Parallel Speaker Wiring Question

[SirRacer]

Hi there,

Im wiring up a speaker system for the tower of my boat. Im looking to just use one amp for simplicity and to keep costs down.

I have a Rockford Fosgate Amp that produces 50wrms @ 4 ohms /4 channels. The amp will produce 100wrms at 2 ohms / 4 channels.

The system on my boat has 4 6x9 speakers facing outwards and 4 6.5 speakers facing downwards into the cabin. The speakers are good quality Sony 3 ways (6.5's) and 4 ways (6x9's).

I presume that I will need to run a set of each of the 6x9s off one channel, the other off the other, and vice versa with the 6.5's.

My question really is, to run these speakers at 2 ohm do i have to run a seperate cable for each set of speakers from the amp? The reason for this is that because of the distance of the wiring , im hoping to save on cable.

Would each channel then be getting 100wrms so each speaker effectively gets 50wrms.

Bit new to this, so any help would be great. Diagrams would be wicked as well.

Cheers

[BundyBear]

Hi there,

Im wiring up a speaker system for the tower of my boat. Im looking to just use one amp for simplicity and to keep costs down.

I have a Rockford Fosgate Amp that produces 50wrms @ 4 ohms /4 channels. The amp will produce 100wrms at 2 ohms / 4 channels.

The system on my boat has 4 6x9 speakers facing outwards and 4 6.5 speakers facing downwards into the cabin. The speakers are good quality Sony 3 ways (6.5's) and 4 ways (6x9's).

I presume that I will need to run a set of each of the 6x9s off one channel, the other off the other, and vice versa with the 6.5's.

My question really is, to run these speakers at 2 ohm do i have to run a seperate cable for each set of speakers from the amp? The reason for this is that because of the distance of the wiring , im hoping to save on cable.

Would each channel then be getting 100wrms so each speaker effectively gets 50wrms. yep

Bit new to this, so any help would be great. Diagrams would be wicked as well.

Cheers

hey

Basicaly wire each pair of speakers to one chanel, you can run the speaker wire from the amp to one speaker then to the other, just keep the positive's together and the neg's 2

as 4 being a boat ... corrosion WILL be your bigest issue ( I've worked on a couple of cruse boats and its more of an issue than water)

use OFC (Oxygen Free Coper) cable as it suffers much less.

Avoid joins like the plague, ie continuous run from the amp 2 the first speaker etc

Silicon on the speaker terminals helps to, seals the end of the insulatoin

something like this ^^^

cheers

[Shiraz200SX]

or try proper tinned marine wiring...

[SirRacer]

Thanks for the post.

Its for a wakeboard boat that only sees fresh water so im not too worried about corrosion. Water getting into the speakers perhaps.....

Is there likely to be any loss in power when i make the joins to split the speakers? How would you reccomend doing this as well?

I was concerned about the first speaker getting all the power seeing as its the first from the amp, with the second speaker missing out somewhat.

[BundyBear]

Thanks for the post.

Its for a wakeboard boat that only sees fresh water so im not too worried about corrosion. Water getting into the speakers perhaps.....

Is there likely to be any loss in power when i make the joins to split the speakers? How would you reccomend doing this as well?

I was concerned about the first speaker getting all the power seeing as its the first from the amp, with the second speaker missing out somewhat.

hey

You won't get any power loss by putting your speakers in parallel and both willl get the same power.

Your amp (like most) puts out 50W RMS @ 4 Ohms (ie one 4Ohm Speaker) OR 100W RMS at 2 Ohms ( ie Two 4 Ohm speakers in Parallel), this means each speaker still gets 50W RMS (Assuming Identical Speakers)

4 convenience I run twin from the AMP to the closest speaker, then on to the 2nd speaker. So the first speaker has 2 x twin cable attatched one to the amp the other to the 2nd speaker

Basicaly as long at the 3 positives are wired together, the 3 negatives are wired together and NONE of the positives are wired to any of the negatives yu'l be sweet

Cheers

Edited March 1, 2010 by BundyBear

[SirRacer]

Hi Bundy,

Any pics of this?

Would be keen to have a look.

[Jack88]

or try proper tinned marine wiring...

Normal OFC speaker cable is fine 16 or 18 gauge. make sure your joins properly insulated with heat shrink and you wont have a problem. Done many a ski boat install before and never had an issue.

