How to wire amps?

I am working on installing 3 Kenwood amps in my boat. One 4 channel amp to run 4 of the interior speakers, an additional 4 channel amp to run the remaining 2 interior speakers and the 2 tower speakers and a 2 channel amp (bridged) to run the sub. The diagram shows running RCA cables to one amp and then just running additional RCAs between the amps as opposed to running them all back to the deck. Does this work? If I do it this way, the amps only have one set of "line out" RCAs but the 4 channel amps have 2 sets of "line in" RCAs. Any recommendations?

Thanks

Can you return the amps??

a:I would get one solid 4 channel to run the 8 speakers at 2 ohm stereo and one amp for the sub.

b: Run one 4 channel amp for all the interior speakers and one 2 channel dedicated amp for the tower speakers and a 2 channel for the sub

I do belive Pac makes "splitter" for your needs. Or just get y adapters for the 4 channel amp.

Won't running 2 interior speakers off 2 channels and 4 interior speakers off the other 2 channels cause the speakers to sound different? How would these be wired up?

The amps also have S-Video in-and-out. Would it be better to use these to connect the amps together and run RCAs to the first amp?

No, the amp should be fine...you will have 2 channels running at 4 ohms stereo and 2 channels running at 2 ohms stereo. Assuming the amp is rated at 2 ohm stability you will be fine.

S-Video???Are you serious? What model amps do you have?

You can also look into a 3 way electronic crossover. It should allow you to have on RCA input and 3 sets of RCA outputs.

They are Kenwood Exelon KAC X542s and a X522. The reason I have these is the boat came with one of the 542s and I was able to get the others off of Ebay for around $160 each (new). Do I just hook the 4 speakers up to the 2 outputs on the amp (piggyback)?

The S-video they speak of is for Kenwoods Amp management system.

Your amps have pre-amp outputs which you can connect the amps to each other for signal. so you have 2 choices

For me I would run one 4 channel amp to the speakers and tower speakers...connect the output on the 4 channel to the 2 channel to run the sub. You still need a y adapter for the 4 channel and 2 patch cords.

or

Do like you said, one 4 channel amp for 4 speakers, one for the 2 tower and 2 speakers, and one for the amp. You need 4 y adapters for this and 3 rca patch cords.

Don't forget the power cable...I would run 1/0 to a block and split it to the 3 amps.

Rich,

Thanks for the advice. Do you really think I should eliminate one of the 4 channel amps and run all of the speakers off of 1 amp and the sub off of the other? Is there any disadvantage to using both 4 channels as I initially planned? The 4 channel amps are only rated at 45W per channel at 4 ohms and 90W per channel at 2 ohms Like you suggest, I will run 1/0 to the distribution block and 4 gauge to the amps. The distribution block has the the fuses built in as well as the ground. Each amp has 2-30 amp fuses, so does that mean I should put 60 amp fuses in the distribution block? Sorry for all of the questions, but I don't know much about stereos. Thanks for your patience.

1: Check on the Ground....what model distribution block? As for the fuses....put the block close to the battery and I would use 80 amp for each line.

I personally would get more power for the tower...you will only hurt them if you don't have enough power. for the interior the 4 channel amps are great, for the tower I would get at least the speakers rated power and turn the amp down. The sub the same way.

If you rana the amp at 2 ohm either way each speaker gets 45 watts.

The block is: Streetwires CBR44A Combo Fused Distribution Block. The tower speakers that I am running are the stock Roswell speakers from Supra. I am not sure what they are rated. The Sub is the Exelon 10 inch. I think the max rating for that is 150W. Would it make more sense to bridge 2 channels form one of the 4 channel amps for the sub and use the 2 channel amp for the tower speakers? This question is going to sound really stupid, but how do I change the amp from 4 to 2 ohms?

You don't change the amp....the speakers are 4 ohm...if you wire them parallel you get 2 ohm total load.