Well, the radio on the boat is about 90% finished. Speakers are in, wires run, everything hooked up, and it sounds great! In fact it worked so well I thought I’d give ya’ll a final report in case someone wants to duplicate what I did. I did everything myself except cutting the holes for the speakers and pulling the wire (which was really a good bit of the work). I couldn’t bring myself to cut holes in the boat so I had the professionals do it. Kevin Cobb of Blue Heron Boat Works did that for me and he did a great job.
Basically, what I did was forgo having a head unit since I just listen to my ipod 90% of the time. The flush mount 3.5mm jack lets me have a really clean installation without spending $150 (at least) on a head unit I don’t want or need. The 3.5mm jack has RCA male inputs that I split with the Y cables for the 4 channel amp. The amp is powered directly off of the battery and the remote off/on goes to the ACC switch on the console. I have to say that I know nothing about such things and managed to figure it out so it has to be really easy. The amp is in the e-box of the t-top and the aux jack is in the front so everything is pretty well out of the weather.
I guess the amp could be a little bigger but it is still loud and I don’t have to worry about blowing speakers. I got everything (almost) off of ebay and I have less than $500 in everything. It could have been much less but I went with tinned copper on pretty much everything (that stuff ain’t cheap). I can still hook up a satellite radio if I want to as well. Overall I highly recommend it.
Here’s a list of what I used. If you have any questions or constructive criticism I’d be happy to hear them.
JBL 6.5’s
http://www.jbl.com/car/products/product_detail.aspx?prod=MS6200&Language=ENG&Country=US&Region=USA&cat=MAR&ser=MRN
JBL 240W amp
http://www.jbl.com/car/products/product_detail.aspx?prod=MA6004&Language=ENG&Country=US&Region=USA&cat=MAR&ser=MRN
Bazooka 8"'s
http://www.sasbazooka.com/products/marine/Speaker
this thread is worthless without pics of the install itself. Would love to see the pics of the system on the boat
No one knows if YOU are THE village IDIOT or not until YOU open your mouth and speak!!!
make sure that the amp has some sort of ventilation if enclosed in an electronics box. it will overheat eventually if not.
ft worry.
I used this set up in my 16 high tide. Free space was a huge concern. I use it for my sirius plug and play to move between car and boat. It is not much, but for around $100 I am very happy with it. Mostly for us guys with small boats, if space was not an issue I would prefer larger amp and larger speakers.
http://www.polyplanar.com/productSingle.aspx?prt=MP3-KIT_A
Sounds sweet. Im looking at putting a system in my boat. I wouldnt mine seeing yours before I dive in. Can you hook me up with some pictures? Or if you planning on being on the water sometime meet up.
thanks
“My fish served a whole lunchon. Your fish look like a munchkin”
196CC Tidewater 2008
Suzuki 115 2008
2007 Toyota Tundra TRD 5.7L V8
I’ll definitely put some pictures up. I considered the poly planar kit as well but wanted a little more punch.
Key West Sportsman 186
Yamaha 150 4 Stroke
I put a cheap radio and speakers in the duck boat. I wanted to be able to take the radio out during duck season, so I took a 7 way truck/trailer plug and mounted the female end in the boat with speakers, power, and such connected. I took the male end and made sure all the female wires went to the right male wires. Installed the speakers and then when I took the boat out just had to insert the male end into the female end that was installed in the boat.
No one knows if YOU are THE village IDIOT or not until YOU open your mouth and speak!!!
Ok, project is 100% done. I installed the AUX jack today (just drilled the hole and screwed on the backing nut) and bolted down the amp. I also took some pictures although its so simple there’s not much to take pictures of.
This is the AUX jack installed. As you can see I had enough room to put it in the upper left hand corner of the ebox so it is out of the way and out of the weather.
The AUX jack has RCA inputs. I split these with two Y cables because I had a 4 channel amp. Obviously if I only used a couple of speakers I could have used a 2 channel amp and not needed the Y cables. I was also told that I could wire all four speakers on a 2 channel amp but that was above my pay grade.
The Y cables plugged into the amp in the ebox.
All of the wires run out of the top of the ebox and into one of the posts on the t top and then into the console to where ever they need to go.
A clean install! Notice the acorn nuts bolting the amp into the ebox. I also put an oversized nut between the amp and the ebox to raise it up a little just in case a little water got in there.
The 8’s in the gunwales just above the step so you can’t hit them with your knees as you’re walking around. The 6.5’s in the consol
the amp should be fine as far as heat goes as long as its not covered with carpet or anything that will prevent ventilation. im pretty sure as long as you have about 2 inch clearance all around except under you will be fine. i have seen amps packed in to smaller places in a car before and still work great. nice work!
im not to sure, but im pretty sure…
thats awesome man. good job
“My fish served a whole lunchon. Your fish look like a munchkin”
196CC Tidewater 2008
Suzuki 115 2008
2007 Toyota Tundra TRD 5.7L V8