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247 Subwoofer Project


nyryan2001

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I just finished my Sub upgrade project. I spent about 6-9 months thinking and planning, actual project took about 30 days.

I had two medicore 12" subs in crappy tubes in there previously on about 300wts ea, was was having to play them at about 100% most of the time and sounded ok. I knew I wanted to go big, but wasnt really sure how to go about it. Most of the time I play at 20% or so while doing watersports, and then 50% or so while at party cove at the beach, 4-6 hours startight sometimes.... because we are out of the boat in the water or up on the beach.

I knew I wanted my old 100% play level to be my new 30%.....not really sure how else to put it.

I did not have an unlimited budget doing this... moderatly budget contrained. I wanted to get quality stuff and do a quality install, but could not pay for over the top hide everything perfectly, custom amp racks, and all that stuff. I wanted to spend the majority of the money on heavy hitting quality gear. Function took priority over form. I didnt go with much of any of the dedicated wake brands audio gear beause either the items were not available, or not within my budget.

As far as sound quality in my experience, playing anything over about 60% of its ability starts to distort and degrade sound quality, and suck tons more juice. Also, as far as power draw, it seemed like when I played my sub at at 75% or greater, they drew like 2-3 times the power as they did at 40-50%...power draw didnt seem linear to me. So I knew I had to go big.

So I wanted a huge SQ sub that sounded great, I could play at low volumes, would absolutely crush the lows, fit well under the dash, last for years, and work well with my charging system.

As far as crushing the lows.... in addition to having to overcome all the loss of playing a sub in an open cockpit, in my experience, very few boats have sub setups that crush and hold the lows well.... they are usually very very weak. Mid and upper bass is strong and punchy as expected in smaller boxes, but the lows suffer.... bigtime. Especially when outside the boat, say 15-20 ft away in party cove / beach scenario.

So I went with this sub:

Re Audio 15" XXX 2000wts RMS (54mm of Xmax !!). 85lbs!! 14" tall mounting depth.

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Re XXX Came very very highly rated in all audio forums. Capable of SPL level numbers but also considered a SQ sub, often used in high end home theater systems.

I powered it with this, RE Audio XTX-5000.1 (XTX5000.1), cheap, $300, bench tested 2450 TRUE watts at 14.4V at 1ohm. 2000-2100wts at 12.4V (avg while floating). Greg at US Amps have proven data on these numbers. RE Audio XTX-5000.1

I went to Tim White at Scream Marine in Dallas for the box build. They do some wild stuff there.... and I just gave him general guidance: create a sturdy durable 10-15 year product, tuned LOW, with as flat a freq response as possible, without going over the top with the install.... and then let him run with it giving him and his guys artistic freedom.... and man they did a great job.

3.9 cf 3/4" birch tuned at 32-33hz. And yes exactly 3.9cf, they check the displacement using peanuts in the sub box, then pouring the peanuts back into containers of known volumes. Covered with Rhino Liner. The face plate is double thick, 1.5" to hold an 85lb sub... also they braced the sub off the bottom of the box you can see in the one pic so the leverage of an 85lb sub would be transferred off the face plate more evenly slamming across wakes etc etc..

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The sound response it amazing. I had pretty high expectations going in, hearing this in action on the water yesterday completely exceeded anything I thought possible. Extremely deep, endless, smooth but punchy musical bass. Absolutely crushes and holds the lows unlike anything I have heard in an open cockpit boat. Excursion Xmax on the sub is crazy. Reminds me of a pro level car install that has been completely matted with dynamat. 20-30% volume is my new party cove level with this. Bass carries clear for 40-60ft easy. Sounds better in the water than on the trailer for some reason, bass reflex off the water perhaps, I dont know.

Also, had my windows tinted... was initially reluctant because I was worried it would be faddish....very glad I did, went with a medium tint, and would pass on not to hesitate if you are considering it, I love it.

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Nice looking setup, what did you do for the cabins and tower?

Cabins are still the Fosgate 8" and 6.5" coaxs on the P400-4. Definitly need a new amp here.

Tower is Rev10s on the T600-4 bridged x2 getting 325-350wts per can.

I wanted to use the new Exile Line Driver instead of the WS EQ but, it wasnt available yet. I had to get all the EQ wiring done before that box went in.

I have a brand new/2 week used WS EQ for sale $200.

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