Powered Subwoofer, inexpensive. Will they work?

[TN888]

Changed question on title.......
2014 AR240-

I have a Clarion receiver, JL 4 channel amp, 4 kicker speakers, and totally happy with the sound it provides us. Would like to add little more bass, anyone tried the powered under seat subwoofers or Tube variations? It doesn't have to be marine rated, I've seen them listed for $120-$250, if they work and only get couple years I'd be ok with that. It'll go in the helm.

 

[Marvin willis]

when I first bought my 18 ar240 I installed 8 6.5 kickers with no amp. I later added an amp

 

[TN888]

I have an amp. I’m asking about adding a pair of 4” speakers wired directly to receiver, without changing my current setup of 4- 6.5” speakers running off amp.

 

[Farny]

I have an amp. I’m asking about adding a pair of 4” speakers wired directly to receiver, without changing my current setup of 4- 6.5” speakers running off amp.

Will a 6 or 6.5 not fit? And as long as you have another channel or zone available from the receiver you should be ok. The receiver probably has a small built in amp to push 20-40 watts.

 

[212s]

Question 1, If I mount a pair of 3" or 4" small speakers on sides of swimdeck can I run it direct to Clarion M608
receiver without changing any wiring on the amp? I know the receiver puts out 18 watts per channel

Just FYI - in reality the receiver puts out about 3-5 watts per channel at best. The claims of 18 w/ch is based on one channel driven up to 10% distortion which sounds like crap and once you try to run 4 channels, the amps run out of power real fast. The tiny amps in receivers can never come close to the output of a real decidated amp.

Question 2, if this is possible to hook small speakers direct to receiver

Yes you can...for floating it'll be fine and loud enough if you don't need to crank it up. If you set up the fading front/rear you could fade out the rear speakers so they don't need to be "drowned out".

 

[YoDaddy292]

Yes and it is easy to install a powered subwoofer. Just need long rca cables, long 18g wire for the turn on, and 8-10g positive and negative power cables. I bought a cheap Pioneer to experiment and am happy enough for now that I will wait until it dies before adding a “marine” amp. It definitely helped the bottom end and added the little bit of thump we were missing.

 

[Gary]

And honestly, a decent small powered sub will often get a better response than an expensive mediocre powered by an amp IB subs in these boats. I took my 2 IB polk ultramarine 10's (powered by sub channel on Rockford m2 750x5) that I cut in under the rear starboard side seat and put them into a generic ported box that fit in that compartment. Yes I know the box isnt tuned optimally....but it was night and day sound. Unfortunately I have 2 10 inch holes under the seat, but I just put speaker grills on them for now (last 2 years) and hope I dont get a surge of water to back. IMHO, you need alot of cash, lot of amp power, and alot of fiberglass destruction to crank up IB's....not to mention it is hard to isolate the front from the rear of the sound pressure of the speaker cones to be efficient on these boats.

I know you didn't ask about cutting in subs, my point was you will probably be pleasantly surprised by using a decent powered sub, especially if you are happy with the sound of the factory sound system.

 

[oramac]

I installed a Rockville 12" powered sub tube in the port side aft gunwale. It is not marinized, but the boat is only a summertime weekend warrior, so I'm not too worried about it. It pounds pretty hard, but is a bit muffled when the seat is down. I may add some venting later, but two years in, and it still sounds great, and the price point was very reasonable.

 

[Gary]

Pertfect! How does it sound?

*** Edit, just realized you wernt the OP.

 

[oramac]

Pertfect! How does it sound?

*** Edit, just realized you wernt the OP.

It sounds great, but better when the seat is open. I may install some venting.