speaker ???'s
 

Need to my 4 Kenwood Marine 6" speakers in cockpit.

Looking at 6 1/2" Alpine coaxials and the Rockford Fosgates. Any thoughts on these 2 speakers or any other recommendations?

System currently has 2 Kenwood speakers in cabin powered from reciever 'front' speaker outputs, 4 new speakers in cockpit powered from MTX ProThunder 504 4 channel amp, 8" MTX sub built in an enclosure under the rear bench seat. (Not best location, but was installed by previous owner and I really do not want to change it)

Prefer to stay with round vs 6x9 for installation reasons. Thoughts???? What gives best sound.

Thanks

Try BOSS...........not Bose..........BOSS.........can be found on ebay under marine speakers. I bought some cuz they were cheap after installation they ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!

US1 Fountain,
I ended up cutting the holes to 6X9's. Audiofn set me up with Babbs 6x9's. I have four of them mounted in the cockpit powered by a 500s Rockford amp. No sub. They rock! I abuse them and they still sound great. They are very efficient speakers. I tried 6 1/2's and wasn't happy.
Dan

BTW, the Babbs have an ugly grill but are still worth it.

I got the Babb 6x9's from Audiofn also. Head unit power only (for now) and they ROCK.

If you can cut holes for the 6x9's, I highly recommend them.

I have sold Babbs for over 15 years and they are the best marine speaker on the market. The only problem is that they do not have a 6.5 inch speaker. Though the last time I spoke with them they were working on that problem. Poly Planar also makes a nice and good sounding marine speaker. Remember that the majority of speakers Manufacturers just change the color and call them marine speakers. Forrest

Thanks,
Will look into the Babbs.

So if a standard speaker costs half as much and lasts 3 or 4 seasons and a marine speaker costs twice as much and lasts 5 or 6 seasons,WHATS THE POINT in using a "marine " speaker anyway?

No rust for one. The Babbs have a polymer frame and grill all one peice. with a aluminum cone you can submerge the speakers and they will keep on playing. Poly Planars have stainless steel powder coated grills and come with stainless hardware. Tere is nothing worse than having rust stains bleed onto your interior. Besides these speakers sound great. www.babbspeakers.com
Stay away form the 10 inch as they do not sound that great. Forrest

speakers
 

It sounds like you are headed in the right direction to me. My personal preference is to use a variable frequency electronic crossover and additional amp or amps. An electronic crossover will provide a 3 db gain in efficiency over a passive crossover. To regain that 3 db in a passive system you must double your power. You can also dial in a variable crossover point to specifically suit your speaker system. I have 2 Fosgate 12 in subs in separate boxes and ten 6 X 9 JBL's. My subs are thru bolted w/3/8 in bolts w/large fender washers to the bulkheads of the boat and have large rubber washers between the fiberglass and the spkr cabinets. This coupling to the hull extends the lows tremendously as compared to just laying on the floor under the seat. My whole boat resonates with low frequency. My crossover has separate level control for low out plus front and rear levels as well for fine tuning.

I personally don't use marine spkrs. If my boat was smaller and the spkrs were in a "wet" area I might use marine spkrs.

The more power, the better. Lower power amps will "clip" much sooner than more powerful amps and thats one of the main causes of spkr failure. When the amps "clip" they are sending square wave to the spkrs and the voice coils will heat up. When hot, the voice coils will distort and rub the gap in the magnet. Eventually the voice coils will "open" and the spkr has failed.

Good luck in building your system.

The Babbs sound great and last. I have all sizes in stock as well as many amp deals. Feel free to reply to [email protected] or call me at my office in the am at 813-882-8477

Andy Buzz