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JL Stereo System install. My boat came with 1 battery and a weak Sony stereo system with 6 in-boat Sony 6.5" speakers. 4 of the in-boat speakers that were in the sun, were all brittle and the cones were falling apart. First, I installed a second battery and ACR and battery charger. You can see my post with that info, Blue Sea Add a Battery and battery charger. Then I installed a new Sony MEX-M100BT Head Unit, 2 JL M600/6 Amps, 6 JL M6-650X-S-GwGw-i in-boat speakers, 1 JL M6-10IB-S-GwGw-i-4 10 inch Sub, and 2 JL M6-880ETXv3-Sb-S-GmTi-i 8.8 inch Tower Speakers. I installed 2 JL Volume controls. JL HD-RLC volume control for the Sub, and JL CL-RLC Remove Level Control/Line Driver for the Tower Speakers. All of my 9 JL speakers have LED lights behind the cones and it creates a very nice, even lighting. I also bought a lot of other stuff to do with this install, including Marine grade wiring, 2 Wetsounds RGB light controllers (1 for speaker LEDs and 1 for underwater lights and additional LED lights to be added later). I did all these installs myself and it did take a lot of time. I took my time and did not get in a hurry. I bought all the JL stuff from Creative Audio. I bought the JL 12 gauge speaker wire and the Crutchfield RGB wire from Crutchfield.

1. Sony MEX-M100BT CD Receiver with Bluetooth. Creative Audio.
2. JL M6-650X-S-GwGw-i, In-boat speakers, qty 6. Creative Audio.
3. JL M6-10IB-S-GwGw-i-4, 10 inch Infinite Baffle Sub, Creative Audio.
4. JL M6-880ETXv3-Sb-S-GmTi-i, 8.8 inch Tower Speakers, qty 2. Creative Audio.
5. JL M600/6, 6 channel Class D Marine Amps, qty 2. Creative Audio
6. JL HD-RLC, Amplifier Remove Level control, for Subwoofer. Creative Audio.
7. JL CL-RLC, Remove Level Control/Line Driver, for Tower speakers. Creative Audio.
8. JL M-SWMCPv3-2.500 swivel mounts for tower speakers. Creative Audio.
9. JL M880ETX-CVR, Neoprene tower speaker covers. Creative Audio.
10. Wetsounds Fuse Distribution Box. Creative Audio.
11. JL RCA Cables and Y-Splitters. Creative Audio, Crutchfield.
12. JL Audio 12 gauge speaker wire. 120 feet. Crutchfield.
13. Crutchfield RGB wire. 200 feet. Crutchfield.
14. Ancor Marine Grade Wire, 4 gauge, Red and Yellow, 50 ft. $78. Amazon - Atlantic Boat Supply.
15. Ancor Marine Grade Wire, 12 gauge, Red and Yellow, 100 ft. $30. Amazon - Atlantic Boat Supply.
16. Blue Sea Waterproof in-line ATO/ATC Fuse holder, for ground wire. qty 7. $7. Amazon.
17. Custom Speaker ring for SUB, 10 3/4" OD, 8 7/8" ID, 3/4" thick. white. $65. Boat Outfitters.
18. All Stainless Steel hardware from Bolt Depot.
I bought a lot of other stuff too, way too much. I think I got enough hardware to install another system. Except the wire, I used every bit of the wire.

Pictures of running the power and ground wires and the speaker and RGB wires, and Wetsounds Distribution Box back by the battery.

I drilled 2 holes for the JL volume controls, 1 for tower speakers and 1 for Subwoofer, and 3 holes for Blue Sea Switches, 1 switch for Stereo, 1 switch for RGB controller 1, and 1 switch for RGB controller 2. I wired everything straight to the battery and some to the battery switch. Nothing is tied to the ignition switch. I hated the way the stereo was wired to the ignition switch and it would turn off every time you turn the key off. No more of that.

I laid out the hole for the Sub using the Spacer I bought for the Sub. Thank you Nauti's for the dimensions I needed for the spacer. It worked great. I used 5 skil saw blades cutting this sub hole, but it did make a very nice cut.

More pictures of Stereo installed and Subwoofer. The one picture is how I soldered the Tower speaker wiring with 1 person.

Great writeup, and I love all the pictures!

I’m curious though - how did you use a skil saw to cut the hole?

I mounted the Amps on the Upper carpeted board on the front Port side storage compartment. I bought starboard material to mount the amps to, but decided not to use it and I mounted them directly on the carpeted board, and the Wetsounds RGB light controllers are mounted there too. I did add a screw to each stringer toward the top, because of the extra weight of the amps on that board. The factory had 2 screws in each stringer and one of the screws didn't even hit the stringer. They missed it, so I corrected that too. Pictures of amps installed.

Final amp install pictures.

jhnmdahl wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 2:15 pm Great writeup, and I love all the pictures!

I’m curious though - how did you use a skil saw to cut the hole?

I used a Skil Saw brand JIG saw, and it does have a scolling option so you can turn the blade at any angle with the handle at the top. It took 5 blades to make a good cut.

That's an AMAZING install. Any typical stereo shop would charge big bux for that kind of project.

Now.....tell us how it sounds!

Holy Smokes wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 4:22 pm That's an AMAZING install. Any typical stereo shop would charge big bux for that kind of project.

Now.....tell us how it sounds!

Thank you! I worked on it countless hours, every weekend for about 6 weeks straight, but that included the Add a battery, ACR and battery charger too. It turned out great! Sounds awesome! Very loud and clear. We were at Grand Lake of the Cherokees on Memorial Weekend. There was a boat there that had 5 outboard motors, 400 HP each. Going back there over 4th of July weekend. We love Grand Lake, Oklahoma, Dripping
Springs is the party cove. I will post some speaker pictures and videos in a few days.

I finally got my underwater lights installed! It’s a Quasar 16K, which it 2 diablo royale light installed with a Y fitting. 16000 lumens. It shines on both sides of the lower unit and it has a drain plug in the center. I hooked it up to a Wetsounds RGB controller so I can change the color and it has multi color modes and music modes. I really like it. It is not wired to the same Wetsounds RGB controller as my speaker LEDs.

Another picture from Grand Lake of the Cherokees in Oklahoma! Arrowhead Yacht Club and Marina. #1 Cobalt Dealer in the World!

DockRocker wrote: Tue Jul 14, 2020 2:56 pm I finally got my underwater lights installed! It’s a Quasar 16K, which it 2 diablo royale light installed with a Y fitting. 16000 lumens. It shines on both sides of the lower unit and it has a drain plug in the center. I hooked it up to a Wetsounds RGB controller so I can change the color and it has multi color modes and music modes. I really like it. It is not wired to the same Wetsounds RGB controller as my speaker LEDs.

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Nice DR! Does it stick out below the hull at all?

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It does stick out about a quarter inch on each side below the hull. I am keeping a close watch on it for now. The lights are offset, so I could remove the Y fitting and just use one of the offset Diablo Royale lights if I think that would be better, safer. Right now, I'm leaving both lights and the Y fitting in.