Your boats system?

Ok so.. my system is quite lame. Im upgrading though. I have tower speakers and all that good crap. What im wondering is the settups you guys have. Where your placing subs, amps, etc. I have a Direct Drive (not a huge difference when placing system crap.} But i want to know how much wattage your all running and show some pics of the settups! Thanks a bunch guys. Looking forward to seeing some of the dope settups i know you have.

If you are going to spend over $700 for a system, dont waste your money. Save another $300 and get a system that will blast your music. Car audio components just wont cut it on the water.

i know everyone has their own prefs. and to each their own!! but i dont think im too far off when i say the majority of people use car audio componets in their boats. i know we do, havent had any problems yet.... were redoing our stereo since it all got jacked, ill post some pics when its done. hopefully by thursday.

mike

I used all car audio components and couldn't be more happy

It got moved here because this is the section in which it belongs. Obviously, there would be no need for separate topics if everybody just wanted to post where they'd "get the most looks." However, users have requested separate topics so that other topics, such as the General Wakeboarding topic, do not get overly cluttered.

My bad =\

Hope this works.

Amp rack before the final cover is in place. Without the cover water from the wakeboard rope, or from large waves would get the front of the amp wet, which wasn't good.

Amp rack with plexi cover installed. Painted flat black for now, going to change to gloss black later. Would have painted white, but it would scuff and show marks too easily.

Screen mesh I installed beside the amp to allow air flow behind and around the cooling fins. There is an exhaust port at the back of the boat, so airflow naturally wants to go through that opening at out the side/rear of boat.

Other side of boat (identical to amp side). This is what the opneing used to look like without the rack.

Source that drives it all. Nothing special.

Front drivers speaker (one of 4 speakers total in boat)

Custom sub built into boat. No loss of leg room. The 5/8" mdf box is sitting in an unused cavity that was being used for nothing before the box was added. I was contemplating a location, and with the sub downfiring, the bass is extended well throughout the boat, and the passangers are also comfortable because they can still extend their legs in the area below.

Total cost on this project: $200 I think. All materials I used were scrap. Leftover plexi and MDF. The amp was $65 used. Its a 5 channel pioneer amp in rough shape. I sanded it smooth and painted silver. The sub was $15 on ebay. Speakers were from my car before I upgraded. All wiring was leftover (4 awg welding cable and dist. block etc). Deck was $100 or so.

Well firts off car audio is fine unless your near salt water as long as you don't use any paper cones or woofers.

I currently have 4- JL Audio VR 6.5 and one old school ORION 12' Sub- ONe Alpine 4 channel amp about 40 watts a channel and one Old school Rockfors Fosgate amp bridged to the sub pushing about 120 watts it sounds pretty decent I also bought an eclipse deck....sounds good for the 400.-- I paid for it all, but the install was a bitch by myself....LOL

Thanks... Ive upgraded Sometime in late June. Couldnt be happier.

I like the fuzzy dice best.

rotate between fuzzy dice and shiny disco ball

adam... nice amp install.. i like the multiple fuse breakers...

clubmyke, I dont' knwo why more people don't use setups like that. Fuses in cars are ok...but a popped fuse on a boat can ruin the whole day. I've had my breakers pop beofre...probably due to low voltage. But wait a few minutes, turn down the radio and reset the breaker. very simple.

because breakers arnt as safe as fuses...

a breaker is mechanical, so it can fail causing a severe current draw if something shorts and it fails, causing wire to heat up and possible fire...

Matt, I dont' see how that could happen? If the breaker fails it will fail in the open position. IF it failed in the closed postion I could see that happening.
What you are describing seems very unlikely to occur.

You could make a similar argument about any mechanical component in a high powered 12 volt system.

(Message edited by acurtis_ttu on September 18, 2006)

Breakers have failed before, its nothing new. Since they are mechanical, more things can occour that would cause the breaker to not "open" when too much current is passed its safety threshold.

When that happens you pose the risk of a fie. Fuses are much safer. There shoulnd't be any need for the use of a mechanical breaker in a boat or car setup. They do com ein handy to quickly disconnect power in the event you need to work on a system or attach a new device etc etc.

A properly designed and implemented system should never blow a fuse unless a problem occoured and a device such as an amp started to draw too much current.

Breakers have their place but I feel they dont belong in a boat or car atmoshphere. And if they do go in there, it is best to have a fuse placed before the breaker if you want the breaker for use as an easy access to disconnect the power.

I have never had a breaker fail to open. I have had a number of them get weak and pop early, but never have I had a circuit breaker fail to open.

Cicuit breakers have been used for a long time, the technology is pretty stable.

Im glad they worked for you, but the fact remains that they arnt as good as fuses, period.

I have seen breakers fail on 120v systems. As an electrician one summer my company did a bunch of burn jobs, a few were caused by breaker issues. It's pretty rare but it does happen, in the marine environment the contacts can get "frozen", but still it's unlikely. As Rod said the technology is pretty stable. In systems where circuit interuption coordination is critical (like not tripping out the main at a hospital with a hair dryer short) this is of significant concern, that's why fuses are typically used at the main.

Would I use a breaker on my amps... sure. My stuff is all sized and wired correctly, I have not blown a single fuse.