Upgrade speakers 04' SSV??

I just got my new SSV! I love it, but the only problem is the factory speakers distort when you turn up the stereo. The tower speakers are pushed by a Kenwood 640Watt amp and they sound great at loud volumes, but the 6 1/2 are just run off the radio. I would like to replace the 6 1/2s. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to go with.
Thanks

Open ended question. How much do you want to spend. But the general answers are MB quartz, Focal, Crystals, Infinity.

But the problem may be the stereo. The "amp" is usually the culprit in distorting speakers. In this case it is the factory stereo. The factory stereo may have a high THD so when you turn it up loud the distortion gets amplified. Quality speakers may improve the sound but not necessarily the distortion. A quality amp combined with quality speakers will insure the sound you desire.

Can I run the 6 1/2s through the amp that I have now? The amp is a Kenwood w/640watts. The boat comes from the factory with a pretty nice head unit. Kenwood with sirius sat., 50x4 watts per channel. I would like to spend less than $400 on the complete package.

Teddy I put 4 Rockford Fosgate 6 1/2" on an Orion 7005 and man they sound good as hell. They sound really crisp clear. The only thing I found when I replaced my stock speakers is getting a true 6 1/2" speaker. Just because they say 6 1/2" does not mean it really is. I had to go with the Fosgates becasue the outer ring measures 7" and it covered my existing holes. I think the Fosgate Speaker # was something like 4306. They look and sound really good. Good Luck!

Pretty much all head units have a high THD when compared to quality amps. So even replacing your head unit may not solve your problem. As for using your current amp to run all the speakers in your boat... I doubt it. What model Kenwood is the amp? Is it a four channel amp? How many tower speakers are you running. Four ohms or two. Chances are you will need a second amp. A total budget of $400 for 6 6 1/2" speakers and a amp is unlikely. Sure you can buy lesser quality speakers and amps but when you decide to crank it you will still get distortion. The problem with car/boat audio is you can't have a weak link in your system. If you buy a cheap amp and expensive speakers your system will sound like crap. If you buy an expensive amp and cheap speakers it still can sound like crap. Then we have wiring. A lot of people on this board have spent more than $400 in wires alone. It really starts to add up.

Your boat is probably equipped with Kenwood Marine speakers. They aren't too bad. I would start off buying a quality four channel amp and hooking it up to your speakers. It definitely will sound better than running it off the deck.

I second the amp suggestion. In fact, try running a clean amp to the stock speakers before you buy new ones. You may be surprised with what your stock speakers are capable of when fed a clean signal. Also, depending on the amp you use for them, you should be able to crossover (limit) the low bass, which will REALLY help clean up the sound. Then again, if the speakers really DO suck, a nice amp won't be able to help them that much. Either way, putting in a quality amp is a good idea. (FYI, building a trap door in the driver's footplate on a Supra is a pretty stealth/handy place to mount an amp too

The factory speakers are only rated up to 50watts so I think the amp would blow them. The amp is a four channel. Two channels are still open. Right now all the amp pushes is the 2 MB quartz speakers in the tower. I would like to buy 4
6 1/2s and run them off of the current amp. Isn't
640watts enough for six speakers? I don't really know what an ohm is!!

In many applications, a good rule of thumb is to purchase an amp rated at twice the recommended continuous watts of the speakers you intend to use. This ensures a supply of clean, distortion-free power.

As I mentioned earlier, do not underestimate the effect of blocking bass signals to the speakers (if your amp has this) in preventing distortion. Also, Kenwood is hilarious in their amp wattage ratings. Which model Kenwood do you have? If it's the 8401 (their only multi-channel amp "rated" at 640 watts), and you have two speaker terminals free as you describe, you could actually add all four speakers to the two open channels (two speakers in parrallel on each open channel).

However, in this configuration, your amp would only be putting out 90 watts to each of the two speaker terminals you have free. That is, all four speakers would be sharing 180 watts, or 45 watts per speaker. And that's IF you've got 14V, and that's far from a certain thing.

So, long story short, I still would recommend another amp for these speakers with a crossover.

Teddy,
In the meantime, you can also set the HPF on the headunit itself to block the bass frequencies to the factory speakers in the boat. That can be accessed in the Audio setup section where you adjust bass, mid, treble etc. Change it from HPF thru to HPF 100 or higher and that should prevent some distortion. Hope that helps.

matt

Why did the boat come with a 4 channel amp if they were going to leave two channels open. Either there was foresight to amplify more speakers or it was a waste of money. Either way you can use the open channel to run the speakers in your boat. As matt said earlier, Kenwood overates their wattage. Your amplifier running multiple speakers in 2 ohm is only going to put out 360 watts not 640. It claims you can get 640 watts if you bridge all four channels into one speaker (like a sub). But I even question that.

Another problem is Kenwood amplifiers aren't very good. Their THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) is .8% That is high number it means a lot of distortion when you crank it. Now take a quality amp like PPI. Their similiar amp has a .08% THD. A much cleaner sound coming out. Of course the PPI amp costs twice as much as the Kenwood.

Start off by connecting the four boat speakers to the open channels of the amp and see how it sounds. It really wouldn't be hard to do. Cut the speaker wires from the back of the deck and connect them to the ampflier. 10-15 min job at most.

It would be except the deck and the amp are on other sides of front ballast opening. You will have to run new speaker wires to each speaker or 4 pair around the inside of that compartment. Been there - have this boat.
I solved the whole thing by unplugging the boat speakers and getting 2 pair of Mb Quart componet speakers for the tower. My amp was the 1200 watt Kenwood 5 channel. It drives the tower and a 12" sub. Turn that up and its plenty. We like to be able to at least talk (loudly). The last boat had too much inside. We have little ones with us too sometimes.