Replace Stereo/headunit or update entire system

06Rinker270

Stereo now is playing and cabin speakers inside work good.  Cockpit speakers sound is very very muffled to the point you know it's there but can't make out anything.  Yes I have faded and balanced.  Any ideas?

Wildboating

jme097 said:

I wouldn't waste time with a NMEA 2K head unit. Better places to spend that kind of money, just my own opinion. How many places do you need to know your coordinates? Your GPS, radio etc

JME,  NMEA2000 connectivity in this application is not for collecting gps data, rather the gps collecting radio data.  I use my GPS as my radio controller at the dash.

MarkB

06Rinker270 said:

Stereo now is playing and cabin speakers inside work good.  Cockpit speakers sound is very very muffled to the point you know it's there but can't make out anything.  Yes I have faded and balanced.  Any ideas?

Are your tweeters working? Sounds like you lost treble for some reason. 

Handymans342

Bad amp

06Rinker270

Mark I don't know how to check if they are.  Mind explaining?

If the amp is bad then why the working speakers in the cabin?

Handymans342

Because the speakers for the cockpit come right off the head unit not the amp. At least thats how it is on my boat

06Rinker270

So then in my situation, iff my set up is similar to yours handy, if the cockpit speakers are not working that means the head unit is bad. Correct?

Handymans342

No, the Amp is bad 270. Have you pulled the amp out? Is it original? There are some fuses on it. 
Oh, sorry, i meant cabin in my previous post. Sorry to confuse you. 

06Rinker270

Ah gotcha, no problem thanks.  Yes the amp is the original.  I will pull amp out and check.  Maybe try new fuses before a new amp?

Handymans342

If the fuses are blown, change. 

Handymans342

Are the speakers in the cockpit good???

diggin2day1

On my fv270 the speakers in the cockpit are powered by the amplifier and the cabin is powered via the radio.... Is it possible that the amplifier is switched to LOW-PASS or LPF (basically a switch on the amplifier would allow only low frequency to pass through.... For subwoofers).... What model amplifier is it? 

Handymans342

True, on my new amp I had to properly set some dip switches. Also, I had 2 speakers dry rotted. 

jme097

@dropout what is the model number of your headunit? I put a new Kenwood in my 280 last summer. Just curious if those remotes are compatible with mine. Thanks in advance!

06Rinker270

Good info guys, I'll look into this situation this weekend.  ill get the model number.  Guessing whatever Clarion model came with the boat in 2006

jme097

@JBam67 just looked up that Fusion head unit and holy **** hahaha. Looks like a quality unit though

JBam67

I know it was a little hard to justify that one
 Lol
But with not having to buy 2 external Dvd players for each tv. So I figured I was getting the best bang for the buck

jme097

Oh thats kind nice. Everything runs through the head unit. 

@JBam67  You're in Algonac??? Where do you keep at? I live in Shelby right now and keep at Sassy's for now until I buy a place on the bay

JBam67

We are at the Algonac Harbor Club. Been there 5 seasons my family and I love it. I know Carl over there at Sassy, best Gas prices around!

jme097

Hahaha that is about the only good thing about Sassy's. Great gas prices and cheap wells. Good fit for my and my crew haha. 

JBam67

Do you come over to the Harbor club?

Wildboating

Rinker270,  when you say that you are not getting anything out of the speakers can you confirm your amp is turning on?  The back of your head unit has a remote amp turn on wire.  It is blue, the headunit sends voltage to the amp to trigger it on.  See if there are any led's lit up anywhere on the amp when radio is on.  If you have a digital multimeter set it to Ac and put it on one of the output channels, positive to positive, negative to negative. Turn head unit up, you should see Ac voltage rise with volume control. If nothing is coming out of amp you need to check the amp input rca's.  Unplug rca's and place positive on the center pin and negative to outer sheild. Crank up head unit, may need to max it but you should see the signal on you dmm set to Ac.  Fluctuating numbers is what you are looking for.  If nothing there, do the same to the back of head unit.  Keep eliminating until you find the signal or reach the head unit.  Once to the head unit you know where the problem is. 

frenchship

Wild.
Good  Infos but should the multimeter be on DC instead of AC ?
Paul 

diggin2day1

Audio signals are AC... The closer the "waveform" the higher the frequency....  The fluctuating AC signal is what pushes/pulls the speaker cone to to recreate the waveforms through the air to reproduce the sound. 

Wildboating

Diggin is correct!  Audio is AC.  DC to a speaker is bad news. 

MarkB

But he said there is sound it's just muffled. That's why I'm thinking mids and treble is cut out as if it's pushing a sub signal.

06Rinker270

Diggin you fixed it for me!  Was as simple as the amp got switched to low frequency.  All speakers are all working!  It's next to impossible to see the amp so I felt around for a switch.  Faded the speakers to cockpit only and boom I got clarity.    Now last time I added an aux cord to the RCA cables everything went crazy and stopped working so there is still another issue.  I'm going add the Bluetooth adapter and see if that works.  

That's a win for fixing before replacing.  

Although it it was such an easy issue I learned a ton about these audio systems from you guys and that is priceless to me.

If I could buy you all a drink I would.  Honestly, thank you very much.  

diggin2day1

EXCELLENT!!! Glad it worked out for you... Need music when you're out on the water. 

Funny by story relating to the AC/DC audio question earlier: I used to be an car audio installer years ago. Quite often we would get complaints from customers saying that after playing music for a while one of their speakers would cut in/out. Well 95% of the time it was caused by the voice coil inside the speaker heating up and separating causing the sound to cut out. The problem was that if we sent the speaker back to the manufacturer, they would return it to us saying that it wasn't defective(they would hook it up, hear it play and send it back... Never played it long enough to heat up). The remedy was to send the speakers back and make sure that the voice coil was blown... This is where we had fun. We had an 110v electric plug that we would connect to the speaker then momentarily plug into the wall socket.... BLAMMMMM!!!! The loudest humming noise you ever did hear came blairing from the speaker... 110v at 60hz.... Didn't matter how many times you've done it before, it always made you soil your shorts a bit. End result: blown speaker replaced by manufacturer. 

jme097

@JBam67 I have been over there a couple of times in the past few years. We'll have to meet up sometime on the water this year!

06Rinker270

So after figuring what the issue was I go to plug in the aux cord to the two RCA plugs in the back of the unit.  I wanted to give this a try before I do the Bluetooth adapter.  I am again only getting sound with cabin speakers.  Tried switching the channels and other switches and not getting anything in cockpit.  

A few odd things is I am able to play my phone/aux over the radio station, while on Tuner.  But when that happens the speakers in the cockpit are the only ones that work.  When I unplug the RCA aux cord the speakers in the cabin come back on.  There are two sets of RCA jacks but those don't do anything.  

Any ideas?  Sorry to beat this issue to death.