Sound System Help - Echelon

[JDoidge92]

Hey guys!

As we all no Christmas just happened, so I decided to buy a new amp for the boat. The plan is to re-run all new speaker wire in 14AWG and amp all the speakers in the boat. So I picked up a Kicker KMA450.6 (6 channel) amp.

originally I was going to ditch the 800w Kenwood 4 channel amp I have now, but after looking at the output numbers I feel as if the new kicker amp doesn't pack enough punch for the tower speakers. cause of that im planning to keep both amp. (run the towers off the 800w amp and all the speakers in the boat off the 450w)

What your guys take on this? should I just keep it simple and run only my new 450w 6 Chanel amp, or should I go a different route all together. Im looking for loud and clean sound quality, no sub will be in my system (unfortunately) 

 

Iv got a Kenwood KMR-d7688BT head unit and have Kenwood KFC-1653MRW 6.5" speakers all round in the boat.

Iv attached a photo of what I was planning on doing to clear thing up. Note I was thinking about running 2 speakers at 2ohms (paralleling them) reason for this is these will be on the driver side farthest 2 speakers from the amp and it would be less wire to run. Thats my theory behind this.. and these will get about 75W vs 40W the amp puts out at 4ohms.

Thanks guys! and happy holidays!

 < These 2 speakers my be added in the future 

 

[MLA]

3 hours ago, JDoidge92 said:

800w ___________ 4 channel amp

This is a marketing number and really means nothing. What you need to do is compare what each amp will deliver per chnl at a given impedance. Depending on the tower speakers power handling and the amp 2 ohm bridged output, id consider running it as a 2 chnl amp for the tower pods. 

3 hours ago, JDoidge92 said:

Note I was thinking about running 2 speakers at 2ohms (paralleling them) reason for this is these will be on the driver side farthest 2 speakers from the amp and it would be less wire to run. Thats my theory behind this.. and these will get about 75W vs 40W the amp puts out at 4ohms.

If that 75W is the amp's p/chnl 2 ohm output, just note that with a pair of speakers in parallel wired to one chnl, that 75W is then divided between the 2 speakers. So 38'ish watts to each. 

Nothing at all wrong with  pair of main cabin speakers on the same side, being wired in parallel to one chnl. However, you have a 5 chnl and plan on 6 cabin speakers total in the end. make use of all 6 chnls IMO. 

[JDoidge92]

1 hour ago, MLA said:

This is a marketing number and really means nothing. What you need to do is compare what each amp will deliver per chnl at a given impedance. Depending on the tower speakers power handling and the amp 2 ohm bridged output, id consider running it as a 2 chnl amp for the tower pods. 

If that 75W is the amp's p/chnl 2 ohm output, just note that with a pair of speakers in parallel wired to one chnl, that 75W is then divided between the 2 speakers. So 38'ish watts to each. 

Nothing at all wrong with  pair of main cabin speakers on the same side, being wired in parallel to one chnl. However, you have a 5 chnl and plan on 6 cabin speakers total in the end. make use of all 6 chnls IMO. 

Thanks for the input. it's been awhile since iv worked on these sound systems. What I'm gathering from your reply is that running the tower speakers off the 4 channel amp (bridged both channels) and run the cabin speakers off the 6 channel amp would be the best bet? 

I didn't think about the reduced wattage between the paralleled speakers, I will probably just run each speaker on its own channel like I originally, originally had planned.

As for my drawing diagram, is that the best set up with what Im dealing with?