Proposed Yamaha 242 Limited S E-series audio upgrade

[David Decker]

I am thinking about upgrading my factory audio system as shown in the diagram below. Does this look reasonable, or am I missing anything? The upgrade would use a Polk DB1040DVC 10" sub and a Polk D5000.5 5-channel amp. Any thoughts?

 

[stever40]

David's going to town with upgrades. Me likes!

 

[Julian]

The only thing I wish I had done with the 8 speakers on my boat is to install an EQ/Fader so I could more discreetly control the volume at each pair of speakers. In both your options, front to rear fading looks to be less than useful. If you ever put full tower cans in, you might want to do it then.

Looks like you should have plenty of power....just wonder if those tiny tower tweeters can handle 50w?

 

[octavio3311]

I installed 3 of these. 1 for the 6 inboats, 1 for the tower, and 1 for the sub. Mounted them right at the helm - easy to reach and easy to operate. They work awesome.

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_5260_PAC-LC1-LC-1.html

 

[David Decker]

That is a great idea @octavio3311 . The Polk amp comes with a subwoofer level control which looks very similar, but obviously that only takes care of the subwoofer level.

I'm going to research this a bit, and also the eq capability mentioned by @Julian.

 

[octavio3311]

I strongly considered the WetSounds WS420 EQ. Pricey unit, but well designed and probably worth the money. An added bonus to this EQ is the PA feature, which some people love and others hate.
But I chose not to go that route cause I knew it was going to be way too complicated for the wife and kids, or whoever else was in the area looking for the volume - too many buttons - they'd just mess up all my settings. My setup is easy.

 

[ChrisP]

The only thing I wish I had done with the 8 speakers on my boat is to install an EQ/Fader so I could more discreetly control the volume at each pair of speakers. In both your options, front to rear fading looks to be less than useful. If you ever put full tower cans in, you might want to do it then.

Looks like you should have plenty of power....just wonder if those tiny tower tweeters can handle 50w?

I am running 100 watts rms to my stock tower tweeters and so far they are doing fine. Figured if I blow them I can upgrade then but so far no need.

 

[Nick Hughes]

Have you made these proposed changes yet? Im considering something similar. Add a JL Audio M600/6, power the tweeters and swim platforms off the existing head unit, channels 1-4 to the cockpit speakers, channels 5-6 for a 10" IB3 sub. Really trying to justify if adding the amp will really bring the stock Polks to life.

 

[David Decker]

@Nick Hughes - I did make most of the changes already, including adding a Polk PAD5000.5 amp and Polk DB1040DVC 10" sub. I powered the platform speakers and tower tweeters off the head unit and the bow, cabin and sub from the new amp. It makes a huge difference. It is hard to believe the stock Polks can sound that good. I was thinking at first that I would have to upgrade them, but I was surprised at how good they sound with the new amp.

 

[Nick Hughes]

Good to know, thanks. Seems like the Polk PAD5000.5 and JL Audio M600/6 are nearly identical power specs, so I'll stick with my original plan. Do you feel that the swim platform speakers are now adequately powered off the head unit or could use more? Don't really care about the tweeters as I may unhook them, too much tingy-ness above my head.

1 last question, any issues with wiring? I assume you just re-used the swim platform wiring and direct connected them at the rear cockpit speaker location to break the serial and then ran new lines for the rears?

 

[David Decker]

I will probably add a level control + second small amp someday to power those swim deck speakers. They are OK for now, but the cabin+bow speakers sound maybe 50% louder -- it is hard to tell exactly. You can easily hear the swim platform speakers near the back of the boat, but it is also obvious they aren't as loud as the cabin speakers. This is OK while underway, but I might want more power when in the water or on the swim platform. The tower tweeters are just about right - I thought they were too bright before, but now seem balanced pretty nicely.

I found out that the bow and tweeters are wired in parallel, but the cabin and swim platform speakers are wired in series! I ran new speaker wire for the bow and cabin speakers to the amp. I just unplugged the stock bow speaker wires and let them hang there - that was easy. But for the cabin speakers, I made a couple of short male-to-male "jumper" wires and connected the stock cabin speaker wires to them - this lets the head unit power only the swim platform speakers. I don't know why they wired these speakers in series -- maybe to protect the head unit?

No other changes to wiring were needed, and it is very easy to go back to stock wiring if desired.

