Speaker Wiring

[MonctonR1]

Ok gents (and ladies);

Getting ready for a fall re-wiring of my boat sound system as the factory wires are causing my stereo to shut down. While I’m at it may as well start fresh. I have a 4X100 Sony Deck which was running my four 6.5s. Then a 4 channel amp running my tower speakers and then bridged the other two channels for the sub.

I want to add 2 more speakers mid-cabin.

My options are to add another Amp to power the two cabin speakers or run them in series. What are your thougts.

Here’s a rough diagram sorry for my horrible penmanship^...

 

[Theryan]

So, you have some stuff you'll want to look at first.

Check what the RMS settings are for the head unit, amp and speakers. If your head unit is saying 4x100, I'm guessing that's at 2 ohms, rather than 4 (at 4 ohms your per channel RMS is going to be a good amount lower).

Same with your amp. You always want your speakers to be around the same RMS as your per channel on your amp or head unit (some say you can go higher on the amp because you'll never blow them, blah blah - I disagree).

As for your overall question: I would add a second amp. I'd be curious to see what your actual speakers, sub, head unit and amp are actually putting out - my guess is that you're underpowered unless you've got a monster of an amp.

If you want to provide more details we can help a bit more, but at first blush I would suggest adding a second amp vs. wiring them in series.

 

[jacoviii]

The amps on head units are a wast of time and energy.
I would do 1 new 4ch amp and run the 6 speaker.
So ch1 will be cabin L @ 2 speakers= 2 ohms,, ch2 will be cabin R @ 2 speakers= 2 ohms,,
ch3 will be bow L 1 speaker,,
ch4 will be bow R 1 speaker.

 

[MonctonR1]

The deck was bench tested at 42RMS at 4 ohms.

Sony MEX-XB100BT

CD receiver

www.crutchfield.com

So with that , is it enough to run the 6 cabin speakers?

 

[Theryan]

Which speakers are you using?

Realistically speaking head units aren't great amplifiers, but they'll work.

If it's at 42rms for four channels and you're trying to run six speakers off of it you're going to be quite underpowered (which can be bad).

You'd be better off running the speakers through amps instead.

 

[MonctonR1]

So I have four 6.5” Pyle speakers that cam with the boat. The deck is 4X42 RMS but I can probably just get a new 4 channel amp to run the cabin speakers.