Crap
 

Holy $hit I’m beyond confused at this point I just wanted some jams man LOL

…
 

For what it may be worth also if I put say two of the subs I have mentioned above under my back seat? It’s a pretty tight fitting seat when I wash the boat it don’t let water past between the bottom of the seat and backing of it. So free air subs or just regular?

LOL. just get a couple free air subs. JL AUDIO makes a 10” and a 12” marine application free air subwoofer. They’ll sound great if you put enough power to them. Dedicate one amp for just your subs. Then grab a t least two sets of JL M series mids/highs by way of coaxle speakers. You just have to decide if you want 10” subs or 12” subs and if you want 6.5 7.7 or 8.8 “ coaxle. Get another amp to run the mids/highs. You’ll notice the wattage and output jumps up significantly as you jump up in size of speakers. So does price. Then all you have to do is figure out what amps you want. JL, Kicker, Fosgate are all main stream. The others mentioned PPI, Phoenix Gold, Zapco, etc are custom competition grade stuff. Doesn’t sound like You need to go that route.

I know I recommended building your own system via various companies but the more I read what you’re doing it’d be good just to go all one brand. Keep it clean and easy.

sorry I went all “SQUIRREL!!!” On stereo ****. lol. Keep it simple. I personally like JL the best. Kicker is right there. They both make complete systems (subs, mids/highs, amps, head units).

I can`t tell the difference between a $100 speaker and a $700 one so it wont much matter . I`ll do the 3 thou. For head unit I just bought this . https://www.crutchfield.com/p_20646K...er-46KMC2.html
I thought head units were a thing of the past .. I only stream music.
thanx!

That's going to sound anemic at best under each of the seats do not do that. Free air subs are when you have ZERO other options OR strictly listen to AM or ****ty talk radio. That boat needs sealed or ported boxes w/ 10's or 12's, one on each side with one amp running both in the gunnels like they came with from the factory. Plenty of room in there, super easy, can be done for cheap and results that will far surpass any free air installation with zero cutting.

yep, that’s perfect!

and yeah, grab 3 12 JL. Just make sure you get the right ones. Like DD said. You’d be able to seal those compartments pretty easy. But you do need to make sure it’s the correct cubic foot airspace. Just drag it over to Justin since it’s down in loto right now anyway! :D

So not under the seats okay.
That`s easier.
Waves and Wheels is not in my budget league by far .

To avoid the JL premium I’ve had great luck with Kicker. They have a marine series too. I wouldn’t go any cheaper than that.

Fusion is also somewhat cheaper than JL and attempting mimic the JL lineup as much as possible. But fusion has been raising prices too.

I hate free air subwoofers. They cant take any power. Make the effort to build an enclosure for your sub(s) and you’ll be able to run up to 1000 watts per sub depending on your setup. This can clean things up as well, not needing nearly as many to get the job done.

Ive been running a $400 non marine kicker 1200 watt d class amp in my boat for years now. But its hooked to two solo baric L7s ($$$) in marine board enclosures.

The rest of my setup is a fusion 4 channel and 6 fusion speakers, 2 in pods. Speakers in pods are the biggest rip off if you can avoid them.

If you’re just making noise in your cockpit, and not outside of it, your stereo can be much more reasonable.

You can build your own. You can also have them (Waves & Wheels) design your system and buy their speakers That is what I did.

I can do this for anyone building and speccing their own stereo.

Just hit me up

Sorry for the higjack 88Cafe !!!
 

^^^ What size sub is best for hard crisp bass at lower levels?
I`d like to design a system that is very clear and crisp. Last time I had little tweeters in places, they helped.
So far I have 4 of these speakers.
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_206KM6...omnews=5020980
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_20646K...er-46KMC2.html

I have collected these used. (I have 2 amps)
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...4ba96972fc.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...44d1715985.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...3d43ed05ad.jpg


open to all suggestions on subs and what else I would need for a tight crisp sound at lower volume levels.

funny, everyone thinks they need to buy marine grade stuff. I’ve run non marine stuff in my boats for years. Not currently, but historically. My whole system in my first gun was for a story in powerboat and it was all
clarion (non marine) local shop got clarion to donate the equipment for the story.

something to think about. Unless you’re planning on the stuff getting soaked, you can save a few bucks by not going with marine grade stuff.

and regarding free air to chambered subs, I agree, as stated in my first couple posts. The free airs won’t give that hard crisp bass. But they will
be easier to install and your rear seat will give somewhat of a “ported box” condition. If you’re just looking for “decent” sound inside the cockpit, this’ll work. Other option if you want to avoid building boxes, is buy some subs meant to be ported and see how that sounds. I had some kickers in my Baja under the seat, no box but were designed to be ported. They hit hard.

take homie roll up on figuring out the cubic feet design for a box. Boxes aren’t hard to build actually. Just need to do the math for maximum performance.


