Opinions / Photos of adding walkthru speakers

I used this photo just as an example, but I have a friend who wants to add bow speakers, but with his particular boat you cannot put speakers in the bow.

My thought was just to mount them where the photo shows in the walkthru - it will be an easy install and you could hear them just fine from the bow area - Skylon 6.5's.

Has anybody done this? Photos? Thoughts/Opinions?

Photo

Bu's have them in the walkway but recessed in and angled towards the cabin. My boat too has no easy place to install them in the bow, I've considered many options but ultimately landed on living without them. Its not such a bad to have a place where one can go to get out of the line of fire.

I dont have the front speakers amp'd on my nautique 210.. It's the area people can go to try and talk on cell phones or to eachother if they want...

My Avy has the same problem. I actually put speaker underneath the bow cushion. This way when the kids/wife want a quiet place to sit, you can go up there and leave the cushion in place. If you you want some tunes, you can move the cushion complete (store it in ski locker) or just turn it side ways. It has turned out pretty nice that way.

I also put a pair of speaker behind the windshield (drivers side) on both sides. This definitely helps getting tunes to driver, but also gets some tunes up front as well.

Neither option was perfect, but it gives you something else to think about.

jkw - did you place your speakers under the bow filler cushion?

I thought the walkthru would be great for both the driver as well as those cruzing in the bow - the boat has a huge stereo in it already and we're just trying to get some sound up front.

???

Lake,

I had the same dilemma with my Avy. What I ended up doing was eliminating the pockets in the side cushions and backed them with a thin piece of fiberglass cut a speaker hole and re-used the original material to cover the fiberglass. I didn't really like the pockets anyway because people always stuffed too much crap in them and it would cause them to stretch.

Before:

From Drop Box

After:

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

Originally Posted by UNvisible

I dont have the front speakers amp'd on my nautique 210.. It's the area people can go to try and talk on cell phones or to eachother if they want...

i like the bow to be quiet, not everyone wants to rock out all the time. a quiet spot is nice

We would love to place them where you did in the Avy, but the boat is a 2008 Falcon V and the vinyl/seat back is solid from the bulkhead to the very front of the bow. You can barely get your hand behind the seat and from what I can tell there is not enough depth back there for the speaker, plus the issues that can arrise with the vinyl over time after cutting a hole and mounting the speaker there.

The Falcon V doesn't have the vinyl accent panel with the net pockets in the walkthru either so the install would be clean and easy. I just don't want to start drilling holes in the glass and find out later that they doen't sound right since they face each other, or it doesn't look that good/etc.

photos of the boat - thoughts?

I have now concluded that the speaker will look just fine mounted there - my concern is the sound quality of two 6.5's facing each other and being only 30" apart. Any resonating or poor sound quality from doing this? Stereo Guys what do ya think?

I ran into the same problem as I have the same boat my solution to bring some sound to the front of the boat and driver was to install one speaker in the kick panel in front of the driver and add one to the observers seat pedestal on the side closest to the walk through.The problem with the Falcon is all the interior speakers are behind the driver and the boat really needs sound up front.I am using bullet 770 coax for the front speakers so the extra size should really help.You can see the location I chose for the passenger side it is labeled number one in the pic.sorry about the pics I am currently re doing my system so I don't have any finished product pics yet

I have the same problem you have. My speakers are mounted in the bow, under the seat facing each other about 26" a part. I didn't notice too much of an issue with them facing each other, but I have yet to hear them any other way. I got on here last year and asked about making speaker rings to adjust the angle but was pretty much told to do some crazy fiberglass work, buy tweeters and mount them elsewhere, or buy speakers that have adjustable tweeters. I of course didn't do any of that.

Once I get some time I'm going to buy some 1" MDF and belt sand them to make a linear 1" to 1/8" angle. Then, I'm going to fiberglass the crap out of it. I don't care about others technical acoustical jargon rants and why it won't work. I'm going to try it, and if it doesn't work oh well...I lost $5 in MDF


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Originally Posted by motogod77

jkw - did you place your speakers under the bow filler cushion?

I thought the walkthru would be great for both the driver as well as those cruzing in the bow - the boat has a huge stereo in it already and we're just trying to get some sound up front.

Yes, so when the cushion is in place you cant hear it. But when it is removed or turned sideways its is great. I have little kids so I wanted a quiet place to hand out. I also have a XXX sub under the driver so the walk way would have been very tight.

Sorry for the slow response. Got tied up.

Originally Posted by sexyc4

Lake,

I had the same dilemma with my Avy. What I ended up doing was eliminating the pockets in the side cushions and backed them with a thin piece of fiberglass cut a speaker hole and re-used the original material to cover the fiberglass. I didn't really like the pockets anyway because people always stuffed too much crap in them and it would cause them to stretch.

That is a great job. I thought about the same thing.

But like I said, I wanted to be able to create a quite area if I wanted. With the bow cushion in, you cant hear them at all. With the bow cushion out or just turned sideways you have tunes.

