will this work? audio gear.

I'm getting a new boat and need to put some tunes in it.

My question.... Will this amp push 5 pairs of these 6.5's pushing at least 100 watts to each speaker?

amp:
http://mobile.bostonacoustics.com/car/car_product.aspx?category_id=19&family_id=90&produ ct_id=242

Speakers:
http://www.woofersetc.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_id=71 05

I say 5 pairs because there are 6 speakers in the boat, and 4 on the tower. Sound at 80 feet is not necessary, but I do want it to be loud when I surf.

As far as subs and amps, I'm thinking of putting this amp on a kicker solobaric 12" L7, or a JL 12W7..

http://mobile.bostonacoustics.com/car/car_product.aspx?category_id=19&family_id=90&produ ct_id=246


Will this setup get the job done?

I was thinking I could put the tower speakers on the front channel of the amp and the boat speakers on the rear so I could control the boat / tower volume seperately to an extent...

the impedance of the 6.5's are 2.7 ohms.. Will this cause an issue?


Thanks in advance.

I don't feel like doing the math but those are nice ass amps. What speakers are going on the tower? The same as in the boat?

How are you going to do a component speaker on the tower....most housings dont have spots for the lil' part

Hate,
I think i'm just going to put those polks up there. Ithe boat already has some decent pods up there and I'm not gonna need sound at 80 feet. Just 20. Hopefully 6.5's will be able to project back that far, CLEARLY. If not, I'll probably go with some pro80's.

Nick,
looks like you can put the "lil" part of the component set in the middle of the grill. Kinda like the wetsounds ws650's. I hope thats the case, anyway!

(Message edited by crushing76 on December 20, 2008)

I wouldn't use those speakers, 2.7 ohms is a problem, two in series = impedence is too high, two in parallel = impedence is too low.

In my humble opinion I would recommend you spend a bit more on amplifiers and a bit less on speakers. I hate dealing with outboard crossovers on boats, total pain. I prefer the sound the the db series over the MMC series anyway. I would run 5 pairs of the 4 ohm db651's (or the older db675's if you can find them). Then run two main amps and a class D sub amp.

Like this:
Boston GT28 to the tower, speakers wired parallel.

Boston GT42 to the boat, bow speaks on front channels, boat speaks in parallel to the rear channels. Add a PAC LC-1 inline to the fronts so you can turn them down when the ladies want to have a gossip session.

W7's are power hogs, that amp won't push them, I would not recommend that amp on subs anyway, go with a class D instead. Again, spend less on speakers and more on amplification. The JL1000/1v2 pushes the Boston SPG555 nicely.

In this configuration you will have enough power to step up to pro-audio if you ever get the bug.

In reality you can probably save a few bucks and downgrade to Crossfire or other garden variety amplifiers without any noticable sound quality loss. You will lose most of the ohh/ahh bragging rights...

Kicker, Alpine type R, Boston G2, are decent options for subs.

You may also consider Wetsounds speakers and amps, they are all designed for the boating environment.

The GT42 will run all 10 speakers but it will leave some performance on the table as far as volume and thermal stability. I would do 2 GT28's, one on the tower and one on the subs and the GT42 to the boat speakers. Boston amps will run a 1 ohm stereo and a actual 2 ohm mono load as long as you can keep the battery voltage from sagging. As for the speakers, the Polk Mobile Monitor sound great and are at a great price but don't be afraid to put some power to them. You are much better having extra power that you don't use then to always run the amp at 10/10's.

Boston amps work great in boats thanks to the unregulated power supply' very efficient heat sink design, 1/2 ohm load capabilities and there Q-Tune midbass control.

The SPG555 is a totally awesome sub and in my humble opinion offers more value then the L7 and W7 product thanks to it's small box size ( cubic ft sealed), optional passive radiator (Doubles bass at tuned freq. with increasing box size), field serviceable and lower price.


Good luck what ever way you go....

Scott

You could easily use the GT24 for the tower speakers the 28 would push at (14.4v) 225 watts per speaker which is awesome for pro audio but seems a but much for some traditional cone speakers.

I agree that using a separate sub amp is the best way to go.

Guys,

I actually still have 5 pairs of Polk DB651's (the 2 way coaxials) that I used in my last boat. I had a kenwood amp pushing about 75 watts to each of them... Not impressive AT ALL.

I also had a Boston Acoustics G5 12" sub with about 800 watts on it. It thumped, but I think I want a little more for my new setup.

What about the Polk MOMO series? I've heard good things about them, and these look pretty nice... http://www.woofersetc.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_id=41 30

Do any of you guys have any experience with the WetSounds 6.5's? If they are anything else like the rest of the line, they are legit, but to be honest, I really dont care for the grill. Pretty picky I know, but if I'm gonna spend the money I wanna like the way it looks too!!!

If the W7 is power hungry, what about the W6? I'd also be willing to go the Boston Acoustic SPG555 route.

Why wont a class AB amp get the job done VS a class D amp?



I was hopeing to put all my 6.5's on one amp and give them 100-125 watts per... Then, put my sub on another amp, giving it about 1000 watts. Is it MUCH better to give the tower a dedicated amp?

Thanks for the input guys... I'll take pics! I'm just in the planning stage now.

Give that w7 1000 watts and it will sing. I've got the momo's and they sound good, hard to get them to distort, they can take some power.

