Tahoe Q5i Front Speaker Install

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JK Turtle

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May 18, 2013
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Re: Tahoe Q5i Front Speaker Install

I have had a few waves over the bow, how will this affect speakers mounted in the front? I'm planning on mounting 2 in the walk thru area just because Iddon't want the speakers to get ruined by 1 big wave. Frys electronic has some Polk audios on sale for half off so I'm headedup there now to get those.
 

Wayne0832

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Jun 13, 2011
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Re: Tahoe Q5i Front Speaker Install

If the speakers are marine, they should be ok. I have had many waves over my bow since I installed mine and have not had any problems.
 

rgcummings

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May 24, 2013
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Re: Tahoe Q5i Front Speaker Install

I finally got around to installing my speakers today. I put them 9 inches in front of the hand bars and 1.25 inches from the top of the rail. I bought some plastic spacer rings and very carefully shaped them to fit the boat contour with a belt sander and dremel tool. It took awhile, but the finished look is good. I used black spacer rings and Polk Audio speakers. The spacer rings took up the contour shape making the speakers look flush mounted with no gaps or spaces. I'm happy with the look. I'll post some pics just as soon as I get them downloaded.
 

dmtalon

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Re: Tahoe Q5i Front Speaker Install

I've been very happy with the sound quality of the Infinity's I put in the front. Made a huge difference for the boat. Especially the front passengers :)
 

sw6416

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Re: Tahoe Q5i Front Speaker Install

DSC09906.jpgDSC09908.jpg

Thought I would throw my 2 cents in I added two speakers to the walk thru instead of the bow. Used the recess angle mounts, angled them up and back not to push the sound across at each speaker cancelling the sound. They are recessed, out of the weather and spray much more than mounting in the bow, nobody will be laying against them riding and muffle the sound and you get crystal clear good sound from the bow back to the helm while cruising at high speeds. Just seemed to be a better option for me anyway. Replaced the factory radio and two speakers with a new Kenwood KMR-355U, two wired remotes (helm and swim platform) upgraded to 4 speakers (infinity 612m's) ...... absolutely amazed at the difference.
 

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pilot4net

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May 24, 2005
Messages
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Re: Tahoe Q5i Front Speaker Install

I love the look and apparent function of those "recessed angle mounts" used in your install! Could you please share where you get those mounts at? Great looking system!


View attachment 203435View attachment 203436

Thought I would throw my 2 cents in I added two speakers to the walk thru instead of the bow. Used the recess angle mounts, angled them up and back not to push the sound across at each speaker cancelling the sound. They are recessed, out of the weather and spray much more than mounting in the bow, nobody will be laying against them riding and muffle the sound and you get crystal clear good sound from the bow back to the helm while cruising at high speeds. Just seemed to be a better option for me anyway. Replaced the factory radio and two speakers with a new Kenwood KMR-355U, two wired remotes (helm and swim platform) upgraded to 4 speakers (infinity 612m's) ...... absolutely amazed at the difference.
 

fish hook

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Jul 22, 2011
Messages
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Re: Tahoe Q5i Front Speaker Install

thought about doing that same thing. Went with 8" Rockford Fosgates in the rear so I can use the old mounts in this location. Your install looks great. Think I'm gonna do it! -- Hey, were did you get the mat for the swim deck?
 
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chadyboy

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Re: Tahoe Q5i Front Speaker Install

wow, awesome job. I think I will do the same. I really have been contemplating on where to put the other speakers, I think you just answered my question. Yes, where did you get the "recessed angle mounts", and the mats??
 

sw6416

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Messages
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Re: Tahoe Q5i Front Speaker Install

I love the look and apparent function of those "recessed angle mounts" used in your install! Could you please share where you get those mounts at? Great looking system!

thought about doing that same thing. Went with 8" Rockford Fosgates in the rear so I can use the old mounts in this location. Your install looks great. Think I'm gonna do it! -- Hey, were did you get the mat for the swim deck?

wow, awesome job. I think I will do the same. I really have been contemplating on where to put the other speakers, I think you just answered my question. Yes, where did you get the "recessed angle mounts", and the mats??


