Adding aux functionality to old boat radio

[Justin0128]

Hey,

On my boat I have an old radio hooked up to two speakers and I can not hook my phone up to the speakers to play music from my phone. I want to be able to either add an aux cord to the existing radio module or just put in a new radio that has an aux cord port or bluetooth connectivity. From what I see I have a left and right speaker wire and both speakers use the same positive and negative wire. Is it possible to just wire an RCA connector to these wires and then plug it into a new radio? Any advice would be helpful, thank you!

 

[Martaine2005]

The wiring is clearly labeled on the radio.
The left and right speakers do not share the same ‘positive’ wire.
The speakers are blue=left and green=right. They do share the negative = black.

Martin

 

[bertus]

Hello,

I do not think that connecting the phone directly to the speakers will be a good idea.
An AUX connection is often insetred just before the volume button.

Bertus

 

[Justin0128]

The wiring is clearly labeled on the radio.
The left and right speakers do not share the same ‘positive’ wire.
The speakers are blue=left and green=right. They do share the negative = black.

Martin

So essentially my thinking is that if I take two male RCA connectors and hook one up to the left (blue wire) and right (green wire) speakers and plug those into a module like so: https://www.amazon.com/Pyle-Bluetoo...eywords=radio+for+boat&qid=1594068579&sr=8-16
with power and ground going to this module as well, it will work. Is this the correct thinking?

 

[Martaine2005]

Those RCAs on the back are definitely outputs. L/F, L/R, R/F and R/R.
I would wait until you have the new unit before attaching anything to your existing setup.
The wire harness with the new unit will more than likely be for power and speaker connections.
The RCAs are probably for an external amplifier.
The documentation should explain exactly what each wire and connection is for.

Martin

 

[Audioguru]

Nearly all modern car radios (and marine radios are probably the same) DO NOT have the black wires of their speakers connected together because the outputs are 'bridged". A bridged output has a separate amplifier for each speaker wire to produce more power.

 

[dave9]

It is unclear if the linked Pyle radio's RCAs are speaker outputs, or as likely, line-level out. You could turn the volume up and measure the voltage to see if it's getting much above 1VAC (line level). It does not mention it in the manual either (linked on that amazon page and below), which you should read.

Reading it you will see that there is no need or reason to involve adding RCA connectors to the speaker wires, because it has the speaker outputs on the other connector. Simply wire it up as shown on the diagram in the manual, and as Audioguru mentioned, it is probable that you shouldn't have the speaker grounds tied together, and they are not in the diagram in the manual.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/811CWa0OT+L.pdf

 

[Martaine2005]

Yes, as @dave9 kindly linked to the manual, your speakers are all colour coded indicating negatives are separate too unlike your existing unit.
It’s still easy to use and connect your speakers and power to the new unit.

Martin