Because boats are designed to seat passengers above the vehicle, the "front stage, rear fill" rules of autosound do not apply, making the installation of this bad-to-the-bone system even more formidable.

For most installers, upgrading a factory sound system in a vehicle isn't too difficult. But when that vehicle is a Commander Apollo speedboat, then the project becomes more challenging. So when Kurt Keener brought in his purple and white speedboat-aptly named Bad to the Bone -to the Woodland Hills, Calif.-based Sounds Good Stereo & Security, owner Isaac Goren and head installer Jerry Meister were ready for the installation challenge.
With the assistance of fellow installers Brian Hanes and Nelson Saghatian, Meister spent the next four days giving Bad to the Bone a sound system to match its name.

Marine Systems Require Different Considerations than Car Systems

As a general manager of an automotive dealer, Keener was very familiar with high-end audio systems and already had a basic sound system in the boat. The system consisted of four 6x9s, a radio, a CD changer, and equalizer and a small amplifier. Goren, however, explained that it would require changing the boat's entire set up. According to Goren, the general rule of thumb for autosound may not always apply in a marine environment. "For instance, in car audio, the idea is to get front stage and rear fill," Goren explains. "In speedboats, the idea is to get clear center stage, so wherever you're sitting in the boat, the music is going to sound like it's coming from all around." The reasoning for that, he adds, is that when passengers are in a sitting position, they're actually sitting above the boat, and their ears are much higher than any of the components. "One of the challenges of marine audio is to make sure that you can still hear the highs from a sitting position so that you don't have to lean down or bend down in order to hear them," adds Goren. In addition to getting the center stage sound, other concerns include making sure the equipment doesn't add too much weight to the boat, installing the equipment in locations not likely to get wet, maintaining a stealth appearance and providing an additional power supply dedicated to the audio system.

Sound System Components Installed in the Hull

The install maintained the original head unit and CD changer, both by Pioneer, although the original amplifier was replaced with the Rockford DSM 4080 four-channel amp, which powers the midbass drivers and tweeters, and the Rockford DSM-100 two-channel amplifier, which powers the four subwoofers.

To make the system as convenient to use as possible, Meister mounted the CD changer and he radio in the hull area, setting it up so the boat's owner can control the tuner, the changer or the tape deck with a wireless remote control, which is mounted near the steering wheel. Also, an antenna was hidden behind the panels, enabling the system to receive reception if the boat is near a city.

Because of the weight of the amplifiers, the installation team constructed a board to serve as the amp rack. The amplifiers were mounted on the board, and then the board was secured into the boat, making a very sturdy amp rack.
Meister then took out the original 6x9 speakers. In order to maintain the cosmetics of the boat, he created custom plates in which he mounted the Eclipse 8061 six-inch midbass and tweeter combination, designed to eliminate the need for cutting new speaker openings.
With the addition of the some medium density fiberboard (MDF) panels, Meister transformed the back seat into a sealed subwoofer box. The enclosure is divided into three chambers, in which he added tow RFA-410 10-inch subwoofers from the Rockford Fosgate in addition to the two 10-inch subwoofers form Kicker that the customer already had. Even though the top of the enclosure is covered by the backseat cushion, the MDF was treated with four coats of water sealant to ensure the protection of the equipment.

Electrical System Utilizes Two Batteries

 For the electrical system, a secondary battery was placed next to the original battery in the engine compartment. The boat already had a high-output alternator, which was important because the standard 45-amp alternators that most boats have do not produce enough amperage to charge two batteries.
The wiring was arranged to so that when the boat is running, the alternator is charging both batteries. When the boat is not running, the audio system is only running off of the secondary battery and not draining any power from the main battery. The secondary battery, a Delco Voyager M27MF Marine/RV, can be charged and drained as many times as necessary, whereas a conventional battery can only be drained a few times.
Above the head unit, the installation team installed a digital meter with a three-position switch. The meter reads how much voltage is available, ensuring that the alternator is charging correctly. The meter is wired separately to both batteries through the switch. When the switch is in the up position, it reads the voltage on the main battery; in the down position, it reads the secondary battery. "That way, when Kurt is on the lake, he can see how much voltage he's got left," says Goren. "When he's at home, if he wants to charge the audio system battery without starting the boat, he can monitor if it's being charged properly and know when to turn off the charger."

Also, a manual-reset circuit breaker was installed near the audio system's auxiliary battery, which was done for several reasons, one, in case there's a major electrical short. "We ran four-gauge cable to the amplifier, power and ground, so we have to protect that cable," says Goren. Two, if the boat owner has someone else work on the boat, or store the boat, he can manually open the circuit so that no current can go into the system, preventing anyone else from using it.

And three, all radios in boats do have a very small amount of drain on the battery, so if the boat is not going to be used for two or three months, he can open the circuit, preventing any drain from the audio system's battery.
To prevent corrosion, all the screws that were used were stainless steel, and had to be special ordered from a hardware store.
So after the four-day installation, what did Keener think of the system? "He didn't expect it to be as loud and clean and have the center stage we ended up with," Goren concludes. "He was very happy with it."

  Installation News February 1996