Mobile Electronics Australia

One aspect of mobile electronics that hasn’t received much editorial coverage over the years is marine audio, and here at MEA we wanted to address this oversight but showing you guys through a major marine installation we conducted leading up to New Year’s 2011.

While many of the principles are quite similar to motor vehicle installations, there are some very specific challenges posed by a marine installation that were interesting to tackle, and during this multi-part story we’ll show you through many of them.

This was actually the first marine installation I’d ever been directly involved with, and was conducted on a colleague’s 1991 Scarab speed boat that he’d recently purchased. The owner, Craig Handley, was formerly the Australian distributor of MTX and Coustic back in the ‘90s, while also doing a stint at Sony as national product manager for car audio through until around 2005. The older members of MEA may recall that it was Craig Handley who built the infamous MTX Hellbus SPL car with me back in the late ‘90s, which was the first SPL car to exceed 160dB (161.8dB from memory) in Australia. Craig has been out of mobile electronics for some years now, but when he purchased the rather sexy twin 350 Chev powered Scarab he knew the first upgrade that the boat required was a full house audio/visual system. After all, if we had desires for blasting across Sydney Harbour with the Miami Vice theme blaring out across the waves we’d need a serious sound system to make it a reality.

Prior to the boat’s arrival I had planned out the basic system design with Craig as a bit of a wish list, and I narrowed the choice down to just one brand – Clarion. It’s commonly accepted that Clarion has been the most popular brand in marine car audio since Noah’s big adventure. The Scarab was due to be permanently moored a couple of hundred meters off shore, so it made perfect sense to go with Clarion for their experience in developing products that can stand the test of time in this harsh environment. Not surprisingly, when the boat finally arrived from its seller interstate we discovered that the sound system that was installed from the factory back in 1991 was already an all Clarion affair. While twenty years on the ocean had certainly taken their toll on the old Clarion marine grade gear, it all still functioned, and this bodes well for the new gears’ longevity.

The main remit of the Scarab was to be a fast and luxurious harbor cruiser that could, if required, tow a water skier or two. Primarily, though, we planned to have great days on the harbour simply anchored near a beach enjoying some great tunes, a BBQ and whatever sporting event may be on the tube. This meant the system design needed to control both audio and video playback, control one or more external video monitors with independent source switching, and contain a main zone at the rear deck where most passengers would sit with a second zone under the bow where the kitchenette and bedroom are located. Additionally, it had to get seriously loud and yet we wanted to make the power consumption as efficient as possible – which are diametrically opposing requirements. The Scarab comes fitted with no less than six large lead acid marine batteries separated into two banks by isolation switches. Regardless, getting stranded on the harbor due to flat batteries caused by over exuberant system cranking was not an option. After discussing these requirements with the ever help Adrian Davies at Clarion we settled on this list of gear for the project:

Source unit – CMV-1 $1299.00

One of the main reasons I wanted to use Clarion for this installation was because of their incredible CMV1 multi-media source unit. There’s simply nothing else on the market like it, and when I first saw it last year I started dreaming up a reason to try one out. I initially planned using it in a car, but when this project appeared it was the perfect choice.

This is the ideal source unit for the task of controlling the audio/visual system we had planned. It’s actually a single DIN chassis unit, with a water-proof rubber sealed front fold down panel that is almost double DIN in size. This not only allows for the larger rubberized buttons and dual control knobs but the inclusion of a full colour 3.5-inch TFT screen for video playback. The large TFT screen also assists in searching through iPod folder menus, allowing you to find your preferred songs with absolute ease.

Also on board is a DVD/CD player with Divx video support, both USB and 3.5-mm auxiliary input ports, A/V inputs for external sources, A/V outputs for a second zone, plus three high voltage RCA pre outs to feed to external amplifiers. The auxiliary input will be fed by a 22-inch LCD TV with digital tuner that will be placed on the main rear deck, while the CMV1’s auxiliary outputs will feed back to the screen as well as a second zone screen down in the bedroom. This way, we can enjoy any type of source with playback via the sound system, and can switch the external screen to show video sources played back via DVD, Divx or iPod video. Awesome.

