Adding cockpit speakers to MY2010 R-25 Classic

[baz]

We have a MY2010 R-25 Classic. It currently factory installed 4 stereo speakers; 2 in V-berth and two in cabin. I'd like to add two more speakers in the cockpit. I haven't figured out where to place the cockpit speakers at this time.

My question is... can I simply run wires from the two cabin speaker terminals back to the cockpit area and have all 6 speakers work correctly? I would assume the Fade and Balance controls would operate on the V-berth speakers and the combo cabin/cockpit speakers.

Thanks. 🙂

 

[Longbranch Louie]

The newer Fusions have two channels, one for the interior and one for the cockpit. You can adjust the volumes independently. If you don't have two channels, if you tap into your cabin speakers you wont have the luxury of playing it inside and not outside in which case I hope your neighbors like your tunes. If you don't have a separate channel with its own volume you might look into speakers that have their own volume control, or install an in line control.

 

[knotflying]

As Longbranch Louie said, you may want the cockpit speakers isolated from the interior. Not only to make your neighbors happy, but when underway you may want the cockpit speakers louder to overcome the engine db. You were not clear in your post, but it sounded like you had separate volume for the current v-berth and cabin, so you could join the v-berth and cabin as one channel and the cockpit as the other and accomplish what I just suggested.

 

[baz]

Hadn't thought about annoying neighbors with the cockpit speakers, but then I don't play music loudly... no matter your advice is well taken.

I'm not that fussed about doing this mod and was really just interested in the technical/electrical aspects of doing it.

I do like the idea of having a separate volume control for the cockpit speakers.... this is a good suggestion... thanks.

Mike: Yes my Fusion radio allows me to fade the volume between the V-berth and Cabin speakers. Thus I can reduce volume in the V-berth to zero while having sufficient volume in the Cabin. This works well for me when 1st Mate is resting in the V-berth when underway while I listen to a Podcast or music via my iPod that is connected to the Fusion radio's Aux input.

BTW -- I'm quite impressed with the Fusion's playback of CDs through the stock speakers... much better than I expected.

 

[knotflying]

Well you can always connect the cabin and v-berth speaker and put a cut off switch to the v-berth and have the cockpit on it's own channel as I had suggested. Or earplugs for the first mate.

 

[JamesTXSD]

I'm not familiar with the Fusion, but depending on the output to the speakers, adding two more speakers to a channel may degrade the signal to all 4 speakers. Check your owners manual to see what it says.

 

[daviduphoff]

If you want to add speakers in the cockpit you could always add a small amp and use it just for the cockpit speakers. I'm sure your radio has pre amp outputs. Unfortunately you would have no volume control for just it unless you added a separate volume control as it would be linked to either the v berth or cabin speakers. The amp would turn on when the stereo was turned on as most stereos have a trigger wire to turn on amps. On our 21 the stereo is only on a 3 amp fuse at the fuse block but the wire is sized so that a larger fuse could be added. My guess is your boat is wired the same. You could use the same circuit as the stereo for the amp if you changed it to a larger fuse. Ask Ranger about the wire size if you are unsure.

A speaker level volume control between the amp and the cockpit speakers would be easy to add. There are many made by such companies as Niles, Russound. Some you could mount by simply drilling a small hole near the stereo.

We once had a larger boat with six zone speaker controller. It worked great. You could have the cockpit and flybridge speakers louder than the interior speakers while underway. You could also just turn a zone off if someone wanted to sleep. There was an A/B switch on the flybridge for the speakers up there as thew was also stereo on the flybridge.