Sanity check installing speakers/amp 2020 AR240

[Inthrustwetrust]

Looking for a sanity check before I continue ordering parts and going down a rabbit hole. New 2020 AR240, installing a amp and some tower speakers, amp is only going to power the tower. Leaving the stock speakers hooked up as is to the head unit for now. To my knowledge the boat doesn’t have a amp installed, speakers are just wired straight to the speaker/power harness in the back. Yamaha decided to do that proprietary non standard RCA connector and also cut off the sub woofer RCAs, not that I care right now. However, the zone 1 and 2 are hooked up, not sure what they are going to, assuming some sort of volume control with the Connext system up front?
So option 1, get a new power/speaker wiring harness (the stock one also has no wire for the amp on) and splice in a RCA line out converter to the two zone 2 speakers, which is what I want to the tower to be zoned with for fade control.
Option 2-Buy the regular RCA harness. Figure out wherever those non standard RCA cables are going and re wire them with standard RCAs. Add Y splitters to zone 2 out to run to the amp. Re wire the Aux in to a standard RCA as well.



I could pop the head unit off and start unplugging those non standard RCAs and see what functionality I use but I am trying to minimize taking the unit on and off, as I posted in another thread, the factory drilled the holes way to close to the hole for the unit. I don’t want to do more damage, and I don’t have the speakers/amp yet.Option 1 seems the least painful. Curious what y’all think.

 

[jthackman]

seem to be lots of threads on this....same prob on my 19 ar240...buy the two new harnesses, then you have options, and the amp remote turn on wire.

i think the factory speaker/power wiring harness puts the 2 bow speakers on zone 1, the 2 cockpit speakers on zone 2 (maybe vice versa). with the new rca harness, you get decide how to wire/control zones, it has rca's for zone 1, zone 2, and i think 2 subwoofer zones.

i added a 6 channel amp and tower speakers..i wired zone 1 to towers, zone 2 to the 4 bow/cockpit speakers...kinda depends on the amp (or amps) you select...point is, you'll have options.

i'm not sure what you mean by 'non-standard rca's' ? in your pic, which looks just like mine did, the ends of the rca's out of the rca harness are cut and the factory terminates the wires with heat-shrink tubing. a new harness will have standard rca's out of it.

here's links to the harnesses i used

FUSION Power/Speaker Wire Harness f/MS-RA70 Stereo S00-00522-10FUSION, Boat Accessories, Boat Equipment - Boaters Marine Supply

Power/Speaker Wire Harness for MS-RA70 Stereo Features: Power/Speaker Wire Harness Specifically for MS-RA70 Stereo WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals which are known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information go to...

www.boatersmarinesupply.com

FUSION Wire Harness f/ MS-RA670 & MS-RA770 Stereo - Zone 1 & 2 (B Port-RCA) 010-12812-01FUSION, Boat Accessories, Boat Equipment - Boaters Marine Supply

Wire Harness - Zone 1 & 2 (B Port-RCA) Compatible with MS-RA670 and MS-RA770 stereos FUSION's Zone 1 & 2 Harness Wire for installation. WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals which are known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more...

www.boatersmarinesupply.com

 

[Inthrustwetrust]

Ya I didn’t really find a answer in any of the other threads/search. I don’t really care about the cut sub rca, but if you look at the current in/out RCA harness pictured it’s not the normal RCA female/male ends. It’s some sort of two plug oval set up, from other threads on here it sounds like it was a some deal between Yamaha/Fusion to put a different harness/connector on. So if I buy the new RCA harness the old in/outs aren’t going fit. So I’ll have to run a new wire for aux in. Will also need new cables for the zone 1/2 out, which I might be stupid but I have no idea where they are going, it’s not to a amp, only thing I can thing of is to the Connext screen, but there is no RCAs back there.

 

[jthackman]

fusion ra70nsx?
your 2020 may be diff from my 2019, but your pic looks just like what i had
here's a look at my orig harness unplugged from back of head unit


seems to look like yours?
the connext screen (i assume) was plugged into the remaining standard rcas (labeled aux-in).
the replacement harness is identical, but has all of the standard rcas still attached (not cut).
if you disconnect the aux-in rcas, can you remove the harness from the head unit?

 

[Inthrustwetrust]

fusion ra70nsx?
your 2020 may be diff from my 2019, but your pic looks just like what i had
here's a look at my orig harness unplugged from back of head unit

View attachment 119556
seems to look like yours?
the connext screen (i assume) was plugged into the remaining standard rcas (labeled aux-in).
the replacement harness is identical, but has all of the standard rcas still attached (not cut).
if you disconnect the aux-in rcas, can you remove the harness from the head unit?

Ya that’s the same harness, I have the aux ins connected assuming from the connext, but the zone 1 and 2 outs are also hooked up, you can see in my pic they are going into another connector, I didn’t examine it to closely but it looked like they weren’t the standard RCA connection, the cables continued into the the big conduit wrap, I have no idea where they are going to. I went into the access panel in front of the helm, only RCA up there I found I disconnected to see what it did, it was the audio aux in to the Fusion. I’m assuming those RCAs have to go somewhere for something. I’m tryingnot loose any functionality. Whole point of the upgrade is so I can fade the fronts all the way down for the kiddos to take a nap up front and everyone can be out behind the swim deck and still hear some tunes from the towers.

