Amp selection and speaker wiring

[Matt9712]

I had a 600 watt 4 channel amp that burned up. It powered 4 6.5inch speakers and 1 10 in sub. I'd like to add 2 tower speakers and looking for some help on what amp to get and a little help on wiring the speakers to amp. Not sure the whole bridged / crossover on back. Thanks for any and all help

 

[Jarcher3]

im not great on the whole marine stereo setup thing but i have done a hand full of them in car audio, i would probably run two amps in your situation, one 4 channel for up top with each speaker on a channel and bridged the other two channels for the sub. then another 4 channel for your lower speakers.

I believe the crossover section is really for tuning your sound.

Take this with a grain of salt and see if someone verifies this lol

 

[KD4UPL]

Modern stereo design typically dedicates a separate amp channel to each individual speaker. You can put more than one on a channel but the wiring and tuning can get tricky. A crossover is for splitting up the sound according to frequency and sending the bass to the sub and keeping the low bass out of the other speakers. As a very rough guide I wouldn't let anything above about 100 to 125 Hz go to a 10" sub. I would prevent the other drivers from getting anything lower than about 80 Hz. However, every speaker and crossover is different and every listener is different. You really need to tune it by ear so the bass isn't muddy and the other drivers aren't being over worked. I would look at the power handling capacity of the speakers in RMS watts and find an amp that will provide at least half that amount, preferably up to the rated RMS watts.

 

[Brandon5778]

I had a 600 watt 4 channel amp that burned up. It powered 4 6.5inch speakers and 1 10 in sub. I'd like to add 2 tower speakers and looking for some help on what amp to get and a little help on wiring the speakers to amp. Not sure the whole bridged / crossover on back. Thanks for any and all help

One 4ch amp powering 4 speakers and a sub? I'm not sure how you had this wired up but I'd say that's why the amp burnt up. A properly installed system should be able to be cranked at set full volume and last for years and years. I know a lot about audio and would be glad to help you with any questions. First we need some info. I'm guessing you've got 2 way coaxials. What is the power rating of the four 6.5 inch speakers given in RMS. This is usually, but not always half the peak wattage. And what is the RMS rating of the 10 inch sub? You'll probably want a dedicated amp for your sub. Bridged means when you combine 2 amp channels to get more power into a single channel. For example a 50wx2 channel amp could run one speaker output at 100w bridged. Not all amps are bridgeable but most are. I'm thinking of ways to add 2 more tower speakers and wire it all up, but first let me know what all you have. Honestly, I think matched with the right amps and tuned properly you'll find your current set up to be sufficient and might not think you need to add tower speakers. I find audio very interesting so I'd love to help you out

 

[StingrayMike]

Look into JL.
A M800/8 will fit your needs to drive 6 speakers and 1 sub.
pretty easy to install and hook up.

 

[dizzy1]

I had a similar setup before, used a JL XD700/5 amp. Did that for many years and lots of time beached running on 3 batteries. Wire all your in boat speakers to channels 1+2, tower to channels 3+4 and then channel 5 to the sub. It was very loud and I got many compliments on how good it sounded in and out of the boat. The D class amps run very cool and efficient. I could go 6-7 hours turned up and still start the boat at the end of the day and the amp never got hot or overheated. Upgrading this year to 2 XD700/5's and adding another JL 13W1 sub and giving more power to 6.5s.