John-
PM me your number. I'm in Onekama all week, if you want I can swing over and check out your boat and then come up with a plan of attack.

Mike

Kicker Solo-Baric. Square more cone area= more bass for the same size speaker. A 10" speaker is closer to a 12 in cone area. I run 4 12's in my boat and 500 watts to ea speaker. I have not herd a louder boat with the same amount of 12" subs.

Just because there's more cone space doesn't mean it's louder. The Kicker's also require an enclosure, which can't be used in certain situations. There's a lot of variables to making speakers loud, not just buying something, and it all starts with a good clean signal from the head unit.

I know, it's just not recommended. If a subwoofer is in a totally different area, or enclosure, it needs to be powered by a different amp or different channel. Corner loading doesn't make a woofer hit harder. It hits the same and the only difference it would make is with more or less power, bigger or smaller enclosure. It sounds louder, but that's just because when it's not firing directly into open-air, the wave resonates and sounds louder. That's why subs in hatchback cars that fire to the rear of the car sound louder.

Rockford back in the day made a pretty good product, I think they're okay at best these days compared to what else is out there. That's just my experience. I think the third would help, but not as endeavor said you could do it. Not trying to start a pissing match or anything, I just don't believe in 1 amp for woofers in different boxes or areas. Also, it doesn't always take a large number of woofers to make loudness. The wakeboats I have done installs in have mostly gotten 1 sub. They're beefy, mounted in ported enclosures, and have plenty of power. You're wasting money on subs when you don't have good enough amps for them.

The Wet Sounds 12" XXX:

I've got one ten in my truck and it sounds great. The 12 above looks awesome. My only concern in a boat is all the openess and not being in an enclosed area. I realize the cuddy sub wont hit any harder given it is driven with a comparable amp however it's just the effectiveness of it's location I meant.

I always used linear amps. At the time they were superior to many amps. They had a nice 2602 that worked very well for many applications with variable high and low outputs and adjustable built in x-over. A real cool simple amp. If I remember right it was only 120 watts total (60/60).

Thanks,
John

PS where do you get the sub above. that thing looks stout to say the least.

So if you only had room for one sub mounted free air, and had a amp that is 450 rms, mono, what sub would you get?

Sorry to hijack thread!

Linear Power was great, but car audio has come a long way since those days.... If the sub is done right, it'll sound fine. Mine fire out from under the helm, and the other one from inside a console with the hatch open. They have no problems getting loud. I'm a dealer for the Wet Sounds brand, but anyone interested can email or call them to find the nearest dealer to them... 1-877-WET-SPKR

Wet Sounds XS-10FA, as I said before. These are designed for infinite baffle, 250W rms, 500 peak. http://www.wetsounds.com/pages/products/XS-10FA.html

Like a lot of people posting on here, I "used" to be into the stereo game, had a pretty serious Grand National with a pile of Phoenix Gold [back when they weren't junk] Kaption, and Fosgate stuff, a lot sure has changed since then..........

Here is the system I mapped out for my 24ft outlaw, ANY input is welcomed, and I hope that it helps anyone looking to put a similiar system in a boat [NOT looking to hijack the thread, just help (-: ]

I currently have a 10" sub mounted in the cabin, its a cheapie "Bazooka" sub, that works OK, but, isn't real good quality, I plan on replacing it with a Polk Audio 10" DVC MM series Sub, I find there quality is pretty good, and the price is middle of the road, I would have LOVED to gone to JL W7's but, the price is just crazy for my needs [not looking to win any contests, just want nice clear, loud tunes on the water]

I am mouting a pair of MM6501 6.5" Polks' on either side of the 10" sub and drving the sub and the components with a single JL Audio M4500 [channels 1 +2 to drive a component each, and channels 3 +4 bridged to drive the sub]

In the cockpit I am going with 3 additional sets of MM6501's driven by a single JL Audio M6600 [600 watts to 6 component speakers]

I am also gonna add 4-8" subs [Polk Audio MM8DVCs] under the back seat [behind where your feet would be] with an infintite baffle board box, I haven't decided to make 1 box, or 4 seperate ones, but, its relatively easy, you just make a "3 sided box", mount it, then when your finished mounting and wiring, enclose the "top" of the box.

