good place for stereo and speakers?

[Right On!]

I have been wanting a stereo for our boat for a while now but was holding off because there are more important projects on the list.
Went into West Marine for some anti-fowling remover and came out with a marine Sony Stereo System and the remover. What can I say, It was on sale!..can't pass up a sale on something I really want.
Need some suggestions on where in the heck to mount the deck and speakers. Deck is of normal size to a vehicle's deck. Speakers are 5 1/2" rounds

thanks to all in advance

 

[r.oril]

Over the Sink

This is what I did with my Mac 26D. (photo)
The real pain is how to run the speaker wires and location of the antenia. For that reason I located the system over the sink and used the power from the light. The sound is great while sitting at the helm but not does not go far outside the boat to bother others. You can get a splitter for the VHF Antenia that works with both radios.

 

[Paul Brinkley]

Right on! Like Bob, I mounted my radio over the sink next to my switch panels. Mine came with 4 speakers. I mounted the 2 smaller round ones through the face of the ountflotation compartment over the V-berth (see attached sketch), and the 2 larger ovals in the thick section of the hull liner at the head of the queen berth under the cockpit (see sketch). I don't have any spkrs in the cockpit, because none of the ones I have are waterproof. Eventually I hope to mount some waterproof ones in the cockpit- maybe. I can hear pretty well in the cockpit when sailing. I bought a flexible strip antenna, taped it to a lath about the size of a yardstick, and put it inside the compartment where the radio is mounted- works fine. Hope this helps. -Paul

 

[Capt. Kermie]

My '03 26M has the same layout as the older 26D model so my deck is mounted on the same bulkhead as Bob's. My speakers are 6" round flush mounts, unlike Bobs' self contained box style. There are a couple of considerations to be aware of, first of all one should never have more than one speaker in any given boat cavity because the bass reverberations will interfere with the other speaker and distort the sound, always mount your speakers in seperate chamber cavities. Second consideration is how many speakers does the deck support, 2 or 4 ? If the stereo is 200 watts and supports 4 speakers that would be 50 watts per channel and if you only mount 2 speakers your stereo will only be putting out 100 watts because the other two speaker wires are not connected. If the unit supports 4 speakers then buy 4 speakers and mount all 4, that is what I did, each in a seperate chamber cavity, 2 at the v-berth like Paul and two more under the port and starboard seats in the salon area, the sound is awsome!

 

[oreana123]

To prevent yourself from being cursed by future owners...do not cut holes in your boat to mount speakers. Surface mount only pleeze!

 

[Right On!]

thanks everybody.

I was thinking of mounting the speakers in the cocpit right under the traveler and then mounting a box on the opposite side inside the boat for 'tone' or acoustics. The speakers I have are marine speakers.
However, I do have reservations about cutting any more holes in my boat. There are already four, 5" cut-outs for old school electronic instruments in the companion way wall. 1 for depth, another for water speed, another for wind speed and direction and then one for a compass.
I llike the idea of self contained speakers, but I definitly want speakers out side cause' I want to be able to hear definition when its windy....ok..ok..I just want to be able to ROCK if I want to

 

[Right On!]

Forgot to mention that I also like the idea of mounting the speakers just in front of the queen berth on each side! I think i will do that for sure down the road.

 

[JDK]

Here's an idea for the rear ones. The front ones are in boxes even with the header over the sink. The PO put a bass in the front v-berth, and it makes for quite the system.

The second pic isn't very good, but it shows where the radio went. The connections are behind the right side of the compartment that the door covers, behind the red button. That's where all of the circuits branch out, including the speaker wires.

thx
JDK

 

[Capt. Kermie]

To prevent yourself from being cursed by future owners...do not cut holes in your boat to mount speakers. Surface mount only pleeze!

I must have agonized over this for 2-3 months before installation, and then in the end decided that what I do to my boat is for my current enjoyment not some future owners'. I cut the speaker holes and figured any future owner can use the same speakers or new replacement speakers in the same locations. They can curse me all they want or simply not buy the boat. At any rate I think my speaker installation will be to most folks liking as they are qute strategically placed even if none of the four are out in the cockpit, you can still hear the 200 watts of sound quite well from the cockpit with the door open.

