Yet another small sytem question

WEll I have been searching for a couple days and have found some different ideas of how to run my small system. I have never been much of a stereo guy but always had at least a sub in my my boats and some decent speakers though.

I am going to be running 4 of the Polks in the boat along with a newer sub. Getting the sub from a buddy, but am pretty sure its a 10inch Clarion open air. Not sure on its specs. IT's free so it's a start The boats Polk's are running off the Clarion /4/3/2 channel amp Clarion APX400.4M is the model as of right now.
Frequency Response 20Hz ~ 20kHz
Signal Noise Ratio >95db
THD .05% all channels driven
Input Sensitivity Low Level 250mV ~ 2.5V
Input Sensitivity Speaker Level 500mV ~ 5V
Max. Power Output 380W (190 x 2)
Cont. Power Output 200W (50W x4) @.08%THD
2-Ohm Stereo Output 90 x 4 @ .8% THD
Bridged Power 190 x 2 @ .8% THD
Dimensions 2 1/8”H x 8 1/4”W x 12” L
Current Consumption @ Max Power Output 46A @ 380 Watt


Again I am not a stereo guy buit this Clarion seems to have alot of nice features. Pretty sure this is under powering the Polks but again I am not a stereo guy at all. So now here's what I would like to do. As you can tell not looking to go crazy with amps, just looking for some advice on something that will push this stuff pretty well at a decent price point. Was thinking I should be able to get one amp to push everything, but not sure that is the right decision. I have a PAC controller which I want to put in line with the sub to adjust it's level. So here are the questions I have left


Is the Clarion enough for those Polk's and should I just get a single channel to push the sub?
Or would I be better off just getting a new amp to push them all?
Can that be done if everything is running off one amp? Would the sub level be able to be adjusted on the fly without interferring with the other speakers?
Any recs on an amp for either way?

Thanks

it depends on the resistence of the sub...but you could run everything off the amp you already have. The polk speakers (I'm assuming they're the momo 2 ways) would get almost the same power (90 watts/pair at 2 ohms as opposed to 100 watts/pair at 4 ohms). This setup would use the front channels for all four speakers and you would bridge the rear channels for the sub (assuming its a 4 ohm sub).

To address your other questions/concerns, You could run everything off a 5 or 6 channel amp if you want more power or if the sub can't be wired for 4 ohms. To be perfectly honest, you would be spending a lot of money for a small boost in sound quality. You're already giving the polks at least half of what they want (45-50 watts each with a rating off 80) which is fine. You would get a little better sound with closer to 80 watts, but like i said the difference wouldn't be really dramatic.

If you wanna look into 5 channel amps kicker makes a sweet marine 5 channel....

I tried running the 4 speakers off the front channels. Had the two bow speakers off the front left and the 2 rear speakers off the front right as my first attempt, but once the volume hit midway the amp and stereo would shut down. Thanks alex

Thats odd...are you sure you wired it up right? It's kinda hard to but the amp shouldn't be shutting down if it's supposedly 2 ohm stable.

Wired positives to positives and neg to negatives. Front left channel went to the (2)bow front right to the (2)rear.

check your power/ground connections as well. Loose connections will cause higher resistance between contacts and prevent current from flowing thus making voltage drop when your power amp starts to draw more, thus causing it to shut down.

Running 2 4 ohm speakers per channel on a 2 ohm/ch stereo able amp is fine it should be right at its max load right now. Were you running a sub on the rear channels as well?

I would also check to see if any of the pos/neg wires were slightly touching causing a short condition. Was there any protection lights on the amp or did you just loose power/blow a fuse?

Not 100% if it was the amp or just the speakers shutting down as I wasn't underneath. I was not running a sub off the rear as I wanted to make sure this would work before I started running extar wires and what not. Just when the volume was turned up sound stopped, then turned volume back down and viola sound again. I did recheck every connection and re tightened attached them with same results.

I am leaning towards the speakers just running off that Clarion amp and then just getting a mono channel amp to push the sub. This was my original thought, but I was very curious how that Clarion was running the Polks as I always heard under powering was just as bad as over powering.

start troubleshooting.

Run just 2 speakers for the 2 channels, run them for awhile and see what happens, if its ok, swap them for the other 2 speakers and run them to make sure they run fine as well.

If they do then your speakers should be fine, and there is no shorting in the voice coils etc.

In theory you should be fine, theres nothing in your setup that screams issues.

I run the Clarion APX480 in my truck. The front channels power the four MB Quart speakers, the rear channels are bridged to a thunderform box with two 10's. The amps does quite well, could be run in the same config in your boat. Not sure if the 400.4 amp is different?

it just sounds like the polks might be running slightly less than 4 ohms apeice and when you combine them it's dipping slightly below 2 ohms. That would explain why its shutting down as you turn the volume up....its probly going into protect mode. And btw, speakers themselves don't shut down unless they blow completely...so its the amp. Its a bummer the clarion is sensitive like that most high quality amps wont shut down until like 1.5ohms if they rate it for 2 ohms.

sounds like you should just get a seperate amp for the sub and that way you can match them up well..