ADVICE NEEDED: low power consumption setup for trans-pacific sailboat journey

[fastenerpuller]

Hi guys-

Not sure if this is the right forum to post in, but a friend of mine is outfitting a small (30ft) sailboat, which he and his wife live on, and he asked my advice in setting up a sound system. I am trying to spec out a car-audio based system (all the stuff actually made for boats is god awful expensive) with a simple mp3 head unit and 2 sets of 2- or 3-way speakers, two of which will be fixed inside the cabinet and two of which will movable from inside to outside, for chilling on the deck or what have you.

The whole boat runs on 12v power, but they will be at see for weeks and even months at a time, so keeping power usage to a minimum is critical. Space is also at a premium. They will likely listen to things at a low volume most of the time, but would like to be able to play stuff fairly loud when using the speakers outside.

With that in mind, what should I do to ensure the system is low in power consumption? Any recs for specific equipment?

Thanks in advance,

fp

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[pro-rabbit 5,000+ posts]

A budget will be requested for more help really. Depending on that there are several options to be had. On a boat the larger goal is go high efficiency. This will help with low power and tight space restraints.

 

[cfox10 10+ year member]

What are they looking to get out of it?

Look into the Polk Audio db651's, or the db6501's, they are marine certified and sound very nice for the price.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

If you don't really want any crazy bass or anything, there are small class D speaker amplifiers that are like 15 watts the only draw about an amp or 2 of current and that would be fairly loud and sound good, without using barely any electricity.

 

[pro-rabbit 5,000+ posts]

If you don't really want any crazy bass or anything, there are small class D speaker amplifiers that are like 15 watts the only draw about an amp or 2 of current and that would be fairly loud and sound good, without using barely any electricity.

The issue here I think would be if they actually use their boat for anything more then just being docked. If they do then the output from that won't be enough to enjoy the "system" while the boat is in operation.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

It also depends on the size of the sailboat too. I've actually said some because my grandfather lives on one in Florida. His is like 40 feet or something like that. I guess that's a decent size. But OP are you just talking about hearing it where the steering wheel is or like all over the top deck?