Need Help With Stereo Amp Hook Up

midexp

Active Member
Oct 5, 2016
423
Harrison Township, Michigan Lake St.Clair
Boat Info
1999 40' Sundancer
Engines
454 merc
So, I have a 1999 40 Sundancer I just bought. I just bought a new Sony MEX-71BT stereo to replace my original Clairion. I have been told I have an amp located somewhere in my cabin. The new Sony unit has 2 jacks for the amp in the back of the deck, same as my Clairion. But the Clairion did not have connections in the back for the woofer and 4 speakers in the cockpit. I believe these speakers are connected to the amp. Does anyone now how I need to wire these speakers with the new Sony? My new Sony has jacks in back for speakers in the cockpit, where's the Clarion didn't. There are connections in the Sony for 4 speakers from the main wiring harness, but these are for the 4 speakers in the cabin. Hope this isn't too confusing?
Thanks
 
So, I have a 1999 40 Sundancer I just bought. I just bought a new Sony MEX-71BT stereo to replace my original Clairion. I have been told I have an amp located somewhere in my cabin. The new Sony unit has 2 jacks for the amp in the back of the deck, same as my Clairion. But the Clairion did not have connections in the back for the woofer and 4 speakers in the cockpit. I believe these speakers are connected to the amp. Does anyone now how I need to wire these speakers with the new Sony? My new Sony has jacks in back for speakers in the cockpit, where's the Clarion didn't. There are connections in the Sony for 4 speakers from the main wiring harness, but these are for the 4 speakers in the cabin. Hope this isn't too confusing?
Thanks
good luck
 
I just installed a Fusion Stereo in my 99 400DA. The way ,one was setup is as follows.

The two speakers in the forward cabin were connected to the front left and right speaker connections on the head unit.

The two speakers in the salon were connected to the rear left and right speaker connections on the head unit.

The cockpit speakers are run by an amplifier, presumably hidden behind the salon seating, though I have never verified this, that amp is connected to the left and right stereo preouts on the head unit. The amp needs a full range input because it also powers the subwoofer.

You need to find the amp and see if there is an RCA inputs on it to run from the head unit with an rca patch cord. Some older setups used the speaker level outputs to drive the amp, but this was never a good solution. Might be time to upgrade the amp.

Hope this helps

Pete
 
Try under the cushion for the salon sofa. The amp might be mounted there.
 
In mine the amp is located behind the salon sofa back far left. Right above the compartment for the central vacuum. If you are just connecting the amp to the new sony head unit, Sea Ray used a single RCA cable and then a splitter at the amp. If you see only one rca connected to the old clarion, you can just plug that in to the RCA outs (not sub outs) and your'e good. I ran an additional rca to the amp. It is a four channel amp with the four cockpit speakers running of channels 1 and 2 and the sub running bridged mono off channels 3 and 4. I adjusted the gain levels on the amp and it made a huge difference...
 
In mine the amp is located behind the salon sofa back far left. Right above the compartment for the central vacuum. If you are just connecting the amp to the new sony head unit, Sea Ray used a single RCA cable and then a splitter at the amp. If you see only one rca connected to the old clarion, you can just plug that in to the RCA outs (not sub outs) and your'e good. I ran an additional rca to the amp. It is a four channel amp with the four cockpit speakers running of channels 1 and 2 and the sub running bridged mono off channels 3 and 4. I adjusted the gain levels on the amp and it made a huge difference...

I kind of follow what you're saying. My amp like yours has 4 RCA plugs coming out of the Clairon input jacks (ch1 - 4). These get paired down into a 2 to 1 splitter. So the 4 channels are now 2 and those plugged into 2 RCA ports that were in the old Clairon head unit (the only 2 available). The problem is my new Sony head unit has 6 RCA ports: 2 for subwoofers, 2 for rear audio out and 2 for front audio out. I don't know which of these 3 pairs of RCA ports to plug the 2 that are coming from the amp. I'm guessing not the subwoofer. Do I need a second splitter to make the 2 coming out of the amp into 4?

Thanks
 
If you want to keep it easy just plug the existing red and white rca ends that used to go to the Clarion head unit into the "rear audio out" rca's on the Sony. That way you can independently control the cabin speakers and the cockpit speakers using the fader.

