I may be forced to go with the Focal 5.25 130CA1 speakers. Anyone have opinions on the Focal speakers?

Did you end up buying anything yet? If not let me know and I can provide you with some insight.

Why forced into Focals??? and why not a 6.5 ???

I just finished my installation of my DC Golds a pair of 6x9's(holes were already there) and a pair of 7's hooked up to an Alpine pdx 4.100 amp test rated at 127watts x 4. The Gain is set at about 2/3 and they sound awsome. Lots of bass and the highs are crisp and clear.

The only reason would be not enough space to fit the 6.5" speakers; forcing me to use a 5.25 which JL does not make in a Marine Speaker.

I went with a JL 10"W6v2 with a 500/1 JL Amp and 4 of the JL 6.5 Marine Cockpit speakers with a 300/4 JL Amp. I'll post after it is all installed next week with my reviews of the sound quality and some pictures of the installation.

JoeyS

PS Thank you for all your help and kindness. OSO is an amazing place.

You can't go wrong with JL stuff. I'm sure it will sound great.

Griff
Did you go with Classic or Reference line? I loved my Babb's and have pretty much made up my mind to go with the DC Gold.

Steve

I went with the Classic line. I just couldn't justify spending the extra $$ for reference line since they are not rated to handle more power.

Also, lafayette radio had them in stock and only charged about $18 to ship both pairs.

Yeah, the JL's sound much much better.
The focals did not hold up well in a marine enviroment. Not sure why. Put a set in Nauti-Props Donzi a few years ago, they lasted a year. He now has JL's.