Speaker Help!

There should be plenty of room to install speakers on your elbow panels (I think that's the right name). Your going to have to remove the panels to make the cut-outs, and you'll also have to remove some foam. I'm going to install 2 fwd speakers this way.   I'm also putting in 2 rear box speakers but I haven't decided how I'm going to mount them yet.

I would only use 4 ohm speakers if the head unit and/or amp (if used) is stable enough to handle the 4 ohm rating. Most head units require 8 ohm speakers and most newer amps are stable down to 2 ohms but double check the owners manual first to be sure you don't burn it up.

I actually use home indoor/outdoor speakers and mounted the brackets to the self/ledge on the sides so I didn't have to cut holes into anything. I also remove them when I'm not out boating but I leave mine in the water the whole season and don't want to get ripped off.

I'll have to borrow a digital camera and take some I need other pictures so that I can add my boat to the diaries.

I once had a stereo designed to power 8 ohm speakers. I installed 4 ohm speakers (I was a kid with few resources) and the stereo was loud but sounded like crud. I inserted a 4 ohm carbon resistor in series in each speaker circuit and the stereo then sounded fantastic.

More info than you want to know:
The ohm value assigned to speakers is slightly arbitrary and left to the manufacturer. The ohm value is an impedance rating at an input frequency left to be defined by the individual speaker manufacturer. Impedence, like resistance, is measured in ohms. Impedence, like resistance, limits the flow of current through a circuit. The impedence of a speaker is directly proportional to the input frequency of the signal. At high frequencies the impedence is much higher than it's rated value. At low frequencies the impedence is lower than it's rated value. (This is why in order for a device to supply good sounding bass a lot of power is required at low frequencies.) The impedence curve over the frequency range will vary in shape depending on the speaker design (and quality). While two different makes of speakers may both carry a "4 ohm" rating, the shape of the impedence curve of one speaker may be very narrow with a high peak while the shape of the impedence curve of the other speaker may be very wide and flat yet both speakers may carry the same ohm rating. There really is a difference in the quality and design of speakers.

If you really get into it, you can actually plot the impedence curve of a speaker with an inexpensive audio signal generator, an amplifier, and a good milliamp meter. The objective is to find a speaker with as flat of a curve as possible.

A large portion of the cost of a good sounding speaker can be attributed to research and design. With some makes a large portion of the cost can be attributed to marketing and advertising.

While this is not about boats, I just couldn't help myself. Maybe someone, like myself, will find it interesting. I wish I new as much about boats.

Hey Tim, I appreciate your sentiments but go easy on us old folks. My first amp used El84 vacuum tubes. It could drive speakers rated for 4 to 16 ohms. I used to have to wait for the tubes in my car radio to warm up. I remember when TV got popular and Houston got it's first TV station, KPRC, channel 2. They broadcasted about 4 hours each day except Sunday.

Why do you think I like old boats?

.. and I am not old. Not really.

I bought my first amp in 1959. ...or maybe it was '58.

Now that you mention it I do remember when FM multiplexers hit the market and one could get then stereo from a radio.

...and I am not old, I just woke up to find myself surrounded by kids.

If you're lucky you'll be old some day too.

A lot of my friends were playing mono amps, I went stereo from the getgo - forward thinking I guess.

Thanks for the info on age, Ohms, and vacuum tubes. But that was really not my question. Where can I put 4 speakers in an '82 Ski Nautique????? How about cutting into the fiberglass part of the hull that is inside the boat that comes down, you know by the stainless interior rail?

79Nautique, I'm not a Bose fan either, the 151's are the only Bose I own. My brother-inlaw thinks they are the greatest brand ever. My very first car amp was in 1979, but it was really a power booster, not a true amp.

I really do not know the "2001's" very well, but the speakers in my '93SN are cut into the coming (sp) pads (i.e. cut into the inner dropped portion of fiberglass gunnel. By the time the speakers are mounted through the coming pads, they really do not take up much room within the gunnel area.

I know my friend's '86 "2001" has four speakers, but I cannot remember for sure where they are mounted. I probably will not see his boat until June sometime...maybe I will call him.

I wouldn't touch the fiberglass on my CC. The Lord givith and the Lord taketh away, but wholes last forever. Wear headphones. Get a long cord for the "pullee".

David, I have a 1/2" diameter hole surrounded by 3 small screw holes on the deck just in the front and side of the windsheild where the previous owner mounted a spotlight (if you can imagine). How to I make those holes disappear? (This sounds like a perfect project while I wait on my trans to get rebuilt.)

Maybe this should be a new thread. (BlueChip has already had to read about age, Ohms, and vacuum tubes).

Like most of us, he probably works for a living.

The one old boy with the six or eight speakers on the side is a bit much. But also on all of them there is one common problem. They are not mounted in sealed areas and you get all of the bad sound form the rear, if they enclosed the speaker they would sound a lot better. I like the one guys that added the vertical piece of wood to mount and then covered in matching carpet, now if you could just add some sides to them and tied it to the side of the haul it would sound a lot better.