Installing Speakers

[Stephen]

Alright, I've been pricing speakers and other audio equipment and I've come up with a strategy to getting instantly better sound, while still leaving plenty of room for improvement in the future. My plan is to buy a pair of Alpine Type S Marine speakers and install them under the benches near the bow. I'll buy another pair later and install them where my current factory speakers are.

My question is this: How do I install them in the seats? We have a shop locally that will do it, but it will cost me about $75 and I don't know that I want to spend that just to have two holes cut. Is it worth it?

[Bamby]

The speakers should come with a template enclosed for the speaker cutout. Now you may need to remove the cushion on the seats your putting the speakers into. Take the template and a speaker and make sure there is enough clearance for the instillation where you'd like to locate them. Then take a sharpie and go around the template to mark cutout area. Now carefully drill a 3/8 in. hole just through just the seat-base plastic itself "not the vinyl covering". Now I've got an inexpensive handle that holds a jigsaw blade that I use for the actual cutout of the roto-mill plastic itself. After carefully cutting around the cutout area take a sharp knife and cut an X in the vinyl to mach the opening. Carefully pull out and adjust the fluffy stuffing and fold the vinyl corners into the seat bases and trial fit the speakers into the opening. May need to adjust some stuffing yet or slightly trim cut opening (circular file trims slight adjusts well) to make good fit. Wire her up and you should be ready to rock and roll.

[Stephen]

Based on my limited handyman abilities, the fact that I was confused throughout much of your post, and the fact that I really don't want to mess anything up , I'm now leaning toward getting it professionally done.

Thank you for trying to explain it to me, though.

[BassFrequency]

5 1/2" diameter hole cuter saw. make sure you have a drill that can handle it and if it binds up, watch out, the force can torque your wrist pretty good

[Stephen]

Ok. So, I just bought 4 new speakers. I decided to go ahead and get all four so I can do this all at once. I did get the Alpines, it just took me a while because I kept reading about other speakers to make sure it was the right pair.

I plan to install them myself afterall, because I've become quite the penny-pincher and don't want to pay someone else to do something I'm perfectly capable of.

I think I have it pretty well down, but I was confused by this part, Bamby:

After carefully cutting around the cutout area take a sharp knife and cut an X in the vinyl to mach the opening. Carefully pull out and adjust the fluffy stuffing and fold the vinyl corners into the seat bases and trial fit the speakers into the opening. May need to adjust some stuffing yet or slightly trim cut opening (circular file trims slight adjusts well) to make good fit.

Can you explain that part again?

[Bamby]

After carefully cutting around the cutout area take a sharp knife and cut an X in the vinyl to mach the opening. Carefully pull out and adjust the fluffy stuffing and fold the vinyl corners into the seat bases and trial fit the speakers into the opening. May need to adjust some stuffing yet or slightly trim cut opening (circular file trims slight adjusts well) to make good fit.

OK, You'll be working from the inside of the seat base while doing the cutting of the plastic base. You do "not" want to cut clear through the vinyl while cutting the base. There will be padding or stuffing between the plastic and the finished vinyl. You'll want to gently pull the stuffing out to more or less the diameter of the speaker cut out you just made. Now you need a sharp knife and cut an X in the vinyl just a smidgen smaller than the speaker cut out. Now you'll pull the four folds of vinyl back into the seat-base and trial fit the speaker for fit. If it fits and looks ok you're good to go. If the stuffing seems excessive and interfering with the fit pull a bit of it out around the perimeter and trial fit the speaker again. When you're satisfied with the fit hold the speaker firmly in place and gently tug on the four vinyl folds again to smooth out the vinyl to make everything look neat and finished. If it's now a go and ever-things good run the screws in to fasten everything in place.

Now trial fit the speaker grill if applicable for fit, sometimes if not enough stuffing is removed you can't get them on if so remove speaker and take out a bit more of it and trial fit again. Always use nuts, bolts, and lock-washers for finished fastening of your speakers. You don't want any sharp screw tips inside the seats tearing up your arms, life jackets, etc. when accessing the under seat storage areas.

[Stephen]

Ok, so if I understand correctly: The seat padding/vinyl will remove from the plastic base. I can then cut my hole, and then replace the padding/vinyl back on. From the inside, slowly remove padding to the diameter of the cutout. The ONLY cuts I make on the vinyl is a simple "X", that the speaker will push through. So, a finished product later, looking from the inside of the seat box, you'd see 4 vinyl corners on each side of the speaker.

If the speaker/grill doesn't fit comfortably, remove more padding until it does.

Sound like I've pretty well got it?


Why can't I just cut straight through the vinyl and everything from the outside? If I have a good saw that can do the trick, wouldn't it be easier? Or am I running a great risk of ripping the vinyl or something?

[Bamby]

Why can't I just cut straight through the vinyl and everything from the outside? If I have a good saw that can do the trick, wouldn't it be easier? Or am I running a great risk of ripping the vinyl or something?

