boat upgrades
 

man Its REALLY hard to look at my new boat and not be able to use it for a couple months. My boat has the factory sony cassette radio and stock speakers, im looking to add a cd player, amp, possibly a sub or two. What are some of the favorite brands used in the marine world. I know a little with automotive, but i know marine is different. I want a great sounding stereo. Another thing is ID like to add through hull or silent choice exhaust. I have been reading about it, but find it really hard to cut holes in my beauty. Has anyone had problems running silent choice in brackish water. Thats primarily where my boat will be run. Im sure anti-sieze will be my best friend. MORE THINGS TO COME

Doug (moondance100) has a pretty sweet stereo setup, hopefully he'll chime in. I believe he used Polk Momo's, and dual subs, and is running something around 2-3000 watts. Depending on the budget this year, I might be redoing mine too.

As for silent choice, well, that's a tough one. I was there too, I really wanted it. I did my research, and found that it's going to run about $1800 to have it installed, or about $900 to do it myself, and you're right, there's something frightening about drilling a 4" hole into the transom. Plus, Mariah made all the exhaust tips in house, which makes keeping an OEM looking install virtually impossible. Try and do some research on the performance gains, and you'll find literally about one or two people who have gained maybe 1mph at WOT. $1800 for 1mph didn't sound like a fair trade-off to me. So I figured I'd save that money for something else. And then possibly when it's time to upgrade to a newer boat, I'll look for one equipped with silent choice.

I have the Silent Choice exhaust on my '96 200 Shabah w/ 5.7L. It sounds awesome, but running with it on versus off, I do not see a significant advantage - 2 to 3 MPH. I run in the Ohio river which is where the previous owner also ran and I did not have any problems switching back and forth, which I do often. Good luck with the upgrades.

thanks mark, Im not doing the exhaust for a performance gain, thats why I have other toys to go fast. It seems like EVERYONE is worried about a performance gain by running through hull. Im like you, really want it for the sound. I think I would prefer the silent choice for when I have a skier, tuber or kneeboarder yelling at us to slow or stop.

Im really trying to decide to go with marine audio products or use automotive. Im sure im gonna go with the marine, but which brand is the one to go with. I AM in a brackish water enviornment about 90 percent of the time. I dont live in it, but im on the water there. What about when your washing the inside of the boat, i KNOW water will touch the speakers and im SURE automotive speakers will ruin a heck of alot faster than marine.

Im interested in installing a perko switch with another battery, theres only one spot for one battery. I'd like to see some other peoples ways of installing another battery, because I KNOW most people have 2 batts.

I have used the polk momo speakers for mid and highs on my boat and they work great and they are marine approved. I used automotive amps from kicker because they rock. I just mounted under the drivers console where it wont see any water. I also used a pioneer head unit becuase they have direct ipod hook up. They have always worked well for me.

As far as subs go, my brother is running the marine jl audio and it sounds great. He is running two 12" subs and all jl mids.

Hope that helps