vlx stereo help

upgrading stereo in my 02 vlx and need help. I am looking for head unit with rca out for two amps, 1 for tower speakers and 1 for boat speakers, + 1 for existing infinity powered sub. I am planing on using 4 titan tower speakers and possibly the existing 4 infinity boat speakers. would like to keep system below $2500. Any ideas?

Personally I'd put a manual fader on your tower speakers.

I have the same boat Alan and I run..

-CDX-MP30 Sony MP3 player, front and rear audio output but no sub out. Don't really care as I only use one set of outs to my EQ that controls everything
-Sony LCD remote, really like this for the display but kind of spendy. Around $150.
-Kenwood KGC-6042 EQ/crossover
-2 sets of Infinity 60CS seperates in the boat
-2 sets of Titan/Kicker coaxial speakers on the tower, I didn't get the set of mid bass because I don't think you'll be able to hear them boarding anyway. However with 2 sets of coaxial..no problem.
-2 MTX 6304 4 channel amps, one runs the boat and sub, the other runs the towers
-JL 10

The JL is about to be swapped out for a Phoenix Gold Titanium 10 and that I'll run with a 2 channel MTX and use one 6304 for the tower and one for the boat. Guess you don't really care about that since you already have one

One nice thing about the Phoenix Gold, they hit pretty hard (hard enough for me), sound pretty good, need hardly any airspace in a sealed enclosure, but need a fair amount of power.

Here's a few pics for ideas.

BTW, unless you're throwing some serious power or are pretty picky, your boat speakers will do fine.

All just my uneducated opinion

Amps

Poor pic of tower setup but the only one I could find. I like this setup because I don't have to worry about hitting my head.

Stereo remote, the attinuate (sp?) button is in the to left corner..very handy to cut the throttle and push the ATT when the rider falls.

EQ/crossover

Steve,

Since you probably boat in rather warm temps, do you have any problem with the amps getting hot in the storage area?

I currently have a single amp mounted under the drivers dash. I'm going to add a second amp to run the boat speakers. I was thinking about moving the existing amp and mounting the new one in the storage compartment similar to your setup but was concerned about heat.

How do you like the kenwood EQ? That seems like it may be a good solution to controling the volume in the boat vs. the tower.

Hey David. Yes, I do have fans on my amps for 2 reasons. MTX amps are known to get pretty warm and it obviously gets pretty hot outside as well.

That is actually a fairly old EQ but does a great job. It serves as my crossover for mids and sub, fades tower, boat, and sub, and allows me to adjust bass volume as well as my highs. Works great.

Steve

Steve, thanks for the info, how did you wire the fans? from the stereo rocker switch?. I am also looking at the sony cdx-mp70 as it has 3 pre amp outs, the problem I have is with the remote, do you know if my existing jvc remote is compatable with the sony or do I abandon it and use sonys wireless remote? The manual fader on tower speaks is a good idea.

Tigeal,

From what research I did the remotes pose a BIG problem. I was planning on upgrading my head unit to something with 3 RCA outputs. (front, rear, sub which I would hook up to run the cockpit, tower, sub) However, according to the info I gathered off the Malibuboatowners website, you have to purchase a head unit marinized by Prospect electronics to work with the wired remotes.

In my case, there are no new head units that will work with my 2002 JVC remotes. Meaning I need to buy a new head unit as well as 2 new wired remotes. (drivers area and transom)

I opted to go with a PAC LC-1 Remote Level Control to control the volume on the tower speakers. Havent installed it yet. Time will tell.

If anyone has experience about the PAC LC-1 Remote Level Control, I'd love to hear about it.

David's summary of the remote situation is spot on.

I'm using the LC1 to control sub level right now and it works just as advertised. I've used one for years in simple car installs as well and it's pretty good accessory

For remotes, just use an IR repeater system.

The jvc head unit is gone, no turning back. problem then is what do I fill the remote hole with and if I go with sony their remote is wireless and has to be line of sight i'm told, witch means the flip cover on head unit has to go? M.I.A. has a sony LCD remote but I'm not seeing it in stores or online outlets.

EQ or a pre-amp with master volume controls will be cleaner than an LC-1 which is potentiameter??? Might not make an audible difference on subs, but can be real noticeable on full range speakers. Pots are also limit your wiring options of the RCAs as they effect the upstream gain output at the RCAs as opposed to downstream components. For example, you cannot Y off a line with pot on one line unless you want pot to affect both sides.