Spephen,

You've got a boat that's only a few years old, you don't want to hack this up do you? Yes you would stand a good chance of ripping or tearing the vinyl. Plus the vinyl itself is subject to a lot of contraction and expansion with being subject to cold, heat, sunshine, etc. That's why you want the vinyl tucked inside behind the speakers. If you were to just cut it actual hole diameter it would be no time before the vinyl would be pulling out from behind the speaker grills and you'd be looking at a rough vinyl edges and stuffing sticking out around the edges. That's why we want to make sure it's securely in place like I'm trying to explain so that doesn't happen to you.

And please don't go loosening all the vinyl to work on it from the outside either. You stand to really tear up the upholstery trying to get it loose. And you'd also need special staples and stapler to attempt to put it all back together again. It's not as bad as it sounds really, I could probably have cut all four of them in the amount of time I've spent typing these posts, it just reads more intimating than it really is.

[Stephen]

I understand, Bamby, and thank you for taking the time to make these posts. The problem is, there is a VERY small access to where the current speakers are. Cutting two new holes doesn't seem too hard, and I should have plenty of room to work from the inside for those. But, the current speakers that are in place, that I will be cutting out to make larger holes, are tucked away in a very small little area that I would never get a saw into (I can barely even see it from the inside... I'm 6'2" and 200 lbs and I'd never be able to squeeze my way in). Thus, I'm trying to figure out a way I can make the hole larger by coming at it from the outside.

Look, I know I'm probably over thinking it, I tend to do that, but I've got no experience whatsoever doing this stuff. You're right in saying I don't want to mess anything up, which is why I'm making sure I'm 100% clear on how to do it before I get out there. Once I go out to my boat with the new speakers, I'm not going to be able to ask any more questions, so I need to be sure about the process ahead of time.


Another thing I'm curious about, is when I drill a hole to drop new speaker wire, what should I use to seal it back up? When I inspected the holes that are in place from the current speaker wire, it was sealed with some black stuff, but I didn't know what it was.

[Stephen]

Oh, and another thing. I've been researching the crud out of marine speaker wire, and found some I was just about to buy, but I stopped because I've read that it's really only necessary for salt water areas. Since I'm going to be exclusively in fresh water, do I need tinned copper wire or will regular copper wire work?

[Bamby]

The problem is, there is a VERY small access to where the current speakers are.

OK, on those two speakers, carefully remove them from the furniture. Now carefully feel and check for proper clearances for the replacement speakers. If it checks out OK now you'll carefully slide the cutout template under the vinyl and against the seat base itself. Align the edge of the template cutout against let's say the bottom of the existing cutout. Now you'll want to take the sharpie and trace the cutout onto the seat-base (of course you'll have to hold vinyl out of way to do this). Now you'll have a C shaped cutout that goes from O cut to (I'm guessing to about an inch).

It's difficult to start a O cut edge, so go up the line a bit and drill a 3/8 in. hole against the line. This is where you'll start your cut with your little jigsaw blade holding hand tool and follow and cut back around to where the holes meet at O point. Of course you'll have to hold the vinyl and any padding out of the way while making the entire cut. Now X cut the vinyl from just short of cutout towards the center and trial fit the speaker for fit. Trim if necessary, adjust any padding and install the speaker. Working around with the vinyl is a PIA but it can be done but carefully.

Another thing I'm curious about, is when I drill a hole to drop new speaker wire, what should I use to seal it back up? When I inspected the holes that are in place from the current speaker wire, it was sealed with some black stuff, but I didn't know what it was.

New speaker wire routing is actually best done from drilling up from under the deck if you're up to it. The underside takes a terrible pounding from water at times and the water can actually loosen or chaff the wire. It's best to drill real close to the backside of a deck cross-member where you can better protect the wire from the water behind it. You may even want to use a piece of conduit to run it through and wire tie it to the back of cross member. And you can just use a dab of most any silicone sealant to plug or seal around the wires.

[Bamby]

Tinned is nice, but I wouldn't call it necessary in this application. Get some dielectric grease and pack the wire nuts with it. Twist the wires together and then run or twist the packed wire-nut on to them. Wipe off any excess that comes out and then secure with a bit of electrical tape and you should be good to go. The grease should stop or prevent and corrosion at the splices.

[Stephen]

Ok, thank you very much. I think I'm about ready to give it a shot.

Will let you know how it goes once I get the speakers and can make a trip out there to work on it.

[Durante]

Ok, thank you very much. I think I'm about ready to give it a shot.

Will let you know how it goes once I get the speakers and can make a trip out there to work on it.

If you are not positive that you have all the required tools to do the job on hand, you may want to let an installer do the job. Bamby's posts were all accurate, but if you have to buy any tools to complete the project you'll be at the install price anyways. Professionals make the job look easy because the have the right tools for the job.

Just my 2 cents..

[Stephen]

Speakers are installed and sound AWESOME! My only issue is that the grill comes out about 3/4", and they were so big that I couldn't get them low enough to allow the seats to open all the way. So, now I can only open the seats most of the way, but not far enough that they stay open on their own anymore. I'm going to try and find a new hinge or something that will allow more give.