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bass problem in a sailboat

Hi!

I have a sailboat with a nice marine-grade stereo, built by Poly-Planar. There are four speakers, powered by a 4 X 45 (180 watts total) head unit. The speakers each have a 5 1/4" "woofer". I generally like the sound. The not-so-low bass is great, but I'd like to boost the really low frequencies just a little. I listen to mostly classical music, and I miss a few very low notes that I hear clearly on my home system. I'm NOT talking about great volume. I just want to boost the very low bass a little. I did this once years ago in a Camaro by simply adding an equalizer to the factory system. I DON'T want to add an amplifier and subwoofer because I don't need the extra magnetic field nor the additional power drain. An equalizer also seems inappropriate because, in this case, it would be a "set it and forget it" thing that I would hide somewhere. Is there a simple way to boost just the very low notes a little with the existing speakers and head unit?

Regards,
Troy Scott
tscott1217d0eb
baffled
106 posts
 
tscott, don't be fooled by power specs. Poly-Planar advertizes UP TO 45 watts per channel. That's peak power on a clear day, downhill, with a good head wind. Constant power (RMS)is another story. Still, I am constantly amazed at what the average head unit amp is capable of. I am cautiously optimistic.
tscott1217d0eb OP
12 posts
 
Baffled,

I'm optimistic too. The speaker hasn't arrived yet, but I've made the preparations. The speaker should be sensitive enough to do enough with a little. Regardless how much power the head unit actually has, it would play the four bookshelf speakers and the dual voice coil subwoofer (without a low-pass filter!) louder than I would ever listen. I'm hoping that this new, 2" larger and probably much more efficient DVC subwoofer (this time WITH a low pass filter) will be even better. Thanks for your help! I'll let you know.

Regards,
Troy
tscott1217d0eb OP
12 posts
 
Gentlemen,

Last evening I finally had the opportunity to try a new tactic. I reinstalled the PolyPlanar powered subwoofer in the boat, except I added a 70hz 12db per octave crossover (to override the 200hz crossover built into the bass amplifier). WOW! What a difference! With only the 200 hz crossover, I had to turn the bass speaker down so low (to avoid upper bass boominess) that it didn't help the 25hz range at all. With the 70hz crossover, I was able to turn the bass amp volumn up to about 90%, enough to really help the very low pitches. Today I plan to try a 50hz crossover and possibly turn the bass volumn up to 100%. I'll let you know!

Regards,
Troy Scott
Post removed 
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