Just finished my stereo/wiring install - pictures inside

[Nitrousbird]

I finally completed this dang project.

The stereo equipment:

- Alpine iDA-X100M head unit

- Alpine PXA-H100 Imprint sound processor

- Alpine KCA-SC100 Sirius Tuner

- Sirius SCVDOC1 portable tuner dock

- Alpine MC10 transom remote + additional MC1 remote

- Alpine RUE-M1RF floating remote

- Polk D4000.4 amp running @ 125x4 RMS (feeding tower speakers)

- Polk D5000.5 amp running @ 90x4 RMS for inboats / 400x1 RMS for sub

- Polk MM651 in-boats (2 pair)

- Exile SXT65Q tower speakers (2 pair)

- Exile SX12D subwoofer

The other stuff to make the above work:
- Two Deka group 34m batteries

- Blue Sea Add-A-Battery kit

- Cabela's labled ProMariner ProSport 20 on-board charger (dual battery 20 amp model)

- Blu-Sea ground buss bar

- Stinger power distribution block

- Ported sub box, Rhino lined

- Amp rack I made out of 1/2" King Starboard

- 2/0 wire feeding from motor to power distribution and from batteries to power distro.

- All speaker wire ran in 12awg wire

- All new power wiring for anything that touches audio

- Metra under-dash kit for head unit

The system sounds really good, though I've only heard it in my garage at this point. Clean/crisp, good mid-bass...I'm happy with it. Still have plenty of tuning to do, plus I need to buy the microphone and software for the Imprint box so I can see how well it can really tune. I will say for anyone with an Alpine head unit the Imprint box is a must to get decent EQ controls even if you don't want the software tuning for it. Stereo stuff is powered by one battery and the rest of the boat on the other so no worries of a dead battery on the water.

Here are the batteries; both fit under the observer seat. I set this up so the positive terminals are inaccessible and also have battery terminal covers. It is secured with a hold down strap and two battery cleats. Don't mind the ballast hose - that is being relocated on my next project:

Amp rack with amps and power goodies.

Head unit relocation. As you can see I also relocated the heater tub further out to clear the box and be in a more useful spot.

It took a bunch of work, but I was able to get my Sirius dock and portable tuner to fit under the armrest where the head unit was once located. I also have additional space to add more switches if needed. It barely fits.

My sub. No speaker grill yet - they are going to be offering it at the end of the month for this sub and will be sending me one free.

Polk MM651 on the dash. Fits nicely.

Tower speakers (picture is from last year)

Everything together on the dash

Next project - RGB LED's everywhere.

[shawndoggy]

Looks great! Have you used that phone mount much? I've got one in a similar spot on my boat and it's perfect for DJ'ing, but my phone is almost guaranteed to overheat there.

[my malibu]

nicely done. I remember last year I thought I would never complete mine. Took over 3 weeks.

I would place the batteries in plastic battery boxes just in case.

I have a couple for free plus shipping

[Nitrousbird]

Looks great! Have you used that phone mount much? I've got one in a similar spot on my boat and it's perfect for DJ'ing, but my phone is almost guaranteed to overheat there.

I used it all last year with zero issues, even on the hottest days of the summer. I just had an old 3GS phone in a case at the time - we'll see how the iPhone 5 does.

nicely done. I remember last year I thought I would never complete mine. Took over 3 weeks.

I would place the batteries in plastic battery boxes just in case.

I have a couple for free plus shipping

No chance in hell they will fit in a battery box under there. There isn't even an inch to spare. They are AGM batteries so I'm not worried. I wouldn't have installed them that way if they were flooded batteries.

[Nitrousbird]

I forgot to post pictures of my remote.

In-boat remote I just did (cord hanging down is the plug for the on-board charger):

Transom remote (pic from last year):

[mnhays]

sick project, did your stock battery cables run all the way to the mid locker or did you install new ones? I noticed mine were corded up essentially, but I wasn't sure if they would reach all the way up there.