 

[JDK]

I agree Cap. The PO did these speaker installations, and I'm just fine with them. I probably wouldn't have done them with the flush-mount holes, but then I'm lazy...

thx
JDK

 

[timebandit]

Boom Box

 

[Robspan]

Thanks, Timebandit

I didn't want to be the first to say I don't have a built in stereo. I'm a minimalist. After drilling countless holes in my previous boat, I now look for ways to fill my hand with a rum drink instead of a power tool.

I use an mp3 player inside of a waterproof speaker enclosure powered by aaa's in the after part of the cockpit well. It plays Buffett, Fleetwood, reggae and oldies just fine. It ain't hifi but after the first rumski, I can't tell the difference anyway.

 

[Sumner]

Thanks, Timebandit

I didn't want to be the first to say I don't have a built in stereo. I'm a minimalist. After drilling countless holes in my previous boat, I now look for ways to fill my hand with a rum drink instead of a power tool.

I use an mp3 player inside of a waterproof speaker enclosure powered by aaa's in the after part of the cockpit well. It plays Buffett, Fleetwood, reggae and oldies just fine. It ain't hifi but after the first rumski, I can't tell the difference anyway.

Ok we will come out of the closet also, although I've posted this with our trip reports.

We bought one of the above speakers from walmart over a year ago for $20 and love it. In fact we recently bought a second so we can just leave it on the boat.

It uses I 4 AA batteries and will go days on those. We like it since we set it in the cockpit, cabin and next to the bed. We will use the sleep mode on the I-pot so that it plays for an hour when we go to sleep and then turns off. The I-pod turns off, but not the speaker, but the batteries still last 3-5 days.

We have 2 nicer docks at home, but Ruth still likes to take this one room to room and we have it in the hotel room with us now.

On the I-pods, they were like Double Doodie bags, I didn't think I would like them. Ruth's daughter bought her a 30 or 60 gig one for her birthday. We used it and were hooked. We now have 2 of the 160 gig classics and tons of music on them.

Sometimes in the boat and a lot in the car/sub we use one of those FM transmitters with the I-pod and listen over the cabin speakers in the boat or the vehicle speakers. Still most of the time we use the $20 one.

For the boat I have 2 permanently mounted speakes I took out of a wrecked van mounted in the cabin and 2 others that hang on each side of the companionway steps that we can take out and put in the cockpit if we really want to, but there again the $20 deal is what we use.

c ya,

Sum

Our Trips to Lake Powell, UT - Kootenay Lake, Canada - Priest Lake, ID

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[Justin_NSA]

My head unit is above the galley like most. I have speakers below under the port/stbd settees and in the cockpit. I think I want to replace my unit with one with one that has a remote. The "old" one can go in my Ford Escort daily driver.

 

[Right On!]

Based on all the very helpfull suggestions from all of you, I will mount my flushies just in front of the queen berth in thos protrusions in the wall like described in a earlier post and illustration. Then I'll mount some custom made self contaned units just under the hand rail (on the D model) butted up against the cabin house wall. I really don't want to put any more giant holes in the cabin house wall, there are allready four. Six just seems silly and plus there is hardly enough room.

 

[MrBill_FLL]

the cabin wall is pretty thin so you'll be drilling into the inner liner too. any leaks will drip in the cabin.

there are cavities under the coaming, if they fit there... (behind the orange flare canister) that's the back of a compass closest to the ladder.

 

[Doug J]

On my 26S I didn't cut any holes. My boat had two black plexiglass access plates installed in the overhead of the aft berth. I believe they were put there at the factory, providing access to the bolts for the lifeline stancions.

Check your boat to see if you have access plates there too. My speakers mounted right in the existing holes. I also think it's a great place to mount the speakers, they are not visible unless you look up underneath, and provides good sound from there.

Even if your boat doesn't have those access plates, I think it would be worth cutting new holes and mount them there. I don't have a good picture handy, only one that shows from inside the coamings, where you see the backside of one of the speakers.

To better describe the location; while sitting on either settee, reach your hand up to the ceiling over the aft berth.

http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d64/doug91mac26s/Galley/?action=view&current=Galley9.jpg