Wiring Boat Subs

[City_Slicker]

I bought a wakeboard boat this winter with a pretty good stereo system. Dont really know alot about stereos though.

I am currently running:

Sony CDXH910OUi Marine stereo

3 amps

1 Wetsound Amp running in boat speakers- No problems here. Sounds great. 6 wetsound 650s.

1 Arc Audio amp running the tower speakers- 4 Pro 80s. Good to go here too as well.

All ran to their own seperate battery hooked up to a 4 bank charger.

Heres where Im making changes. Making more BASS is my goal. 3rd amp is the Sub Amp. A Arc Audio KS1200.1 Class H Mono Block. Right now running 2 Kicker Solar Baric L5s in boxes. Dont know how it was wired but I plan to redo to make sure done right. They are in the hole behind drivers seat. I just see the seperate wires dropping into the hole and hooked them up. Wires look a little wore and I want to replace with quality wires. But they work. Boat came with 2 wetsound 10s in boxes. Thought pulling those out and adding the L5s would give me more bass but no real difference. They actually thumped just as hard. One sub burnt up right after bought the boat. So I have one left Im wanting to add back in. The L5s were a deal I couldnt pass up. Were in my buddys Supra he sold and I know they can sound awesome. For the time being I am wanting to put the extra wetsound sub in the cubby hole. Looks like he had the existing subs just ran to a split wire from the amp. From what I understand I need to run all 3 subs in a "series". This is a pretty powerful amp to my understanding and should handle the additional sub. But I know just enough to be dangerous when it comes to this.

I am eventually going to put another 10 in the other box for 4 subs but that will be this summer unless I come across another deal. But for now trying to wire what I have. Buying this boat hit the wallet pretty hard.

Do I need to change settings on the amp to wire the 3? I really have no idea what the settings should be on the amp and have had 2 buddies jack with the settings.

I am not a stereo pro at all. ButI want to bump our Party Cove this year!!

Thanks for any help!!!

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[City_Slicker]

Perhaps someone could forward me to a board that might could answer this question?

Thanks.

 

[City_Slicker]

Or not. Thanks for all your help. Useful forum.......

 

[09civic 5,000+ posts]

There is no need to add more subs. You're a better off just running one sub to save room. This isn't a car that is inclosed, it's a boat. The bass isn't going to be distinct and strong because everything is open. You're only going to hear so much bass so I wouldn't worry about adding more subs.

No one has answered to your thread because barely anyone on this forum have worked with marine audio. Type in "Woofer wiring wizard" in google and that will answer your wiring questions.

 

[City_Slicker]

Awesome. Thanks for the link. Thinking was same principal as car stereo. As someone not used to doing this, I have researched my brain to death.

I have them wired correctly for 2. Opened up the speaker box to see it was set up on 2 ohm. They are on the 2 ohm set up Just to spread sound out throughout boat, adding the 3rd to the nose of the boat. I dont really like all the thump coming from the back. I have been told the amp would handle one or 2 more. If I run 3 subs at 2 ohms each, what changes do I need to make to the amp settings? I am assuming I would them be running at 2 ohms still. I got the gain fiqured out by ear last night on the 2. Also the 2 bass boost switched tuned to ear. But there is also a crossover dial that I can tell no difference when turned. Do I need to switch this amp to 2 ohm somehow? Dont see a switch for that.

 

[Chriszle 10+ year member]

Check out a subwoofer wiring diagram, 12volt has one. When you add another sub, you will be changing the impedance the amp sees.