Finally finished stereo upgrade on my 2015 242 Limited S

[MattFX4]

Nice install! This board is keeping JL in business. I have same setup as you minus the tower speakers. How do you like them?

 

[Doug]

The Tower speakers are amazing....Keeps the kids jamming while they are on the rope. when I have the boat in my driveway and crank up the music the whole house vibrates....LOL

 

[MattFX4]

ha ok sounds good. I'm going to do tower's eventually. Torn between the JL's and wet sound Rev 10's.

 

[Doug]

I wanted it all to match, all JL Audio....I have never heard how the Rev 10's sound but I hear they are really nice. This was enough for me....when I'm at full speed I can turn up the sound and drown out the engines and just hear music, its perfect.

 

[OperationROL]

Looks great. Lot's of time I am sure. I went with the Polk for the cabin, sub, swimdeck and bow, but JL M880's for the tower. I also have a WS420 and another volume control for my 4th zone. Zone 1 is the cabin, zone 2 is the tower, zone 3 is the sub and zone 4 is the bow and swimdeck. I plan to add a shut off for the swimdeck. The M880's are amazing. They are as crisp turned up as they are turned down. the only drawback I have had, is all 6 of us have hit our head on them. The Rev 10's are great, and you can't go wrong with them, but I appreciate the clarity in the JL M880's a little more. Besides, the Rev 10's are bigger and therefore, I would hit my head more. Lol.

 

[MattFX4]

Looks great. Lot's of time I am sure. I went with the Polk for the cabin, sub, swimdeck and bow, but JL M880's for the tower. I also have a WS420 and another volume control for my 4th zone. Zone 1 is the cabin, zone 2 is the tower, zone 3 is the sub and zone 4 is the bow and swimdeck. I plan to add a shut off for the swimdeck. The M880's are amazing. They are as crisp turned up as they are turned down. the only drawback I have had, is all 6 of us have hit our head on them. The Rev 10's are great, and you can't go wrong with them, but I appreciate the clarity in the JL M880's a little more. Besides, the Rev 10's are bigger and therefore, I would hit my head more. Lol.

View attachment 39834

Yes, I worried about that. The towers are pretty low on these boats, so not much headroom. Maybe if they were pushed out more closer to the bend in the tower it wouldn't be so bad?

 

[Emilio22]

looks great. getting started on the same except without the tower. can you post a pic of the connections back by the battery?

 

[Doug]

looks great. getting started on the same except without the tower. can you post a pic of the connections back by the battery?

I will get you some pics tomorrow.

 

[Doug]

Looks great. Lot's of time I am sure. I went with the Polk for the cabin, sub, swimdeck and bow, but JL M880's for the tower. I also have a WS420 and another volume control for my 4th zone. Zone 1 is the cabin, zone 2 is the tower, zone 3 is the sub and zone 4 is the bow and swimdeck. I plan to add a shut off for the swimdeck. The M880's are amazing. They are as crisp turned up as they are turned down. the only drawback I have had, is all 6 of us have hit our head on them. The Rev 10's are great, and you can't go wrong with them, but I appreciate the clarity in the JL M880's a little more. Besides, the Rev 10's are bigger and therefore, I would hit my head more. Lol.

I like the 4th zone thing....something I will look at next season. I hung those 880 speakers in several different places, front rail, rear rail of the tower....there was a time I even thought they were too big and started to second guess my purchase. But then I just said "I'm doing this" and drilled the holes and put them in, they were the last thing I installed. But you turn the power on and man do they rock...sound is clean, the clarity is amazing...no more regrets and the size really looks perfect on the boat of this size. So glad I went big. As of hitting them I haven't had the pleasure but then again I've only had the boat out once since the install...but I'm sure I will bang my head into them sooner then later.

 

[MattFX4]

How did you go about tuning your system with the WS420? Did you tune it per Wet Sounds manual? Or did you go the JL route and set gains using a multimeter? I don't like the Wet Sounds method "slowly turn gain up until you hear the speakers distort, then slowly back off the gain from that point a small amount". Seems to me the better option would be to connect everything, set the volume on HU and EQ to roughly 75-80%, then set gains on amp to JL specs using a multimeter and JL test tones.

 

[OperationROL]

I like the 4th zone thing....something I will look at next season. I hung those 880 speakers in several different places, front rail, rear rail of the tower....there was a time I even thought they were too big and started to second guess my purchase. But then I just said "I'm doing this" and drilled the holes and put them in, they were the last thing I installed. But you turn the power on and man do they rock...sound is clean, the clarity is amazing...no more regrets and the size really looks perfect on the boat of this size. So glad I went big. As of hitting them I haven't had the pleasure but then again I've only had the boat out once since the install...but I'm sure I will bang my head into them sooner then later.