Haha didnt even realize I attached a pic of the swim platform when posting it was a accident. Anyway stumbled across a youtube video a few months back where some one mentioned a swim mat they installed on a sea ray. Got to searching there are a couple of companies that do custom cut swim platform mats that are pre cut and you just prep and stick it but they were in the $500 range and couldnt justify paying that on my budget. So when looking I also found this stuff its called Hydroturf ...... Its the same thing used on most jet skis and the Sea Do jet boats. It comes in different sizes, colors, designs ect and also comes with either a 3M peel of backing that you prep, peel off and stick or bare and you use contact cement. I went with the 3M backing I installed with good temp and a heat gun and its rock solid so far. The 3M backed stuff is more expensive but I didnt want to have to deal with contact cement and getting it to stick and it coming out from under the edges ect. My swim platform has the raised dots for traction outlining the whole platform so I got a piece of the painters masking paper the stuff that is the color of cardboard but is flimsy like thick paper laid it on the platform. Then took some scissors and made a rough cut that would lay down and could be taped over the edge of the raised traction dots, taped it down and used about a 2" piece of crayon layed on its side and rubbed back and forth over the whole outline so when I took the paper up my swim platform outline was on the masking paper. I then cut the outline out with scissors and had my template. Laid the template on the hydro turf used a metallic maker to trace on to the hydrturf and cut it out with a soldering iron with a exacto blade tip end, basically its a small razor blade hot knife. Then it was peel and stick after cleaning the surface. Its pretty easy to find they have a website hydroturf.com I think you can even order samples if I remember right, its on eBay and Amazon as well. I am pretty thrifty so I shopped around and found some on amazon. I think it was around $75 for a big sheet. I know that was a long answer but figured I might get some of the where and how questions so maybe this will help. This is the poor working mans version lol but like I said if you got the disposable cash then you can get one custom cut for your boat. Also I went with Black diamond plate design because my color scheme on my boat is Yellow and white with Black graphics. I was afraid if I did Yellow or White it would show to much dirt, lake water stain ect. I was skeptical about the black being hot in the sun in the summer and not being able to walk or sit on it, but I read a review that it didnt get hot so went with it. Had it out on a few 90+ degree days this year and it does not get hot. It does get warm but nothing close to uncomfortable that will prevent you from sitting or standing on it.


Now the speaker mounts ..... I looked everywhere online for these and couldnt find them. These are actually the factory bezels that hold my rear speakers on my 2006 Q4 ....... I originally wanted to take the ones from the rear and move them to the front and add new bezels in the back that would hold my speakers that had cup holders recessed in them. The problem I ran into was not having enough space to mount between the seat back and grab handle, I did find some that would fit but they were gonna be almost $300 so I had to scrap that idea and locate the OEM ones like I have on the rear of my boat. I ended up calling Bass Pro as my last resort because nothing there is ever cheap in my opinion but Bass Pro was the only dealer anywhere around me with the ability to locate them in stock from their inventory and ship it to me without special order from the manufacture and could have taken weeks. There was 2 in inventory out in California they shipped them to my house and did everything over the phone.

DSC00020.jpgrsz_copy_of_dsc09420.jpg
 

pilot4net

Seaman
Joined
May 24, 2005
Messages
57
Re: Tahoe Q5i Front Speaker Install

Thanks for the great in-depth response. Would you happen to have the part number handy for the speaker mounts through Bass Pro?

Haha didnt even realize I attached a pic of the swim platform when posting it was a accident. Anyway stumbled across a youtube video a few months back where some one mentioned a swim mat they installed on a sea ray. Got to searching there are a couple of companies that do custom cut swim platform mats that are pre cut and you just prep and stick it but they were in the $500 range and couldnt justify paying that on my budget. So when looking I also found this stuff its called Hydroturf ...... Its the same thing used on most jet skis and the Sea Do jet boats. It comes in different sizes, colors, designs ect and also comes with either a 3M peel of backing that you prep, peel off and stick or bare and you use contact cement. I went with the 3M backing I installed with good temp and a heat gun and its rock solid so far. The 3M backed stuff is more expensive but I didnt want to have to deal with contact cement and getting it to stick and it coming out from under the edges ect. My swim platform has the raised dots for traction outlining the whole platform so I got a piece of the painters masking paper the stuff that is the color of cardboard but is flimsy like thick paper laid it on the platform. Then took some scissors and made a rough cut that would lay down and could be taped over the edge of the raised traction dots, taped it down and used about a 2" piece of crayon layed on its side and rubbed back and forth over the whole outline so when I took the paper up my swim platform outline was on the masking paper. I then cut the outline out with scissors and had my template. Laid the template on the hydro turf used a metallic maker to trace on to the hydrturf and cut it out with a soldering iron with a exacto blade tip end, basically its a small razor blade hot knife. Then it was peel and stick after cleaning the surface. Its pretty easy to find they have a website hydroturf.com I think you can even order samples if I remember right, its on eBay and Amazon as well. I am pretty thrifty so I shopped around and found some on amazon. I think it was around $75 for a big sheet. I know that was a long answer but figured I might get some of the where and how questions so maybe this will help. This is the poor working mans version lol but like I said if you got the disposable cash then you can get one custom cut for your boat. Also I went with Black diamond plate design because my color scheme on my boat is Yellow and white with Black graphics. I was afraid if I did Yellow or White it would show to much dirt, lake water stain ect. I was skeptical about the black being hot in the sun in the summer and not being able to walk or sit on it, but I read a review that it didnt get hot so went with it. Had it out on a few 90+ degree days this year and it does not get hot. It does get warm but nothing close to uncomfortable that will prevent you from sitting or standing on it.


