This topic shows the sound system I added to my 2000 38' Searay Sundancer. IMO the system sounds great! It has a nice sound and plenty of volume available. Part of that system is the Sony Xplōd XM-GTR2202 1,400W amplifier. I use that to drive the main cockpit speakers. There are many advantages that exist on a boat not present on a car. My boat has three group 31 batteries powering the bank with the sound system. I have two more 31s that I can connect-in, if required. There is also a sixth 31 that only exists to fire-up the generator. The gen will then power a 50A DC battery charger to replenish my flooded cell batteries. Power is not an issue. Space is also not an issue. I have my amp mounted in a large rough-finish cavity. It is 8' long 2' wide and 2' tall, so there is plenty of room and cooling air. The power distribution on my boat is very cool. My boat doesn't use those rotating switches to turn the batteries on and off. My boat has contactors (relays) that enable or kill the battery banks, from either the engine room or the salon power panels. My boat also uses beefy 2/0 battery power cables for distribution, so I don't need to go back to the battery for feed. The only power thing I encountered was that I already consumed all the unused starboard DC breaker locations from previous upgrades. I wanted / needed the two amplifiers to be powered from the same bank as the rest of the audio so I put these breakers on the port side but wired them to the starboard side. The other power thing I encountered was that the Owner's Manual recommended an 80A fuse. The largest matching breaker available is 50A, so I used that instead. The lower trip current has been fine. This has not tripped yet and I don't expect to go any louder. Everything else is installed per specifications. The only thing I've noticed is that the amp gets hot as the sun when running stereo 2 ohm load at unreasonably loud volumes for extended duration. I'm thinking about adding a thermostat and fan to aid in the cooling. My other two amps get warm, this gets thermonuclear. Wiring Diagram Amp Out-of-Box Amp w/ Labels Applied (My installation does not permit viewing the legends on the side) Built-in Amp Cooling Fan Interior of Amp w/ Base Cover Removed Amp Installed (The cables have been repositioned to not touch the amp.) Power Panel Showing Blanks for this Sony 1,400W amp and the Kicker 400W Amp Circuit Breakers Installed but not Wired Circuit Breakers Wired Main Port and Starboard Load-Side Power Lugs
These images show the copper bus bars used by the factory to segregate power provided by load-side or by line-side. These images show that the bus bar provides direct-to-battery, unswitched, line-side power to feed the System Monitor, the Sump Pump, the Forward Bilge Pump and the Blower #1. They also show that another bus bar is used to provide swtched, load-side power, from the energized contactor, to the Control Station Main (Helm Power Switches) and the Electronics (Helm Navigation and Control Electronics. My Main Port and Starboard Load-Side Power Lugs image shows my new wire that feeds the two cockpit amps from the load-side of the contactor.
The sound volume and quality on my boat has been outstanding! My conclusion is that this amplifier is the primary reason. I recommend this amplifier without hesitation! When I'm running at the maximum volume I can tolerate from the helm, 50% level on the stereo, I am projecting sound that has people on the shore dancing. I just discarded the six old flooded cell batteries and upgraded to six Lifeline GPL-31XT 125Ah AGM batteries. This battery has 25% more ampere-hour capacity than the competitive group 31 batteries.
