Best bang for the buck stereo build

[Joeycm]

I just purchased a 2012 247 LSV. The stereo has not been touched since 2012. It still had the warranty stickers on the amps. What i have is 4 Rockford fosgate 8 In speakers in the Main cabin area and 4 6in speakers 2 in the mid cabin and 2 upfront in the bow. I have a RF punch p400-4 and a p500-2. The P500-2 is not even hooked to anything its wired for a sub and the wire is under the dash area but I do not have a sub there. what would you recommend for the best bang for the buck and work with as much as I already have in place. I would like to add tower speakers. I was looking at a pair of REV10 or I was also thinking to add 4 Rf m282 tower speakers to match the RF speakers I already have. I know it will not project as far and be as loud, but I do not want it to sound harsh. From what i hear a lot of people say the REVs 10s are alot better then the old HLCD speakers, but still not has crisp as a coaxial. Also I like to Jam out ridding around in the boat, and dont want the Rev10s to overpower the cabin speakers. I Also I think it would save me some money and time in buying more amps, and think I could get that to work with the system I already have. Not sure on your opinions but do not think I need a Sub or should I really consider adding one? Would a box be difficult to build? I could not find any prefab boxes for purchase that would fit.  

[MLA]

1 hour ago, Joeycm said:

Also I like to Jam out ridding around in the boat, and dont want the Rev10s to overpower the cabin speakers.

Zone control will help with this, however, the entire in-boat system is way under powered on the 400.4. A bump in wattage will help the 2 pair of 8" perform to their potential

1 hour ago, Joeycm said:

Not sure on your opinions but do not think I need a Sub or should I really consider adding one?

Strongly suggest a woofer.

1 hour ago, Joeycm said:

I was looking at a pair of REV10 or I was also thinking to add 4 Rf m282 tower speakers to match the RF speakers I already have.

You should try and get a demo of the rev-10 for yourself. Yes, they are an HLCD, but the larger 10" mid-bass really does balance out the compression driver. The single pair of Rev-10 will play deeper than the 2 pair of 8" coaxial. If wake range projection it not your primary focus, neither is a bad choice.  

[Joeycm]

19 minutes ago, MLA said:

the entire in-boat system is way under powered on the 400.4. A bump in wattage will help the 2 pair of 8" perform to their potential

 

what amp would you recommend that would be easy to put in there to give those speakers more juice. I think the 6" front speakers are running off the head unit which looks like it is putting out 50 rms per speaker. the Specs say the 6in RF speaker is good for 75RMS. Should i put them on another amp? 

[MLA]

15 minutes ago, Joeycm said:

what amp would you recommend that would be easy to put in there to give those speakers more juice. I think the 6" front speakers are running off the head unit which looks like it is putting out 50 rms per speaker. the Specs say the 6in RF speaker is good for 75RMS. Should i put them on another amp? 

If the four M262 are on the headunit, it would be about 15W rms. The 400.4 delivers 50W rms and Bu typically wires them all to the amp. 

A 100W rms to the 8" is a good target. Lots of options. You could take them off the 400.4 and re-purpose the 500.2 to the four main cabin 8" and leave the 400.4 to just drive the four 6.5". The most ideal, would be an amp like the Wet Sounds Syn-DX6. it would deliver 100W rms to each of the four 6.5" and up to 150W rms for the four 8". Single amp, tons of power. 

A 2nd Syn-DX6 would drive your Rev-10's @ 400W rms to each and a woofer @ 600W rms. 

[Joeycm]

Could I power the pair of rev10s with my Rockford p500-2 if I ran it bridged and paralleled the speakers? 

[MLA]

The punch 500.2 is not 1 ohm stable, so you could not bridge two 4 ohm speakers in parallel. Series yes, but they is not wattage advantage compare to 4 ohm stereo. 

However, you certainly can drive the rev-10 with that amp. With they sound good? Sure, will they still deliver more mid-bass and deeper mid-bass than a smaller speaker with the same amp? Sure. Its just that 150W rms is no where near driving the Rev-10 to its potential. So, short term until the budget allows for a higher output amp, Go for it.