Dan, grab 3 JL 10’s, run them
in series and you get a tighter crisper bass. Grab 2 12” subs and keep the center storage free and you get that loud hard deep bass. Run enough power to it and seal the space and it’ll probably be more bass than you want lol

Thoughts?
 

what’s your thoughts on this package with the 1,000 watt 5 channel?
I’m fine with one sub under the back seat instead of two. The one in this package is called a JL M6 10” for “ infinite baffle “

talk to me goose lol
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...af73738bc.jpeg

You are going to want 2 of those subs I'm telling ya.... and after that you will wish you had 4 or done something else lol

..
 

ok ok I’ll add another LOL you win.

otherwise your thoughts on the package and stereo in general?

I agree. You’re gonna want two 10’s. Or even two
12’s. :D


love that set up although I prefer dedicated amps to mids / highs and subs.

Right
 

I may could add one later. Sorta have a budget on doing this anyhow. I think that would get me by for the time being.

Now how many beers it gonna take for you come install LOL!

M3 or m6
 

The m3’s aren’t a bad deal and it offers to let me add another 10” sub. I mean do I really need m6’s I guess that’s their competition line?

After owning 6.5's, 7.7"s and the 8.8's, there is certainly zero comparison between any of them (assuming they are all the same series). Put it this way, I will never buy another 6.5 unless there is zero room to put anything else in there.

If you are looking at M3's based off price I would possibly look to other brands from what I've read, they are meh.

I know everyone reading this is probably thinking holy hell the 8.8's and appropriate amplification (I had 300 each running to them which is far beyond what they are rated for and they screamed let me tell you) is a **** ton of money but on my last boat I picked out what I wanted and kept my eye out for used versions of it all. In the end I paid way less than what that package you listed cost and had FAR superior everything. There is no shame in getting nice **** on the cheap and there are deals out there I see all the time on the FB groups. Something to think about anyways.

My current boat has the "M" series of that same amp in your package in it. It all came with the boat but was completely wired incorrectly but that's another story. In going over the basic specs it looks like the only difference is the color (the part number listed in that ad brings up the black version so if you order that I would double check). Mine I have the 4 channels bridged to run two of my 6 total 7.7's and I have and the sub channel I have running two JL marine 10's in sealed boxes. It does a stellar job for what I'm using it for I don't think you would be disappointed. Agree with Tank however it's always best to have separate amps for mid/high and subs for flexibility down the road.

Ok
 

Ok so here’s what I’m thinking or working with on the interior of my Cafe.

tell me your thoughts and creative negativities.

please don’t mind how nasty she is right now. Been having to do some gel coat re finishing etc in my shop on another boat im redoing for my wife so it is embarrassingly dirty. Sorry!
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...f898b4bae.jpeg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...1acc114c5.jpeg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...1f8afac2a.jpeg
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https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...e1c213b1e.jpeg
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https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...f77084a51.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...6eea2f1d6.jpeg

Hard to tell but your throttles may limit you with any size to putting the fronts down low where there is plenty of room. May interfere with throttling. On my last boat they were down low. Pro's of this location is it is easy to upgrade to larger sizes if you did not initially do so. Con would be the lower they are the harder they to hear from outside the boat. That's another reason I ended up with 8.8's powered to the moon lol. My old boat had great imaging from the fronts set up this way but it was not a Cig which may be different.

The rears you may need to check the depth the upper mounting location may be too shallow?

What kind of space do you have to work with for the subwoofer(s)

I agree. When I shop for subs I’m just looking for a rubber surround and a plastic cone.

Im struggling to recall a subwoofer only meant for a ported enclosure. But my first box build was a ported enclosure for cerwin vegas, and compared to the small sealed box i originally had, you’d have though they weren’t even on before the ported box.

Will it work and sound good inside the cockpit of a Cafe at rest? Yes

Will it sound good while running? Maybe

Will it make any sound outside of your cockpit? No

Is it the most money you could possibly spend for the least performance? Yes

That speaker setup on your $1000! amplifier would only be making 600 watts rms at 12.5 volts, and 700 watts rms at 14.4 volts. Ironically the subwoofer would be quite a bit over its rated power at up to 400 watts. But I think JL tends to be very conservative with ratings.

Building a stereo completely overkill is preferable. You only do it once, it sounds better because you aren’t pushing anything in to clipping, and it lasts longer because you aren’t running anything at max. It took me 3 iterations to get mine right. Granted it’s a center console which is a taller task.

If you’re on a budget you’re doing it way wrong. And $3k is plenty to do it right imo. Just no point in using JL on a budget. The only scenario where I’d say it isn’t a waste of money is if you have a really high dollar center console where you are worried about resale and the buyers only know one brand.