2^nd Zone remote & extension cable – MW1 $229 & MWRXRET $79RRRP

Another important issue that troubles many marine entertainment designs is that source unit may not necessarily be located within arm’s reach for the captain. This was the case with this design as the source unit was to be placed in a small nook above the kitchenette so that it could be secured behind a locking door. This required the addition of the ultra-handy RM1 wired remote control unit. While the CMV1 does include an infra-red remote of its own, the RM1 differs by providing an integral LCD display screen. This way the captain can monitor and control the playback with ease without having to see the CMV1’s own screen. In addition we grabbed a five meter extension cable, while Clarion can also provide a two-way splitter to allow the use of multiple wired remotes if you need them.

Auxiliary  & USB extension – CCAAUX - $49RRP & CCAUSB $49RRP

Similarly, the location where auxiliary sources, flash drives and iPods packed with music & video may differ from where the source unit is located, and again this was applicable to this particular installation. For this we also added the CCAAUX and CCAUSB extension cables to allow these sources to be connected at a small secondary dash area on the left side of the cabin beneath a Perspex cover panel. Clarion thinks of everything, it seems.

Amplifiers – 2 x APX490M $499RRP

The design layout for this project deemed it necessary to have eight full channels of amplification, which means we chose to simply use two of Clarion’s APX490M marine grade 4-channel amplifiers. With a potent 90WRMS x 4 into 4ohms or 360WRMS x 2 when bridged, each pair of channels has variable high or low pass filters, allowing us lots of flexibility when it came to connecting speakers and subwoofers in varying manners. The PCB boards in these amplifiers are dual sided designs that feature a corrosion resistant coating.

Main Speakers – 2 x CMCS7.1 $229RRP & CM1625 $159RRP

Clarion’s marine range extends to a large choice of 6.5-inch, 7-inch and 6x9-inch coaxial and component designs. While the CMQ range is the more recent silver coloured series, we decided to choose the CM range thanks to their white finish that matched the boat’s interior colour scheme a little better. In addition, the CMCS7.1 components are 7-inches in diameter and we used two pairs in a dual array on the main deck area for greater cone area and efficiency. These will be mounted into each side of the main tower that spans the hull, placing them just aft of the captain’s seat but well ahead of the passengers’ seats at the stern. A third pair of 6.5-inch coaxial are to be placed inside the cabin by the double bed as a second zone.

Subwoofers – 3 x CMQ2510W $199RRP

The last pieces of the puzzle are the subwoofers, and for this system we decided on a triple array of Clarion’s 10-inch CMW2510W model. Three subwoofers not only look waaaaay cool, but the added efficiency of all that cone area meant that we only needed a modest amount of power – and therefore power consumption – and yet we’d still have huge bass. Aiding this further we planned on building a ported enclosure that was quite large at a little over three cubic feet. While the single 4ohm voice coil subwoofers would only get 90WRMS each if connected to one channel each, we were confident that it would still make tons of bass. Given we had eight amplifier channels to work with we always had the opportunity to bridge six channels into three more powerful channels for over 1000WRMS of power if need be.

So, with the rather large pile of Clarion marine gear freshly delivered to my door it was time to get stuck into the large list of fabrication that the Scarab required. Unlike a car installation, we don’t have the luxury of working on the boat in a workshop, and various sections of the build would need to be measured on the boat to be constructed back at our private workshop. Another logistical challenge was tools, as once we were on the boat if there was a tool we required it wasn’t a simple case of whipping down to Bunnings. Once on the boat the constant rocking to and fro would also pose a challenge as it isn’t docked to a fixed jetty. Lucky for us Craig and I seem to both have strong stomachs.

Check out the next stage of the build where we get stuck into the new pods for the main speakers.