More complicated solution: If you want to be able to control the sub separate from the other channels then get another rca cable and go from the "Sub" rca outputs on the sony directly to channel 3&4 on the amp, remove the splitter and use the "rear" rca coming from the sony directly into inputs 1 & 2 on the amp (removing the splitter). Your crossover settings should be good but you can play with gain settings (little phillips head adjustments) to make the volume lower or higher coming out of the speakers. Don't go too high or they will sound distorted. Plenty of youtube videos on how to adjust gain settings on amplifier. On mine they were all jacked up from the factory. Sounds great now. Splitters are not ideal direct RCA to RCA cables are better.
 
Use the front or the rear RCA outs of the new head and it will all work just as it did.

If the 4 chnl is driving full range on one half and woofer on the other half, you could run dedicated RCA pairs to each amp half and have a little more control.

If the 4 chnl is driving all full range speakers and you want "FADE" you can run a new RCA pair from the head to the amp, toss the splitters, connect head FRONT to chnl 1/2 and connect head REAR to chnl 3/4 and now have full range fade front to back.
 
If you want to keep it easy just plug the existing red and white rca ends that used to go to the Clarion head unit into the "rear audio out" rca's on the Sony. That way you can independently control the cabin speakers and the cockpit speakers using the fader.

More complicated solution: If you want to be able to control the sub separate from the other channels then get another rca cable and go from the "Sub" rca outputs on the sony directly to channel 3&4 on the amp, remove the splitter and use the "rear" rca coming from the sony directly into inputs 1 & 2 on the amp (removing the splitter). Your crossover settings should be good but you can play with gain settings (little phillips head adjustments) to make the volume lower or higher coming out of the speakers. Don't go too high or they will sound distorted. Plenty of youtube videos on how to adjust gain settings on amplifier. On mine they were all jacked up from the factory. Sounds great now. Splitters are not ideal direct RCA to RCA cables are better.

Cocktail Time, if you ran a set of RCA cables from the head unit to the amp, how difficult was it? I see an opening where all the wires and RCA cables exit the amp and go up towards the head unit, but I was wondering how difficult it would be to push cables with fish tape close enough to the head unto to be able to retrieve them.
 
If you take off the panel the head unit is in you have clear access to run cables and speaker wire down to the amp. Very easy, I think it would be a pita to try it with that panel in place.
 
If that is the case, I would cut out a large hole in the panel enlarging the opening the radio sits in; take the cd changer out and adding a panel that covers the cd changer opening and has a single din cutout for the head unit that is easier to get into. I have to get in there often and it would be a real pita to have to try and work back there using just the radio opening. You can do it, but it would be much easier to just fabricate a second panel that the radio mounts into.
 
Trust me, it won't. Spent hours trying. The panel behind the panel the stereo mounts in is too close.
Well that's nuts. I have same problem with my ice maker. It just won't come out. I would just cut the panel in pieces and remove. Then make a new panel that fits it's going to be a lot easier in the end if you can remove that panel. I made a new one when I installed my new Fusion head unit. I can actually remove my panel now with the head unit in it which made it a breeze to wire up.

Good luck,

Pete
 
OK, I installed the new Sony Stereo. I hooked up the black ground, the yellow battery and red accessory, plus the 4 cabin speakers. I did run a separate pair of RCA cables, so I hooked up 1 pair to the sub to the amp channel 3,4 and left the original pair to amp channel 1, 2 and plugged these into to the rear audio out on the Sony.

The cabin speakers worked fine, but the cockpit speakers did not turn on. When I got home (frustrated), I see there's a REM out (blue and white stripped wire) that I did not hook up. I thought it was for a power antenna. But Googling says this is to power the amp? Which is why the cockpit speakers did not turn on?

Anyone know?

Thanks
 
Yep, blue/wht is to turn on external amp. What is connected when you clipped out the old head unit harness? Solid blue is usually power antenna.

Since you are now running a 2nd RCA pair to the other half of the amp, you may need to change an input source on the amp so the woofer sees the dedicated new input, rather then the pass-thru is was receiving.
 

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