I just finished up a complete stereo install in my boat and I’m not at all happy with the end results. I used a Rockville receiver
( https://www.rockvilleaudio.com/rghr2/ ) a 6 channel Rockville 2600 watt amp (the amp was the mistake), four Kicker KM65 6.5” component speakers and two KM8 8” component speakers, and a single 10” Kicker sub. The entire thing just sounds ok. The amp I think is very lackluster and I learned my lesson about impulse shopping on Amazon. I’m going to replace the amp and the sub. The sub is getting replaced with a free air woofer. The amp is where I need help, I’m not sure how much amp I need to run all of the speakers without working the amp to death or going totally overkill. Do I need 4,6, or 8 channels? How much power do I need? Any suggestions on a proven amplifier?

I'm a Memphis audio dealer so I'm a little biased however...their 5 channel 850 watt marine amp is what I would recommend...I have 2 on my boat and I really like them. It puts 100x4 to the speaker channels at 2 ohms and 450x1 to the sub channel and is 1 ohm stable on the sub channel.

That thing should jam with what you had listed...you sure you have your ohm loads and incoming power hooked up correctly? I have seen this cause a lot of issues in the past for buddies and customers...wired the sub at 4 ohm instead of 2 or ran too small of wire to the amp etc etc.

not enough info.... power depends on what thealers are/need... how efficient the speakers are... and the quality of the amp...An old punch 45 will blow doors on a new amazon 5000 watt piece of junk. Im running four 7.7 inch MTX coaxes and 2 mtx 10" free air subs, all pushed ny an old school Hifonics zeus 5 channel. Its loud and hits hard.

I have the front pair of 6.5” speakers on CH1 and the rear pair of 6.5” on CH2. One 8” in CH 3 and one 8” on CH4. The sub is bridged across CH5 and CH6. The amp is set to 6 channel input to accommodate the front and rear RCA inputs plus the sub input from the head Unit as well. Its loud as hell, just sounds kinda blah and almost needs to have the EQ adjusted for every song. The sub doesn’t hit as hard as it should, and tuning the EQ for the component speakers has been a challenge.

Getting out of phase can do bad things too...

The free air sub will disappoint you if your looking for any bass at all out of it. Your way better off going with the sub enclosures like bluave has. I have 2 of them and its crazy the bass they produce.

That was my first thought, not the case unfortunately. I think the amp is just garbage.

I literally have nowhere to stash an enclosed sub. It’s a small 20’ boat and everything is tight.

Do you have space under the helm? My 21' was able to fit (2) 10" JL Audio subs in boxes under it.

Not sure about the stuff you bought, but you can't go wrong with JL or Wet sounds stuff.

As mentioned, did you use heavy gauge battery cables to power the amp? What size speaker wire are you using?

How far is your amp from the battery? Size of wire changes depending on length too.


2 JL 10's stacked on top of each other

pic needs to be turned 90*

party time

I ran 4 gauge wire for power and ground. Approximately 20 foot of wire for each.

The speaker wire is 14 gauge.