Hmmm, I guess we don't think alike as far as audio. I understand your wanting to isolate different zones in your boat as needed, we all like to isolate at times. However, getting quality tower speakers and amp as you did and then skimping on the tunability of each zone would leave me underwhelmed with my system if I went that route. However, you don't have a sub either at this point so I guess you really don't know what you're missing out yet, so to speak, by not getting a true 3 zone (tower, cabin, and sub) controlling EQ. I think you'd be surprised at how much you can tune a simple system with a zone controlling EQ. I'm sure you'll add speakers/sub as needed in the future. I remember years ago before Wet Sounds or anyone had zone controlling EQ's we would just stack 2 Clarion EQ's to control both zones lol. Enjoy your project over the off season, always fun to upgrade and modify.

Imo something like the ZLDs big value is the higher preamp outputs, the zone tunability can usually be done with the amps and honestly I have never really touched the ZLD except for the sub.

But I still think the ZLD is worth every penny I paid for it...