Hello 310 owners...just wondered if anyone has any experience adding a subwoofer to their stereo system. I have 4 PP MA7500's (2 in the cabin, and 2 under the stern rail seats)hooked up to a Sony Car CD stereo at the nav desk. Do I need an amplifier? I would assume I could put a subwoofer in one of the lockers (maybe the aft berth?). Any ideas would be most welcome.
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I Was Considering..
one of these http://www.crutchfield.com/S-QBrjQIrLBYz/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=51000&I=113KSCSW1 due to the size of it and the fact that it has its own built in amp but decided to upgrade my four PP MA 7500's instead. Here's why. 1- If you want to use your Sony head unit to power the PP's you'll want a way to send them a signal above 80hz and everything below 80 cycles to the sub. The reason for not sending the PP's a bass signal below 80 cycles is because the 3 inch driver can't handle it. Unfortunately most, if not all, head units don't have a high pass switch which forces you to buy an external amp. On top of that I don't know of any manufacturer making afive chanel amp meaning front, rear & sub so you then need two amps! Sending your small speakers a high freeq signal makes them, in a sense, louder because they won't start "breaking up" trying to handle a full range signal and you'l be able to play them louder with less distortion. 2- In order to not send your Poly-Planar's a full range signal you'll need an external 4 chanel amp and a sub amp or a powered sub. This is just a lot of headache when all you really need to do is to upgrade your Salon speakers. I purchased a pair of these... http://www.paradigm.ca/Website/SiteParadigmProduct/ParadigmModels/Stylus/stylusseries.html for my cabin and the bass from the Paradigm 350's 6.5 inch driver really makes all the difference. They also make a pair with a 5.5 inch driver and they are a little smaller in size. I like the fact that I don't have to use a power hungry amp to power everything and it sounds amazing compared to my OEM Poly-Planar's. Paradigm is a real speaker company that designs and manufacturers everything from the drivers to cabinets & crossovers. They don't source a "good enough driver" to build speakers like most companies. If you really want to tweak you're suystem I'd start with the interior speakers first then maybe the cockpit speakers then perhaps a sub. The Paradigms are expensive. I paid $470.00 but it's less than adding a sub & amp to the already poor sounding Poly-Planar speakers but they blow away everthing in the class! I auditioned everthing from Bose (absolute junk), Boston Acoustics (very bright), Niles Audio (in efficient lacked bass), Polk (very nice for the price but not the Paradigms), Klipsch (if you want your eardrums to bleed from to much treble buy these) and some other cheap stuff like Jensen. The next closest in sound quality (imaging, soundstage, depth, tightness of the bass etc.) were actually the Polks! http://www.crutchfield.com/S-kcVpAei7lNo/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=11999&I=107ATR60B&search=outdoor+speakers Good luck in your quest for better boat sound. I never did get to hear the Kenwood sub but I did hear the 10" Infinity powered sub and was impressed and people say the Kenwood is similar but smaller. -Helpless Audiophile
one of these http://www.crutchfield.com/S-QBrjQIrLBYz/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=51000&I=113KSCSW1 due to the size of it and the fact that it has its own built in amp but decided to upgrade my four PP MA 7500's instead. Here's why. 1- If you want to use your Sony head unit to power the PP's you'll want a way to send them a signal above 80hz and everything below 80 cycles to the sub. The reason for not sending the PP's a bass signal below 80 cycles is because the 3 inch driver can't handle it. Unfortunately most, if not all, head units don't have a high pass switch which forces you to buy an external amp. On top of that I don't know of any manufacturer making afive chanel amp meaning front, rear & sub so you then need two amps! Sending your small speakers a high freeq signal makes them, in a sense, louder because they won't start "breaking up" trying to handle a full range signal and you'l be able to play them louder with less distortion. 2- In order to not send your Poly-Planar's a full range signal you'll need an external 4 chanel amp and a sub amp or a powered sub. This is just a lot of headache when all you really need to do is to upgrade your Salon speakers. I purchased a pair of these... http://www.paradigm.ca/Website/SiteParadigmProduct/ParadigmModels/Stylus/stylusseries.html for my cabin and the bass from the Paradigm 350's 6.5 inch driver really makes all the difference. They also make a pair with a 5.5 inch driver and they are a little smaller in size. I like the fact that I don't have to use a power hungry amp to power everything and it sounds amazing compared to my OEM Poly-Planar's. Paradigm is a real speaker company that designs and manufacturers everything from the drivers to cabinets & crossovers. They don't source a "good enough driver" to build speakers like most companies. If you really want to tweak you're suystem I'd start with the interior speakers first then maybe the cockpit speakers then perhaps a sub. The Paradigms are expensive. I paid $470.00 but it's less than adding a sub & amp to the already poor sounding Poly-Planar speakers but they blow away everthing in the class! I auditioned everthing from Bose (absolute junk), Boston Acoustics (very bright), Niles Audio (in efficient lacked bass), Polk (very nice for the price but not the Paradigms), Klipsch (if you want your eardrums to bleed from to much treble buy these) and some other cheap stuff like Jensen. The next closest in sound quality (imaging, soundstage, depth, tightness of the bass etc.) were actually the Polks! http://www.crutchfield.com/S-kcVpAei7lNo/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=11999&I=107ATR60B&search=outdoor+speakers Good luck in your quest for better boat sound. I never did get to hear the Kenwood sub but I did hear the 10" Infinity powered sub and was impressed and people say the Kenwood is similar but smaller. -Helpless Audiophile
Thanks Acoustic...
