Pantera1

Ok im putting a system together and need some advice .. Bought a kenwood deck with 25 watts per channel.. I have a kick panel about 12 inches high on the sides of the cockpit at floor level .. Thinking maybe four 6x9's in there ..Amp and thumpers will be installed later ..
Im assuming ill need to box the kick space in around the 6x9's to get decent sound from them ..
I also want to put 2 maybe four speakers in the cabin, but wont need the volume/base in the cabin that Id like to get in the cockpit.And keep the two seperate..
I was thinking id hook a 4 channel amp to the rear being the cockpit and the cabin to the front .Id like to keep this system as expandable as possible as I add speakers etc....

Wally

I'm not quite sure i understood what you're trying to do but heres how i did the scarab system....
Kenwood CD player 25x4 wired to speakers in the cabin (reason being is that i wired the remote wires for the amps on some switches so i can turn the cocpit speakers off if i wanted to listen to tunes at night in the cabin)
Front RCA outputs of Kenwood hooked up to an Alpine 50x4 amp bridged to 150x2 going to some rockford fosgate sepperate's
Rear RCA outputs going to a 1000w PheonixGold amp feeding 4 infinity perfect 10's in custom box's grafted into the lower part of rear bench.
There was a 1farad cap right next to the amps so they had good juice all the time and the stereo system was wired on its own battery so the motors woudl always have good batteries to start with.

Being a boat and such a hughe open space its hard to get good thumpin far from the boat (too much air to move) but it can be done.

Oh and i also had a RFmodulator wired intot he boat so i could be a mini-radio station and anyone within 100' could tune their radio's and listen to what iwas playn

Pantera1

Thats the kind of info Im lookin for ..I havnt done a system this size in a boat.. What did you use for a switch to kill the cockpit..
Thats one of the things Im not sure about as far as using the fader control for cabin / cockpit seperation etc..
When it comes to stereo systems im a dumb a$$

FWK

I would set the system up this way. Depending on the head unit but assuming it has front and rear rca outputs. I would run the amps for the cockpit off of the rear rca outputs.and the cabin speakers in series off of the front 25x2 that the head unit produces. then you can fade the sound away from the cabin when you have the volume up and no distortion from the cabin speakers. You can use a switch like Wally suggested to turn off the cockpit speakers when they are not needed. All you need is a swich that interupts the turn on lead from the head unit to the amps. match the switches in the dash if possible. Forrest

Wally

As far as switches for turning off the cockpit....just go to any radio shack and get some generic switches.....as long as you use the "remote" leads to the amp. They are low voltage so just about any switch will work. As for fading control....the way i told you i did mine works nicely.....That way you can fade front to back even in the cabin of the boat when you have the cockpit turned off....only draw back is if you have the stereo cranked and a lady wishes to use the porto-potty.....the inside of the cabin will be louder then outside due to the confined space inside.....i guess you could put som switches on the output speaker wires of the headunit but i never bothered with it.

Pantera1

Ya the deck has four rca plugs front l/r and rear l/r and the four wires from the deck .. Im thinkin cabin speakers from the wires, then rca f/r to the cockpit for now ..I plan on buying a bass amp and a 4 channel for the cockpit. Would i use the front rcas for the 4 6x9's/ amp and the rear rca's for the bass amp and bangers ??

Wally

Yes you could go that route...it would work just fine. ......here's what i would do in this instance......take your front and rear l/r outputs and shoot them to the front amp to each respective speaker...this way you have front/rear left/right controll......then get a "Y" splitter and grab the signal coming off the rear RCA's for your bass amp......more then likely either the amp's will have built in crossovers or you will have external ones for the speakers so it should be all good.....iIf the bass amp is a 4chan amp you are bridging then you can always get 4 "Y" spliters and get all 4 chan going to the bass amp for best results. Make sense i hope?

Wally

what do think of my sug. Forrest?

FWK

I would use the power of the head unit front to drive the cabin speakers as they never have to be loud and this allows you to fade from the front speakers as you said. With the amps driving the cockpit speakers and subs I would use the rear rca out puts and use y adapters or many amps have rca in and outputs. Once your system is set up you should have no need to change anything as far as balance or fading as you can adjust the gains to compensate for the cahnges neccessary to get the sound how you would like it.This way if you are pounding the system you can use the fader to the rear and cut the volume in the cabin to a tolerable level and the 25 supposed watts will not be driven into distortion. If you use the front and rear rca outputs you will not be able to cut the volume down in the cabin without a additional volume controls on the dash to cut the volume in the cabin from the high level output of the headunit. The other option is to add a additional small amp for the cabin and put it on a toggle switch but the results will not be as good because you will still not be able to cut the volume in the cabin. I would do my first suggestion that way you can listen in the cabin without having the amps drawing the batteries down and you can fade the sound from the cabin so it is not so loud that you can not go in the cabin. Wally you are on the right track. This just makes it simple and not a lot of need for more wiring than is needed . I hope this helps Forrest

Pantera1

By not using the front rca's in the cockpit or rear 25x2 in the cabin. Will this limit the sound in anyway as far as not coming from four corners?Or does the fader not work in that way? It does sound like the simplest way to seperate cabin and cockpit areas..