On the fence....sub question

MXer478

MXer478

New Member
Oct 10, 2007
281
San Diego, CA
Ok, I have the 300W bazooka amp, second batt and I'm ready to buy the sub! So, which do I go with???

a 8/10" Bazooka sub placed under the aft seat?

-or-

a 10/12" sub box mounted in the engine bay storage area?

I've NEVER even heard a tube play, especially on a boat. I'm looking for a deep, solid sound for my boat.

Recommendations anyone???:grin:
 
I have a friend who had a 10" Bazooka in his 320. It sounded very good.
I understand the temptation to put the 12 in the engine compartment but you are likely to get more rattles in the boat than bass. I did an installation like that once with three 12's in the front of a flybridge. It rattled the boat so badly you could hardly play it.
Another option is to buy and empty bazooka tube, but a better driver in it and use a high quality, high powered amp. That is acutally how my budddies was done.
 
I have gone the Bazooka tube in the past. I even replaced the driver. I don't think I would do it again. IMHO, sealed boxes sound much better. You should be able to find and/or build one to fit under your seat. I agree with geriksen about the engine compartment location.
 
I put a 8" bazooka on my last boat and it sounded good. It is quick,cheap, & easy. I realize if you want to spend more you can get something that will sound better....but it worked well for me.
 
IMO, the Bazooka subs are O.K. in the same way that the stock, free-air subs are O.K.. The real performance arrives with the sealed box.
 
Actually I think what my friend had was a sealed "Bazooka style" tube. Not an acutal Bazooka. Kind of a mix between the two.
I agree, a sealed box gives the tightest bass and the best sound with enough power.
A sealed tube will too.
 
one other suggestion.....
If you go the tube route, location can make a huge difference in how it sounds.
I heard an awsome system in a Ski Nautique one time and all it had for a sub was a 6" Bazooka under the foredeck and pointing into the bow. I think that had the effect of a folded horn. I didn't believe it myself until I crawled under there and looked.
Whatever you decide to use, it might be worth hooking it up and moving it around the boat before mounting it. In a smaller boat you will be limited on where it can go but you never know...
Tubes seem to work best blowing into a wall or corner.
 
teekster said:
I have gone the Bazooka tube in the past. I even replaced the driver. I don't think I would do it again. IMHO, sealed boxes sound much better. You should be able to find and/or build one to fit under your seat. I agree with geriksen about the engine compartment location.
Click to expand...

There is no doubt that the less insulation and/or barrier you have between the speaker and the user, the better the sound. It's all about trade-offs. I have 6 separate speakers in the cockpit. 2 of them are 3-ways (Bose outdoor). 2 are MB Quart Premiums with separate tweeters. The 6.5" MBQ bass speakers are known for their lows. I had a gap in the really deep tones. I moved the sub from the back seat to under the swim platform to the front of the engine room. I like it there, but I need one more on the other side (thanks, Charlie). It should be here in a couple of days.

The one in the engine room definately fills the void. Two should just do just fine. Not ideal, but certainly worth keeping my storage under the seats, which for me and my family, is important. If I decide I don't like it there, I'll move it/them again!
 
During installation, I bought 30' of 12 or 14 guage wire (Monster wire) for the speaker wire (amps use 4g). That was the best I could do at home depot. When the sub was under the swim platform, it barely performed at all. When I moved it to the front of the engine room, I doubled the wire up. So, instead of 12 or 14g over 30', I had twice the wire at half the length. The output was significantly greater.

Don't short yourself on copper. It makes all the difference in the world.
 
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I was thinking of matching the guage for the power/ground that is already being used on the boat. Not sure of the exact guage yet but it doesn't look like 0/1
 
Morpheus, for the power source, I used 4 g. It's huge. I can't imagine needing 0/1. As a matter of fact, I know that my amps won't receive all of that.

The previous threads were about speaker wire - I'll edit them.
 
I had an 185 which I installed a single 10 JL audio under the helm on a 45degree angle towards my feet. IT SPANKED!!!! the only problem was the compass. It was way off after I installed it. It was a sealed box made for that 10".
Good luck...
 
When I was trying my sub in the hollow swim platform, a guy was replacing my through-hull. He asked if I had an auto-pilot. Pretty savy for a young guy. I commented that if I did, everytime a heavy bass song would come on, I'd turn 90 degrees to the stbd.
 
Ok, I found a semi-cheap sub for the boat, installed it. It's one box that includes two 10's and a amp. I placed it in the engine storage because of it's size. It sounds pretty good, it actually goes through the entire hull! Pretty cool.

Guess if the humidity gets to it, I'll just replace it later. I'll just stay on the cheap side for it.

