger with 500W to each. They are Wet Sounds XS10FA free air subs. You don't hear a ton of bass from them up front, but then again, I've never disconnected the AS10 in the helm to compare. Although when you are laying in the loungers you get quite a nice massage!! Hehe 
 
Derrick,

Do you have the AS10 mounted in the helm? If so where is the sub facing?

I upgraded my subs and sub amp a couple of weeks back. We hit the sandar this weekend and I got to stretch its legs before the island got busy with too many other boaters. My helm sub is facing the helm door and when I walked around to the Starboard side, the fence was flexinging like you would not believe in a perfect outline of the helm. I shut her down and walked back to take a look and found that I put 3-4 dents (actually bulging outwards) in the fencing from the pressure waves. I'm not that worried about the fencing but certainly want to remedy the situation.
 
It couldn't have been that loud. I couldn't hear it over here.     :p
 
That sounds like bragging Spin!
 
Do you have a gap under your helm door, and a gap under the bottm panel rail (near the floor)? I can feel the air being pushed, but I have not flexed any panels...yet.
 
Carl - I'll make sure to come by your pad around 8:00am in the morning to do a sound test with you!

Lakeliving - I would have been bragging except that my outside fencing looks like the back side of a sheet of aluminum that survived a hail storm. Made my stomach turn.

Rockie - I have a sizable gap at my helm door but maybe 1mm at the railing. Certainly not enough to allow venting of the soundwaves. I can leave the helm door open to allow a large volume of air to escape but who wants to be kicking a door everytime they try to walk through the boat. I was also thinking that I could cut a hole in the helm (maybe into the seat storage to the bow).

If the weather permits us ot get out this weekend, I'll post a youtube video of the flexing that is taking place and the stretched metal to show what I'm talking about.
 
Do run separate main pos and neg direct to battery bank. Don't ground the amps to your main power loop. Much safer over the long run on your other electronics and ignition system.

Spin- the used to put a faux speaker grill on the helm doors with the as-10 upgrade but stopped.

I have 2 under there facing the helm door. Had to change the lock as it would blow the door open but never looked for dents. Wild.

I did dyna at the fence to reduce vibration. Going to dynamat more of the helm interior this summer.
 
Thanks for the advice, Will. I was thinking dynamat or hushmat might reduce the vibration on the fencing. My audio guru friend suggested I put rubber spacers between the external fencing and the rail skeleton. When the fencing vibrates and makes contact with the rail, it cannot transfer energy to the rigid frame, which is causing my dents.

Those 2 AS10s should put out much more pressure than my single M10W5 in the helm. Check the outside fencing opposite the helm during a song that produces consistent bass.
 
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Hello All,
First time poster long time reader.

Getting ready for summer with a stereo upgrade and have a few questions.

Installing duel battery system under rear lounge with Blue star add a battery.

Adding two amps, (1) 600W for New Sub and (1) 480W for new Rear speakers under the helm.

Adding 2 6.5 speakers in the rear

Adding a 10" Sub location to be determined.

My questions are as follows.

1. Where and how are you grounding your amps for similar setups?

2. Where are you installing your subs?

Didn't realize that question 2 was missed- I would seriously look at the wetsounds AS-10 for the sub. It has a built in amp- 500 watt- if I remember right. All enclosed with crossover built in and remote adjustment. Nice square that fits in the helm.

If you need more bass after that then look at add subs in the loungers. Bulldog doesn't think the free airs achieved all that was possible so maybe enclosure based would be best.

Bulldog- does your boat have the Faux Sub Grill on the helm door? Any pics available for Spin and I.

After amps and sub, you will notice that the 6.5's are weak. J/L's, Polk, and WetSound make the best 6.5's in my opinion.

Dual Battery setup is a must and will pay for itself quickly.
 
Thanks for the advice, Will. I was thinking dynamat or hushmat might reduce the vibration on the fencing. My audio guru friend suggested I put rubber spacers between the external fencing and the rail skeleton. When the fencing vibrates and makes contact with the rail, it cannot transfer energy to the rigid frame, which is causing my dents.

Those 2 AS10s should put out much more pressure than my single M10W5 in the helm. Check the outside fencing opposite the helm during a song that produces consistent bass.
Spin,

So sorry to hear about the dents in your panels! Was considering the helm as a location option for our sub in next winter's stereo upgrade project but now need to give that more thought. Had built a pretty extravagant amp/sub rack setup in our past boat but we're a little less ambitious than we were back in those days.  ;)   Of course, once we get started, these projects typically exhibit a little 'scope creep'!

