stereo upgrade help

[Duncan]

Chpthrl I wish you lived in Texas so I could buy you a beer for all this help!

Most all of us on TO owe Chpthrl several beers and more.

[Lewisville]

I might mail him a case of lone star if I don't go broke doing all these upgrades! I am reading some of the other threads where people built boxes in the compartment I am talking about and it doesn't seem too hard. Just need to measure the compartment the sub is going in and build the box.

[chpthril]

Chpthrl, so I should cut a hole in the wall in front of the drivers feet and mount the sub facing towards the driver? Does anyone know of a good how to with some pictures? I have 0 experience or mechanical/electrical talent. For example, I shocked the crap out of myself trying to ground a 2 to 3prong adapter last week. Am I going to need to waterproof/cover the back of the sub in the compartment to protect it when I take a wave over the nose?

Chpthrl I wish you lived in Texas so I could buy you a beer for all this help!

Basically, yes. Cut a hole for the sub in the helm bulkhead and front-load the sub to the wall, but, I feel that that sub is going to be best in an enclosure. What model Clarion 10" is it specifically? If this sub needs to be in an enclosure, then it will need to be sealed from the elements, but lets cross that bridge once we know the model sub it is. Then we can give you some tips on how to do the enclosure and install it.

[Lewisville]

CMG2510W from last year (Clarion had one left). Also got a new XC6610 (1000watt amp) and a pair of XS-MP1621's for the tower. I work with Hitachi and represent their electrical sensors and coils so they hooked me up with the Clarion stuff at cost, but all their speakers were on back order till end of June.

[chpthril]

Clarion CMG2510W = 4 ohm SVC 100W rms/250 peak. I can not find any info on this sub. Clarions website sux and their customer service is even worse. I dont think actual humans work there as Ive never talked to one I would do a sealed enclosure with a net volume between .85-1.0 ft3, unless we can dig up more info.
Clarion XC6610 will do 250W to the sub when bridged. 85W rms to a single speaker or 65W rms to a pair wired in parallel to a chnl.

[Lewisville]

I think that is most japanese owned companies, they show no urgency! What do you suggest as far as powering? The other amp is a APX280M, so I was thinking about powering all the rear boat speakers with the APX280M and the two in the bow with the head unit (XMD3) then the tower speakers and sub off the new XC6610. BUT that is coming from someone who knows nothing about audio set up!

[chpthril]

The APX280M does about the same power per chnl @ 4 ohm as the XC6610. So here is what I would do:

I would wire the pair of tower speakers off the APX280M = 80W RMS each.

Subwoofer bridged on chnls 5/6 of the XC6610 and it will receive 250w rms.

The in-boats will then be driven by chnls 1-4 of the XC6610 @ 85W rms each. If I recall reading earlier, you only have two pair of in-boats. This configuration will allow you to add a 3rd pair later if you like.

Once everything is mounted and wired, we can go over settings.

[Lewisville]

I have 6 in the boat, 2 in the nose and 4 in the main. I believe the 2 in the nose are powered by the head unit right now so I am still going to use your wiring outline and leave them alone.

[chpthril]

The XC6610 will drive your 6 in-boats and sub, so I would make sure all the in-boats are on that amp and not on the head-unit.

[Lewisville]

So would you splice the 6 to fit the 4 channels? And if so how?

[chpthril]

So would you splice the 6 to fit the 4 channels? And if so how?

Port bow on chnl 1
STBD bow on chnl 2
port mid-ship and port aft wired in parallel (+ to +/- to -) on chnl 3
STBD mid-ship and STBD aft wired in parallel (+ to +/- to -) on chnl 4

[kmkramer71]

I looked ay 700.5 yesterday and tried to verify the wiring that chpthril stated as far as cabin speakers wired in parallel. Where would they we wired in parallel. There are only 2 speaker leads in ch3/4 so could they have just jumpered off the crossovers? Is it recommended to wire directly to the amp for parallel wiring?

[chpthril]

The aft speakers are run to the mid-ship speakers and paralleled there. Then a home run is made from the mid-ship speakers to the amp. Bow speakers are each home-run'd to the amp.

[kmkramer71]

so I should just find 1 crossover per channel on those?

[chpthril]

The cross-overs should not be too far from their respective speaker. The starboard aft speaker should be wired in parallel to the speaker under the helm. So on the input terminals of that cross-over, there should be a pair of wires coming from the amp and a 2nd going off to the aft speaker. Same for the port side mid-ship located below the observers seat.