Speaker questions
 

I need to replace the original clarion speakers\tweeters that came in my boat. What is a good speaker out there without breaking the bank? I plan on using the clarion amp and woofer this year, and only doing the speaker\tweeters. I just had a buddy drop $3500 in his stereo, I can't afford that kind of hit right now, so I plan on doing the head unit, amp, and woofer next year.

Thanks!

JL audio marine if you can go that route I would great speakers and last.

Someone asks for a good budget speaker and you recommend JL? Awesome but not a budget speaker.

I like the sound of JL more but I run Polk. They sound great and are pretty affordable.

What size are the stock speakers? Are they considered 6"?

Thanks!

Polk DB series are marine rated and priced right. I have used them for years and love them.

You have either 5.25" or 6.5".

a really good budget speaker would be the Pioneer TS-MR2040 8" or the TS-MR1640 6.5". Simply comparing specs to price point and these are a good buy. They do look like fans though.

X3 Polk DB, great budget speakers that sound really great.

Call Gregg at big papas. Tell him I referred you and he will take care of the rest

Just tell him CrownLPX?

I have had great luck with kickers speakers and subs

Agreed ive just setup 4 of the 6.5 components and a pair of the 6x9.....lots of pop and no budget issue's

Memphis audio

Im running mtx 7.7 coaxs and the sound good, price was nice too.

Alpine best bang for the buck. I use it in all my installs now. Great stuff and not super expensive.

I just can't bring myself to spend 400-500 dollars for a set of 6.5 coaxials or component speakers. In the home audio world, for 500 bucks, you can get a great sounding pair of speakers. For example, I recently bought a pair of Polk Audio Monitor 70 series tower speakers. They come with a 1'' silk tweeter, 2 mid woofers, two subwoofers, and weigh 47 lbs each. There is no comparison to the sound these speakers can reproduce, compared to a pair of 6.5'' car/boat drivers. The cockpit of a boat holds almost no acoustical qualities. I think what most guys look for in a boat stereo is its capability to play loud, and not distort.

Not at all suggesting going to walmart and buying some ''Dual" brand speakers, but not everyone needs to spend 1,000 bucks for two sets of cockpit speakers. Most boat speakers get installed in open air gunwales, and subs in open air enclosures. I feel the enclosure is just as important as the driver sitting in it. Some of the best sounding home audio subwoofers, like the Miller and Kreisel stuff, focused on the enclosure design, and amplifier design, not just the driver. A cheap sub in a great enclosure will sound better than a crazy expensive sub in a crap enclosure.

I purchased alpines M700 7'' cockpit speakers, and two of their marine 10'' subs a few years back. Price was right. Coaxials in the gunwales, subs under back seat. Initially I had the subs powered from a smaller Aurasound amp. Good amp, but a little undersized for the application. Switched that amp to a Fosgate 800.2, and the subs hit MUCH better, and sound much cleaner. This year I need to build an enclosure for them though, as they are simply mounted under the rear seat. I expect them to improve quite a bit in sound quality and bass output. Point is, a speaker is only as good as the amp driving it, the setup and tuning of the crossovers, and the enclosure its in. So keep that in mind when putting a system together. Sometimes big $$$ checks alone wont get you good sound. If you were to disect alot of these brands of speakers, I think you'll find minimal differences in the actual driver, as far as construction/material.

I am running 3 sets of the polk DB component, one set of Fusion marine 7", and one set of lanzar 4" metal tweets (along with 3 12 subs in a custom box) The polks are down low and have decent sound quality, have held up for 3 years, and take a good amount of power. I would rate the polks at a 7, they fall a little short in the mid bass dept. The 7" fusion are amazing speakers and really pound the mid bass. If you do a little cutting you can jump up to a 7, which I recommend. They come with 3 grills each (open grill not pictured.) The open grill is paintable to match if you wish http://www.amazon.com/Fusion-MS-FR70...usion+marine+7

Want the sound to really shine? Add a pair of the tweets up high, they fill the acoustic problems of a boat very well. I simply can not explain what a great addition these are to a boat stereo, they come in smaller sizes as well....get them up high http://www.amazon.com/LANZAR-OPTIBT4...lanzar+tweeter


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Great info guys! Much appreciated. You all have some sweet setups, that's for sure!

