Stereo Wiring Question

choppstixxx

New Member
Aug 1, 2018
19
Penfield, NY
Boat Info
2000 Sea Ray 180 BR
Engines
3.0L Mercruiser Alpha 1 I/O
So let me preface this by saying I have done many car audio installs, but this is my first go at a marine audio install with my 2000 Sea Ray 180 BR.
I recently purchased a new head unit & a new pair of 6.5" JBL's for the stern of my boat. Currently the setup is two speakers in the rear then a single speaker in the bow/pass thru area. When I was swapping in the new speakers in the rear this weekend I noticed that the wiring was kinda funky. Whoever wired things up before just used one pair of wires to go to the nearest rear speaker, then piggy backed off that to the opposite speaker. I am going to run brand new 16 gauge marine speaker wire from the head unit speaker outputs to the appropriate speakers (LR, RR). I just wanted to double check that this would be the appropriate way to do things. The front speaker should be on it's own wiring, but haven't dug into that one yet. Regardless I am going to run new wire to that as well so they all are fresh/the same.
 
You are doing it correctly... whoever wired it before screwed up!
Good deal, I am hoping routing the wire should be easy since everything is in exposed areas. Hardest part will be running the wire from the HU to the farthest speaker in the rear. Can't wait to get this all sorted and correct, nothing drives me nuts more than lazy/sloppy stuff like this.
 
Previous wiring way way wrong. Sounds like they used the output for two speakers to drive three speakers. The two speakers wired in series would have caused the head unit to see 8 ohms but the single speaker would have only seen 4 ohm. Head unit probably didn't like that and they would have had to play with balance/fader to get things to sound right
 
Previous wiring way way wrong. Sounds like they used the output for two speakers to drive three speakers. The two speakers wired in series would have caused the head unit to see 8 ohms but the single speaker would have only seen 4 ohm. Head unit probably didn't like that and they would have had to play with balance/fader to get things to sound right
Yea I think what happened was they didn't have any extra speaker wire, so they just cobbled it together. Gonna head over to my boat tonight and re-do the wiring, get the new HU in as well.
 
So last night I went over to the boat and am baffled. I ran a new wire to the farthest speaker to eliminate all the piggy backing it was doing from the opposite speaker. I tried to test running one of the speakers directly off the correct output on the HU and it didn't produce any sound from it? The only way any of the speakers would produce sound were to run them all off the one output wire that looked to be the factory Sea Ray speaker wire. Does a boat like mine have some type of factory amplifier? There were no RCA's plugged into the HU, so it's not an aftermarket setup. I have to untangle some of the wiring next time I'm up and trace the wires on the HU, the way the original person wired things up were terrible. Some of the speaker wires were just twisted together and then loosely electrical taped.
 
I would think you have an amp somewhere hidden...
 
The head unit should have a wiring harness that unhooks from the back of the HU. The stock unit would not have an amplifier. The wiring is straight up, just connect the output wires for the speakers - FL/FR, RL/RR - I don't know the color codes for the speaker outputs of hand. You might have found why it was wired that way, maybe the RR output doesn't work? Maybe try the front to test it?

Here is the good news, for around $100 you can put in a new headunit that probably is much better the the one you have if it is original. Add an amp and you would have a pretty decent system for that little boat.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Zim
The head unit should have a wiring harness that unhooks from the back of the HU. The stock unit would not have an amplifier. The wiring is straight up, just connect the output wires for the speakers - FL/FR, RL/RR - I don't know the color codes for the speaker outputs of hand. You might have found why it was wired that way, maybe the RR output doesn't work? Maybe try the front to test it?

Here is the good news, for around $100 you can put in a new headunit that probably is much better the the one you have if it is original. Add an amp and you would have a pretty decent system for that little boat.
Yea after talking to a buddy that has been doing professional stereo installs for his whole life, said that some of the outputs might be shot on the old HU. Funny thing is I already have a brand new JVC Marine Bluetooth HU ready to go, just was trying to sort out the speaker issue first before I did that. Most likely the old Sony Xplod unit (which isn't a marine unit) got exposed to some moisture and fried some of the outputs. I will just remove the old HU when I am back at the boat and wire things up as they should be, last night I had time/weather against me. Plus I had a crappy wire crimping tool, just ordered a new one my buddy suggested. Saturday I'll report back, hopefully I'll get this all sorted then. Thanks everyone!
 
Got to finally install the new HU/run all the new speaker wires on Sat., everything worked perfectly. Old HU output's were def. shot, everything worked as it should. Just gotta run one more new speaker wire and it'll all be sorted! Thanks everyone.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,950
Messages
1,422,861
Members
60,932
Latest member
juliediane
Back
Top