I did find that the Polks have one normal-width speaker lug on the back and one very narrow speaker lug -- I had to search around a bit to find a narrow connector for the new speaker wires and narrow lugs for the jumper wires.

 

[Kevin M]

Where did you end up putting the sub? Is that sub only $59.00? I like the cost of that upgrade, maybe need to do that to mine. Nice work!

 

[OperationROL]

I will probably add a level control + second small amp someday to power those swim deck speakers. They are OK for now, but the cabin+bow speakers sound maybe 50% louder -- it is hard to tell exactly. You can easily hear the swim platform speakers near the back of the boat, but it is also obvious they aren't as loud as the cabin speakers. This is OK while underway, but I might want more power when in the water or on the swim platform. The tower tweeters are just about right - I thought they were too bright before, but now seem balanced pretty nicely.

I found out that the bow and tweeters are wired in parallel, but the cabin and swim platform speakers are wired in series! I ran new speaker wire for the bow and cabin speakers to the amp. I just unplugged the stock bow speaker wires and let them hang there - that was easy. But for the cabin speakers, I made a couple of short male-to-male "jumper" wires and connected the stock cabin speaker wires to them - this lets the head unit power only the swim platform speakers. I don't know why they wired these speakers in series -- maybe to protect the head unit?

No other changes to wiring were needed, and it is very easy to go back to stock wiring if desired.

I did find that the Polks have one normal-width speaker lug on the back and one very narrow speaker lug -- I had to search around a bit to find a narrow connector for the new speaker wires and narrow lugs for the jumper wires.

I am having a hard time understanding the wiring. From the pic below, there are 4 channels. From your findings and a few others, the entire boat EXCEPT the rear cabin and the swim deck speakers, are wired in parallel. What am I missing? Including the tweeters, there are 8 speakers and only 2 pair are wired in series. The harness below only shows 4 channels (4 pairs of wire). Please explain how you think each speaker is powered based on the attached pic of the harness. Thanks.

 

[Nick Hughes]

4 channels to support 8 speakers that are both parallel and series would make sense, well be possible, doesn't make sense to me why a 60k+ boat would do this.

Channel 1: HU -> Cabin Left -> Series to Transom Left
Channel 2: HU -> Cabin Right-> Series to Transom Right
Channel 3: HU -> Bow Left -> Parallel to Tweeter Left
Channel 4: HU -> Bow Right -> Parallel to Tweeter Right

Im not sure of the exact path on 3 and 4, that could be reversed. But you can run parallel or series by simply wiring it that way. Parallel would have both positive and negatives from 1 speaker going to positive and negative on the next speaker. Whereas series will have the positive go to the cabin speaker, negative to the transom speaker and then you connect the positive and negative of each speaker together. Still only 2 wires back to the HU.

To me, both of these setups are a cheap way to not install a <$100 amp. Instead we all have to figure this out and add a much more expensive amp.

 

[OperationROL]

Got ya. In my mind I was thinking they were parallel off the HU. What you explained about makes sense. I will run new wires to the cabin from the amp. So, I should be able to remove the OEM wires from the cabin speakers terminals, connect them to each other and have that feed the swim deck speakers. I will then cut the Rear channel wires at the outgoing side of the harness at the back of the HU and junction them to the amp for the swim deck. Sounds like the easiest thing to do for the bow is to disconnect the OEM wiring, add new wire and run back to the amp. I will leave the tweeters attached to the HU.

 

[David Decker]

@OperationROL - I drew the diagram below - hope this will help.

 

[Nick Hughes]

i haven't done my wiring yet, but that sounds accurate. I think Im just going to run new lines for the 3 sets of non tower speakers, shouldn't be too difficult. I think you'd have to run new lines to the bow and then just connect the existing wires at the bow speakers. That would complete your connection to the towers, assuming this is how they are run. Overly confusing.

 

[Nick Hughes]

What @David Decker said.

 

[OperationROL]

@OperationROL - I drew the diagram below - hope this will help.

View attachment 35309

Perfect. Great illustration!

 

[OperationROL]

Anyone know if the radio requires Connext to be on for it to work. I am thinking of moving the radio's power source from the ignition switch to an on/off Blue Seas switch that I added between the house battery and all the Amps. That way, the switch would control all the components of the stereo. An added benefit would be not having the stereo shut off when I shut the boat off and want the stereo to remain on.