Sportsman JL Audio Marine Speaker Upgrade: PART TWO

The client from our previous Sportsman article gave us another call shortly after picking his boat up. He was happy with how the boat sounded while in it but wanted more sound for the people around the boat. Knowing this client likes the best, we devised an awesome option for him. The plan would utilize two pairs of JL Audio M6-880 tower speakers. The M6-880’s are top-of-the-foodchain marine speakers and have incredible output and low-end response. The client was on board with our plan and dropped the boat off.

JL Audio MVi Eight-Channel Amplifier

The amplifier we pair with the JL Audio M6-880 speakers is typically the M800/8. In this instance, we went with its’ smarter brother, the MV800/8i. The Mvi amplifier has the same output as the M800, but also adds a built-in DSP. The onboard digital signal processor lets us use our JL Audio MAX tuning rig to ensure these speakers sound as good as possible. We knew that the towers had a good amount of bass output. Using the DSP allowed us to align the output of the towers with the subwoofers, so that from the rear positions in the boat, the bass was maximized. Without the DSP we ran the risk of phase issues between the subwoofers and the tower speakers that could have resulted in less bass than he started with!

Custom JL Audio Tower Speaker Brackets

The previous file we used to cut the inserts still was perfect.

The plastic inserts were painted silver, we made two extras this time around.

We made a channel in the plastic inserts for the wire routing.

We first painted the aluminum plates with a self-etching paint.

The metal washers were painted to match the speaker brackets.

Our research on a previous Sportsman gave us a roadmap for adding the tower speakers to this boat. We would use the same setup that was implemented on THIS boat. We are thankful for our in-house CNC laser and plasma cutting capabilities. We had previously saved all the files for the parts we needed in our cutting software. Making the bracket adapters was just a matter of loading up the substrate, program file, and clicking run. We painted the brackets with the same matching silver paint. The large aluminum washers we cut on our CNC plasma table were primed first, then painted with matching silver paint.

JL Audio Marine Speaker Installation

Brian works on wiring up the new speakers.

The M6-880 speakers are one of our favorite tower speakers.

The M6-880’s join other JL Audio M6 speakers that were already in the canopy.

The tower speakers look right at home on this Sportsman.

Our bracket solution made the installation of the tower speakers fairly straightforward. The rear towers were mounted in the same spot as the rear-side rod holders we removed. The large metal washers we cut were the same diameter as the rod holder footprint. The tower speaker was through-bolted to the fiberglass canopy. After giving them a firm tug and them not budging, we knew, “those weren’t going anywhere”!

The front tower speakers were mounted in a similar manner, with us making our own mounting holes for the hardware. Wiring the speakers consisted of drilling wire-sized holes into the cavity of the canopy and running the wires into the holes. The wires were extended and routed through the canopy tubing down to the amplifier.

Cleanup and Covers

We have done many vehicles for this client, both on and off the water. We know he likes to keep his things spotless. We included two sets of neoprene tower speaker covers to help him keep the tower speakers looking new. These covers are custom-made to fit the JL Audio tower speakers and fit firmly enough to be used while towing the boat.

After we cleaned up the boat the client came to pick it up. He listened to it a bit and was impressed with the output of the new speakers.

Are you ready to upgrade your boat’s audio system? Stop by or contact us HERE. We have the know-how, tools, and equipment to ensure you get the best bang for the buck!