[Nitrousbird]

sick project, did your stock battery cables run all the way to the mid locker or did you install new ones? I noticed mine were corded up essentially, but I wasn't sure if they would reach all the way up there.

All new. Stock cables were only a few feet long and 2awg; all new runs of 2/0 wire with tinned lugs.

[Rmattajr]

where did you ground all this too?

[Nitrousbird]

where did you ground all this too?

Everything is grounded to the buss bar on the amp rack. 2/0 goes back to the factory grounding point on the motor.

[wheelman]

Nice clean install, great job. Looks like your 2 batteries are ran in parallel? negative terminals look linked together in pic. How do you seperate the stereo from the other one.

[FastFreddy]

Nice clean install, great job. Looks like your 2 batteries are ran in parallel? negative terminals look linked together in pic. How do you seperate the stereo from the other one.

I hope his batteries are in parallel. In series the batteries would put out 24 volts!

[jaciche]

I hope his batteries are in parallel. In series the batteries would put out 24 volts!

I wonder if any people have ever blown out their stereo components by wiring the batteries in series.

[liljohn]

looks good! I'd be willing to bet it took you a fair amount of time to pull off such a clean install. Well worth the effort from what I see. Although I think you should have gone with a different sub... J/K.

[wheelman]

I hope his batteries are in parallel. In series the batteries would put out 24 volts!

Yes batteries can't be in series, yes 24 volts be very bad. Was enquiring that it looks like those two batteries are in parallel and not ran seperately to switch or acr so curious how those two batteries run seperately so he always has a charged battery to start. Assuming his acr splits them?

[shawndoggy]

Batteries are generally grounded (-) together and "split" via the ACR on the positive (+) side of the circuit.

[Nitrousbird]

Nice clean install, great job. Looks like your 2 batteries are ran in parallel? negative terminals look linked together in pic. How do you seperate the stereo from the other one.

The batteries are NOT in parallel or series. Grounds are common throughout (since I overkilled the battery wiring with 2/0, I just fed one ground into the other vs running two ground wires to the bus bar). Each battery goes to a different terminal on the battery switch, so they are separate.

Thanks for saying it is a clean install...I see all the things I "could" have done differently though. For starters I would have crammed less into the battery switch and ran the ground wiring a bit differently for a cleaner look. Some of it I can still go back and fancy up a bit (I already make the wires feeding from the bow look better than what is pictured). I considered carpeting as well but decided I liked the look of the King Starboard.

[martinarcher]

The batteries are NOT in parallel or series. Grounds are common throughout (since I overkilled the battery wiring with 2/0, I just fed one ground into the other vs running two ground wires to the bus bar). Each battery goes to a different terminal on the battery switch, so they are separate.

Thanks for saying it is a clean install...I see all the things I "could" have done differently though. For starters I would have crammed less into the battery switch and ran the ground wiring a bit differently for a cleaner look. Some of it I can still go back and fancy up a bit (I already make the wires feeding from the bow look better than what is pictured). I considered carpeting as well but decided I liked the look of the King Starboard.

I don't care who you are or how long you take on an install....you always see stuff like that when you are done if you truly care

Nice work...it does look clean and well thought out.

[shawndoggy]

yeah I was looking at how you ran the wires to the switch through the rack. it's not easy to get those nuts on the switch tight with those fat wires and big lugs, let alone having the wires run through a maze getting there, while you are inside the torture chamber, errrrr observer's compartment. Everything you do in that little box takes 3x longer than you think it should.

[Nitrousbird]

yeah I was looking at how you ran the wires to the switch through the rack. it's not easy to get those nuts on the switch tight with those fat wires and big lugs, let alone having the wires run through a maze getting there, while you are inside the torture chamber, errrrr observer's compartment. Everything you do in that little box takes 3x longer than you think it should.

I put everything I could on the amp rack prior to putting it into the compartment (as much wiring as possible and all components). But yes, it sucked in there...I'm 6'3", 205lbs so I'm not exactly a small dude in there either. I'm just glad it wasn't in the summer where it would be a hot box in that damn compartment!