For the excellent information. My goal is to keep things simple...The PP's are fairly good speakers for the money, however they do lack the low end, and do tend to "clip" when the volume gets too high, or I am playing a very dynamic CD. Not a big deal to anyone but me though. Just thoughts of upgrading while the boat is on the hard. Lots to think about...thanks again.
For the excellent information. My goal is to keep things simple...The PP's are fairly good speakers for the money, however they do lack the low end, and do tend to "clip" when the volume gets too high, or I am playing a very dynamic CD. Not a big deal to anyone but me though. Just thoughts of upgrading while the boat is on the hard. Lots to think about...thanks again.
Subwoofer choices
Acoustic, you sound like you’re pretty much up on the sound scene. I like the scheme of that powered subwoofer in your first link, except for the low pass filter. Also, it looks like a surface mount model. I’d think I’d prefer a stand-alone box, to avoid cutting up the boat. I could anchor one behind the engine in the aft berth. I’d like to add a subwoofer with its own amp, like my home system. At home, I have the speaker level output (my receiver doesn’t have a subwoofer output) routed to an M&K subwoofer, through the M&K's high pass filter back to a Polk satellite/sub set of speakers. This takes the bass load off the polk’s. On the boat I have an Alpine 60-watt per channel player with line level outputs. I want to see what’s available to mimic my home system. I guess I have to work with speaker level signals from the head unit on. I don’t think there is any way to feed a line level signal back into the Alpine’s power amp section. Do you think I’m on the right track? I’d like to keep things simple and cost effective of course. I hear what you are saying on primary speaker selection, but I’m limited to the four Bose 151’s that I received from my employer as an employment anniversary gift. Actually, they don’t sound all that bad to me. I’m not trying to duplicate the sound quality of my home system. I’m happy if I can get a decent sound with a lot of clean, high volume. I can’t hear much above 13 kHz anyway, probably from all the high volume Rock and Roll of my earlier years. I have used the Alpine’s relatively sophisticated tone control capability to help out a little, but pumping up the bass without further taxing, or even lessening the load on the Bose speakers is what I’m after. I’m supposing I need to find a 12-volt subwoofer that has the same type of high pass filter the M&K does, and then run the Bose's from that.
Acoustic, you sound like you’re pretty much up on the sound scene. I like the scheme of that powered subwoofer in your first link, except for the low pass filter. Also, it looks like a surface mount model. I’d think I’d prefer a stand-alone box, to avoid cutting up the boat. I could anchor one behind the engine in the aft berth. I’d like to add a subwoofer with its own amp, like my home system. At home, I have the speaker level output (my receiver doesn’t have a subwoofer output) routed to an M&K subwoofer, through the M&K's high pass filter back to a Polk satellite/sub set of speakers. This takes the bass load off the polk’s. On the boat I have an Alpine 60-watt per channel player with line level outputs. I want to see what’s available to mimic my home system. I guess I have to work with speaker level signals from the head unit on. I don’t think there is any way to feed a line level signal back into the Alpine’s power amp section. Do you think I’m on the right track? I’d like to keep things simple and cost effective of course. I hear what you are saying on primary speaker selection, but I’m limited to the four Bose 151’s that I received from my employer as an employment anniversary gift. Actually, they don’t sound all that bad to me. I’m not trying to duplicate the sound quality of my home system. I’m happy if I can get a decent sound with a lot of clean, high volume. I can’t hear much above 13 kHz anyway, probably from all the high volume Rock and Roll of my earlier years. I have used the Alpine’s relatively sophisticated tone control capability to help out a little, but pumping up the bass without further taxing, or even lessening the load on the Bose speakers is what I’m after. I’m supposing I need to find a 12-volt subwoofer that has the same type of high pass filter the M&K does, and then run the Bose's from that.
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