Odd Stereo Problem

[Sadey]

I’m finally getting around to redoing the sound system in our boat. One stereo system runs the galley, VIP stateroom and the crew’s stateroom speakers. Two speakers per location. There’s another stereo that runs just the master stateroom speakers. The midstate, galley, and forward crew’s room have a speaker volume control. The rheostat and speakers in the galley and crews stateroom work just fine. The speakers in the mid stateroom don’t work but here’s the weird thing, when I turn the rheostat volume all the way up in the mid stateroom it turns the galley speakers off but doesn’t do anything to the mid speakers. The other odd thing is there are only two wire bundles to run the galley and the crew’s stateroom speakers at the stereo control head. There’s not a third wire bundle to run the mid stateroom speakers. The wiring schematics show the mid stateroom speakers connected to the system but there’s definitely not a third wire bundle at the radio. Somehow the mid state rheostat is connected, at least to the galley speakers. All of the wiring and the radio were factory original. I plan to use my cable tone tester in the port side engine room at the entertainment system junction box to see if I can’t track down what’s going on. Has anybody else dealt with this?

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Do you have the Hatteras schematic for your speaker system? That may or may not be of help depending on what others have done to that system over the years.

 

[Sadey]

I do and it shows all the installed speakers but for some reason the mid state isn’t wired. Which again is weird because everything looks original. Oh well, they’re re guests, staying for free, drinking my booze and eating my food. Don’t want them to comfortable, right?

 

[dottieshusband]

My boat was originally set up, from the factory, for a Marantz 2 channel receiver. The original receiver would only support 2 sets of speakers (A&B). To get around this, Hatteras sent the A&B audio out leads to a distribution block in the port engine room. From there they go to the various areas throughout the boat. The P.O. of my boat had installed a new audio system, ignoring the native architecture. I revived mine and relate to what you're going through. Don't be too sure it's a wiring issue. I had similar issues. The 1st being not using a large enough AMP to drive all the speakers. I ended up dragging an old Pioneer SX1050 over and setting it up. I got all the speakers working, but then the bad news. Most of the paper bellows in the speakers were deteriorated and the volume rheostats were about as scratchy as could be. I found a source for solid state rheostats and the speakers are pretty standard sizes, but it's still pretty low on my priority list. With the advent of WiFi and Bluetooth speakers, I'm not sure I want to put any cash into the old system.

 

[Dreamboat]

......... I found a source for solid state rheostats and the speakers are pretty standard sizes, but it's still pretty low on my priority list. With the advent of WiFi and Bluetooth speakers, I'm not sure I want to put any cash into the old system.

What solid state rheostats did you find? I have to replace mine as well.
Thanks in advance.
Gary

 

[43DoubleCabin]

Upgrading the stereo on my Hatteras has been on this list for a while. However I recently picked up a Sonos speaker. Very impressed. Will most likely go this route all over the boat instead of putting time and cash into the factory system.

 

[cww]

You don't have to replace the scratchy volume pots, just spray deoxit inside them and then shake it all out, they'll be good as new. As to the speakers, also no need to replace, most major cities have a few vintage audio shops who will re-cone speakers for cheap.

I'm going through this on my boat now, when I got it the whole thing sounded terrible because somebody added speakers on the aft deck and on the bow that are 4 ohms when the rest of the speakers are 8, and just plugged them all in together into the back of a low-grade Sony receiver. I pulled my two adcom 535's out of storage they'll work perfectly for this with one driving each system of speakers with different resistance ratings independently.

I was originally going to use my restored Marantz 2275 because it would look sooooo cool in there, but I just had the boards redone and recapped and I have concerns about the saltwater environment. I know it's sacrilege to use the adcoms in there if you're a nelson pass fan, but those just aren't as valuable as anything else I have so those are what's going in. You can get the OEM system up and running and sounding very nicely for less than one or two decent quality bluetooth speakers. In my case it's mostly free because I am an audio nut anyway and already have the equipment.

Fixing the wiring somebody changed over to a configuration that doesn't work right is free. Fixing the speakers is almost free, re-coning is usually +/- $20 each. The factory speakers are actually good quality, just the foam rots with age like on most speakers. Fixing the volume pots is basically free, a can of de-oxit is $10 on Amazon with free shipping. There's no way you can get good quality bluetooth speakers for every room for the minimal amount of money fixing the factory hardwired system is going to cost, and I'd much rather have the built in system because let's face it, that's just way cooler. Neither the factory system nor 99% of bluetooth speakers is going to have much base because of the small speaker sizes, but you're not going to be able to hear the low ranges over the engines anyway, so who cares.

 

[dottieshusband]

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-58odE..._YBVh6j8Lb4aNjdgowWPVW0tacZFz8JxoCxs8QAvD_BwE

I'll try the deox 1sr. One irony is I actually had a Marantz reciever about the same as the OEM unit (which was nowhere close to the 2275 in quality)we used at home for years. Got rid of it in the 2000's when the home theater craze took over.

 

[jmooney]

Our boat came with a Harmon -Karden , it got scratchy so I got rid of it , probably should have kept it. My rheostats need help. Thanks for the info about cleaning and solid state rheostats .

 

[cww]

Our boat came with a Harmon -Karden , it got scratchy so I got rid of it , probably should have kept it. My rheostats need help. Thanks for the info about cleaning and solid state rheostats .

I believe in the 70’s the hatteras motoryachts came with Harman-Kardon 330B’s, which at some point switched over to the 330C around 1979. I am basing that on old photos. There is a very nice refurbished & recapped 330B for sale on eBay right now: https://www.ebay.com/itm/313942547191?hash=item49186f1af7:g:Q5UAAOSwMc9iSnJh. It should fit the original cutout exactly, it having been built to accommodate this exact receiver originally.