Before I am dropping $2500 on Stereo hardware...

[Hezi]

I want to upgrade my sound on my 15' 242 LS. I am not looking to open a dance club on the water, just a deep robust quality sound that can be enjoyable while cruising over the noise of the motors. I gave up on conventional tower speakers for several reasons; the tower is behind the driver, and those speakers facing back, will not do me good. They are ridiculously expensive. The can't be pointing down without interfering with the bimini. My friend tower speakers just overpowering all the other speakers throughout (maybe he has a bad setup), and it may be an overkill for me.

Instead, I am thinking on getting 2 enclosures from Amazon to be attached to the bottom of the tower facing down.

https://www.amazon.com/Audiopipe-6-5-Marine-Speaker-Box/dp/B00N6UWGPI#customerReviews

I decided to go with JL. Going with one 10" sub *(M10IB5), 6 MX650 to replace current speakers, and a pair of MX 770 to fit in the tower enclosures. This will be powered by JL M800 8 channels and M200 2 channels sub amp (which I would bridge). If I'm pulling the gun on this, I'm going to end up well north of $2500 (I will do the install).

Any opinions/suggestion regarding the Tower enclosures? Does it have a chance to work well?
Your opinion is gold. Please do tell

 

[Nick Hughes]

I did similar. Same amps, 2 channel bridged as well. But 8 MX650s and the M10IB5. It sounds $1750 better, which is about what I spent. Bought factory reburbed amps to save $500 or so. Put that money into quality Knukoncepts wires throughout. I think if i were todo it again, i would put the amp board in the battery compartment and just run the RCA from the helm to there. Cheaper than 0 gauge power cables.

 

[Mainah]

I did similar. Same amps, 2 channel bridged as well. But 8 MX650s and the M10IB5. It sounds $1750 better, which is about what I spent. Bought factory reburbed amps to save $500 or so. Put that money into quality Knukoncepts wires throughout. I think if i were todo it again, i would put the amp board in the battery compartment and just run the RCA from the helm to there. Cheaper than 0 gauge power cables.

My experience in helping others with ground loop or popping sound issues with amps installed in the battery compartment says in that case new robust wire should be run to the helm for head unit. In other words what you did probally saved some headaches.

 

[Mainah]

Jl component speakers perform best with ample air space which is part of their purpose built design for boats. Mointing speakers in the recess next to the driver and co-captian has worked well for me and others.

 

[John Mcpartland]

I just installed the wetsounds stealth 10 on my tower and I'm amazed by how good it sounds. You can direct it backwards, forward facing or down

 

[Hezi]

I did similar. Same amps, 2 channel bridged as well. But 8 MX650s and the M10IB5. It sounds $1750 better, which is about what I spent. Bought factory reburbed amps to save $500 or so. Put that money into quality Knukoncepts wires throughout. I think if i were todo it again, i would put the amp board in the battery compartment and just run the RCA from the helm to there. Cheaper than 0 gauge power cables.

Did you manage the components below MSRP? I couldn't find any deals on it. My planned set up is north of 3k (8 ch amp, 3 ch amp, 10"M series sub, 6 mx 650, 2 mx770, 2 x 4" Kicker drives to replace the horrible tweeters). I was thinking to shove in the enclosure the MX 770 and the 4" Kicker. I was planning to create a large PVC vent for air flow but I'm vary much concerned this is going to end up sounding like sh*t. Let me know if you know of a better deal to get the hardware. Thanks for the reply!

 

[Hezi]

I just installed the wetsounds stealth 10 on my tower and I'm amazed by how good it sounds. You can direct it backwards, forward facing or down

I was thinking to get 2 smaller bars (I think the 6 drive) for stereo effect but they are EXPENSIVE!

 

[Nick Hughes]

Did you manage the components below MSRP? I couldn't find any deals on it. My planned set up is north of 3k (8 ch amp, 3 ch amp, 10"M series sub, 6 mx 650, 2 mx770, 2 x 4" Kicker drives to replace the horrible tweeters). I was thinking to shove in the enclosure the MX 770 and the 4" Kicker. I was planning to create a large PVC vent for air flow but I'm vary much concerned this is going to end up sounding like sh*t. Let me know if you know of a better deal to get the hardware. Thanks for the reply!

I got my amps here:
https://creativeaudio.net/m200-2-k/
https://creativeaudio.net/m800-8v2-k/

I got my 4 pairs of 650s and sub from @Earmark Marine through this forum. I think they were $179/pair, sub about the same. $200 or so in wire/connectors.

 

[Hezi]

I got my amps here:
https://creativeaudio.net/m200-2-k/
https://creativeaudio.net/m800-8v2-k/

I got my 4 pairs of 650s and sub from @Earmark Marine through this forum. I think they were $179/pair, sub about the same. $200 or so in wire/connectors.

Thank you so much!

