Stereo debugging
 

I'm not sure if the stereo in my sunny is original eq or not but figured it's worth asking here first.

My 03 288 MCOB has a Kenwood stereo with 6 polk 6.5" speakers. I noticed static over the stereo and then loss of volume. Could not hear the music while up and running unless I sat down. Now I find out 4 of the 6 speakers are not putting out much sound. Only the speakers in the front bow are working and they seem to work just fine.
The rear two and the two by the driver & front passenger seat do not even vibrate if you put your hand on the cone. A little sound is coming out of tweeter.

Went through all stereo settings to ensure balance and fader were not set just to front. All appeared ok.

So I bought 4 new Polk 6.5's. No joy. I hooked up one of the new ones but still no sound. Now I'm at a loss. Stereo shop is a long ways away and cannot get me in until mid June.

Any one else run into a similar issue? If so what fixed it. Other debugging advice appreciated.

You should be able to switch the output front to rear just like in a car - have you played with any of the eq settings?

I played with eq settings on the dash. I have not pulled the stereo ...not sure how. But switching the output plugs sounds like the next step once I get it pulled. Thanks.from a fellow Buckeye.

Finally got to the bottom of the problem. Stereo only had two speakers hooked to it. The front two that were working. And It had RCA plugs which went to a Polk 4 way amplifier (hidden behind the gauge panel). So the 4 cockpit speakers were hooked to that amp. Amp needed 12 volts to work and my batteriy was only putting out 8. Switching the battery switch to both batteries verified that the Amp worked just fine.
Both batteries were purchased in June of 12. So I replaced both of them while I was at it. Stereo works perfect now.

What still confuses me is why wouldn't the stereo work when underway? With the 14 volts being put to the battery ...that should have given it at least 12 to put out. But that did not work. With a little luck from the weather I will be testing underway later today.

it may be because the remote turn on wire (blue with white tracer) didn't have enough juice being supplied from the stereo to kick the amp on....why it didn't work while underway when at full charge i couldn't answer that one for ya....

The reason the stereo still didn't play is because the battery was sucking the current from your alternator, which in turn wouldn't allow your amplifier to operate at the proper voltage and amperage.

Or could be the boat has multiple batteries and the one the stereo (amp's) where hooked to, wasn't switched on and thus why wasn't charged up.

Whenever someone buys a new to them boat, it is always advantage to ask or find out right away what the boat has for # of batteries and what does what including what the switches do........many find out when it's too late and many never look into it. LOL.

Update. Problem returned so I replaced the amp, stereo and added a 10" sub woofer. Sounded good at the shop. Get out on water and have same freaking issue. Front speakers work, those on the amp do not work. Suspected bad connection and that I'd hit a bump on the way home that jarred it loose.. So back to stereo shop. I show them a video of the issue and ask them to trace it down, reproduce it and fix it. Wishful thinking.

They tell me it's a voltage issue. Battery one is putting out 7 volts. A new battery, bought last May. Putting battery switch on 'Both' and the stereo plays perfect. Putting it on number 2 battery gets no sound as both the radio and amp are wired to the number 1 battery.

I brought the boat home and plugged into my on board charger to top off both batteries before boating this weekend. Will see if that helps.

My question, how can a battery only putting out 7 volts start the boat? The engine always turns over and fires just fine. No slow turning or anything. I am totally at a loss on this. Very frustrating.

Check all of your battery and battery switch wiring, my bet is the switches are wired incorrectly.