I don't know if anyone else had tried this, but do not use the rear channel RCAs as those are only fill channels and have much lower output. Real bad to use rear channel for tower speakers. If don't believe, take the time to try it out and you will be pleasantly surprised how much better it sounds to run off only front channels and right and left sub RCAs. But if you to split or Y the front RCAs for inboat and tower amps, the pot will not be able to control only tower speakers without also turning down in boat speakers.

A decent pre-amp unit may actually enhance your sound and will give you greater volume control. I use 2 pre-amps and have 4 separate volumes for:

towers on 1;
boat speakers on on 1;
two subs on 1 volume knob; and
1 sub on the last volume knob.

Just to clarify...my system only uses the front pre-outs from the deck and that feed directly to my EQ/Crossover. EQ/Crossover then takes over and dispenses the signal to the amps.

I believe the remote I'm using is available through Crutchfield but bought mine through a local retailer.

Steve

Alan,

I read a post here a while back and it has worked for me. I took the wireless remote apart and clipped the infrared light and sodered sp? 20 guage wire to the circuit board in its place}, then I ran the wire into my stereo compartment and sodered the wire ends back to the infrared light. I used the housing of a standard size headphone jack ($.99) to house the light and soder, the light protrudes from where the wire would normally come out of the headphone jack. It looks like a little lapel microphone and works like a charm.

Doug, since you are one of the resident stereo gurus could you help me out. I have 4 Kicker tower speakers powered by a Kicker 800.4. I ran 12 gauge from the amp to each speaker so I'm running 100 W at 4 Ohms to each speaker (want to try and keep amps as cools as possible). I have two sets of RCA's running from the head unit to the amp and I ran one set to the front channel and one set to the rear channel. I put the front channel for the co-ax's and the rear channel for the mid-bass. Is this the way you would recommend hooking this up? I'm getting ready to install a Kicker 600.4 for the boat speakers and was planning on splitting the RCA's (both front and rear) to that 4 channel amp as well. Any suggestions?

Also, you mentioned using a pre-amp or EQ to control volume levels, could you recommend a Kicker brand for me? I was planning on using the Kicker remote gain controllers for the subs once I get them in but I would like something to control the tower level relative to the in boat level. I'm kind of hung up on the Kicker brand only because I'd like to keep a matching system if at all possible (not to mention I've heard nothing but good things about Kicker's EQ's and pre-amps for the price).

Found Sony marine wired remote at crutchfield and they said it will work with any sony head unit that is wired remote ready(most upper end units). Same one that M.I.A. has and also comes in black. So here are my ordered parts so far.
1. Sony CDX-MP70 cd/mp3/xm ready
2. Sony RM-XM10 marine remote
3. 2 Pheonix Gold Ti 500.4
4. to be ordered-4 Titan bullets

I can't address Doug's comments, I will assume he knows more than I do on specs...

The new JBL head unit supplied with '03 Malibu VLX's has front and rear stereo, and sub RCA outs. As a result, I will run three amps from the RCA outs...

I will be running 2 MTX 6304's (Infinity Kappa - interior front, and Defcon III - towers rear) and one MTX 6500D (Elemental Design e12kd4 12" - sub). Assuming the outputs spec out the same, that's what I'm doing. If Doug's right, I may switch the towers to "front" and the interiors to "rear".

I'll let you know how it turns out...

FYI, I just saw in Crutchfields that the MTX 6304's are $199 on sale.

Steve

BT:

I have five amps and I do not use my rear channels at all. I use my nonfade channels (sub) and the front channels. Both non fade and front are full range.

You can daisy chain amps to keep from using too many Ys. I, however, use preamps. The pre-amps accept a right and left in and out put 6 channels. The output is also an enhanced signal to reduce unwanted noise.

Riddin High:

Not sure how many pre-amps out you have. I have six on my head unit. If you have non fade or sub channels, use those for the mid base. Otherwise, I would use a Y off the front channel. There should be a switch on your amp that allows you to use only the front inputs and it will produce the same signal out all four of your amps outputs.

I am not real familar with Kicker products, but they should have one. Audio Control also makes excellent pre-amp or eq/crossover units, as does both Clarion and Eclipse.

Alan, not sure if you have bought your Sony MP70 yet, but you can get them all day long on ebay for $250 as opposed to Crutchfield's for $399. I just bought the MP80, XM tuner, and 2 Sony wired remotes for a very inexpensive price. Let me know if you need a contact.