2016 242X Stereo

[FloJet]

I'm trying to trouble shoot my friend's stereo system as it keeps cutting out and the 2 bow speakers are not working. 242x owners I am wanting to know how you differentiate the channels on the Polk digital amps. 500.1 and 400.4. After looking at his wiring and setup, I have to say that's one of the worst setups I've ever seen in a luxury boat. Yamaha you suck on this one. First wires way too close to where there is no access to work with the amps and utilizing BS quick connects. Second there are only 3 pair of RCA cables for 6 speakers, sound bar, and 1 10" sub. I'm guessing the sound bar does not utilize an RCA? Third Amps should be using min of 4 awg power/ground wires and at best I think those installed are 12 awg power wires.

Has anyone of you experienced the radio cutting out after 80% volume? The dealership told him that they took the amps out of the box and didn't touch the settings on them. WOWWOWWOWOWOW. Level gains almost turned all the way, No logical way of how the amp is setup with 4 channels but utlize 1 connected input. Switching channels on the amp cuts out certain speakers with no logic behind it to me. Very difficult to tell which speaker wire is what. Last but not least. Amps by the batteries?? Freaking really?

Yamaha next time please take all you boats to stereo shop before giving them to the consumer whom usually don't know much about systems.

I'm trying to get understanding of where all these wiring is going and what component is what without tearing down his whole setup. Took me a min just to find the polk RCA again by the batteries lol.

 

[swatski]

Some of what you describing are just idiosyncrasies of the Connext system, the HU is actually in the swim deck etc. The wiring is peculiar though, there are threads here with speaker wiring schematics if you need help figuring out what is connected to what - some speakers are wired in parallel, some are in series... Good luck!

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[FloJet]

Great. Thank you so much. Knowing some are in series and some parallel helps tremendously. Now it gives me a start. I'll look at the schematics too. Strange they wired it like that.

 

[FloJet]

To answer my own question, I suppose that does make sense putting some of the speakers in series to able to fit all of them on the 400.4 amp. Ok I apologize Yamaha but still cheap route. Just add a third amp!!

 

[Rod5]

On my boat the sound bar is tied in parallel to the rear cockpit speakers. All the rest are single to each Chanel.
Tower cans are front chan of 4000.4 and swim platform is rear chan of 4004.
Rear cockpit and sound bar is on rear chan of 5000.5 bow is front chan. Never had any cut out issue like you are describing. Hope this helps.

 

[FloJet]

Interesting. I was wondering why sound bar n rear speakers played together. Strange as I thought that sound bar had it's own internal amp.

 

[Rod5]

Some do, built in amp is optional. If you unplug the sound bar and the rear cockpit also quit playing you will verify its wired the same as I describe.

Edit sorry I said parallel above I meant soundbar and rear cockpit are in series not parallel...

 

[FloJet]

Ok great. Thank you

 

[Julian]

Some do, built in amp is optional. If you unplug the sound bar and the rear cockpit also quit playing you will verify its wired the same as I describe.

Edit sorry I said parallel above I meant soundbar and rear cockpit are in series not parallel...

Wait....are you saying they ran wires up the tower to the soundbar and then back down to the cockpit speakers?

 

[FloJet]

I would think the wires are tied in somewhere close to the amp.

 

[FloJet]

@Rod5 Where is your sub hooked up on the amps? Seems too much for those amps.

 

[swatski]

And what about the tower tweeters?

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[Matt Phillips]

Crazy question, but are said speakers connected at the back of the speaker?

I ask because my front port speaker didn't work so while at anchor this weekend I turned a screwdriver to to look. Sure enough, one wire was not hooked up. I reattached it put it back in and it wouldn't quite line up with the holes again without coming unplugged. Turned out that wires could use another inch in length. So for now, I rotated the speakers up there by 90 degrees and then work.

Really not one extra inch of wires?

 

[Mainah]

Cutting out at 80% could be thermal overload protection kicking in. Could also be an issue similar to what @Julian had with a wire grounding out inside the tower.

 

[Julian]

Cutting out at 80% could be thermal overload protection kicking in. Could also be an issue similar to what @Julian had with a wire grounding out inside the tower.

If it is thermal overload, the light on the face of the amp should turn red (I think).

 

[FloJet]

Yes it did turn red before on the amp but he dealership replaced all the amps. I figured out why it cut out. All gain levels were up too high and filters on amps not set right. They have jumbled everything together that it makes it difficult to trace things.

Shoot @swatski I didn't even realize the tower had tweeters lol.

 

[swatski]

Yes it did turn red before on the amp but he dealership replaced all the amps. I figured out why it cut out. All gain levels were up too high and filters on amps not set right. They have jumbled everything together that it makes it difficult to trace things.

Shoot @swatski I didn't even realize the tower had tweeters lol.

That could be it - e.g. if a tower speaker filter was set to low pass - it will do it, lol.

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[Julian]

Shoot @swatski I didn't even realize the tower had tweeters lol.

The 242X doesn't have tweeters in the tower (the small ones) - the only tweeters are in the sound bar and the cans themselves.

 

[Rod5]

Wait....are you saying they ran wires up the tower to the soundbar and then back down to the cockpit speakers?

Just 4 wires run up the starboard side of the tower for the soundbar. I've not traced where the series wire configuration is in the harness but could be at the rear cockpit speakers. The port side of the tower is where the can speaker wires run and all the solar panel wires and tower lights if I recall correctly.

 

[Coheeba]

12 ga power wires are being overloaded at high volume and drawing to much current.