help with speaker placement
 

I was hoping to get some help on speaker placement in my boat. This is going to be long, but any opinions would be GREATLY appreciated.

I have 4 speakers now and will be installing 4 more, and 1 or 2 subwoofers, but I need some opinions. We normally drive to the cove, shut the engine off and hang out, so the majority of listening will be while parked.

I'll have 8 Exile SX65C 6.5" speakers powered by an Exile X800.4. 100w x 8 - 2ohm. I'm just not quite sure where the optimal location for the additional 4 speakers will be. I know it's an open air environment but I don't want to cut holes in my boat and end up regretting picking the location.


In the pictures below, the red arrows indicate where the current 4 speakers are mounted. The green arrows indicate where I could mount the additional 4. I included different pictures to show the different angles. Each option I indicate a location. In the end, I need to decide on any combination of 2 locations to accommodate 4 additional speakers.

(Note; the only picture of my actual boat is the 3rd one, I downloaded the others as I don't have good pics of the interior, but identical boat)

In this picture I could put 1 speaker in location 1, which I see as a good location. An additional 2 speakers could be mounted next to the front seats in location 2. My only concern with location 2 is that the driver and passenger will be blocking the speaker while we're underway, however, it seems to be an optimal mid cabin location while we're parked.
http://www.caraudio.com/forums/attac...t-stereo-1-jpg
In this picture I show the 2 speakers already installed (red) in the front bow which are facing each other. I think an additional speaker in the middle front bow (the adjacent Location 1 option) would be a good location, but was curious if I'd have sound cancellation issues because of the other 2 already installed. I could mount an additional 2 speakers in Location 3 on the passenger and driver console, but my only concern is how close they'd be to each other. You can't really tell in the pic, but they'd actually be closer together than the 2 already installed in the front bow.
http://www.caraudio.com/forums/attac...t-stereo-2-jpg
This is just another angle of Locations 1 and 3.
http://www.caraudio.com/forums/attac...t-stereo-3-jpg
This picture shows another angle of location 2, and an additional possible location in the rear, behind the seats. I like this location, but most of the sound would be in the back and nothing mid cabin, as I already have 2 speakers under the bench seat and possibly 3 as I like the idea of Location 1. I don't know that this would necessarily be a bad thing since the majority of the time spent on the boat is hanging out on the rear deck.
http://www.caraudio.com/forums/attac...stereo-4-1-jpg

The higher up the better....

I am currently putting in a new system. I put (2) 10" subs under the bench seat, (6) 7" speakers in the cockpit area, and (2) in the open bow area.

like he said, higher the better. Locations 2 and 4 would be ideal.

Go with locations 2 and 4 for additional speakers and location 1 in the bow for a sub if that location is big enough.

thanks for the replies guys...

Ok, location 2 is no sweat.

I just removed the seat to see behind the panel for location 4 and it's fiberglass behind it. It's not the outter hull part of the fiberglass. It's hollow and there's about 6" between the hull, which leaves me plenty of room....but how would I cut through the fiberglass? Will a jigsaw cut through it?

I already decided on the sub. I'm putting a Sundown SA-12 with an Exile X1200.1 amp putting about 900w @ 2 ohm to it. I'm going to make the ported sub box out of 11 ply birch plywood. It will be under the driver console, port and sub firing at the hull.

I did all of mine with a adjustable hole saw. It worked and looks perfect. Got from Grainger.

Is that hole saw a drill bit or is it a tool by itself?

There is the type for a drill, but wont be as big as you need. THere is also a type that looks like a dremel and has an arm on it. Drill a pilot hole at the center that the arm aligns with and move the saw around in the guided circle.

Heres what I have. I actually have 2 different sizes. This is by far more accurate and faster then any saw or rotary tool I`ve used.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/HOL...YY5?Pid=search

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/HOL...YY4?Pid=search