I mounted my stereo in the bilge

Hahahaha same brother! Don’t matter what I do the dry exhaust will probably overpower whatever stereo I put in

I prefer to keep my amps as close to the batteries as possible. I would rather run shorter power and ground wires to reduce resistance and then run longer RCA's to the head unit.
I put my amps in my AT under the back seat. I have a 2-3" overhang lip though, so the chances of them getting wet are slim to none.

I don’t let people get in my boat wet. No reason they can’t dry off (at least so they aren’t dripping) on the platform.

in my cafe I wasn’t strict and the interior took a beating. Always bothered me that I was so stupid. I got strict when I bought the tiger and I have no discernible change in the interior in 5 or 6 seasons. Foam is stiff, stitching hasn’t deteriorated, no rust or mildew anywhere - it’s a big difference

Thinking on this set up I’m not a real stereo guru if you guys want to give me your opinions. I’m certainly not trying to be the loudest either. My dry exhaust makes the noise I wanna hear anyway LOL anyways

im thinking these 2 6.5’s
this 600w 4 channel amp
2 10in subs.

havent decided on a head unit yet…

thanks!

I personally like the sound of kicker and JL better than fosgate. Personal preference though. Fosgate does have a great name in the industry and people love them. Like Glock and sig or Chevy ford dodge, people have their favorites

I would recommend getting two sets of the 6.5’s though. A set at the side panels next to the front bolsters and a set lower behind the bolsters next to the rear bench. You may even want to consider a 3rd set in the cabin to have music down there too. It’s nice to have those on a fader to dim them though. You can run a 4 channel amp to the 2 sets of 6.5’s and a 2 channel dedicated amp to the subs. Cleaner, more power. Less load.

I like the way you think! I believe I’ll add another set of 6.5’s like you mentioned. As for the cuddy I’ll probably skip out on that I had them in a cabin of a scarab I had in my 20’s JL audio and couldn’t ever even hear them lol. But might do it anyway I dono LOL i appreciate your insight! I just gotta get enough liquid courage in me to cut this perfect vinyl to put speakers in the side panels the thought of that makes me sick haha! Any tips and tricks for that department of install?

number one tip - pay a professional! lol

I don’t trust myself doing that stuff. No way!

Where are you going to mount the subs? Under the rear seat? If you’re just going to slap them in there and not have them in boxes, you should purchase free air subs. Other options is have small sub boxes built behind the area you mount them under the rear bench. Enclosed boxes always sound better and have more of a bass sound or harder crisper thump. Open air is less “solid” bass. They mounted my 12” free air subs in the gunnels under the bolsters in our cafe. I wasn’t a fan. Rattled a bit and lost the deep bass. Our old gun had free air subs under the rear bench that sounded ok. Best sound is gonna be from an enclosed sub box. Our current hub has them. Nice deep bass. Hard punch.

87CigCafe,

If you can remove the panel.....

Use a router to cut the hole through the panel from behind without cutting the vinyl. Try and suspend the area you're cutting over open air so you're not pushing the vinyl and padding toward the cutter. You might even stop just short of cutting all the way through and finish with a utility knife. Then you can cut slits in the vinyl from the center to just short of the hole in the panel, making triangles that you can stretch around behind the panel and staple. This will keep the vinyl tight. While I've never done it, I've seen it done and it works great.

As for subs, I'm a full-throated advocate of Bazooka tubes. They are self-contained, relatively compact and sound great. They have passive and several levels of powered models. I have an 8" tube, the lower powered model, tucked into the gunwale pocket in our PQ that takes up zero space I can actually use, and it will run us out if I crank it.

Thanks. Brad.

Im running a 6 channel Sony head unit and two 600 watt JL amps......4 8 inch Fosgate speakers in the cockpit on one amp and a 10 inch sub under the bench seat, I think its important to run a separate dedicated amp for the sub