New to Cobalt and boating in general

[Platnumtoof]

Hi all, great site with lots of information here!

I am new to boating and after copious research I decided on a Cobalt. I’m a month and a half into ownership and couldn’t be happier!

I picked up a 2012 220 WSS with 110 hours on the 5.7 Volvo with 300 HP. Well maintained and runs like a top.

It came with the Cobalt mooring cover, so I have an appointment for custom made cockpit and bow cover and will be placing an order for Aqua Marine deck shortly. I’d like to upgrade my stereo, at least the head unit for now and maybe add another amp. I believe it has 7 Kicker speakers and a Kicker subwoofer, but then bow speakers seem to be powered by just the head unit. Tower speakers would be a great addition.

My parents have a lake house so it’ll spend most of the summer moored there, but otherwise we’ll trailer to other fresh water lakes. My wife is a great co-captain and the kids are learning their jobs too.

Can’t wait to learn more from all of you!

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[Big Block Power]

Welcome. Great boat!

[kas232ca]

Welcome, looking good!

[AsLan7]

.
Those smiles say it all PT.

....and that small block 350 is a great engine which will serve you well....such low hours too!

With regard to stereo options, we have had the Sony head unit that is similar to yours in our boat. It is a very respectable unit that looks great and has good functionality with bluetooth, Sirius XM, and ease of use.

If you want to ramp up your options, you will need to couple your head unit with an amplifier or two. You may already have them. Just look under the rear seat or near the helm storage area.

We have since upgraded our Sony MX100BT replacing it with a Rockford Fosgate PMX-5CAN. It allows for separate control of two zones (tower & boat), looks good, has excellent functionality and dedicated subwoofer volume controls on the head (and RF remotes).

We are currently replacing the stock Sony speakers with JL Audio M6's (6.5" & 7.7") with RGB functionality powered by a JL Audio M800/8v2 Amp. These are for inside-boat listening.

For outside-boat listening, we are using the Wet Sounds REV10 tower speakers mono-bridged to a Wet Sounds Sinister SDX4. We like the horn drivers for projecting tunes to our riders. I posted some of this here and a quick demo here.

Honestly there are many great options out there. The above is mostly top of the line and will break your budget quickly. We are doing ours in phases. Do you have a budget in mind and how you would like to use your system? Kicker speakers are very respectable.


For factory Cobalt wiring and other speaker caveats, be sure to check my post here .


Creative Audio and Crutchfield are excellent resources for equipment and expertise.

Now get out there and enjoy that boat with the tunes cranking....preferably with an upgrade to more powerful and accurate tunes.



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[cmattj]

Welcome from California and for a newbie you batted it out of the park!
That’s an awesome combo ( red is awesome on anything).
Enjoy the learning and excitement of boating. That’s what it’s all about!

[Ytmsn]

Welcome from Oklahoma! And you've made a great selection for your first boat! My first boat came with, umm, oars..

[Krob1114]

Welcome from the Mid South.
Beautiful boat. I was most impressed by " the kids are learning their jobs too."
If this is your starter boat.....wow!

[Platnumtoof]

.
Those smiles say it all PT.

....and that small block 350 is a great engine which will serve you well....such low hours too!

With regard to stereo options, we have had the Sony head unit that is similar to yours in our boat. It is a very respectable unit that looks great and has good functionality with bluetooth, Sirius XM, and ease of use.

If you want to ramp up your options, you will need to couple your head unit with an amplifier or two. You may already have them. Just look under the rear seat or near the helm storage area.

We have since upgraded our Sony MX100BT replacing it with a Rockford Fosgate PMX-5CAN. It allows for separate control of two zones (tower & boat), looks good, has excellent functionality and dedicated subwoofer volume controls on the head (and RF remotes).

We are currently replacing the stock Sony speakers with JL Audio M6's (6.5" & 7.7") with RGB functionality powered by a JL Audio M800/8v2 Amp. These are for inside-boat listening.

For outside-boat listening, we are using the Wet Sounds REV10 tower speakers mono-bridged to a Wet Sounds Sinister SDX4. We like the horn drivers for projecting tunes to our riders. I posted some of this here and a quick demo here.

Honestly there are many great options out there. The above is mostly top of the line and will break your budget quickly. We are doing ours in phases. Do you have a budget in mind and how you would like to use your system? Kicker speakers are very respectable.


For factory Cobalt wiring and other speaker caveats, be sure to check my post here .


Creative Audio and Crutchfield are excellent resources for equipment and expertise.

Now get out there and enjoy that boat with the tunes cranking....preferably with an upgrade to more powerful and accurate tunes.



.

Thank you AsLan7, this is helpful information! I do have an amp powering 7-8 kicker speakers and a sub, and it sounds pretty good but let's be honest, we could always use more sound! I'll check out your links and look into upgrades based on the products you listed. One thing I've noticed is tower speakers sure are a lot more expensive than I expected!

[Platnumtoof]

Welcome from Oklahoma! And you've made a great selection for your first boat! My first boat came with, umm, oars..

Thank you! Well, I guess technically I have a rubber raft and a couple of kayaks, but wouldn't really count those....

[Platnumtoof]

Welcome from California and for a newbie you batted it out of the park!
That’s an awesome combo ( red is awesome on anything).
Enjoy the learning and excitement of boating. That’s what it’s all about!

Thank you! Loving it so far, just wish the weather would cooperate more. Seattle June Gloom...

[Platnumtoof]

Welcome from the Mid South.
Beautiful boat. I was most impressed by " the kids are learning their jobs too."
If this is your starter boat.....wow!

Thank you, Krob! We have a saying in my family "everyone works" which includes kids!

[Platnumtoof]

Welcome, looking good!

Thanks Kas232ca! I'm down in LHC a couple of times a year (my parents have a place down there). Last year we rented a boat (Chaparral) and really fell in love with boating as a whole... and here I am now with my own!

[Platnumtoof]

Welcome. Great boat!

Thank you, BBP!