tower speaker owners- you need this accessory...

http://www.davidnavone.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=N-22V

seperate volume knob.

Ty,
Have you used this? I'd love to have a volume control at my fingertips in the drivers seat. Will it work with any system? Anyone have any details or experience?

Yes, I have used them. He makes great stuff and you just route your rca's through it.

if I actually pull the trigger on tower speakers, I am going to get two of these so i can turn down the volume in the boat also so as not to blow out the kids when the tower is running or vice versa

Just keep in mind that a potentiometer controls the signal level going through the RCA's. When the signal is low is when distortion and noise come into play. I have purchased a separate pre-amp to boost my voltage levels specifically to eliminate the possibility of noise and the pre-amp does have a volume control on it.

Yes, you want to turn up the knob before you turn up the deck volume. this will eliminate that problem.

TY - I tried a couple of volume controls like these in my boat. I found a lot of noise in the system with them. I bet they just use the ground to atenueate the signal (ie, dump the voltage to ground).

I re-did my RCAs and to use the rear channels on my deck as the control for the tower speakers. I fade and turn them off that way. No more noise.

Now Phaeton with the same boat, had the same volume control and no noise. So go figure, your results may be different! My boat has a noisy charging system, it took me awhile to get the right amps and deck combo to clean out all of the noise.

Navone makes some nice stuff and he also claims it will not introduce any noise into the line.

Sean I used the fade on the deck. Front channel boat, rear channel tower. The other three knobs were all sub controls.

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ah, my mistake. When I used the volume control on the tower, it was noisy!

I'm doing the same thing on mine (front to boat, rear to tower), but I'm using the deck's sub control for sub volume. I have one amp on each sub and set the gains on those amps to get the output I want relative to sub control on the deck.

I did the same… front to boat, rear to the tower, my deck (Eclipse) also has a sub control. I did notice that when I set the fade all to the front I still have some volume coming from the tower. I also used the L/R balance control to adjust boat to bow volume.

With a volume knob will I get any more control of the tower speakers than I have now??? Does it allow you to turn the tower speakers off while leaving the boat speakers at the same level?

Jeff, with a volume control for the tower speakers you should be able to turn them off. A lot decks just turn down the channel via the fader not off. If I remember right, the volume control that I used would turn volume off. You can take it and try it. I'll toss it in the car.

The other neat trick to do, if you have an amp just for the tower speakers is to wire a switch on the remote on cord. Place the switch near your deck and you can use it to turn off the tower amp all together when you don't want it on.

(Message edited by magic on April 21, 2003)

(Message edited by magic on April 21, 2003)

When using your rear channels from the deck to the tower, make sure they're full frequency and not just rear fill.

i also use the fade on the deck. works well.

A direct quote from the WW stereo guru..

By Doug Hanson (xtigeman) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 9:29 pm:

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.

navone says that these introduce no noise. i did not have noise when i tried them a while ago. for 17.50 plug them into your rca's and see. if not return them.

OK maybe a dumb question…. Is rear filler sound from the deck or pre-amps? I have 3 pre-amp outputs from my deck, how do I tell if the ‘rear’ is full range or filler. I currently run my pre-amps (1,2) to one 4-channel amp powering the tower and boat speakers. The sub pre-amp is to a separate amp powering 1 12” sub.

Sean I thought about the remote power switch for turning off my sub but I only have one amp for my speakers so it would turn all my speakers off.

For our use the tower speakers are always on. We only turn down the boat. Don't get why the tower would ever need to be turned off? The neighbors boat is wired with a switch to turn off the tower amp. I just don't get it.

www.Wake-Me.com

Steavaz I ran the tower off the rear channel of the deck in the Alpina and it was loud. Real loud.

www.Wake-Me.com

Trav, When you have sooooo many speakers and amps of course it will still be loud if you just turn off one of the amps.
I hope your new set up is close to what you had on the Alpina…. That set up was NICE! The only riding I have done where I could HEAR the music.

Jeff, I bet your rear channels are full range off of the deck. Some decks do have an option for adjusting this. Check the owners book I guess.

My Pioneer deck is full range. I use the cross over on the amp to take care of low freqs.

Jeff the new setup is going to crush the old. More speakers-More power. Can't wait.

www.Wake-Me.com


(Message edited by phaeton on April 21, 2003)

i use a eq, with a front and rear fader. front=6boat speakers,
rear=tower.
works perfect, all at my fingertips and can change the levels to fit the music.

I think you're right Phaeton, depends on the deck. Just remembered what Doug had posted and thought people should be aware of it.

I'm with you O'Malley, I think EQ's work perfect in this situation. I use my amp to select the lower crossover frequency for my sub and my EQ to select the upper crossover frequency. It also allows me to adjust my sub volume, fade the tower and/or the boat, control my mids and highs....all in a nice little compact unit right at my finger tips.