Question about the sub. I plan on using the original location..mounted through the rear bench seat wall. Has anyone built an enclosure to enclose the back of the sub?

Take the time to build at least a sealed box to specs for the sub. You can also go ported, however it is a little more complicated. I always use a box, and for my listening I like sealed for better sound quality. The box will raise your SPL on the sub, making it sound louder and handle more power without worrying about over excursion.

Under seat I have used the floor in the boat for one wall, seat base and fire wall for the others. Build up sides with wood and add a top sealing all joints with 3M 4200. Relatively simple to do. Make sure you have at least the minimum box size.

A free air speaker doesn't mean no enclosure, or a crappy sealed enclosure. It simply means the enclosure can be any size. Air leaks from your seat rob you of sound. And waves from the back of the speaker cancel out the waves from the front, unless tuned at a specific hz (ported). Get her sealed up and enjoy the new sound.

I totally agree with this. My 6.5" components cost me 60 each set. Subs were $45 each. Total was less than 400. Setup is very important.

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I decided to go with the Kicker 11km6lw. They have led lights and the 3 pairs were under $240 from amazon. Now with the speakers I realize how bad my head unit sounds. I am trying to find a good unit to replace the Clarion XMD1. Is this a single din? Also, any recommendations on units under $300?

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Nice speakers. I use Sony marine head units, cdxm60. Comes with remote, it's bullet proof, and inexpensive on amazon. The clarion unit you have is a single DIN hole but the face plate is a DIN and a half. If you use a single din you will have 4 screw holes to cover from the clarion face plate.

Have you thought about a 4 channel amp? Part of your sound problem is the fact that you now have higher wattage speakers, so the spl is lower at the same wattage of your old ones. Takes more power to push the new speakers. IMO every boat should have an amp. And if I were on a limited budget I would always chose an amp over upgrading the head unit you have now...but an upgrade to both would be best.

Thanks 4bus. The amp will probably come next. It has the clarion amp now that pushes the 4 speakers and sub in the cockpit area. The two bow speakers are pushed from the head unit. I get static through all the speakers, I first thought it was the amp, but I unplugged the amp and listed to the two bow speakers and there was no improvement. The Clarion will also periodically kick into "accs" mode, which requires pulling it out and unplugging the wiring harness to reset. It's time for an upgrade, that's for sure.

I am having a hard time finding that Sony, Amazon has some used ones, but I can't find any new.

Fusion Head units are about the most versatile on the market right now. The 600 series can be had for around $300ish. I recently installed the 700i series in my boat and absolutely love it. Color display, Internal ipod dock, added Bluetooth, it is NMEA 2000 bus, and also Ethernet capable. The Ethernet is pretty cool. Basically it will plug into a wired network. So what I did was buy a Linksys wireless router (has a 110v to 12v adapter, just cut the 110 adapter off and wired direct to 12v source) at Best Buy for $40 plugged the 700 series radio into it, and then I use an old iphone 4 (in a lifeproof water tight case) to fully control the radio. This make it so there is no need to install the external wired remotes. I can perform every function from my iphone as long as I am in range of the wireless network.

Look into these... I got these from a place that advertised them as memphis. I was upset when I got them, but for the price I gave them a shot. They are memphis 2013 line rebranded, they are the exact same thing. Down to the boards and capacitor size and brand in the Xovers. I'm very impressed with there preformance and price.

http://www.djmarineaudio.com

Memphis Audio

Caraudiogiants.com

Save up and get JL Audio. I got M770 components for $275/ pair with 3 year warranty.

Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead, but do those Lanzar tweeters have some type of cross-over? Did you just wire them in parallel with the Polk DB ? Thanks guys!

Curious about this as well. Thinking I could build a mount for these on top of the dash in each corner under the windshield and point them back into the cabin. The price is right.....

I just picked up a set of these as well. There is no built in crossover so you need an amp with a high pass filter. I plan to build little enclosures for the dash too.

Also going with the polk.... just put 4 6.5's in my boat replacing the factory ones and sound 1000% better and got 4 on Amazon for under 100.