Blue collar audio upgrade

[Fast50dad]

JimN, thanks for the reply. We are in ND, boat in MN. I am overbudget already, just trying to lick my wounds and make the family happy with the money we have already spent. Again, I appreciate your reply. Thanks!

[Jeff d]

Probably the best budget, "headless" solution for an iPod/iPhone/iPad would be something like the iSimple is75 cable (charges and pulls a "line out" signal through the dock port) and an inexpensive EQ like the Clarion EQS746.

The equalizer will act like a preamp but also give you An easy to use volume, fade and equalizer control. You should be able to get both for less than $90.

[Fast50dad]

Jeff_d, thanks for the reply. I'll take a look at the back of the 03 Clarion head unit tomorrow when I get it to the audio shop. We're in for the night doing family time soon. I'll take a look tomorrow. Thanks again!

[Fast50dad]

Here are some pics for the new (used tower speakers purchased from a fellow TT member) tower speakers. My audio guys asked to mount them like this and I said I'd be there in 15 minutes to look at their goofy idea. I loved it. Looking at the Polk DBs, they have a quick release pin that someone could just pull out from the dock, yank, and take the speakers. Besides putting on a small bolt with a nylon-necked nut to keep the honest person away. Any tips to give me for a boat on a lift with no canopy (for all the lake to see and steal)? Downsides for mounting them this way?

[swatguy]

I think mounting them as far to the side like that gives the best sound to the rider as you spend most if your time outside the wake. I have mine angled out just a bit.

As far as the answers to your other questions I think they have been answered. The iPad and ipod really have a low voltage thru their headphone jack. No matter what a cd in you head unit will always give you a bit more volume when compared to your ipod thru an aux cable. Tune your gains on your amp and system with the iPad and the boat running and it will help. Also I would highly recommend not setting that aux input sensitivity to loud or hi. It really distorts the signal much quicker when set there. Make sure it in the middle at medium. Also as mentioned check the internal ipad volume max settings.

[Fast50dad]

Swatguy, thanks for the reply. Here's where I am at, I messed with the ipad settings with no luck. At times, I could barely hear the vocal. I will check the amp settings, but don't want to hose how the radio sounds. Is there a particular amp setting that I should try first? Thanks guys!

[swatguy]

What you will want to do is hook up your source IE iPod/ipad. Make sure you turn your gain down a bit on you amp to the low side to prevent your speaker from blowing as you turn your volume up to 3/4 max volume on the dial. Now turn the gain slowly up on you amp til the sound starts to distort/crackle and then back off just a bit.

Without knowing the amp and the rest of your system I can't really tell you where to set the rest of the switches or give you info on setting crossovers and get into tuning it. The above way is the generic way to make sure your gains are set properly. You can fine tune the crossovers to your liking. If you have a high pass filter on the amp a lot of people prefer to run the high pass setting on the tower speakers to give you a bit more sound travel down the line as it allows you to have a bit more volume with a little less distortion due to eliminating some of the low frequencies that are pushed to the speaker

[Fast50dad]

Swatguy, thanks again. We were going to put it in tomorrow, but it's fishing opener. I only use the access twice a year and it's never on that weekend.

[Fast50dad]

What's this now? When I plug the iPad in, flip the aux switch it plays (still sounds horrible), for about 30. Then "click" shuts off radio and all my gauges spin. I have the key turned to the left and plenty of battery power. Thoughts? So much for troubleshooting the Aux and iPad. Radio and cds work fine.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9630 using Tapatalk

[Jeff d]

Have you tried another 1/8" stereo device on the input? I'd find an MP3 player, phone or laptop (Anything with a headphone jack) and hook it up and see what happens.