A brief "low down" speaker placement.

It takes roughly 20' to hear a 20 Hz (very low bass) bass note. So you want the low's (bass) to "bounce around" as much as possible before it gets to your ears. In a boat that's in the bow, usually. If you are using a 10" woofer then the face of the woofer needs to be at least 5" from whatever you are pointing it at. I usually use a down-firing woofer box in the bow. Usually pointing the woofer forward gets most of the sound "stuck" inside the bow.

For mid's and high's it's always far better to use mids and tweets instead of a 2 or 3 way speaker. You want the mids and tweets as far forward and as high as possibele keeping them within 1 foot of each other. In the front I like to put the mids and tweets under the bow just enough to get some water resistance, pointing the left and right speakers at each other rather than at my face. For the rear I usually put them in the sides diractly behind the driver and passenger, hopefully slightly under the sides of the boat to get some water resistance.

In boats and convertible cars you can never have enough power (amp wattage). It takes a lot of power to get the sound as loud as or louder than a big block with open headers!

Sound, or expectations of it, are impossible to describe and can only be heard. All too many times I hear "I just want it to sound good, I don't need everyone else to hear it". For one person that may mean a Kraco cassette deck with the 2 (included) speakers, to others a "good sound not needing everyone else to hear it" means 3000 watts and 12 speakers.

I don't have any pics, I'll try and get "Your Mom" to email me some. His system was done a long time ago and came out very good.

Thanks.
I planned on putting a sub in the bow, but I am kind of stuck on what to go with 10, 12  also I don't want to lose all my bow space as I will be putting skis, vests, etc up there.  Also, I am stuck on the rear speaker placement here are a couple of pics.

So where would you mount a deck? Anyone??

In the dash??   

Just build a panel by where either the drivers or passenger knees sit approx.  I will snap a pic for you tomorrow.

Ahh, the deck is my most baffel of all!! I want to keep the pad so,  out comes the case of beer and the ideas begin to grow!!!!!

My thought was to modify the pad and put the deck there...center it but inset a bit so pad still stays useful.
Use a full face deck with a flush face so nothing sticks out. 
my .02

-Rebel

I don't like jet boat's with stereo holes in the dash unless the hole is already there. Once again IMO and no offense meant to propless!

I don't have a choice unless I want to fill it with plywood and glass.  The hole is there and I've got a new stereo so that's where I'm going to put it.

Damn bro that's some interior room right there! Nice.

first off... IMO... go with the rear speaker location of propless's except I wouldn't point them up any. For the front speakers go forward about 6 inches from propless's and don't point them up any, if you want to you can point the tweets but I personally wouldn't point the mids. Propless's sub location is a good one however the bass would be (theoretically) 3 db louder if he had pointed the woofer down instead of in towards the center of the bow/dash. To increase a stereo's output by 3db you have to double the power (200 watts to 400 watts) so 3 db is a lot. My personal preference on stereo location would be under the dash in the center, I don't like jet boat's with stereo holes in the dash unless the hole is already there. Once again IMO and no offense meant to propless!

 No offense taken Hotrod  .  You are right about down-firing the subs, this was just easy and fast (i dont get paid to work on my own stuff). And the reason the highs are where thay are is to get the sound out of the boat. I almost never turn it on when when I'm in it ,  only use it to supply some tunes for the group when floating around. 

No offense taken Hotrod  .  You are right about down-firing the subs, this was just easy and fast (i dont get paid to work on my own stuff). And the reason the highs are where thay are is to get the sound out of the boat. I almost never turn it on when when I'm in it ,  only use it to supply some tunes for the group when floating around. 

Yea, it takes tons of wattage to overcome open headers... and then to have it sound good at the same time (while the engine is running)... Speaking of not getting paid to work on your own stuff, I've got quite a bit of equipment saved up for my F150 that I've had for sevral years, I've never put any of it in except for the deck that has built-in Nav - that I've never took the time to figure out how to use. 

I asked my friend (aka Your Mom) to email me some pics of his stereo in his boat so you all could get a better idea of what the hell I am writing about (speaker placement), he must have taken the pics with his cell phone after he picked up his cell phone out of a toilet.    Anyway, here they are...

(These are full size.)
Kind of shows the placement of the front speakers.


same


because I can

sorry the pics SUK   


and lastly a new family member at my house 

Thanks for the info.  So, components over 6x9's? I am glad I asked b/c I would have probably bought 6x9's for the rear.  I was also thinking about 1 12 down firing in the bow.

There are several knowledgeable installers on this board and a lot of "sound" is theory and opinion.

I would buy cheap seperates before I bought expensive 6 X 9's, but that's only because of the way i like my stereo's to sound. I've never heard a JL Titanium 12 (1) that I didn't like. They do really well with a JL 500.1 I've heard a few systems with one of those Kicker square 12's that I was impressed with also.

firing down will sound good in the boat. But not on the sand bar. just my .02   I've put two SPL 12's under the front deck, firing at you. But I like four 8's

Correct to a point. It will sound better in the boat than at the sand bar with the woofer firing down, but it won't sound bad at the sandbar either. Firing the woofer aft from the bow will have the opposite effect, sound better at the sand bar and not as well inside the boat. There is a lot of personal preference in design. Of course you can have both with carefull planning, one woofer firing aft from the bow and a second woofer firing down.     

Ill be running a stero in my boat 2 12s I think

I'm thinking at least double. Maybe 150W X 4 and 1000W X 1.

Your Mom has a 300.4 Jl Audio for the mids and highs. It's 75W X 4. On the subs (2 12's, I forgot which brand) he has a Rockford Fosgate, he said it's a 580 but that doesn't make sense to me.  He said his stereo isn't loud enough to overcome the noise from the wind (cruising speed) unless your head is turned. It sounds killer at the sandbar, plenty loud enough but it isn't the loudest system out there.

It's actually 2 10 inch eclipse entry level woofers. And I believe the sub amp is a kicker not fosgate.