Stereo and Amp set up question

OK this is what we are working with:

Head Unit: Sony CDX-M50ip - 4 ch pre-amp outs (Front R&L, Rear/Sub R&L)

Boat Speakers: Kicker KM6200, JL Audio sub (I don't recall what model)

Amp Powering Boat Speakers: Alpine PDX5 - RCA inputs: Front R&L, Rear R&L, Sub R&L

Tower Speakers: Kicker KTM6s

Amp Powering Tower Speakers: Kicker ZX450.2 - RCA inputs (R&L), RCA outputs (R&L)

My question is how should my RCAs be run?

All of the equipment is installed and working but after experiencing some noise issues we looked at the wiring and discovered that the speaker wires were connected wrong (- into + side) so I suspect that there is also an issue with the RCAs

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!!!

You should check to make sure all the speakers are in phase, someone may have done that already which would explain the + / - being reversed. Basically what your doing is checking the +/-, if you reverse them then the volume should drop because the speaker is out of phase and moving opposite of the others. RCA's should be run to the appropriate red and black inputs on the amp. They maybe the source of your noise, but reversing them will do nothing. A little more detail about the noise would be helpful. What does it sound like and when do you hear it?

The noise is only when the engine is on and does not change as the engine RPMs change.

We just installed the KM6200s and when we did our test to make sure they all worked is when we noticed the incorrect + - on the amp end so we fixed all of them but when we were looking at it there is a mess of RCA cables so before I climb back under there (it's a tight spot) I want to know how the RCAs should be run.

We have not had to boat out on the lake with the new speakers yet we just did the test with the battery only in the backyard.

Obviously there are not enough pre-amp outs from the HeadUnit to connect directly to both amps so my guess is that there has to be a Y splitter or that we should be using the pass through on the Kicker amp but I don't know enough about it to know what would be my best option.

I don't have any idea on the noise, I've never had to chase one down. Could be all the Y's or a pinch in the RCA cable, you also want to make sure that all your grounds are run to the same battery.

After looking at the instal sheet on the PDX5, I'm surprised that it won't split the signal internally. if it were my system, I think that would be justification for a WS420 to do the splitting and add a line driver as well. I would run the the inboats off of the front channel of the head unit and then use the other for the sub, then used the out on the PDX5 to get to the other amp. If you have to have some control of the tower speakers, then you could run the front channel to the PDX5 split 3 ways and the rear channel to the tower amp the use the fader to control the volume. A line driver would really help in that situation with all the signal splitting and the WS420 would take out all but 1 Y for the inboats.

We went ahead and pulled all the RCAs and ran them like this:

Front R/L from HU to Kicker amp and then from Kicker amp to Alpine amp
Rear/Sub R/L from HU to splitter and then into Rear R/L and Sub inputs of the Alpine amp

In doing this we eliminated 2 splitters and 1 RCA cable from the way it was set up before so that should eliminate any lose RCA connections (we know that we had a few before). I know we don't have independent control of the the tower speakers but we haven't ever had it so it's not something that we will miss - that being said our next boat will have independent tower volume control

We're headed to the lake for the weekend so I will report back on if we had any noise issues or not and if we do I'll make sure to note what kind of noise and if it is impacted by the engine RPMs or not - anything else I should note if we have any noise?

Sounds like it should be an improvement, I guess you'll find out shortly.

OK so there was a notable difference on the sound this weekend ... much more even sound and less noise

But there was still a noise ...

The noise is only when the engine is on and the noise changes with the RPMs of the engine which I think means it is a ground issue (right?)

The noise is only in 1 of the speakers and we already tested to see if it was a problem with the speaker and from what we were able to determine it is not a speaker issue - the noise is only in one channel of the Alpine PDX5 amp (sound was in Rear R and when we swapped the Rear R and Rear L on the amp the sound stayed in the Rear R channel)

Are we correct in our assumption that the sound is ground related? Is it odd for the noise to only be in one channel of one amp? Obviously we'll check all of the grounds while we're at it but is their one in particular that is more likely to be the problem?