 

[jthackman]

10-4..
everything in my rca harness was cut/capped, except for the aux in set.
something must have changed for the 2020's.
good luck tracking it down, hopefully someone with a 2020 will have just gone thru this and chime in.

 

[jacoviii]

Ya that’s the same harness, I have the aux ins connected assuming from the connext, but the zone 1 and 2 outs are also hooked up, you can see in my pic they are going into another connector, I didn’t examine it to closely but it looked like they weren’t the standard RCA connection, the cables continued into the the big conduit wrap, I have no idea where they are going to. I went into the access panel in front of the helm, only RCA up there I found I disconnected to see what it did, it was the audio aux in to the Fusion. I’m assuming those RCAs have to go somewhere for something. I’m tryingnot loose any functionality. Whole point of the upgrade is so I can fade the fronts all the way down for the kiddos to take a nap up front and everyone can be out behind the swim deck and still hear some tunes from the towers.

Bet a pic of what is going on under the helm around the stock amp. The OEM harness has RCA style coaxi wires but the ends are made into TE CONNECTIVITY ampseal plugs like what is used in the auto industry. Zone 1 is boat Zone 2 is tower. If you can find Zone one plug / end under the helm you can tie in there. Nice and clean. This is the plug

 

[jacoviii]

The powered output from the HU are on Zone one. It sounds like you would want 3 zones. Z1 bow, Z2 cocpit / stern , Z3 tower or 2 zones Z1 bow/ cocpit, Z2 tower/ stern.

 

[Inthrustwetrust]

I’ll have to look in the morning, there were several plugs under the helm that weren’t connected to anything, figured they were for hooking up a computer or other options the 242s come with, I wonder if Yamaha pre ran the RCA outs from the head unit. I am 99% positive the stock speakers are running straight from the head unit with no amp, and I can’t for the life of me figure out where those RCA outs from the head unit are going, so this might be it.

 

[ericoask424]

Getting ready to tackle this same project in two weeks. Couldn’t find the speaker wires as well.

 

[Cowboy]

Will the harness with RCA connectors work for the MS-RA70N fusion. Mine is the same as the picture.

tied in a few RCA to the zone 2 for tower speakers. Works but want to order this for back up.

seem to be lots of threads on this....same prob on my 19 ar240...buy the two new harnesses, then you have options, and the amp remote turn on wire.

i think the factory speaker/power wiring harness puts the 2 bow speakers on zone 1, the 2 cockpit speakers on zone 2 (maybe vice versa). with the new rca harness, you get decide how to wire/control zones, it has rca's for zone 1, zone 2, and i think 2 subwoofer zones.

i added a 6 channel amp and tower speakers..i wired zone 1 to towers, zone 2 to the 4 bow/cockpit speakers...kinda depends on the amp (or amps) you select...point is, you'll have options.

i'm not sure what you mean by 'non-standard rca's' ? in your pic, which looks just like mine did, the ends of the rca's out of the rca harness are cut and the factory terminates the wires with heat-shrink tubing. a new harness will have standard rca's out of it.

here's links to the harnesses i used

FUSION Power/Speaker Wire Harness f/MS-RA70 Stereo S00-00522-10FUSION, Boat Accessories, Boat Equipment - Boaters Marine Supply

Power/Speaker Wire Harness for MS-RA70 Stereo Features: Power/Speaker Wire Harness Specifically for MS-RA70 Stereo WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals which are known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information go to...

www.boatersmarinesupply.com

FUSION Wire Harness f/ MS-RA670 & MS-RA770 Stereo - Zone 1 & 2 (B Port-RCA) 010-12812-01FUSION, Boat Accessories, Boat Equipment - Boaters Marine Supply

Wire Harness - Zone 1 & 2 (B Port-RCA) Compatible with MS-RA670 and MS-RA770 stereos FUSION's Zone 1 & 2 Harness Wire for installation. WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals which are known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more...

www.boatersmarinesupply.com

 

[5nuklheds]

I have been in contact with Fusion and they were a big help as I was trying to see where to hook up the XM antenna to the system. After many calls to local dealer, Fusion and Yamaha it seems you are correct... Yamaha decided to use their own harness to wire these new boats up... so to get the most out of the Fusion head unit they recommend using their harnesses (Main Harness P/N S00-00522-10 and B Harness P/N 010-12812-01). Not sure what all that gives me yet, but the Fusion site does have some good downloads for our head units.
The Fusion tech did also say that we cannot buy direct from them, we will need to go through a third party.
Just thought I would chime in. Hope it helps.

 

[8footeight]

I’m a little late to this party but I’m doing the same thing on my 2020ar240. Adding a JL audio 600w amp and it requires the “blue” line that is missing on the back of the harness. I called Harmon and they sent me this
Im going to pull a clip out of another harness I have and slide it into the correct spot. Wish me luck

 

[5nuklheds]

We just did the power lite test and turned the head unit on and off until we found the right lead. After that we pulled one of the unused purple wires and stuck it where we needed it. But for the life of me I can not remember which one it was.