Setting up a new system

[Ultra21]

Looking for some advise. I pulled the boat home this week to add a new stereo system and what I've been finding is that most system discussions are the biggest, baddest and loudest. What I'm looking for are good quality components without over doing it. I was looking at a single 12" sub around 400W with an amp, six speakers (thinking 30-40 watts) with a second amp and maybe some room to grow. I'm gutting the stock system completely and starting from scratch. Some questions I have are, how close in power do I need to get for the sub? If I have a 400 W rms sub would it be better to go with a 600 W rms amp or try to match the 400 W? Also, if I want to add a sub later is it worthwhile to get a larger amp now? Seems there are more options when looking for a 4 Ohm system then a 2 Ohm. I'm assuming that with what I'm looking for, a 4 Ohm would be fine? I currently have dual batteries with a Honda 1000W generator. Any help in this would be greatly appreciated.

[sigepmock]

We had a 21 Stealth and the system sounded great for the money we had into it. We had two JL W0 12" subs, one under the dash on each side. We ran them with a JL 500/1 digital sub amp. We also ran 2 pairs of 6 1/2" JL component speakers and 2 pairs of 6 x 9's. I powered the mids with the JL 6 channel amp. 2 of the 6 x9's were in pods under the hatch to throw the sound towards the beach when we were nosed in. I ran the interior speakers on the front fade and the hatch speakers as the "rear" fade so we could send power to the speakers as needed. No need to crank the interior speakers when we were on the beach.
The JL amps never over heated and they didn't drain a ton of power from my two batteries.
I am currently running the new Alpine PDX amps and they are great. Small size and they don't use hardly any power yet put out a loud clear signal. Maybe run the PDX 450.1 for your interior speakers and then run the subs with the cheaper JL 500/1.
As for matching sub to amps....always get the subs larger than your amp that way you don't blow the subs with too much power, but just as important...make sure to match the ohm rating of the amp. Most good digital sub amps are stable to 2 ohms. So get two 12" subs at 4 ohms and wire them parrallel so the amp see's two ohms.
I have run a large single 12" sub in the past but I think it's easier to make good sounding base with two decent 12's instead of one super powerful 12.
Just my $.02,
Chris

[Cheap Thrills]

As for matching sub to amps....always get the subs larger than your amp that way you don't blow the subs with too much power, but just as important...make sure to match the ohm rating of the amp. Most good digital sub amps are stable to 2 ohms. So get two 12" subs at 4 ohms and wire them parrallel so the amp see's two ohms.
I have run a large single 12" sub in the past but I think it's easier to make good sounding base with two decent 12's instead of one super powerful 12.
Just my $.02,
Chris
As logical as that may sound, most speaker failures are the result of underpowering it with a small amp driven to saturation ( Distortion) !
Any sound engineer or electronics technician worth their weight will use the 1.5 x rule when chosing an amplifier for a given speaker. 400w speaker = 600w amp. That will give you plenty of headroom to work with and fewer chances of killing the speaker.
I agree on the two decent 12s over the single more powerful 12. there's no replacement for displacement. unless the single 12 has enough cone travel to displace the same ammount of air as the two lesser subs. ( Cerwin Vega Strokers come to mind).
As far as which amp (Brand) I would stick to some of the better known names, their power ratings and other specs are closer to true value than the cheap stuff.
C.T. :wink:

[sigepmock]

As logical as that may sound, most speaker failures are the result of underpowering it with a small amp driven to saturation ( Distortion) !
C.T. :wink:
I agree with the theory on this but in my experience...I and others I know always seem to keep turning up the amps to the point the speakers blow. I blew two RF 12's with a BD500.1 (rated at 739), the first was a 400 Watt sub then I stepped up to a 650 watt sub then finally went with a 1000W RMS 2000Watt peak and after that no more problems...in fact the sub is 5 years old and in it's third boat. So I guess the point is buy good amps, don't turn the gains all the way up and be a little conservative with the power you are feeding to the subs.
Good luck,
Chris

[mbrown2]

Some questions I have are, how close in power do I need to get for the sub? If I have a 400 W rms sub would it be better to go with a 600 W rms amp or try to match the 400 W? Also, if I want to add a sub later is it worthwhile to get a larger amp now? Seems there are more options when looking for a 4 Ohm system then a 2 Ohm. I'm assuming that with what I'm looking for, a 4 Ohm would be fine? I currently have dual batteries with a Honda 1000W generator. Any help in this would be greatly appreciated.
I think you should overpower the sub a little bit....I have never had a problem and the bass feels tighter.... I used to run a 400watt sub amp to a single Diamond 12" in an Eliminator 23" and the boat sounded great...ran a 6x50 amp to the 3 sets of CDT coax's and the boat hit and sounded clean.
I was on a budget so I was running Audiobahn amps (bought off Internet), CDT's bought off internet, and just had a reputable installer do the install, sub box construction and bought sub, headunit and system from them....
System was reasonably priced...under 2K and hit very well...

[Dub C]

definitely spend the $$ for strong amplifiers, sometimes people skimp here but it's the last place you should. for subs it's easier to displace more air with less power with bigger/more subs but will cost you space. A general rule of thumb with sub is that there are 3 qualities, 1.sound quality 2.efficiency, 3. size. When designed right you can have 2 out of 3 but NEVER all 3. If you have an efficient great sounding system the enclosure or sub space will generally be big. That's why woofers that work in tiny boxes need lots of power to sound good. I'm not too far away in canyon lake and work for a MFR (directed electronics) which owns polk, orion,precision power, viper, directed video and some other brands and have been doing this stuff longer than I care to mention :rollside:

[Ultra21]

Thanks everyone for the info!! Made me re-think the whole thing and just about doubled my budget. There's some very helpful info here for those of us who enjoy tackling new projects. It's always great to hear from the experts!

[Phat Al]

I have a 21' Caliber 1 and I'm working on my system now, let me say I'm really glad I to have notice this thread. I was originally going to purchase 4 6x6 marine Alpine speakers and call it done. Never been into Loud music, though after reading a few threads such as this one I desided to expand on the system. Now I have 2 JBL 6x6's, 2 JBL 6X9's and 2 Polk Audio 8" Sub's. Installed the Sub's this weekend and Plan on getting the 6x9's in this week. As for Amps I was thinking Infinity 1 mono and 1 4-Channel. To be honest I was going to go cheap on the Amps and buy a lessor RMS and/or Watts then the speakers can handle, but it sounds like I should just spend the money now or I'll have to replace the Amps next season.