Stereo Speaker Wiring

[AML_29]

I just pulled my old Maxxima cassette radio out of my '94 Four Winns. Looking at the old wiring harness there is a left front/left common/left rear, right front/right common/right rear. Six wires, but I have 8 with the new deck. Do I run my grounds from the new wiring harness in the into the commons of the old wiring harness?

 

[bruceb58]

You need a common for each channel so you need more wires.

 

[midcarolina]

Sounds like the old deck did not have fade ........only left/right balance, If each speaker does not have a + and - wire of their own you are going to need to rewire.

With 4 speakers you should have 8 speaker wires 1 constant hot 1 switched hot and 1 ground

 

[H20Rat]

Bayliner (maxim) and a couple other brands were really cheap about that... (In their defense I've seen it done in automotive also). In speaker wires, there is no common... You can sometimes get away with it at very low power levels, but it isn't a good idea. Anyway, as you found out, those manufacturers would cheap out and not run all the wires they should have. The only correct way is to run a dedicated wire per speaker.

 

[AML_29]

I should have said that I am familiar with wiring because I put a system in my car. I went through the boat last night and traced a couple speakers and they both had two wires (+/-) coming off of them. I then traced those wires to under the dash and it looks like Four Winns wired the speakers in series at the wire harness. What I need to find out is if I can wire my deck the same way the old one was. Not holding my breath. Carolina, you're right about fade, but it faded front to back which to the stereo thought was left/right. Smoking, you're right, the deck from Panor is very cheap, but back then, a stereo system in a boat was an afterthought compared to today.

 

[bruceb58]

If the wires make it all the way up to the dash, separate them out and wire them up the way your new stereo needs them to be wired.

You can NOT wire it up like the old one is wired up! Not sure what the big deal is. All the wires are there.

 

[midcarolina]

If the speakers are wired in series that will work just fine................But, the power output of the speakers will be cut roughly in half.

 

[Lincoln253]

If u wire them in series it bumps up the ohm rating . 2x4ohm series wired will bump it to 8ohms. I've replaced probably 100 old radios and almost always found common ground on em. If u have positive and negative wires running to each speaker just hook up a ohm meter to each positive one at a time and test each negative till u get a circuit and that's the negative to the corresponding speaker. Do that for each and hook it up the way they are labeled lf +&-....rf +&-.... And so forth till all 8 wires are used

 

[bruceb58]

There is no reason to wire anything in series, You have 4 speakers and 4 outputs of the stereo.

He has a newer radio annd very unlikely any of the outputs share a return.

 

[Lincoln253]

That's my point just find the matching pair to each speaker and hook them up individualy to the corresponding wires.... The only time U would ever need to series speakers on a boat is if u were running 6+ speakers on a boat because there isn't a head unit out that is lower than 4ohm stable. Since u are able to manipulate ohms based on how they are wired U could potentially wire up 60 speakers and still only have a 4ohm load if they're wired correctly