Is there room behind the side cushions up front, say right under the front of the handrail int he darker gray section, or jsut fwd of that in the light gray section? If that cushion is too thick to mount a speaker directly, tehn you could shim the speaker out with some washers so that it just squishes the cushion a little.
I'd rather cut some vinyl and some hidden 'glass than cut a couple big ol holes in exposed glass. Like you I'd have concerns that they wouldn't sound that great directly facing each other so close together, but I wouldn't want to offset them for fear it would look goofy. I'm no audio expert, but maybe one will chime in.
If they sound good facing each other, put them in the walk thru. Otherwise I'd go for the front side cushions.

I'm almost sure there isn't enough depth behind the glass for the magnet - you cannot get to the back of the seat without removing it, which appears to be a huge huge project - basically it appears to be a huge gamble of whether a 6.5 will fit there with no way to tell without cutting the vinyl and basically going for it - I am very hesitant to do that.

The install would be clean and easy in the walkthru - give sound both directions (I think) and look good. The only concern is the speakers sounding weird or loosing sound quality due to them facing each other.

The boat has a pair of WS Pro 80's and Pro 60's on the tower / two WS amps / WS EQ / Another sub amp / 4 Skylon 6.5's in the cockpit / the amps and sub are all mounted underneith the dash area behind the false wall so you cannot see them.

If you are dead set on adding speakers to the bow it can be done here is a pic from when I installed my docking lites as you can see there is enough room between the hull and bow for speaker magnets as the skylons are a fairly small speaker.I would advise against this though adding speakers to the bow or walk through will do little to bring sound to the driver where it is needed the most.I am installing my new system which is similar to yours .I am using three ARC amps two pro 485's on the tower four bullet 650 coax in the interior and am adding the two bullet 770 coax in the locations I posted on David from earmarks recommendation for speakers and placement.The way David explained it to me is in an open air environment positional advantage is more important the positioning the speakers for imaging.there should be enough room to add a speaker to the kick panel I have my sub behind it as well and there was more than enough room.Here are a couple more pics of what I'm doing to maybe give you some ideas

I was just looking at your pics again and noticed that you don't have a wind dam I made up some kits and have one left for the Falcon I could let you have it for $100 shipped PM me if you are interested

Harold, what is that plastic thing in the 3rd pic? Assuming it's a housing for a speaker, does it make the speaker sound better? Is it there for protection? Both?

Bendow the white plastic thing is a speaker basket. I purchased it from Earmark on Davids recommendation.I have my sub located behind the kick panel on the drivers side and since I was installing a coax in the kick panel David said it was needed to keep the coax isolated from the pressure of the sub.Here is a couple pic's of where I mounted the front passenger side coax like I said above I used the bullet 770 coax up front and the 650 coax in the side pockets notice the size difference

that's pretty cool. I wonder if they improve component speakers elsewhere, where SPL isn't an issue...

Well I went for it - looks great, installing the amps/EQ tomorrow!

Good looking install!

I agree it does look good but think you are not going to be happy with the sound unless all you were trying to do is get some tunes to the bow because the ones in the side pockets will overpower them due to positional advantage. Also you have now eliminated the chance of being able to install a wind dam in the future because the speakers sit to far foreword JMTC

A wind damn should still fit just fine and we were just trying to get some sound into the bow area without cutting into the vinyl - we'll see how she sounds soon!

Nice job on the install!

A wind dam should be just fine in there. The one that came with my Tige is all the way at the front there and then is molded to flow with the angle of the windshield so that it actually closes up against it. It also uses vinyl wrapped pieces instead of metal so there are no sharp edges.

sorry guys the wind dam will not install properly just look at the pic above with my wind dam in place and you will see what I mean

The amps are all in and the speakers sound great! Went with the new JL XD700 - very impressive amp and would recommend it to anybody! If anybody is looking to add some sound up front with ease - this is the way to do it.

On the issue with the wind damn - it will work perfectly - I just got off of the phone with Centurion and its just a 3/8" rail and we have about 3" between the speakers and the front of that bulkhead. Not a problem at all.

One more quick question on the speaker housing. Does it use the speaker bolts to bold in place or do you need to drill seperate holes. Those would be great to put on the back of my cockpit speakers as we are in and out with stuff from the storage area a ton.

swatguy the speaker housing I posted above is bolted up using the same holes as the speaker I just used machine screws and nylock nuts.TQ like I said above the wind dam will not fit correctly it will work but will rattle and not seal against the wind shield here is a better pic from when I installed mine

TQ, I just bought some of these angled speaker rings on ebay. I've been searching for something like this for months! Finally found it...may work for you

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=320671859928

According to Centurion their wind damn will work, but either way I don't think we are ever going to install one so it's irrelavent. Bendow the ebay listing has been removed, but the speakers do not need to be angled, plus they would stick out further into the walkthru - more of a chance for somebody to get hung up on.

Now for the good stuff! This thing will rock! Plus we just did FAE, Bennet Trim Tab, Depth Gauge, Sampson Mirror, Surf Racks, etc, etc -

Gotta love WS!

A little late now, but why not just have a couple of the tower speakers facing forward? That'll give you plenty of decent sound in the bow.

looks great. I bet it even sounds better.