Off Season Stereo Build

[NautiGirl]

It was a sunny 55 degree day in the bluegrass so Katie and I packed up and made the drive to the lake to start the build. Spent about 4 hours working on stuff before we ran out of daylight and both were getting pretty tired of crawling around the boat. Everything went well, as usual everything was pretty well done from the factory, and over all easy to work on. couple takeaways.

We started by pulling the battery switch, little cramped but not horrible. I will need to make some cuts in the panel the switch mounts to in order to accommodate the larger power wires we put in. This is the wire cobalt used between the Battery Switch and the fuses for the amplifiers. That's 10ga wire...hooked up to a 40 amp breaker. I'm actually relieved we got it pulled out and replaced with appropriate sized wire. 10ga was undersized for even the factory amps. I am paranoid but if you have a cobalt with factory sound from the mid 2000s I would replace what came from the factory.

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We also discovered the stereo was connected directly to the Port side battery, not run through a fuse or through the battery switch. I really don't care that it isnt run to the switch, but I will want to add an inline fuse to the power wire.

Next up was pulling out the original speakers and amps. Found out the holes for the original speakers wont line up /w the JL's so I get to drill all new holes in the boat. The sub is going to be tricky, the hole cut from the factory is a bit too large, so a couple of the screws are barely going to land in fiberglass. BBP suggested using spring clips, may look into that, if anyone has any awesome ideas I am all ears.

Also found rust on the underside of the amps. This is why you spend the extra money for marine grade cobalt.

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Running new power and ground wires down the side of the boat really wasn't horrible. Katie jumped in and is actually much better at this part of the job. She has a ton more patience than I do. Took about 40ft total of cable for two new power and ground wires. Power went to the battery switch through two new 50A fuses, grounds went to the Port Battery. It's actually car stereo 101 to ground everything int he same place to avoid ground loop noise so having the head unit grounded to that same battery works great.

Next was pulling speaker cable, we got all three speakers on the starboard side pulled, port side should be easy in comparison.

From there its just mounting all the speakers, amps, and powering it on. I would guess we could knock it out in one more 4 hour day. Wish our boat was closer its a 2.5 hour drive one way to boat storage so we spent more time in the car today than working on the boat. Katie is now offering to contract out boat stereo install services, she did a ton of the work and did a great job.

Busy day - will be sore in the AM - but it beats spending the $1,000 I was quoted to install it locally.

[Big Block Power]

Nice job guys. Are you going to run a memory wire straight to a battery so the radio presets stay active all of the time.

[NautiGirl]

Nice job guys. Are you going to run a memory wire straight to a battery so the radio presets stay active all of the time.

Radio? Presets? You and your typos! Lol

We have a non flip boat phone with a Spotify app... Pair said phone and listen to all of our personalized playlits. FM radio is so old school.

[Big Block Power]

Nice job guys. Are you going to run a memory wire straight to a battery so the radio presets stay active all of the time.

Radio? Presets? You and your typos! Lol

We have a non flip boat phone with a Spotify app... Pair said phone and listen to all of our personalized playlits. FM radio is so old school.

Is that spot the dogs new app? what's a app?
You just don't get FM down in the south. Still only get AM don't you.

[cmattj]

Nice job guys. Are you going to run a memory wire straight to a battery so the radio presets stay active all of the time.

Radio? Presets? You and your typos! Lol

We have a non flip boat phone with a Spotify app... Pair said phone and listen to all of our personalized playlits. FM radio is so old school.

Is that spot the dogs new app? what's a app?
You just don't get FM down in the south. Still only get AM don't you.

Awesome read Nautis!

I have a question along with Flips .... If most stereos default to a “ non EQ setting ( my Sony) are the new one set or have a diod that retains those settings when power is removed including the memory wire?

I always have to set my EQ for max sound quality with every battery on boating event.

Parasitic draw is about 15 milamps so it should make it 3 weeks but I’ve never hooked up memory. Any thoughts for us western folk?

[Ytmsn]

Mine is like that Matt. I only use Pandora or my personal playlist when on the boat, but I have to set it every time. Running a switched memory wire is in the plans for me.

I have no idea how to do that and dont want to know...
So I'll be taking the boat in to the stereo shop soon to have a ground fault fixed on a bow speaker and having some more lighting installed.

I have all the respect Jeef! If I ever attempt to do what Team Nauti is doing, I know it will result in

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[NautiGirl]

Radio? Presets? You and your typos! Lol

We have a non flip boat phone with a Spotify app... Pair said phone and listen to all of our personalized playlits. FM radio is so old school.

Is that spot the dogs new app? what's a app?
You just don't get FM down in the south. Still only get AM don't you.

Awesome read Nautis!

I have a question along with Flips .... If most stereos default to a “ non EQ setting ( my Sony) are the new one set or have a diod that retains those settings when power is removed including the memory wire?

I always have to set my EQ for max sound quality with every battery on boating event.

Parasitic draw is about 15 milamps so it should make it 3 weeks but I’ve never hooked up memory. Any thoughts for us western folk?

Our "new" 2015 model year Sony doesn't have a provision for remembering settings with power disconnected. I have debated the idea of connecting the memory wire to the battery, but I know it would eventually kill a battery. It's annoying because we have to pair our phone to the stereo on each trip. You want to change the wiring on yours and see how it works?

Is that spot the dogs new app? what's a app?
You just don't get FM down in the south. Still only get AM don't you.

Ironically BBP I noticed Cobalt connected the FM Antenna output on our Head Unit to the screw that holds the front window clip to the boat. I will have to test out the FM reception next time we are looking for something to listen to lol.

[NautiGirl]

Mine is like that Matt. I only use Pandora or my personal playlist when on the boat, but I have to set it every time. Running a switched memory wire is in the plans for me.

