speakers
 

Had a set of Babbs 5 1/4 and 6x9's in the boat with an amp and they sounded great.
Pulled the amps and subs out of that boat to install in my other boat, but left the 2 sets of speakers. I connected the speakers to the HU, using no amps.
The 5 1/4's sound good (for non amped powered), but the 6x9's both sound like they are blown at low to mid volume, very scratchy, as if the speaker leads are touching. Past mid volume, they clear up. Tried other speakers to verify the HU leads ok and they sounded fine, moved the 6x9's to the other HU channel, still bad. They sounded great before the amps were pulled. Wireing has been rechecked for shorts and polarity. all good.

Do some speakers just need some power behind them to operate? Finding it hard to believe both went bad sitting last 2 yrs unused.

you should hear something. Sounds like they froze up. Give a push on the cone to see if they will move.

I can move the cones no problem and they feel good.

I ran 4 Babb 6x9's in my Pantera with head unit power(4x25watts) and they sounded fine. They did come to life with an amp though. Not sure why yours don't sound good at lower volumes.

Do you have a Digital Multimeter? If so disconnect and measure the nominal/resting resistance of each speaker. It sounds like there may be something shorting the voicecoil internally. The speaker should move very smooth in and out by hand, with no friction.

Like Waveform said test the ohms. Due to the way those speakers are made if you get ANY dirt in that voice coil you are kind of screwed. Supprised that both are sounding bad however. Were they stored in a clean dry area? Typically the babbs/DC Golds, need very little power....

Ok, I'll check the ohms with a meter

The boat has been in my garage under cover last 2 yrs, so can't see dirt being an issue. I agree, it's that both are doing the same that has me stumped.
Next option is to hook them to another HU to see if they still are messed up.
Thanks

FYI 45x4 is really only 18-21 watt per channel which is not enough for ANY speaker to really sound good, especially in a enviorment like a boat. YES speakers then sit will go bad over time. Not saying that you have one of these problems but who cares if you do or not. Get some new speakers and some amps stressing the importance of a quality amp over the speakers.