Put a ruler in those pics for us.

mine are here if it helps, also the 2 round black speakers are in the helms. I was also told the higher up would give a cleaner crisper sound and help carry it from the boat when your not in it...

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...e89f11e898.jpg

Higher up would be better if you can make it work.

Subs will work better lower and aimed at some nearby walls. Highs are almost opposite. Mounted higher with no obstructions.

Set up in our old cafe 4 Fosgate 8” Coaxle and two 12” Fosgate subs under bolsters.

New gun has all German Maestro 10 6.5 coaxles and 2 10” subs in enclosures under the rear seat. Like I said earlier I wasn’t familiar with GM until we bought this boat. Did some research and was surprised by the pricing. $600 a pair for the 6.5’s and 1200 for the 10’s! 😳 they sound good though!

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...40238c9c7c.png
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...f1b78ca6c.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...4095002b0.jpeg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...50a39a296.jpeg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...5043e5bb9.jpeg

Love this setup, what amps?

thanks! I wouldn’t have opted to put the speakers in the dash as I think it ruins the nice cleanliness of the dash but those speakers work well to carry the sound out and down to the water when you’re swimming.

May sound odd, but I can’t remember what Amps. 😂 system came with the boat and I never really looked closely at the amps. I’ll check em out closer when I’m out there next week (boats in Arizona)

I think what you’re wanting are 10” subs in sealed enclosures. I love kicker solo barics (square) they only need small enclosures and can take a ton of power. The surround is rubber and the cone is plastic, water proof enough for me. I have mine exposed to Florida sun and rain currently.

OP, here’s a cart I built for you that saves you $1000 and doubles your power. 1200watts rms on 2 amps.

4 8” kicker speakers
1 10” kicker sub in a sealed enclosure
2 wet sounds marine amps

You will want to dial the gain down on the 8” speakers as that amp may be able to blow them at 14.4 volts.

If you wanted to step it up some, and spend more, you could break the bank and run 4 JL 8.8s instead.

With a dual 2 ohm voice coil subwoofer you will wire the coils in series to make it one 4 ohm load. I can walk you through this or give you a diagram. You will connect one red terminal to one black terminal on opposite coils. Then you power the open terminals from the amp.

The 2 channel amp for the sub will be running with 2 channels bridged. This means you flip the switch on the amp that says bridge, and you run on red from one channel and one black from the other channel to the speaker.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...baf86b0883.png
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...acfcff3318.png


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...13e0fa3f07.png

Wow!
 

wow! That looks like a great set up as well. Where would I put the sub enclosure? We think it’ll fit under the back seat?

Bro I have no idea. I own a center console version of a cigarette 36’ wide body. You’ll need to break out your tape measure. Completely enclosing it under a seat with no venting will hurt you a bit.

Right.
 

I guess that’s more of the lines of what I meant to ask is putting the sub in that enclosed box under the seat gonna be a bad recipe ? Sorry lol

If you could space the seat up a little bit so there is a gap it would help a lot. You could play with it.

My formula had this grill built out of marine lumber by the previous owner probably professionally, it was nice.

I was able to squeeze a prefabbed box with 2 12s. This was a budget setup, lots of stuff pirated from my friends basement. Sounded awesome with 600 watts in a bigger cockpit than you’re working with.

I didn’t buy any marine amps either, just cheap kicker car stuff. Wasn’t ever a problem fresh water boating at lake of the ozarks.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...1c7148d47.jpeg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...29160ab47.jpeg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...93aa4ceed.jpeg

87CigCafe,

To answer your question.... Unless you're facing the speakers directly out of the enclosed space (as in voice cones visible from the outside), yes. Trapping a sub enclosure in a will, at the very least, throttle the response you get from the subs. At worst, it will make literally everything rattle and will sound like crap. Think of it kinda like putting the perfect sized carb on top of an open throttle body of lower CFM.

I'll make the argument again...



Self-contained, perfectly tuned and compact. Strap it down/up, run fused power, a ground, on/off trigger and an RCA from the sub output of the head unit and you're done. If you've got space, go bigger if you feel the need. They come in 6", 8", 10" and 12", and in multiple power ranges. This link also has dimensions for all these sizes. Bonus: there's no wood to swell up in the marine environment. The cool thing about the marine version is that it's white. Even if you have to mount it out in the open, it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.

I can tell you from experience, the 8" 100W unit (the little one), along with four 6.5" 3-ways (driven by a Sony Xplode amp of modest power that I don't remember off the top of my head) in our boat will run you out at volume. It won't run other boats out of the cove, but I'm not interested in doing that. Back in ~'96, I also had a 10" 100W (I think) unit in the rear underwell of an ElCamino that would turn the zeros on the head unit into 8's. At full volume, it would actually make your eyes ache. When I bought it, I hinted at some interest in a second one, and the sales guy highly advised against it. He was right. I can't imagine what two of those things would have done.

Thanks. Brad.