I have no idea how to do that and dont want to know...
So I'll be taking the boat in to the stereo shop soon to have a ground fault fixed on a bow speaker and having some more lighting installed.

I have all the respect Jeef! If I ever attempt to do what Team Nauti is doing, I know it will result in

You're killing me YT. Don't doubt your skills and more important your desire to do a good job on your own boat.

I bet if you dug in and got your hands dirty the end product would turn out 100x better than letting some stereo shop do it. I am not a huge fan of electrical stuff either, and yeah we are talking about a lot of amps, but its only 12v. You can touch both battery terminals with your bare hands and not feel a shock.

[Big Block Power]

Is that spot the dogs new app? what's a app?
You just don't get FM down in the south. Still only get AM don't you.

Awesome read Nautis!

I have a question along with Flips .... If most stereos default to a “ non EQ setting ( my Sony) are the new one set or have a diod that retains those settings when power is removed including the memory wire?

I always have to set my EQ for max sound quality with every battery on boating event.

Parasitic draw is about 15 milamps so it should make it 3 weeks but I’ve never hooked up memory. Any thoughts for us western folk?

Our "new" 2015 model year Sony doesn't have a provision for remembering settings with power disconnected. I have debated the idea of connecting the memory wire to the battery, but I know it would eventually kill a battery. It's annoying because we have to pair our phone to the stereo on each trip. You want to change the wiring on yours and see how it works?

Is that spot the dogs new app? what's a app?
You just don't get FM down in the south. Still only get AM don't you.

Ironically BBP I noticed Cobalt connected the FM Antenna output on our Head Unit to the screw that holds the front window clip to the boat. I will have to test out the FM reception next time we are looking for something to listen to lol.

At least they didn't connect it to the screw going to the fiberglass.

[puttsputts]

Your post is very timely for me. Thanks. I got 2 JLAudio 7.7 tower speakers for Xmas. Have a 2014 R3 with the upgraded audio which gives me a 600 and 800 watt amp for the vanilla cobalt installation. Adding the tower speakers I am told that the towers are pre-wired to their base and that I need to add another amp for them. Do you have a recommendation of what to add? and any other tips or recommendations?
jim

[Big Block Power]

Welcome puttputt. Please go into the new member thread and introduce yourself with pictures of this vanilla cream puff you got there.
You should take pictures of where they tied off the wires for the towers and where they go by the amps.
Jeff will be able to get you in the right direction. Do you have a sub?
Are you only going to power up the towers.

[NautiGirl]

Your post is very timely for me. Thanks. I got 2 JLAudio 7.7 tower speakers for Xmas. Have a 2014 R3 with the upgraded audio which gives me a 600 and 800 watt amp for the vanilla cobalt installation. Adding the tower speakers I am told that the towers are pre-wired to their base and that I need to add another amp for them. Do you have a recommendation of what to add? and any other tips or recommendations?
jim

Sure - happy to help - are the 7.7's the M or MX series? I ask because while they are both 7.7 inch drivers the amplifier power handing is a bit different between the two. If you are unsure you can measure the tweeter in the speakers. The M series will be a 1in the MX is a .75in tweeter.

Are you looking to add an amp or do you want to replace one of the current amp's in the boat with something larger that has enough channels to handle the extra speakers? Replacing an amp may seem crazy, but in the end it could be easier and cheaper as you wouldn't have to run new power, ground and signal cables for a third amplifier in your boat.

Do you know the current JL amp model numbers in the boat? They should be stamped on the front of amps next to where the power wire plugs in. Pictures of the amps would also work.

Get me that info and I can help out /w spending your money.

[puttsputts]

Jeff, answers to your questions -
But first a small correction on the year of the boat- it's a 2018 not 2014
new speakers are MX models, open to best option on amps- The boat is on Norris and I'm in NKY, but the amp documentation says M600/1 and M800/8v2
Jim

[NautiGirl]

Jeff, answers to your questions -
But first a small correction on the year of the boat- it's a 2018 not 2014
new speakers are MX models, open to best option on amps- The boat is on Norris and I'm in NKY, but the amp documentation says M600/1 and M800/8v2
Jim

Cool - so the JL recommends between 25W and 150W RMS Power for the MX7.7 speakers. Based on your current amp setup you have 400W RMS going to the Sub via the M600/1 and 75W RMS going to 8 in boat speakers from the M800/8v2.

Adding additional speakers to your setup while retaining the power you have to the sub does get a little tricky as cobalt put in one of the larger Amp's JL makes in the M800/2. But here are a couple options.

Easiest thing to do if you have the space for the amp would be to purchase a M200/2 and run the towers off that - which would give them the same 75W RMS as the inboat speakers. This falls right in the middle of the recommended power range JL lists for the MX Series and would retain the amps that came from the factory. The downside to this is you will need to run new power and ground wires for the third amp.

The other option would be to look at upgrading the M600/1 to a M1000/5v2. That amp would provide the same 400W RMS to the sub as your current amp and would have an additional 4 channels at 75W each to drive the towers. Downside to this is cost of the M1000/5 which of course would be partially offset by selling the M600/1. The other issue here is you would have two unused channels on the M1000/5v2. Wouldn't cause a problem, you are just paying for channels you are not using. If you had M Series towers I would say bridge the four channels on the M1000 to provide 200W to the towers, but that would be a lot of power for the MX series. The extra two channels could come in handy though if you wanted to say add an additional set of tower or transom speakers down the road.

Make sense?

[Bfun220]

My 2 cents.
I would add another amp and leave the rest of your system a lone, assuming your happy with it.I would not run less than 100 watts to your tower speakers.