Complete stereo wiring. Im lost!

[adub7]

Ok here it goes... I have 4 speakers for in the boat that I figured I would just run off of the head-unit. Then I have 4 more speakers for the tower and a sub. My neighbor gave me a clarion apx480m amp. My question is... Can I run the 4 tower speakers and the sub off of this amp or do I need to get a separate amp for the sub? If I can use this amp, how would I wire it all up? The sub is an Alpine SWR-M100 and the speakers are Polk db651. Trying to get the boat ready for this season coming up! Thanks in advance!

[chpthril]

The quick and short answer is yes.

[AdaminMN]

I agree with CHP. You can brige two of the channels for the sub, assuming it's a single voice coil, and use the other two for the tower speakers. Make sure you have all the amp settings setup correct for your application. The Clarion website has the installation manual available for download.

[chpthril]

Ok here it goes... I have 4 speakers for in the boat that I figured I would just run off of the head-unit. Then I have 4 more speakers for the tower and a sub. My neighbor gave me a clarion apx480m amp. My question is... Can I run the 4 tower speakers and the sub off of this amp or do I need to get a separate amp for the sub? If I can use this amp, how would I wire it all up? The sub is an Alpine SWR-M100 and the speakers are Polk db651. Trying to get the boat ready for this season coming up! Thanks in advance!

The quick and short answer is yes.

Ok, now for the long answer.

Although you can do this, this is not a setup I would recommend for a few reason.....either the amp is not enough to power everything sufficiently, or you're going to have sub and towers always playing at the same level. I'm never a fan of having the tower speakers and sub on the same amp unless you have a means, such as an EQ or POT, to control their output individually. Depending on your head-unit, there are a couple ways this could be configured, but if you head-unit has a non-fade/sub RCA output, that, IMO, would be the best output to use.

Lets start with the sub: The Alpine is a SVC 4 ohm, so no impedance (resistance) issues bridging it on chnl 3/4. The down side is, that sub is rated for 300 watts RMS (continuous) power and the Clarion will deliver only 230 watts RMS in bridge mode. This is ok, just a little light.

Tower speaker: The DB's are rated at up to 60 watts RMS. With one pair wired in parallel (+ to +/- to -) and wired to chnl 1 and the second pair done the same on chnl 2, will net you about 58 watts RMS to each of your four tower speakers. Although this is spot-on for the DB's and perfect if they were used as in-boats, 58 watts to each as a tower speaker is not much. They will sound fine in and around the boat, such as cruising, surfing, party-cove/anchored, etc, but will be a struggle to hear at the riders line length.

So, at the end of the day, there are no issues with this setup, just not the most flexible and user friendly system, and just a little light on the power. Rock on with it!

[adub7]

So do you think it would be better to just get a second amp just for the sub and run the tower speakers off the clarion amp? Will this make the tower speakers a lot louder as well as the sub running off a separate mono sub amp? Thanks again for the responses!

[chpthril]

So do you think it would be better to just get a second amp just for the sub and run the tower speakers off the clarion amp? Will this make the tower speakers a lot louder as well as the sub running off a separate mono sub amp? Thanks again for the responses!

Getting the sub off the clarion and getting the 4 tower speakers on their own chnl will do two beneficial things. One, you're going to pick up about 22 watts RMS for each tower speaker, so now the will get 80W. 2nd, the amp will be going from running at 2 ohm on all channel to 4 ohm on all chnl. This will drop how hard the amp works which reduces heat and current draw.

Now, the ideal solution would be to get both the sub and in-boats on an amplifier. Even a little more power then the head-unit's 20 watts, would make a huge difference in both volume and sound quality. For this type of application, I like to use a hybrid 5-chnl amp. 4 chnls for the in-boats and 1 for the sub.

[adub7]

So i should just get a 5 channel amp and make it all easier and sound better?

[chpthril]

So i should just get a 5 channel amp and make it all easier and sound better?

A second amp would make a HUGE difference in the system overall, IMO.

Another option would be to get a 2 chnl amp for the 4 tower speakers and use the APX480 for the 4 in-boats and sub. I would shoot for one that delivers somewhere between 150-200 watts RMS x 2 @ 2 Ohm. This would net you 75-100 watts to each tower speakers. Only down side to this route, is that both amps would be operating at 2 ohm.

Or, pick up another 4 chnl with similar specs to the Clarion that you have, and then either would deliver sufficient power to either the in-boats/sub or tower.

[adub7]

Thanks chp!

[richiemoe]

Which one of these amps would be good for a boat?http://www.mtx.com/caraudio/products/amplifiers/

[chpthril]

Which one of these amps would be good for a boat?http://www.mtx.com/caraudio/products/amplifiers/

Although a marine amplifier has it's advantages over a car audio amp, they are not a must in a fresh water trailer boat. The key is to try and match up the amp's watts rms (continuous watts) output with the speaker you want to power. For me, I like to push at least 50 watts rms to a cabin speaker, more always being better.

[richiemoe]

I didn't know if it had to be marine grade or not.