Amplifier only upgrade on 2020 212S - new speaker wire?

[no-proplems]

I want to simply add an amp to power my 6 existing Polk Audio speakers. Fusion head unit is in the stern. If I’m mounting the amp behind the helm, is it easier to just run all new speaker wire from the amp to each speaker? I don’t think any of the existing speaker wire runs through thy area right?

Or should I mount the amp near the batteries so I can just use the existing wires from the back of the fusion deck? Is that even a possibility?

I’ve searched the forum quite a bit and haven’t found a clear answer to this.

 

[ShesCrafty]

I want to simply add an amp to power my 6 existing Polk Audio speakers. Fusion head unit is in the stern. If I’m mounting the amp behind the helm, is it easier to just run all new speaker wire from the amp to each speaker? I don’t think any of the existing speaker wire runs through thy area right?

Or should I mount the amp near the batteries so I can just use the existing wires from the back of the fusion deck? Is that even a possibility?

I’ve searched the forum quite a bit and haven’t found a clear answer to this.

Not sure about the 2020 212S wiring, but you need to determine if the existing speakers are wired in series vs parallel, or neither.

 

[212s]

I have the 2020 212s and I ran new wires because the Fusion can only drive 4-channels at 8 or 16 ohms which means you will have four speakers wired in series and two wired direct - necessary for the Fusion, but sucks when you have a capable amp. I found in mine that the bow speakers were direct on the first zone "front" channels and the cockpit and stern speakers were wired in series to the second zone "rear". You can clearly hear the volume and fullness difference between direct and series as series cuts the available power to the speakers in half. Also figuring out which wire goes where in the boat harness might be an issue, but new wire is easy to run. I used 14awg stranded copper red/black in a single sheath for easier pulls.

Running wires throughout the boat is easy as there is lots of space to access the areas and feed the wires, and even the stern speakers are easy to access and re-wire. Zip-ties are great for keeping everything tidy. The only issue was getting the RCA cables through the back around the resonators in the transom area. I pulled the rear speakers and reached in toward the back while my wife reached in through the Fusion cut out to pull the RCA's out the back, and to also pull a remote power on wire for the amp. You can pull the cleanout cover panel off but I had recently siliconed mine down to keep water out so had to do it by reaching in. Luckily my unit came with all the Fusion RCA's intact, but many report theirs were cut off. If so, you can order a replacement harness with the RCA's on it.

You can mount the amp where you want, but out of convenience, I put mine near the batteries so I didn't have to add long heavy battery wires, and ran new speaker wires to all speakers (speaker wire is cheaper and easier to pull). I put the bow and cockpit in parallel (my JL Audio amp is stable at 2 ohms) and the stern direct by themselves so I could have the boat running on the "front" and the stern on the "rear" - fading the stern off when cruising.

I'll be adding 4 additional POLK speakers to the cockpit fore and aft of the bucket seats to fill out the sound, and running all 8 of the 6.5" Polk speakers in parallel off the amp. That will push about 60+ watts to each 6.5" speaker for plenty of volume, and the stern speakers will run off the Fusion head unit which will be enough out back as we tend to keep the volume down when people are playing in the water (for safety reasons).

 

[no-proplems]

this is perfect! Thanks for this thorough explanation.

 

[SCP1]

This might be on my list for next year.

 

[212s]

Took a while to get the time, but I finally ended up just adding two matching Polk's mid-cabin in the comming inserts to get more diffused volume while cruising and she really rocks now with just the four speakers pounding in the cockpit. Only running half the amp power and she's plenty loud and much more full sounding: