Ryguy1984

I purchased a 2020 Fi23 coming from a Tige Z3. We put about 100 hours on the boat last season so I had a decent amount of time in and around it cleaning and detailing. For me, the big attraction was the ballast fill times. We are on a busy public lake and 15 minutes to fill could easily mean you become the 5th or 6th boat in line following each other down the side of the lake. Being able to get in the water and up on the board and having to wait a minute or so for a great wave to form under your feet is pretty sweet. I’ll never go back to Tige due to their lack of build quality. It was a 2013 so things may have improved, but everything was held together with marine grade plastics and incorrect size or style of fasteners. Lots of screws that came too close to the end of the plastic and eventually split and quit holding. The ballast design was terrible and I constantly chased issues. There are little to no rattles on my FI in rough water. The gelcoat and lines of the FI are very dramatic and I haven’t found any areas where they masked off wrong in the build process and goofed lines up. The routing of pumps, hoses, electrical is more simple and clean than my Tige was. Lots of components inside of a boat, but it seems well thought out. It is a bit easier to work on than my Tige, I’ve change the raw water and winterized it myself so far. The flooring is a bit of a pain as the main area is removable and has a channel the entire way around the removable section. Having kids on the boat and allowing snacks, pieces fall into the channel and are a pain to get out. I don’t come across any screws or random bolts that seem out of place, installed poorly or dangerously. The interior vinyl looks to be a better install than the factory Tige stuff was. With attention to stress and wear areas addressed, I have more confidence it will hold up. I chased a stereo interference noise for a bit, and a wiring harness popped off the engine and threw a code. Both quick warranty fixes and to be expected on a hand made boat, regardless of who made it or what you paid. Todays boat prices are insane, no doubt about it. But I think the Fi is a lot of boat for the money. In my opinion, the wave has more adjustability, length and push than a G23. It is more comfortable and less like riding in a deep coffin vs the Ri series. The styling is new and the stereo is extremely loud and clear. My only wish would be that the engine would be quieter when surfing fully loaded down. I have the OG 6.0 and am in Colorado, it has no problem getting up to speed full of ballast and people. I’d trade in a bit more time to plane out for less rpm/noise at surf speed. I could consider a different prop but.. As far as the sticky valves, they have a manual operation to get you out of a jam, and it’s something I’m sure the correct type of spray lube could correct. Never had that issue on mine. And for the touch screen, I got ride of my Tige fearing it would fail on me while I owned it. It lasted 7 years and was of the very early era screens in wakeboats. I figure this one should be able to last at least that long, maybe more.

As a final update, the new cable completely solved my issue.

I am editing a message that I just posted saying the newly installed cable fixed everything and life was good. The edit is necessary because as I climbed into the bow to shut the backrest cushions and call it a night, the noise could be heard from my bow speakers, but nothing in the drivers seat. As I sit here in the boat with the audio muted, the noise slowly went away completely. scratching my head now.

Sounds like I will have a 25’ cable for sale. Brand new haha if anybody is interested. The only other comment I have for now is that this noise didn’t exist before I bought the boat. It was used for a few demos so had 6 hours on it when I got it. When we were in the showroom checking out the boat I played around with the stereo quite a bit and never had the noise come up. It wasn’t until we got the boat home a few days later and took it out for the first time that the noise showed up. That was one reason that I originally thought it was a failed component, rather than a routing issue. As if it were a routing issue, the nose should have existed the day the wires were zip tied together when the boat was built. I thought it a higher likelihood that some electrical component failed opposed to a wire routing change (sans a physical intervention to move around these wires/cables). Either way, this thread is off and to the races!

Thank you for the information. You mention the remote control digital signaling cable creating noisy interference which is being picked up by the low power analog amplifier input lines... to help me understand, are you referencing the RCA cables that eventually end at each amp providing the audio signal? If so, from what I can tell, the signal cable that each amp gets first makes a stop at the rotary knob under the throttle, then comes back to the amps and is split into 6 separate RCA cables, two to each amp. I know that under the dash, viewed from the flip up back cushion in the bow, the clarion remote cable and the RCA cable (prior to being split up to 6 individual lines) are zip tied together and run back along the starboard side of the dash until they get to the rotary knob and remote. It seems like the RCA runs under the floor of the boat through the walkthrough, and I know the clarion remote cable runs all the way around the walkthrough, up the bow and then back down. They then get zip tied together and probably run 24” of length together. Do you assume it is this span of the cables being on top of each other that allows the interference to exist? I called Roswell today and spoke to their tech department. The guy I spoke to sounded familiar with what was going on, to the point that when he simulated the beeping noise with his mouth, it was the same cadence as my boat (haha). He said that they have confirmed it’s not their rotary volume adjustment knob, but that it is something with the clarion control wire as he called it. He wasn’t for sure what exactly people replaced to correct the issue, but to me it sounded like he meant the remote control cable. Long story longer, I ordered from Crutchfield a new 25’ clarion remote cable and I’m going to connect it straight from the head unit to my remote, draping it across the floor to test it. $41 with 2 day shipping. Depending on the outcome, I may run my new cable or keep the existing one already installed and use the conductive tape from the link you provided. Thanks again for the info.

Was hoping this thread would get a bit more interest... my beeping noise still exists and I have continued to troubleshoot. I have been able to narrow it down to what I believe is either the cable that runs from the wired remote near the throttle, or still the in-boat/tower volume knob. I lean to it being the cable for the remote for this reason.. under the port side helm I can disconnect the two wired remotes that are mounted to the side of the dash area and the other on the transom. When I disconnect the cable for the remote at the dash, the beeping stops. I can plug in the remote from the transom to the spot where I just unplugged the dash cable and no noise. This leads me to believe it’s not the input side of the Clarion head unit that is causing the noise. If I plug the dash remote into any of the three other inputs on the head unit, the noise exists. As in, the only time the beeping is present is when the dash remote is plugged to the head unit. Taking things a step further, I removed the remote from the dash area and unplugged the remote from the cable on the end by the throttle. With this remote unplugged, but the other end of the cable still plugged into the head unit, the noise still exists. This tells me that it’s not the remote that is causing the noise, because just the cable alone plugged into the head unit in any one of the four remote inputs produced the noise. I thought maybe a break in the cable could be the cause so I followed it the best I could from the dash, around the bow and back to the head unit and from a quick visual inspection it all seemed ship shape. The reason I think it may also be related to the volume knob is that sometimes while the beeping exists, turning the volume of the in-boats or tower up and down increases or decreases the beeping volume. What is strange is that it doesn’t change the beeping volume 100% of the time, it’s a bit random. Sometimes you can turn the knobs and the volume of the beeping never changes. The beeping also exists through both the tower speakers and the in-beats, leading me to believe it’s not coming from the output side of one of the amps. On a final note, if I turn the stereo off using the power button on the remote on the dash, when I turn it back on, no beeping exists. It’s not until the very first bit of music comes out that it starts. Doesn’t matter if I turn it on in Bluetooth mode, Aux or any other source. The beeping doesn’t start until right when the music does. It seems like as soon as a signal is sent to one of the components to create audio, the noise starts. There is no change in the beeping regardless of what current changes I add, such as turning the heater on or any of the lights on/off or powering up the screen. If this were the typical ground nose from poor wire routing or grounds, the noise usually changes with draws against the electrical system, in my experience. It is for the above reasons that I still have no clue what is going on. If anybody out there could throw me a bone and help me out, I’d be forever grateful.

I have a 2020 Fi23 doing the exact same thing. I did a bit of troubleshooting myself by attempting to isolate the head unit and amps. I am no rocket scientist, or stereo buff for that matter, but I really think it is the volume knob under the throttle. The beeping volume increases and decreases as I turn the in boat speakers up and down, same with the tower. The only way to stop the beeping is to turn the knob so the speakers are all the way off. I also cut a good number of zip ties and moved the RCAs away from any amp power cables the best I could, that made no difference. Mine makes that noise regardless of what source I’m using, FM, aux, Bluetooth. I have asked the dealer to order a new volume knob/wiring. I am interested to hear who else has had this problem and if they were able to figure it out.