[mcdye]

That is a very clean good looking install. Did you get a premade sub box or make it your self?

[Nitrousbird]

That is a very clean good looking install. Did you get a premade sub box or make it your self?

Pre-made. I got it for a steal and it seems pretty well made. I'll see how it works out after everything is tuned to my liking; if I don't like it I can flip it and break even.

[Rmattajr]

Everything is grounded to the buss bar on the amp rack. 2/0 goes back to the factory grounding point on the motor.

Where is the factory ground located on the motor. I have some feedback and clicking noise was wondering if i take the grounds off the battery if that may help.

[Nitrousbird]

Where is the factory ground located on the motor. I have some feedback and clicking noise was wondering if i take the grounds off the battery if that may help.

It is located towards the back of the block a little above where the starter is located. At least on my boat...since you have a DD and probably don't have the LS1 motor it could be in a totally different spot.

[wakedncsu]

I finally completed this dang project.

The stereo equipment:

- Alpine iDA-X100M head unit

- Alpine PXA-H100 Imprint sound processor

- Alpine KCA-SC100 Sirius Tuner

- Sirius SCVDOC1 portable tuner dock

- Alpine MC10 transom remote + additional MC1 remote

- Alpine RUE-M1RF floating remote

- Polk D4000.4 amp running @ 125x4 RMS (feeding tower speakers)

- Polk D5000.5 amp running @ 90x4 RMS for inboats / 400x1 RMS for sub

- Polk MM651 in-boats (2 pair)

- Exile SXT65Q tower speakers (2 pair)

- Exile SX12D subwoofer

The other stuff to make the above work:

- Two Deka group 34m batteries

- Blue Sea Add-A-Battery kit

- Cabela's labled ProMariner ProSport 20 on-board charger (dual battery 20 amp model)

- Blu-Sea ground buss bar

- Stinger power distribution block

- Ported sub box, Rhino lined

- Amp rack I made out of 1/2" King Starboard

- 2/0 wire feeding from motor to power distribution and from batteries to power distro.

- All speaker wire ran in 12awg wire

- All new power wiring for anything that touches audio

- Metra under-dash kit for head unit

The system sounds really good, though I've only heard it in my garage at this point. Clean/crisp, good mid-bass...I'm happy with it. Still have plenty of tuning to do, plus I need to buy the microphone and software for the Imprint box so I can see how well it can really tune. I will say for anyone with an Alpine head unit the Imprint box is a must to get decent EQ controls even if you don't want the software tuning for it. Stereo stuff is powered by one battery and the rest of the boat on the other so no worries of a dead battery on the water.

Here are the batteries; both fit under the observer seat. I set this up so the positive terminals are inaccessible and also have battery terminal covers. It is secured with a hold down strap and two battery cleats. Don't mind the ballast hose - that is being relocated on my next project:

Amp rack with amps and power goodies.

Head unit relocation. As you can see I also relocated the heater tub further out to clear the box and be in a more useful spot.

It took a bunch of work, but I was able to get my Sirius dock and portable tuner to fit under the armrest where the head unit was once located. I also have additional space to add more switches if needed. It barely fits.

My sub. No speaker grill yet - they are going to be offering it at the end of the month for this sub and will be sending me one free.

Polk MM651 on the dash. Fits nicely.

Tower speakers (picture is from last year)

Everything together on the dash

Next project - RGB LED's everywhere.

Nitrous

I'm looking at moving my head unit this weekend. I'm curious how you mounted yours. Did you just put some screws through the one side and the one in the middle? Howell doesn't hold up in rough water?

[Nitrousbird]

Nitrous

I'm looking at moving my head unit this weekend. I'm curious how you mounted yours. Did you just put some screws through the one side and the one in the middle? Howell doesn't hold up in rough water?

Two screws on the port side of the mount (inside the mount). The one on the top front is just there to keep it flush with the dash. On the outer starboard side where the mounting holes are located it is zip tied to the steering rack.

The mount is super solid and doesn't move a bit, even in the chop.