I totally agree with you on the sound and how they look on the boat. Those 2 things make banging my head worth it. lol.

 

[OperationROL]

How did you go about tuning your system with the WS420? Did you tune it per Wet Sounds manual? Or did you go the JL route and set gains using a multimeter? I don't like the Wet Sounds method "slowly turn gain up until you hear the speakers distort, then slowly back off the gain from that point a small amount". Seems to me the better option would be to connect everything, set the volume on HU and EQ to roughly 75-80%, then set gains on amp to JL specs using a multimeter and JL test tones.

I tuned mine in the traditional way. No matter what amp I use, I always adjust the HU to about 80% and turn the gain on each amp up until it starts to distort, then back the gain off a little to where it is still clear. With the WS420 EQ, it makes it a little more tricky. Normally, when you through in an EQ, you should configure the HU to be flat and do all the Equalizing from the EQ. However, since my 4th zone does not go through the WS420, I did, in fact, tune the sound from the HU so that zone 4 sounds good and then fine tuned the other zones from the EQ.

 

[David Analog]

Tuning is complex. The more you know about audio the more elements you tend to include in the tuning process. So for some it's a one paragraph procedure and for others it's a small book. Odin with Earmark Marine is the ultimate expert on this subject.
He will take every system and every DIY owner and narrow the process down to a technology level that his customer is comfortable with and fits that particular system application.
As for the JL Audio method, it's a great start for determining the maximum, clean signal at the amplifier terminals. But it is only the starting point because you have yet to balance zones or include source, speakers and boat. Technically correct in one aspect but not yet set for musical reproduction.

 

[Doug]

looks great. getting started on the same except without the tower. can you post a pic of the connections back by the battery?

I didn't do anything fancy with the power hookup to the battery. I know some go though the switches which is the better way but trying to squeeze a 2 AWG wire onto those posts that's are already has 2 large gauge wires didn't interest me. I just hooked direct to the battery lugs (house battery) to a fuse and onto the distribution block on the amp board where the lines get split for each amp. I also have a sub panel on my amp board that I power the WS420 with and that goes through a breaker only because I can easily trip the breaker to de-energize the line.

 

[Emilio22]

Thanks for the pictures. that's what has me up in the air. want to tie into the switch but getting a 3rd fat cable in there looks tight.
so your amp is wired straight but turns on with the remote turn-on wire from the HU?

 

[Doug]

How did you go about tuning your system with the WS420? Did you tune it per Wet Sounds manual? Or did you go the JL route and set gains using a multimeter? I don't like the Wet Sounds method "slowly turn gain up until you hear the speakers distort, then slowly back off the gain from that point a small amount". Seems to me the better option would be to connect everything, set the volume on HU and EQ to roughly 75-80%, then set gains on amp to JL specs using a multimeter and JL test tones.

I didn't get too in depth with it...remember its still just a boat and not some closed room with acoustic tiles all around. I set my head unit to about 80% with everything flat (treble, bass...) I have a scope meter so it makes this process easy with looking at a sine wave and watching for any clipping. You just work your way though each section of the system. Inject a high freq and go though all your in boat speakers adjusting the gain to distortion then back off a bit. Inject a low freq for your sub and I used both freq for my towers speakers I just found a nice place throughout the range where it had its best clarity and sound. So though the head unit, through the amps and into the WS420 by then everything was pretty good and I was liking what I was hearing. I played with the gains on the EQ and was done. Yes you can get really in depth with tuning but i was just setting it up so i don't overdrive anything and damage my investment.

 

[MattFX4]

I did both on mine. At first, I had my positive wire connected to battery like @Doug . I then moved it to the switch inside the red circle below. I can take pics of my set up later today when I get home. I did not have any issues getting the wire to fit. I wasn't sure what post to connect to inside the house battery part, so I took my multi-meter to check which of the two post did not have power when the switch was turned to off. I'm sure it doesn't matter which way you go, but I like having that extra option of killing all power to amps.

 

[Doug]

Thanks for the pictures. that's what has me up in the air. want to tie into the switch but getting a 3rd fat cable in there looks tight.
so your amp is wired straight but turns on with the remote turn-on wire from the HU?

View attachment 39931

Yes, the amps only turn on when I turn with the head unit.

 

[Emilio22]

@MattFX4 if you can post of pic of the connection that would be a great help to me. then you fused it after the house switch?

 

[MattFX4]

@MattFX4 if you can post of pic of the connection that would be a great help to me. then you fused it after the house switch?

Will do. Yep, wire runs from switch, thru breaker like below, then on to distribution block on my amp board. Maybe my distribution block has a fuse...I am worried now I do not have a fuse like @Doug does in his set up. Ok edited...I am not an electrical person, but I guess a circuit breaker is essentially a fuse!