Now the speaker mounts ..... I looked everywhere online for these and couldnt find them. These are actually the factory bezels that hold my rear speakers on my 2006 Q4 ....... I originally wanted to take the ones from the rear and move them to the front and add new bezels in the back that would hold my speakers that had cup holders recessed in them. The problem I ran into was not having enough space to mount between the seat back and grab handle, I did find some that would fit but they were gonna be almost $300 so I had to scrap that idea and locate the OEM ones like I have on the rear of my boat. I ended up calling Bass Pro as my last resort because nothing there is ever cheap in my opinion but Bass Pro was the only dealer anywhere around me with the ability to locate them in stock from their inventory and ship it to me without special order from the manufacture and could have taken weeks. There was 2 in inventory out in California they shipped them to my house and did everything over the phone.

View attachment 203812View attachment 203813
 

sw6416

Banned
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May 16, 2012
Messages
49
Re: Tahoe Q5i Front Speaker Install

Thanks for the great in-depth response. Would you happen to have the part number handy for the speaker mounts through Bass Pro?

I knew somebody was going to ask that lol ........ I dont anymore once I installed them I threw it away. I took mine out and looked for one at the beginning of this process however they are not marked with and identifiable info. I called Bass Pro told them what boat I had and they were able to pull the part number by a parts diagram. When I got the number I didnt order them during that phone call I tried to find them on the internet and had zero luck so I called them back and ordered. I dont know what boat you are putting them on or what your current 2 speaker setup bezels look like. I have a 2006 Q4 which was the last year it was made at 19.5 feet. The Q4 now is 18 feet so mine is the equivalent of the Q5 in production now as far as size. I am not sure if they varied from year to year or model to model with the bezels but you can call them and order them for a 2006 Q4 19.5' and you should get these. When I talked to the guy in California he pulled them and described them to me so I was sure it was the right part. If you find them in stock at Bass Pro anywhere call that store and have them visually look at them because a lot of places charge you to restock if its not what you want and have to return. I attached a pic below that I took before the install of what they look like pulled out.
 

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chadyboy

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Re: Tahoe Q5i Front Speaker Install

OK so after a few phone calls and my local tahoe Q4 rep hunting these down, I found out what they are called, and the parts #. I am very interested in these as these would fit exactly what I am trying to do. The parts # is 103368, they are called "speaker inserts" AND you can only get these through the dealership. Bass Pro no longer carry's these as they are no longer made for the tahoe boats (speakers are just mounted now with no inserts). HOWEVER, they are $43.32 a piece. EEEKK!! I love the look and the way they are mounted, but for almost $100?!?!

I just happened to find another post where sw6416 had the same issue finding them. sw6416, they said they only had 3 nation wide (they had 5 but someone had ordered the other 2 you, YOU! lol).

I bit the bullet and ordered them. I still cannot get over that price. So now they only have 1 left nationwide. sorry folks.
 

sw6416

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May 16, 2012
Messages
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Re: Tahoe Q5i Front Speaker Install

OK so after a few phone calls and my local tahoe Q4 rep hunting these down, I found out what they are called, and the parts #. I am very interested in these as these would fit exactly what I am trying to do. The parts # is 103368, they are called "speaker inserts" AND you can only get these through the dealership. Bass Pro no longer carry's these as they are no longer made for the tahoe boats (speakers are just mounted now with no inserts). HOWEVER, they are $43.32 a piece. EEEKK!! I love the look and the way they are mounted, but for almost $100?!?!

I just happened to find another post where sw6416 had the same issue finding them. sw6416, they said they only had 3 nation wide (they had 5 but someone had ordered the other 2 you, YOU! lol).

