FLYBRIDGE STEREO
I'm getting to lower priority stuff...
Was there any "standard" schema for hooking up all the bridge/outside stereo speakers? We have a Clarion CMD8 (maybe a replacement for the original?) with dual outputs: two front, two combo rear/sub. I can track that... and I have the manual.
Then there's a JL Audio M800/8v2 amplifier and a JL Audio M600/1 subwoofer amp. I have the manuals. (The main amp manual is a little slow to identify when it's speaking about input channels versus output channels... but I can work through that.)
Anyway. We have ten pairs of HF speakers. Four overhead speakers on the bridge. Two overhead in the cockpit. Two on the transom. (Who ever thought of that as a good idea?) Two on the bow. Any clue about how the 5 HF speaker pairs might have been assigned to the amp's 8 (4 pairs) output channels?
My guess might be the 4 on the bridge = channels 1/2. Each of the other pairs, maybe channels 3/4, 5/6, and 7/8 respectively.
??
I know I can test a bit, but at the moment the Remote Level Control isn't perfectly cooperating... and the transom speaker pair is leaking rust, no soundee...
-Chris
I made a little progress yesterday. First, our Parts Manual suggests the original bridge stereo was a Clarion CMD4... and what's there now is a CMD8... hence my suspicion the original was replaced sometime over the years.
Our main amp is a JL Audio M800/8v2 (also probably not original) and there's also a JL M600/1 subwoofer amp (ditto). Former is 8-channels in/8-channels out (four L/R pairs each) stereo, and latter is mono with two paralleled sub outs.
All that leads to another suspicion: the replacement installer paid no attention to existing speaker wire connections, ran a whole new set... for some obscure reason. That would explain all the rat's nest of extra wiring I found, though. And given these are replacements, some of this might not be useful for everyone (anyone) else...
The CMD8 provides two sets of speaker output: one front L/R, and one combo rear/sub L/R. This is not Dolby, so it appears the "rear" speakers are just that, same signal as front speakers but maybe separately controllable if the follow-on amp and speaker system supports that. Given the boat's speaker set-up, I see no advantage to connecting the "rear" output to the main amp... so I only ran that combo rear/sub L/R out directly to the sub amp.
The M800 speaker (output) set-up I inherited is:
- 1/2 (L/R) is bridged to the (dead) transom speakers which are daisy-chained into a single load
- 3/4 (L/R) feeds all four bridge overhead speakers
- 5/6 (L/R) feeds cockpit overhead speakers
- 7/8 (L/R) feeds bow speakers
The M600 sub (output) set-up I inherited is:
- one pair to bridge sub (which currently appears to be dead, need to test further)
- one pair to cockpit sub
The Remote Level Control can be made to mute all channels, channels 5-8. or channels 7-8. I don't see a way yet to hear music on the bridge and nowhere else. OTOH, using the RCL to control only channels 5-8, I've at least figured out how to mute the cockpit overhead and bow speakers... and since the transom speakers are currently dead, we're at least able to function on the bridge without blasting the whole marina with crappola. (And I'm still puzzled by who thought transom speakers would be a good idea.)
The RCL can also be made to mute the subs, BUT only both subs at the same time. IOW, if the sub on the bridge is live, so is the sub in the cockpit... which is back to that "blast the marina" issue. I disconnected the sub in the cockpit, pending some sort of solution to separately muting the two subs.
I haven't yet bothered to experiment with filters, crossover freqs, etc.
-Chris