Obviously, a little more work and cutting but considering the idea of the side of the rear lounger location like Derrick has but will need his opinion on a setup as a sub in that location vs. the helm. If Derrick can confirm that it should be adequate for our needs, we may lean that direction. We'll likely only do a single 12" (we only can do port side since we have a wash-down tank in our starboard rear lounger) plus maybe an 8" in our bow port table (RCWCP setup) - again, now knowing that we'll have to do an enclosure in that table vs. free air due to your panel issues (which was likely but weren't sure about it yet). So thanks for the heads up on that!

We have separate cabinets with subs, speakers, etc. that we use when beached (if the other folks around want our sound, usually brought out only when theirs prematurely run out of juice or fail due to 'amateur design and implementation' but always given an A for effort :) ). And we're more into the socializing and quality sound than volume these days so we don't need tons of volume like we had on the past boat. Just thinking the 2 subs and 6 Wetsounds speakers in the boat will be more than adequate, properly designed of course. So maybe since we're not looking for the huge volume you and Derrick have 'in' the boat and with that in mind, maybe the helm and associated side panels issue isn't a concern for a little lesser setup?

As always, any recommendations and info based on you guys' experience for placement and implementation on these Benningtons much appreciated!!
 
I put a as10 under my helm facing the door & had extreme rattling & flexing issues as well.i considered the dynomat but tried something alot cheaper that works great.i removed the 1/8" hard plastic spacer & bolts used to connect the helm & sq railing together.i filled the entire area between the helm & side paneling with closed cell foam from lowes used to cover copper pipes. I reconnected the two back together but used 1/4" soft rubber spacer with bolts. I then removed all pieces of woodgrain plastic on dash, glued foam weatherstripping to back side were the panels touch the helM & used plastic wing nuts to hold the nuts on the bolts, they would vibrate off. This all cost about $25 & took a twelve pack to get acomplished but sounds great. The as10 is amazing & i like alot bass with my electronic music, i put the remote control for it in the flip out compartment under steering wheel & just leave it open helps with relieving helm sound pressure.

I ran 1/0 oxygen free wire for the pos/neg distribution blocks under helm that feeds as10 & syn4. I have 2 group 27 dekas in parallel just for stereo, 1 group 24 starting battery, & a blue sea m-acr 7601/ 7649 seperating/combining them whether getting charge from alt or 3 bank charger. batterys, acr, & charger all in back seat.

I can run the as10 & syn4 all day no problems, sounds great whether at beach or top speed.
 
Wow, I really need to get back into the swing of things on the forum!! Sorry to all who asked or commented something relative to me, I never saw them until now! Okay

Spin, yes I have the as10 under the helm facing the helm door. It is pushed quite far back fairly close to the fence. I have never looked to see if it is flexing, but I also don't have it cranked up to a ridiculous high level. Mostly just for solid hits and some deep fill that the 6.5's can't do.

Willb, no mine does not have the faux grill.

Gnc, I would probably lean towards an as10 in the helm. Don't get me wrong, I think the xs-10fa's are great, but it is far easier to get good bass out of an enclosure than free air. If you feel like doing a lot of customizing and fabrication, you can definitely make your own enclosure for whichever sub your heart desires, but for the price and ease of use, that as10 from Wet Sounds is VERY hard to beat! As for the port table, keep in mind that Wet Sounds now has a new 6.5" sub. Might be a pretty easy fit for some added fill bass. Although it still might be better served as just a regular 6.5 xs-650, if you aren't looking for the crazy extremely loud bass and want a little more crisp clear vocals. I'd still like to hear one of those 6.5" subs though. I know 10" is really the sweet spot for my genre of music, it's a great average of tight and slow rumble.

Sorry if I missed anything else, I will try to pay closer attention!!! Haha
 
Thanks Derrick!!! This will be a winter project next year and just trying to plan ahead so was no rush at all. Great info - just the type of feedback I was looking for. Will need to see how ambitious we are once we get to that point but sounds like the sub in the helm may be okay for us anyways. Assuming nobody else is seeing issues with bent fences and all... While definitely won't be the norm, as chances are, I'm sure it will get cranked up on occasion and we don't want to create another issue. If you are someone who has seen any problems, would be much appreciated if you let us know as well.

Thinking back, our projects usually start out being conceived over a couple (or maybe a few more than a couple) of beers, then about half way though, going 'what were we thinking'. ;)   Who knows, maybe we're not as 'matured' as we think we are...
 
I have the  the as10 under my helm ( raised )  on an RCW ,no issues ( yet ) 
 
It is line with the helm door as far back as possible ,with the grill facing the door .
 
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