JL Audio 8.8-inch Premium Marine Coaxial System

Wow. First JL had the 7.7 and now they have the 8.8". Did anyone on here get to CES and get a listen to these? I have been impressed with the sound of the 7.7" speakers that are in my friends Epic and I can only imagine how good these sound.

Miramar, FL — Many were puzzled when JL Audio introduced their 7.7-inch marine speakers a few years ago. However, as soon as people heard them, they quickly realized that quite simply, a bigger speaker delivers better efficiency and bass extension at high output levels, leading to louder, cleaner output.
Following that logic, JL Audio's engineers set out to create an even more powerful marine coaxial. The result is this 8.8-inch diameter monster, which offers a significant performance advantage over the previous 7.7-inch models, and a huge advantage over conventional 6.5 inch marine coaxials (twice the cone area will do that for you).
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The bass is so impressive that the M880-CCX can be used without a subwoofer while still packing a serious low-frequency punch. When used with a subwoofer, they offer vastly better dynamics and mid-bass impact than smaller speakers.

http://www.jlaudio.com/header/News/P...+better/885893

Based on the midbass performance and smoothness of JL's 7.7-inch speakers the 8.8" should be absolutely incredible. They also went with a much larger and proprietary dome tweeter in the 880 to be better balanced with the larger midbass driver. There should be lots of applications in off-shore boats and go-fast boats but it will be a challenge to retro these into many of the towboats. Hopefully there will be a 'T' version to follow in a tower pod as this would make an amazing surf speaker. And can you imagine how well the in-boat version will integrate with a super powerful subwoofer system. Bass tonal construction will take on a whole new meaning.

David
Earmark Marine

Looks like they came out with a new tower speaker too but it's only a 6.5". Could probably put these in an aftermarket can though but I am not sure if they would sound any better than a WS or Exile tower speaker at that point. Do you think 1 pair in a cabin would benefit the overall sound? I was thinking that it might not be good to mix different brands of speakers though.

The 5" of mounting depth could be a problem for a lot of folks too, that's really deep!

If only I could figure out how to replace the inboats with these.. Though 3 pairs is going to be pricey as well.