[Carbon 34]

hope you have poly cones or waterproof type speakers ?, most speaker failures are from spray and sand in the voice coils or sun damage

and why in the world would you have such a odd combination of 4 6x9 and 4 6.5 ???

4 6.5 and a sub bridged off the amp would be better sounding and weight less in the end.

mount the rockford amp up out of the way as high up as you can get it "within reason" and mount it on rubber feet or it will die, they dont tend to like the vibration of a boat for long before the board connections fail on them... and one drop of water inside =dead amp

and remember if you silicone everything, one day you will need to take it apart, that makes a big pain in the ass, and some silicone can promote corrosion on certain metals

a properly designed system should provide a good 15 years of service if your careful and don't sink the boat...long story from the installer files. (soundstream amps full of sand..lol)

[SirRacer]

Thanks for all the comments.

I used to have a setup in a car of the Pioneer Kevlar speakers run off an amp and to be honest despite them being great quality speakers, i hated the sound of them. To my untrained ears id rather a set of 6.5's and a set of 6x9's in the rear with a 10 inch sub. I read a bit article about how the 6x9 shape doesnt produce a "true sound" however in the open air its not going to matter, and in a car i cant tell anyway.

So basically with the 6x9's i wanted something with a bit of bass that could crank a hell of lot of sound as ive got a 350chev to contend with noise wise. These would fire out the back compartment of the boat, and the 6.5's would fire down into the cabin for the driver/passenger. I would adjust these with the fader on the deck. There will be a 12 and then 4 more in boat marine speakers.

When you guys tee into the piece of existing wire how would you reccomend doing it. Making a cut to expose the wire, and then wrapping and soldering the next wire piece in there, then coated with heat shrink???

Pics of boat to get an idea of tower height, and speaker box facing upwards (this would be facing down in the boat.

Cheers

Edited March 4, 2010 by SirRacer

[Carbon 34]

hmmm, to be honest I wouldn't go your route with a butt load speakers, you can drown out the noise of any motor with a properly designed system and enough power.

less then half as many speakers could sound twice as good if designed right ????

that box is going to sound horrible, looks like all the drivers share the same airspace, bad, bad idea!!

yes 6x9 speakers suck end of rant, Kevlar speakers can sound muffled to people, they need proper tuning to sound right

that is a lot of worthless magnet weight and will be exaggerated on cornering g load not the best for a ski boat of that size. like dragging another skier around all the time

T off the wiring, depends on which wires your talking about ?

I hope you know how to figure OHM load wiring correctly or the problems will get much worse ?

seriously I would rethink what your planning and do it right ?? your going to be much happier end the long run ? IMO

[SirRacer]

Hi Sapphire,

You are bang on with quite a few points, but half the fun of this system has been building the whole thing myself and learning as i went. A box like that will also look different on the tower rather than a few speaker pods which everyone else does.

Good quality tower pods (Wet Sounds) are well over 1.5k and i figure the speaker system ive got here will be around 700 by the time im done so its a bit of a budget build. I've recently gone back to uni so dont quite have the cash i use to spend on stuff. Things are always going to be better when you pay a pro to do it, but i enjoy the learning aspect of things.

The 6.5's have their own sealed air space, however at present the 6x9's dont. Once the box is done i will see how it sounds before potentially seperating them. The box will only weigh 20kgs once done so im not too converned about the weight either. Im 95kgs and a mate is 90 and the tower can hold both of us at once. The fact its going to be used in the open is the reason im not too concerned about seperating the box, number of speakers etc. Thats also half the reason i brought Sony speakers when i really wanted Soundstream Tarantula gear.

To also be honest, the box and number of speakers is sort of for show as well.

With the connection, if im connecting the wire from the amp into the speakers with clips similar to the ones provided in the packet (im using a better wire), how there will i t the next lot of wire for the second speaker?

Edited March 5, 2010 by SirRacer

[BundyBear]

With the connection, if im connecting the wire from the amp into the speakers with clips similar to the ones provided in the packet (im using a better wire), how there will i t the next lot of wire for the second speaker?

hey SirRacer

probably the easiest way is:-

start wiring from the amp

when you'r putting the terminals on for the first speaker, wire another length ( for the orther speaker) so each crimp terminal has 2 negz or 2 poz( I'd solder these after crimping)

put your crimp terminals on the second length of wire

drink beer

repeat 4 other speakers

sorry bout the delay work been hell,

lovn friday

cheerz