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Cabin speakers to tower speakers


Rockyman101

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Just went from an 04 wakesetter to an 08. My old boat I could adjust the speakers from the cabin only to towers only by using the fader but now I can't figure out how to do it. It's either the rear speakers or the bow speakers. Is it even possible to go tower only? I have 8 cabin speakers and 4 tower speakers.

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Without being in front of the system, or having some pictures, it's a bit difficult to guide you on what cable goes where but here is the logic you want to follow: front output from the head unit goes to amp wired to the speakers in the boat, rear output from the head unit goes to the amp wired to the tower speakers; leave the sub alone. I've seen a lot of different wiring referred to as "stock" and most of it's been different.

Your best bet is to find a song or album you like, grab a roll of tape (masking, painters tape, etc; removable, but you can write on it) and label where everything is and/or take a picture with the cables labeled. Leave the speaker cables connected, and remove all the RCA inputs. Connect the RCA cables one at a time and figure out both what input goes to what speaker and what input has what signal on it. You'll need to adjust the fader (front vs. back) and balance (left vs. right) to figure out what signal is on each cable. Sometimes the amps are "daisy chained" together and this can cause problems when trying to control the fade of boat (front) vs. tower (rear).

A simple method of testing what amp and input goes to what speaker is to get a "headphone jack to stereo RCA" cable and go directly from an MP3 player to each amp input.

Take your time and realize that you might need another RCA patch cable or some "Y" connectors to get all the signal to the correct places. The end result is worth it!

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Just note, the kicker "Bass Level" works only with Kicker amps and only as a sub level controller when the amp is in low-pass.

What the OP would actually want is the Kicker ZXM-RLC universal marine dual zone volume controller. Its also line driver, so its better then a simple line level POT that might require long RCA cables.

As long as A) all speakers are driven by external amps and B) the head-unit has at least one set of RCA outputs, what the OP wants to do is doable.

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