SoundMan Car Audio - Boat Audio Set Up Help

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Boat Audio Set Up Help

Derek Shoemake
- 33 posts
February 1, 2012 11:29:56 AM PST

I havn't seen much talk of marine audio on here but I need some advice that i'm sure you guys can handle. I have a 25 foot Party Barge with 4 Kicker 6-1/2's on the inside of the boat. A 12 inch sub mounted in the console. 2 6-1/2" speaker tubes mounted on the back facing out twoards the rear. And a 6-1/2" Kicker on each side of the boat facing out either direction. I have an amp for the sub and it is on a switch. I need advice for amps for the 6 1/2's. The inner speakers need to be on one amp, the rear speakers need to be on one amp, and the two side speakers need to somehow be seperated on an amp and switchable. The goal is to have all the different zones switchable so i can control where the music is coming from according to where the group is around the boat. I'm assuming I just need amps for each zone and a bunch of RCS splitters with switches on the remote wires but if there is any other way to do it please let me know any ideas.
Brad Stolberg
- 487 posts
February 1, 2012 12:13:21 PM PST

I would just set up 2 zones, one for the inner speakers and one for the speakers facing the water, then you could use the fader to turn a zone "off", but I would want to turn an amp not in use off...as far as amps I've always used the PDX marine amps because of the regulated power supply
Kyle Smith
- 28 posts
February 7, 2012 4:12:37 PM PST

I would just do like you said and put switches on the remote wires and split the rca's. A line driver might be needed to push enough voltage to the amps. Definitely would make sure you turn the volume down when you are turning zones on/off. Also with having 4 turn on wires i would recommend running a relay but with my experience in boats, most of the stereos are wired to constant power and need to be turned on and off manually. In this case you could just tap a 12v wire to 3 separate switches then run the turn on wires from there
Derek Shoemake
- 33 posts
February 8, 2012 3:50:45 AM PST

It's a good thing I have an Audio control Three.1 sitting around. Couldn't I use that as my line driver? Or would I lose volume control everywhere else? Because I have wired waterproof remotes at the front and back of the boat.
Kyle Smith
- 28 posts
February 8, 2012 3:59:55 PM PST

Should work fine. Im not to familiar with the three.1 but does it have a volume knob or a gain knob. A volume knob will solely control the voltage output to the amps no matter what the volume is on the deck. A gain knob will essentially multiply the signal coming into it by whatever factor the knob is set aka how high it is up. Not trying to challenge your knowledge, just wanting to understand more about what you're potentially going to use.