Dead Amplifier Replacement 2014 G25

[Cman640]

The Polk Audio D5000.5 amplifier for the cabin speaker and subwoofer recently kicked the bucket in our 2014 G25. Looking for a plug-and-play replacement for the Polk Audio system. I heard the stock speakers are woefully underpowered; something that brings out their potential would be awesome. I don't know a ton about all the different speaker specs and meanings with ohms and watts and RMS and such. If someone could point me in the right direction, that would be AWESOME.

[NautiqueJeff]

Moving this to the stereo forum.

[Cman640]

Really need some help on this, I don’t really know where to start.

[Aeasson]

JL Audio RD900/5 5-Channel Car Amplifier — 70W RMS x 4 + 500W RMS x 1

If you just wanted a straight swap, this amp has the same specs.

Whats you total speaker count on the boat? And total speakers running just on this amp? What the other amp running your towers?

[bturner]

Stereo design and installation can be somewhat of a holy war topic or "what's the best oil" kind of thing on these forums so a lot of people will kind of stand off and watch the show. Lord knows I've been flamed for giving straight forward advice recommendations but I'll kick in and try not to cry when they come to get me.....

I don't know you boat or installation so upgrade recommendations would be difficult to make without doing so. Aeasson is heading in this direction with his question in the post above. I think the first step would be to document what you currently have because as they say "you'll never get there unless you know where you are and where you want to end up", or something like that. Anyway, boats from your timeframe typically have a lot of room for improvement however it won't come without a cost and the cost of stereo gear (like everything else) has blown up.

The trend back in the day was to have a bunch of speakers in the boat but to either run them in parallel off the amp channels (not that that's all bad) or use an amp that barely hit the speaker requirements. This let the manufactures create systems that sounded good but left a lot of performance on the table. To this end, once you determine the system configuration you currently have, you can start looking at either adding a more powerful amp and possibly isolating speakers on dedicated channels. With components like woofers and tower speakers which typically have much higher power requirements, you can look at bridging channels to double the power to those devices if required.

One thing to really keep in mind when you start "upgrading" your stereo with more power is that you're dealing with a stereo system. A system as the name infers is a some of components of which yours was designed to support the power level and configuration you currently have. Upgrading to an amp with more or higher power channels is going to require changes to the power cabling and most likely fuses/breakers that supply that power. Get too crazy and you'll need to look at bigger batteries and the charging system on the boat to keep up with the monster system you installed. At that point the stereo system went from being entertainment to a costly hobby.

With a modest amp upgrade you may be able to sneak away with just the amp but it is always advised to do the research and make sure you're following the manufacture's recommendations when it comes to protection and power cabling. A lot of people quickly get sticker shock when a good shop provides an estimate for an upgrade because if they're doing it right they'll be a lot more to the upgrade than just a new amp.

As they say in the stereo business.... there are 3 aspects of stereo installations you can have.... Cheap, loud and good. The problem is you only get to pick 2 with any installation.

• Option 1 - You can have cheap and loud but it won't be good.
• Option 2 - You can have cheap and good but it won't be loud.
• Option 3 - You can have loud and good but it won't be cheap.

I think you can guess what most people choose and where most manufactures end up based on the options above. I always try to be between options 2 and 3 somewhere and try to balance that cost with performance.

[Aeasson]

Having just done a full update on a 2009/230 from its original polk gear I would reco just swapping out with an amp that has the same specs/power draw and not touching anything else. There are other options if you're not fond of JL price point. If you try anything else it will be giant rabbit hole of money, time and bad decisions especially at the start of the season. What started last fall for me as only swapping out a head unit for one with zone separation and better bluetooth, ended up with a lot more by launch this year. Gear wont fit. You'll be pulling panels off and chasing wires through the most awkward of holes. It's always 1 more thing that could be done.

This seasons updates so far are:
1 x Clarion CMM30BB with helm remote
4 x JL 770 towers on a 400/4 thats pending a swap to a 600/4
6 x JL 650s on a 600/6
1 x JL M610-IB on a 500/1
Full distro upgrade with a BlueSeas ACR and house battery and a Scanstrut Atmos inflator