I will be powering the rear subs with a sinle JL Audio M1800 driven at 2 ohms. I have ordered a 120 Amp alternator and I have an on board battery charger as well. For batteries I went with 2 blue top Optima's and I am using 2 Kinetik HC 1200's for the stereo.

I had considered removing the "front" sub altogether and replacing it with a flat screen, but, its already mounted with a box, wiring, etc, and I figure it would be more of a pain in the butt to tear it all out, then it would be to just replace it with a "real" sub.

Another tip I picked up was to wire the remote turn on wire from your deck to a remote switch before going to the amp that drives the cabin speakers, that way if someone is in the cabin [child taking a nap, or a buddy with a screaming hangover/sunburn] you can shut off the speakers to the cabin and still have tunes in the cockpit


Any thoughts/questions are welcomed, and I hope this info helps anyone looking at a system, Merry Christmas guys!

Michael

Infinity Perfect 10's is my vote

Jonyb-
Placement of a sub is everything. When setting up my home theater system I spent days placing the sub (M&K MX-350) in different areas and walking around the room with a DB meter and playing various music/movies to find the best location. I can say that placement is everything and the DB meter proved that. With my sailboat I have a singe Boston Acoustic G5 10 corner loaded in the very back of the boat. Again I played around with this for days. When it was in the cabin is was not as loud as where it is today. Again this was confirmed by a DB meter and everything in the boat shaking much harder.

As for the standing wave issue, it's almost impossible to have such a problem in an open air envirornment such as a boat cockpit. Standing waves are caused by reflecting soundwaves in a room. Typically the smaller the room the more likely the problem. This is why it is almost impossible to have this problem in boat cockpit as its open with very little reflection surface. The problem you are referencing in called bass cancelation. This is when two like waves cancel each other out. However this is very easy taken care of by changing the polarity on one of the speaker sets.

I also have to disagree that there needs to be a seperate amp for the cabin woofer. There are many ways to control the volume of the sub (if needed), I've done it for many clients and its worked out great everytime. Yes it would be easier to just mount another amp but certainly not cheaper. Plus more amps means more batteries. I have a 6- 6volt golf cart batterys in my sailboat, but I don't want that kind of weight in my Formula.

Thanks to all for the contributions, I am getting a lot of information as I like many others am not current on the marine and auto stereo manufacturers, etc. I have designed and built several home speaker systems and complete stereo systems (amps, preamps, dynamic range expanders, graphic equalizers, I am an electrical engineer), and I have installed stereo systems in several boats and cars, but that was a long time ago and usually on a somewhat restrictive budget (in my yut, lol)

What I am replacing/upgrading are two Polk 12 inch speakers in ported and tuned Qlogic cabinets in my cuddy (1999 271 Formula Fastech) powered by a bridged Profile 1000w amp and the factory installed Kenwood head, CD changer, speakers and amps, but I was never satisfied with the amount of bass versus what I had installed. Some of it was the woofers, not the best from Polk, some of it was the installation (lots of bass in the cuddy, not enough when at the beach a little distance from the boat even withthe cabin door and hatches open).

So here is what I going with: Alpine PDX 1.1000 with a Tsunami 5 or 10farad capacitor to power the subs, 2 10 inch JL Audio W7's in boxes if I can get it to fit or 4 10inch JL Audio M101BS-CG-WH's infinite baffel under the back seat if not, add a pair of JL Audio M770-CCS-CG-WH components mounted high in the cockpit to go along with the existing Kenwood 6x9 which are mounted low in the cockpit powered by a Alpine PDX 4.100M. I am replacing the Kenwood head unit with the Fusion CD600 with the Ipod adapater and two marine remotes (one at the dash and one on the transom). Ain't gonna be cheap but should rock and thump when desired. Oh yea, I am also going to add a Ramsey FM transmitter so that the other poeple I boat with can tune in in their boats and I do not have to play as loud I have over the last 20 years (age is a *****).

Now, has anyone added laser lights and a disco ball to their boat, opps my age is showing again, just kidding, lol, thanks and please keep it going, there is a lot of expereince being shared.