Sound systems - Anybody install a subwoofer?

Jun 2, 2014
589
Catalina 30 mkII - 1987 Alamitos Bay Marina, LB, CA
Phil, been off the boards and just saw this... Wow, that sounds amazing! Probably too complicated for my wife, but I really want something like that! I guess I'll add it to my future projects when everything else is done.
And my engineer friend at Alpine is Neil P.
 

Kestle

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Jun 12, 2011
702
MacGregor 25 San Pedro
You provide the subwoofer. Nature provides the whales.

Jeff (from experience)
 

jrowan

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Mar 5, 2011
1,294
O'Day 35 Severn River, Mobjack Bay, Va.
Jonelli,
We have the same set up that you have. A flat screen with built in DVD player on the port main bulkhead, self encased speakers installed on either side. We have self enclosed smaller marine speakers sold by West Marine, hidden in the cockpit comings. This way you can hide the wiring in the storage lockers & only need to drill a small hole for the thin gauge speaker wiring. I hate drilling holes in my boat, especially in the cockpit. I would also skip the amplifier, as it only draws a lot of unnecessary power, & the sound with 4 speakers is good. I like having the 2 speakers up & 2 below, as you can turn the speakers off below when the kids are watching TV, & I want to hear the stereo in the cockpit above. As far as the amp, the more that you sail & want to stay overnight on the hook, the less power draw you want to waste. Its sucks a lot more to have dead batteries in the morning when trying to start your engine, then having a killer stereo, that in turn kills your batteries. Cheers.
 

Attachments

Jun 9, 2004
615
Catalina 385 Marquette. Mi
I have sailed hours on end with electronics , deck, and amp, and have never come even close to draining a group 24 battery. (Singular). But then again......I dont like rap. :)
 
Nov 8, 2010
11,386
Beneteau First 36.7 & 260 Minneapolis MN & Bayfield WI
First a rant... Why the heck can't car stereo manufacturers use non volatile memory for saving settings????? Virtually every electronic device these days has it. After installing my great new Kenwood blutooth, marine radio, I find out that the blutooth mode doesn't output to all speakers by default, you have to change the setting from Front only to ALL. And now that I'm installing a sub amp, I want to highpass the main speakers at 120Hz...another non default setting. Never mind my favorite radio stations. So how does it remember all this? Of course, the ole yellow wire has to be hooked up to your battery, and when it drains or gets disconnected, your stereo gets a lobotomy. Seriously??? There 's NO good reason that I can think of for it to be this way. Put a freakin reset button somewhere if you want, but KEEP MY SETTINGS. I want to cut all battery power from everything when I leave the boat (except for hard wired bilge pump), but now I have a PITA.

So, if you were me, would you connect the yellow wire directly to the battery and hope you never forget to put the trickle charger back on, or would you still keep the yellow wire behind the "ALL OFF" switch?

I'm in the habit of leaving the cabin and water pressure switches on, and using the battery switch to "turn on" the boat when I go there. If I don't use the battery switch, I have to remember to check all the other little switches, turn off the VHF radio, and then what happens when my wife goes to the boat? Panic phone call "there's no water!! or why are there no lights!!" etc...
I'm quite sure that Fusion marine radios use NVRAM for setting and station storage. You can pull all power wires and they never forget. Indeed, they actually have a RESET function in SW to perform a full clear.

That have a 'yellow' wire but it just allows fast booting of the device; instant on vs 10 seconds.

Great radios.
 
Aug 1, 2011
3,972
Catalina 270 255 Wabamun. Welcome to the marina
Being the old sound guy, I agree with Doug. If the bottom end isn't moving the drinks off the tables, it's not adhering to the rules. Everything louder than everything else. :)
Thankfully we grew out of that, but the dynamics of these 16 bit MP3 files makes installing decent audio kinda pointless.
 
Apr 22, 2013
17
Catalina 30 Northport Long Island, NY
I installed a 12 inch dual coil subwoofer under the seat that is below the LCD screen shown in the prior pictures. My Cat 30 has the full wrap around seating. Mounted the sub amp under the chart table. Really enjoy it. Bangs hard all the way to the cockpit under sail.

Alec