www.iFourWinns.com

I would respectfully disagree. With a quality marine coaxial or component mid-bass, this is not necessary if the install location offers complete front/rear isolation. A typical coax is designed to be used in an infinite-baffle speaker, with the area behind the driver acting as its enclosure. Placing a small baffle behind the speaker will adversely effect the speakers sound. Its the lesser of two evils when there is little to no isolation, but I would not suggest it if sufficient front/rear isolation is there.



Joe,

When doing a sub in a boat, we have to get the horse before the cart. In 9 of 10 installs, the available space will dictate the gross dimensions and shape of the enclosure. Once you know how large the enclosure CAN be, you can decide whether its going to be a simple sealed enclosure or a more complex ported enclosure. Now you can begin to narrow down subwoofer options that will be optimized within your given enclosure dimensions. After the woofer is chosen, then the amp can be picked, based on the subs power requirements., etc, etc. In summary, the best sounding sub is the one that's in the ideal spot, proper box and receiving solid power.

Yup. My boat had a spot under a seat that fit the dimensions of a .7 sealed box perfectly, so from there I picked a good sub that worked with that, db1040, and picked an amp that would power it but not tax the electrical system (cerwin vega class D 220 rms). I keep the gain about 1/2 unless you're bumping some dubstep or something then yeah if u wanna shake the beer out of the bottle it can be turned up.

_________________
1981 Columbia 8.7
2015 Yamaha FZR - 87mph - sold
2006 Yamaha GP1300R - sold
2003 Chaparral 215 SSI - sold
2009 Stingray 195CS - sold
2000 Four Winns H180 - sold
1976 O'day Daysailer II - sold
Rick's Four Winns H180 Mods/Upgrade Thread

A baffle, not an enclosure!
A square shaped bit of timber that strengthens the panel that the driver bolts to.
Think of an MDF pod on a car door, but put the pod behind the door skin.

_________________
2011 Four Winns H180 SS.
Aussie built Mustang 2800.
SOLD - 1997 Four Winns Horizon RS

My apologies, I misunderstand. I guess your definition of a baffle is not what mine is in regards to audio



Any deck wall or seat base thats not rigid enough to support a 6.5" mid-bass driver.....I can imagine how it would act while the boat was under way or with people sitting in that seat. In my experience, many cosmetic combing pads are rigid enough to support a small mid-bass driver.

But, if one want to add some rigidity to the back of a speaker mounting hole, then I see no harm. If you cant reach up behind the speaker hole, then you can cut the backing plate in half, and place one half in at a time. You can use a polyurethane bond to secure the backing plate to the hull. Pre-drill your holes so you do not push the backing plate away as you run the speaker mounting screws in. I would recommend HDPE or void-free birch over MDF.

No need to apologise, mate.
You'd likely have a harder time understanding me if you heard my accent!

_________________
2011 Four Winns H180 SS.
Aussie built Mustang 2800.
SOLD - 1997 Four Winns Horizon RS

While we're on the baffle discussion, my boat has plastic cups behind the midrange speakers in my u wrap bench seat in the back. I think these are more for protecting the speakers than audio quality since there is under seat storage there. Would you take them out or leave them in, or put a baffle/box behind it? I'm getting a little ahead of myself since I don't even know when I get my new mid range speakers if they will fit in the cup, but I know plastic wouldn't be the best sound quality material...

Joe,

If its a heavily used locker with hard bulky items going in and out of it, I would consider leaving them in place as protection, but I would maybe open the bottom up a little, which basically increases the volume of the baffle. If the locker is used for softer items and the wires are secured, then I would net worry about removing them. I would also consider all other speakers in this same listening area. Adding a baffle will alter the speaker acoustically, so any speaker with a baffle, will sound different then one without. So I would either add a baffle to all in that area if even one needs a baffle, or remove from all if the threat of damage to the speaker is low. This allows all the speakers to reproduce in the same manor.