I do have a question though. I hooked the power cable from my amp to my new deep cycle batt but the ground on that batt is messed up (both ground posts on my batts are messed up, I'm not sure how they got that way. I installed the nut that came with the batt, it went on fine but once I backed them off a bit, they wouldnt tighten back up. They seem to be cross threaded??? I know for a fact they werent cross threaded with I put them on). Anyway, because the posts wont tighten down well, I hooked the ground to the other batt ground terminal. So, heres my set up. Both 12v wires go to the 1/2/1+2switch. My alt cable is hooked on the switch as well...on the common terminal...I have the two batts grounded to each other....amp power on deep cycle pos terminal and amp neg hooked to crank ground. Right now the ground between the batts is loose (from the stupid posts). However, my crank batt is still hooked up solid with the normal batt teminal hook ups.

So, the question is if its ok to have the amp hooked to one batt pos and the other batt neg?
 
You have the two batt's grounded to eachother? If so, there should be no problem. If the ground wire to the batt with the power cable for your amp is loose, that could create a problem. I would get that fixed. Maybe you could borrow a tool to put new threads on the terminal. Don't touch both of them! Rings off. Watch off...
 
geriksen said:
I have a friend who had a 10" Bazooka in his 320. It sounded very good.
I understand the temptation to put the 12 in the engine compartment but you are likely to get more rattles in the boat than bass. Another option is to buy and empty bazooka tube, but a better driver in it and use a high quality, high powered amp. That is acutally how my budddies was done.
Click to expand...

Yup, that was my 320. I bought a 10" sub tube from millionbuy.com for $29. Went with a tube as it would fit under the cockpit seating, whereas the boxes would not. I then bought a soundstream T4-10 10" sub for ~$100 on ebay. Thats a monster sub with a 160oz magnet. Its built unlike any sub I've seen save for the newer JLs, but its made for smaller sealed enclosures. As little as 0.4 ft^3. I installed the sub into the tube, packed full of polyfill, and sealed it down tight. I then bought a soundstream 300wx2 refurb amp on millionbuy.com for ~$125 and bridged it to 600w for that. Total cost was <$300 and it absolutely hammered. But it was also musical. We don't play rap, just a lot of rock, groove, electronic, etc. Very smooth and with that magnet would never sound like it was working hard.

On that boat I also had 4 Rockford T162C's in the cockpit running off a 100wx2 soundstream amp. Amp was ~$80 refurb'd and the speakers were $120 for 2pr on ebay. It was the best sounding $500 stereo you have ever heard. I also had foam baffles on all the 6.5"s as they really reduce any resonance and rattles in the hull. Get those from partsexpress.com for about $6/pr.

The sub is now installed in my 280DA, although temporarily as the boat is for sale. But it sounds great.

Edit:

This is the sub I have. Its completely over the top. Great buy for ~$100

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Soun...008QQitemZ180222051112QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW


-Dave
'04 Sea Ray 280DA T4.3A
'07 Sea Hunt 220
 
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Thanks Hampton, a quick trip to Kragen and I'm good to go now! I really didnt like that ground being loose like that. Got a new cable that hooked onto the main terminal now.

I found something wierd while out on the water today....which was a blast! My sub is thumping great! But only with the radio or cd player.....check this out....when I switch my head unit to "AUX" and try to play my iPod throough the stereo the sub doesnt work???? Strange, and to go along with that, the volume on the stereo doesnt do anything.....the iPod volume does. I really dont get this one?!
 
Bummer! That sounds like a head unit issue. I wonder if it's designed that way, or if it's a malfunction. Remember the blue wire that tells your amp to turn on? I bet that is not getting a signal. It almost sounds as if your Ipod amp is doing all of the powering and the other amps are not turning on. Are you using the correct line out on the Ipod? Some units I have seen have a line out to speakers, and another line out to amps. Maybe it's the wrong line in to your head unit. Is the plug in all of the way?
 
Mxer,
what head unit?

Sounds like you are using the ipod headphone jack as your output could that be the problem with no base? I have no clue why the volume wouldn't work.
 
That is a head unit issue. The headphone jack or the docking plug will both put out plenty of clean signal for a head unit input.

I would read the manual for your head unit. There may be some preferences you need to change. Most of the newer head units are ipod ready and will acutally control the ipod from the faceplate. Even the under $200 units will do it now. The sound quality is better through the docking plug too.
The other posters are right about large power leads to the amp and heavy speaker leads too. Both make a big difference.

Considering where you put your sub, you may be able to put some vents in that compartment to help the sound get out. We are doing that with the sub install on my 580. Here is the compartment getting the vents. The more vents you have the better the low end will be and you will have fewer rattles. Two JL 12W6's are going here in a sealed box.


DSC06931.jpg

DSC06918-1.jpg

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