Thinking about adding an amplifier to the radio

[deanries]

jrings-
Congrats on the amp install and I know the work getting the job done. Back in 2010 I completely upgraded my boat to an excellent Kenwood HD head unit with 4 in-boat plus 4 on the tower and also a 12" sub in the bow bulkhd. My amps, both Kenwoods, a 4 channel plus an amp for the sub was one BIG job. Located my amps below the instrument panel which was hard but they stay dry and safe. You should use the wire gage recomended by the book. I have 4 gage to the capacitor and then 8 ga pos & minus to the amps. Some of the photos are in my album which is public, check em out. Enjoy the sound cause mine is "kick ass" and can be heard a 1/2 mile away. Be in touch.
Dean / deanries "Go Big or Go Home"

[AlwaysSober]

Note to self: Class 'D' amp(s). Thanks for the heads-up.

Although I have yet to purchase or install an Amp, I have been threatening to for the last couple of years. This is what I've found:

Mount the amp in a not-so-hot and ventilated location.

(I was told) you can run a pair of speakers in series (ie, front and rear of cockpit) and thus not worry about lowering the ohm factor.

Don't go cheap, you'll have problems and end up buying the good stuff anyways.

Prepare to spend a lot of the budget on heavy gauge wire (fiberglass body = times 2)

Run the head unit's speaker outputs/wires to the cabin (or maybe the open bow) so you don't have to power the amp to "just listen to the radio". You also save on amplifier spending. Drawing from the discussion, if you do wire it up such, I would to put the head unit's remote 'on' blue wire through an accessory switch to the Amp's remote 'on' (not using the power board for 12 volt). That way there shouldn't be any chance of leaving the amp on accidentally.

[jrings]

Originally Posted by oneradride

Looks like a real nice install.. only one thing I might change.. Your ground wire (at least from the picture) looks to be insufficient, especially considering the length.. probably 5 or more feet to the negative source. Typically want to use the same gauge as the power and I always use one of those star washers to make SURE it really digs in.

oneradride,
I know it has been a while but since it is winter and I am left to just sit in my office and think about boating... I was thinking that in hindsight, I wasn't real satisfied with the loudness of my system. I never did get around to replacing the ground wire with the proper size. Could this cause the overall volume to suffer or is it more likely that I still don't quite have the settings tweaked right. I was also wondering if it may be the speakers... Any opinions?

[oneradride]

I don't think the ground wire will have any effect on loudness, however under a heavy load it might make a small difference. Wire size is more about protecting the components.

Boats are a tricky animal, most times there is not much for your sound/music to reflect off of... thus it dissipates. You may notice when docked somewhere and walking around close to the boat it may sound better farther away.

This being said, speaker placement is almost more important than the type of speaker you choose. Don't get me wrong some speakers are much better than others, but mounted in the wrong spot, your just wasting money.

Some of the best places to mount speakers are where the sound had something to bounce or reflect off of. Either that or up high and in your face

[jrings]

just to make sure I understand correctly, my amp pushes 60watts x 4 channels. The speakers in my boat are JBL's that are rated for 60watts RMS. that is what I want right? Or do I need speakers that will handle slightly over the 60watts rms?

[oneradride]

Sounds like a perfect match to me.... you almost never want to drive something at its "peak" all the time..... I.E. a 40 watt RMS/60 Peak speaker would have been a poor choice.

On the other hand, getting very expensive competition speakers that have 2000 RMS and 3000 peak would have also been a poor choice because of the materials they are made out of....60 watts would not hardly begin to move them move.