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Houseboat Set-up


Elemetbldrs

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Hey guys, looks like the posters here are pretty well rounded  in marine audio, especially the unique mobile audio zone control options. 
For our home base we have a 15’x56’ houseboat on Lake Shasta. Every kind of lake boat, jet, wake/surf, all the fun stuff. 
our boat currently has a simple Kenwood head unit to a 6 channel selector, to 5 separate zones, 2 speakers each. Bow, main salon, rear interior, aft deck, and penthouse. Speakers are all low grade though I just upgraded Main Salon speakers to some JL 6x9 as they seemed to be the brand I’ve been leaning to build on. All unamplified other than head unit. Besides Main Salon, all 6.5 coaxial for now. 

So with that, anyone want to take a stab at recommending a system build? I think I’d like some JL 7.7’s on the aft deck to help add some outside bass and throw. I’d want to retain the salon 6x9, and of course biggest item is maintaining the zone control. 
I’ve considered some tower speakers off the back 2nd story to give some better sound as we spend a lot of time floating on the water, but I guess that would be another zone to manage.  
The WS220 looks promising, but would really like to see what input you guys might have. 
Not budget minded, rather get what I want. 
Thanks!!

Edited by Elemetbldrs
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Begin by taking a good look at your DC supply. Some houseboats have very constrained, limited-role, DC systems. Once you get that part sorted out, the rest should easily fall into place.

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I have a 7kw generator, 2400 watt inverter/converter, a total of 840 amp/hr battery bank, and 100watt solar maintainer panel, with immediate plans to go to 900 watts. 
I think my DC reserves are pretty good, most everything is LED or the heavy loads are used when gender is on. 

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Okay, so if your supply is good, it shouldn't be too complicated. The WS220 sounds automatic. You can expand its zones with Wetsounds RCA line-level controllers. It would be great to have a pair of amplifier channels dedicated to each zone. Perhaps starting with a JL Audio 8-channel amplifier with another amplifier chassis as needed. You could even utilize the Kenwood HU internal power and fader to drive and control an interior zone. If external speakers need to project over distance that's going to require inordinate power as compared to flooding near-field areas. And that can often be accomplished by bridging four modest channels into two, staying with multi-channels amplifiers, and fewer amplifier chassis. Depending on the existing supply scheme, you might need a new run of substantial power supply cables, the gauge of cable determined by the max amperage draw times the distance of the run. You might also have to assess existing speaker wires based on higher power levels and the distance of those runs. The rest is mostly speaker fitment.     

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Thanks David, never considered bridging the channels for extra power for specific zones. 
I’ll also look into the line-level controller as well. 
Sounds like the WS220 is on the mark. 

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