I bit the bullet and ordered them. I still cannot get over that price. So now they only have 1 left nationwide. sorry folks.


I was wanting to say I got mine for around 90.00 - 100.00 bucks shipped but couldn't remember. Yes they def were not cheap but where much cheaper than anything I had found online to replace the rear ones with and move those to the front by about half. I found a alternative but was $200+ and didn't know if the color would match.

Good luck with the install ....... Measure twice, three or eight times just cut once lol
 

Knymc

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Jul 9, 2013
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Glad I found this thread. Helped me out a lot as I was wanting to install 2 more speakers, as my boat only came with 2 from the factory. I opted to install one on each side of the console area where you walk thru the windshield. Plus I replaced the two original stock speakers, head unit, and added a Pyle Hydra 400 watt 4 channel amp. This thing jams now. I installed 4 new marine Infinity 612m speakers from Amazon. Rated at 225 watts each. I used a 5 inch hole saw from Home Depot to cut the holes. Make sure you use a good heavy duty drill for it. As I burnt my little craftsman up by the end of the 2nd hole. Took me prolly 3 hours just trying to get a template drawn out where to cut the holes as there is not any good straight angles to measure from. I used the blue painters tape to mask the area where I was cutting the holes. Once satisfied on location, I cut em out. Now for the speakers the 5 inch hole was 1/16th too small. So I used my dremel and sanded them out a little bigger. Used a fish tape down the port side, around the bow, and down the starboard side to fish through the speaker wire. Took a little while but finally got it around. One issue I had was when everything was hooked up, each time I tur
 

Knymc

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Joined
Jul 9, 2013
Messages
4
Glad I found this thread. Helped me out a lot as I was wanting to install 2 more speakers, as my boat only came with 2 from the factory. I opted to install one on each side of the console area where you walk thru the windshield. Plus I replaced the two original stock speakers, head unit, and added a Pyle Hydra 400 watt 4 channel amp. This thing jams now. I installed 4 new marine Infinity 612m speakers from Amazon. Rated at 225 watts each. I used a 5 inch hole saw from Home Depot to cut the holes. Make sure you use a good heavy duty drill for it. As I burnt my little craftsman up by the end of the 2nd hole. Took me prolly 3 hours just trying to get a template drawn out where to cut the holes as there is not any good straight angles to measure from. I used the blue painters tape to mask the area where I was cutting the holes. Once satisfied on location, I cut em out. Now for the speakers the 5 inch hole was 1/16th too small. So I used my dremel and sanded them out a little bigger. Used a fish tape down the port side, around the bow, and down the starboard side to fish through the speaker wire. Took a little while but finally got it around. One issue I had was when everything was hooked up, each time I turned the volume about 3/4 to full, the head unit would turn off for a second and back on. I found the small gauge factory wires were not adequate to handle the load of the amp. So I ran a new positive and negative wire from the battery to the amp. 12 gauge wire. Left the stock pos/neg wire supplying power to the head unit. This solved it. Luckily my head unit has a wire that when hooked to the amp, turns the amp on and off. This way it's not a constant draw off the battery, only when head unit is turned on. All in all doing this myself, taking breaks, etc. I spent about 8 hours just on installing the front speakers and running new wires. The head unit and amp were already there when I replaced them last year. I will post pics later. I'm cooling off right now, nearly 100 deg outside right now.
 

PrinceValium

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jun 2, 2010
Messages
421
Pilot4net...which Infinity speakers did you go with? I have a link of a pair of Infinity speakers I was thinking about installing but don't know about how deep they are.
 

chadyboy

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Mar 4, 2013
Messages
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I know this threat is a little over 2 years old, but wanted to follow up. I finally went out and bought and amp for my 4 speakers. OMG the difference is crazy. I mean before it sounded good....but it sounds like a true concert now!
 

dmtalon

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I know this threat is a little over 2 years old, but wanted to follow up. I finally went out and bought and amp for my 4 speakers. OMG the difference is crazy. I mean before it sounded good....but it sounds like a true concert now!


We have a different boat these days, but I want to eventually get a 5-6 channel amp to power the 4 speakers, and a sub (also yet to be installed). I did put a second battery / switch on the new boat so we don't kill the battery jamming :)
 

GA_Boater

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I know this threat is a little over 2 years old, but wanted to follow up. I finally went out and bought and amp for my 4 speakers. OMG the difference is crazy. I mean before it sounded good....but it sounds like a true concert now!

Just because you hijacked once and got away with it, doesn't mean you can keep hijacking.

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