 

[mark_m]

@Tad Steinberg you have a sweet sounding setup and thing you may be able to advise/ help here

 

[Bluewater272]

Cutting in an additional pair of speakers in the cockpit made a massive difference for me. Can easily hear tunes while cruising at 30MPH.

 

[BBottoms]

Cutting in an additional pair of speakers in the cockpit made a massive difference for me. Can easily hear tunes while cruising at 30MPH.

Agreed. I just did this a couple weeks ago and it's night and day from the captains chair.

 

[Hezi]

Okay ,maybe I should change my strategy and install the mx770 inline with the captain seat. But what did you do with the stock tweeters? I was thinking about a 2 way 4" speaker (with the proper enclosure) on the tower to replace the tweeters like this here:
https://www.amazon.com/Kicker-Coaxi...4+marine+speakers&refinements=p_72:2661618011
Look like a relatively inexpensive upgrade.

 

[Bluewater272]

Okay ,maybe I should change my strategy and install the mx770 inline with the captain seat. But what did you do with the stock tweeters? I was thinking about a 2 way 4" speaker (with the proper enclosure) on the tower to replace the tweeters like this here:
https://www.amazon.com/Kicker-Coaxial-Speakers-Tweeters-Charcoal/dp/B079H2TJF7/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1528343281&sr=8-12&keywords=kicker+4+marine+speakers&refinements=p_72:2661618011
Look like a relatively inexpensive upgrade.

I picked up a Rockville 8ch amp for the in-boat speakers, and left the tweeters wired off the head unit. It's a cheapo amp I tried on a whim, but so far it seems to work very well and is quite power efficient. If it ever dies, I'll probably switch to a JL amp. The stock tweeters actually sound quite good and fill out nicely once you have speakers in the forward part of the cockpit.

 

[Drift Away]

This is how i fixed the "need to fill the boat with sound". 6 JL 6.5, 4 JL 7.7S and some 7.7 pods flush mounted on the back amd 2 JL 10s.

 

[Hezi]

So come Monday I should have the following coming:
JL m800, JL m400, WS 420 BT, m10ib5 sub, 4 pairs of mx650 and 2 kicker enclosure for mx650 on tower. Obviously wires, seaboard, fuses etc are also coming to put all of this together. All of this will translate to lots of battery draw and I was thinking of adding a third battery to augment the house side. I put time researching and devised a plan. But than, it occured to me, 2hy add a third when I can replace the current house bat to something bigger such as this:
https://www.vmaxtanks.com/MR137-120-B31-Box-Deep-Cycle-High-performance-AGM-Battery_p_174.html

What do you think? I'm planning to dock for hours and have fun on the sand bar with the family. By no means I'm planning to blast music. Should I wait and see or go with this 75 Ib 125 ah battery?

 

[Drift Away]

So come Monday I should have the following coming:
JL m800, JL m400, WS 420 BT, m10ib5 sub, 4 pairs of mx650 and 2 kicker enclosure for mx650 on tower. Obviously wires, seaboard, fuses etc are also coming to put all of this together. All of this will translate to lots of battery draw and I was thinking of adding a third battery to augment the house side. I put time researching and devised a plan. But than, it occured to me, 2hy add a third when I can replace the current house bat to something bigger such as this:
https://www.vmaxtanks.com/MR137-120-B31-Box-Deep-Cycle-High-performance-AGM-Battery_p_174.html

What do you think? I'm planning to dock for hours and have fun on the sand bar with the family. By no means I'm planning to blast music. Should I wait and see or go with this 75 Ib 125 ah battery?

A Standard size 3rd battery like we have now Should do just fine. The nice thing about having systems like the one you're building is you don't have to blare it so loud. You have enough speakers and watts for the sound to travel. Maybe when Gangnam style comes on crank it. But just hanging out 20 ft away you should be good with about 30-40%. We went out to a sand bar here in FL yesterday and had it playing for 4 hours non stop at 40% and had no issues.

 

[rsg1963]

For the house-side, I went with three of these, in parallel obviously. Stats: 200ah reserve each x3 - 50% = 300ah actual capacity. Remember when you see the reserve capacity, what you actually have available is half that. Drain the further and you'll ruin wet cell units like AGM's and classic wet cells too. Only Lithium batteries can give you 80-85% of their rated capacity without harm. But do you have $2k for a 200ah Lithium? Most do not.

 

[Hezi]

I took @Drift Away advice and went ahead and ordered a third Interstate marine deep cycle group 24 battery just like the original equipment. It is going to be a busy weekend...

 

[rsg1963]

I took @Drift Away advice and went ahead and ordered a third Interstate marine deep cycle group 24 battery just like the original equipment. It is going to be a busy weekend...

That'll work perfectly. Plus this is a 'good' busy. Adding things to our boats is always fun. Are you adding a third battery to the House-side, or a third battery to the boat in general? If it's a third house battery like I just did, be sure you use the same gauge and length cables between the three batteries and put the load on the center battery. You want to be sure to charge and discharge the bank as evenly as possible.