I am running the Kicker MX700.5 in the cabin and a Kicker MX350.4 for the tower. The rear cabin speakers are wired in Parallel. The 5th channel is running a Boston Acoustic G3 sub. Let me tell you, it sounds awesome. I have the Polk Audio DB series in the cab and MB Quartz for the Tower. Sounds awesome at 80' away and clear as a bell in the cab. The bass is strong and hits hard. I did not use the boat speaker wire. I re-ran all new wire from the amps to the speakers.

CR, If you were not impressed with the db651's you might be a candidate for pro-audio. Face it, four 6.5s designed for car doors is pretty weak no matter what quality they are and how much power they have behind them. Lots of better options even if you don't want to go with pro-audio. Why not go with four 6x9's or six to eight 6.5s?

I find boat speaker sound quality often has much more to do with the installation, the placement, and the crossover setting than the speaker itself. The best gear money can buy will not sound nearly as good when poorly installed compared to simple midgrade gear installed well. I run the Polk Momo's in my boat. They sound fine but no better than the db's (in my opinion). Not a big difference in cone material or tweeters. Cutting the bass out of the 6.5's by enabling the highpass crossover is probably the best thing you can do for the boat speakers. Do that then drive the piss out of them.

I hear you when it comes to the wetsounds iron crosses, not my bag either. My wetsounds now have grills that look like Polks...

Are you installing this yourself?

Class A/B vs D - EFFICIENCY. It's a tug of war between your amps and your battery/alternator. Using high efficiency class D/T/H amps will allow you to turn much more of that batt/alt power into sound, less into heat.

One very key statement in Scott PDX's post "as long as you can keep the battery voltage from sagging"... It is very difficult to keep voltage above 11.6 when running systems with the motor off. Pushing the amps through low impedence loads at low voltage will reduce output and increase heat (less power to speakers).

Here is a W7 with over 2000 watts behind it. Any less and I recommend a different speaker. I have been quite impressed with the 555s in my friend Nate's boat. He has two running off the JL1000/v2 and that is probably one more than needed. It is painful to drive when the bass is hitting you in the gut.

at rest...

Sounds like I need to get the SPG 555 for a winter project

When looking into a SPG555 also check out the SPGTR Tunable radiator. For $149.95 it will double your bass at it's tuning frequency (which is user adjustable without pulling out the radiator). It's also great because you can build the standard 1 Cubic Ft box for the sub and leave a spot for the TR and then cut a hole for it when ever you’re ready. You will get lot's of bass now and even more bass later.

For what it's worth on digital amps....They generally don't sound very good. This is why most traditional class D designs will only run bass, there’s just too much noise in the upper frequency ranges to sound good. Now, I have owned both a JL 1000.1 and several 500.1's and they are GREAT sounding class D amps but that sound quality comes at a price. Literally $$$$. Be weary of the cheap class D amps as what tends to happen is that they will work OK until you either push them too hard or run out of voltage or both and then things get REAL UGLY very quickly! This is one reason ARC Audio developed there hybrid amps because they have better clipping characteristics then a true class D and sound better as well.

Boston is about to release a new series of GT amps that will be all AB (They believe they sound better) some of which will be up to 70+% efficient with better crossovers, larger power supplies, more output devices (And slightly higher prices) then the current models so look for them on the Delta soon.

Cheers
Scott

The BA GT-42 will just run two channels high-pass. The rear channels operate full range or low-pass only. So it's definitely wrong for this application.

The Polk MM or MOMO have a very linear response through the midrange. In this respect they're similar to a Dynaudio or Morel, kind of a purist sound. This comes at the expense of sensitivity. It's a great speaker for in the boat but it's a bad choice for the tower. Not enough sensitivity and not enough top end zip to project.

Installing component speakers in the cockpit coaming pockets of the Supra will place the tweeters just inches apart. With the small high frequency waveforms the horizontal off-axis cancellation is brutal. No highs at all. Stick with coaxials.

I'm a big advocate of the BA amps as we sell a lot of them in Dallas. The Class D comments would be accurate several years ago. Currently JBL and Crown use full range Class D in line arrays and HLCD's for their most demanding pro-sound applications. Higher switching speeds, new feedback techniques and other advances have made the Alpine PDX and JL Audio HD Class D amps among the best.

Bullet now has marine in-boat speakers with spoked grilles similar to the Polk look. They're tuned just for boats. $200 a pair. Also, you might consider retro-fitting your existing pods with matching HollowPoints.

Add a PBR to your existing G5 and up the power. That should be more than enough to dismantle the boat.

Hope this helps.

David E.M.

Thanks David, great point about the GT-42 with respect to the crossover. Watch rear low-pass/full range only, it sux when they do that with four channel amps. If you are running a off a deck crossover or EQ crossover it will work but don't use that amp if you don't have a crossover before it.

CR,

Another option for you would be to look at the Wet Sounds SYN-6 amp. This is a 6 ch amp that can do high pass or low pass on the higher powered chs 5-6. So you can run the in boat speakers (xs-650 for instance) 2 to 4 pairs off chs 1-4. And the towers on chs 5-6. It could power the 2 pairs of in boat speakers or it can power a pair of PRO 60's or PRO 80's. Or even two pairs of those if you added more later. Then you can do a sub amp like the SYN-1.

Or you could run the SYN-6 on in boats and a sub and add a 2 ch like the SYN-2 on the tower. We have had a lot of customers do this and use the SYN-6 on 2-4 pairs of XS-650 on the inside of the boat and the chs 5-6 bridged on a XS-XXX sub. The chs 5-6 bridged will do 600 watts at 4 ohms mono.

Tim
Wet Sounds