What is a top of the line Interior speaker

Currently I'm running 3 pairs of Infinity Kappa Perfect 6.1 component speakers for my interior speakers. These speakers just don't cut it and I've had issues with the crossovers. I'm looking for ideas on what you guys use for your boats, I need a speaker that can handle some serious abuse and not have to deal with issues of them cutting out. Thanks

Dont over look a good amp of proper output to.

I've been real impressed with the Wet Sounds zx-650's or the Kicker's marine line - KM's. Kicker offers both coaxial and components, 6" mids with 13mm, 20mm or 25MM tweets.

For inboat speakers I like the Polk Momo's. Haven't been able to hurt them yet.

nu: if you like the momo's you should check out the mm's .

for the money and the fact that they use neo magnets makes install quite nice,the down side is they take a couple of weeks to break in.

the momos sounded pretty good from what i could tell in a demo boat i was it. I wouldnt EVER recommend this, but i had a friend put focals in his boat. Sure they sounded awesome, but i told him they wont last a year because they definately arent meant to be in any weather. I think it would be really sweet if focal made an all weather speaker, imo you cant beat the sound quality for in car, and id like to see what they could do for the marine industry. Ive heard good things about the wetsounds interior speakers, but have not gotten to hear them yet. hopefully soon though

those new polk mm's look pretty nice. i really like the looks of the mm6501's. i just wish they would have made the grills all black--especially on the tweets. ryan, are the tweeters silver or black on the seperates? the pictures on polk are deceiving. i'm considering replacing my stock clarion 6.5in seperates with them. ryan, think i would be able to get the tweeters to fit right in the bow?

http://www.polkaudio.com/caraudio/products/marine/products/mm6501/

had the coaxial momo's in my last boat and they sounded great fwiw.

(Message edited by brucemac on January 05, 2009)

I like JL Marine 7.7 inch component speakers. They jam hard.

2nd Mike's recommendation ^^^^. I have been really happy with JL's and I play my music sort of loud sometimes

I am fan of wetsounds of the XS 650's. I have four in the boat with 125 watts going to each.

x3 Wetsounds XS-650's. For what you described... these fit the bill. Before you purchase, see if you can take a look at a set in person. The magnets are huge... they sound great... and are durable as hell. Get in touch with Tim White, he'll find you a dealer near you. Good luck

Bruce: i think you are looking at the mm6501um, those are essentially the same speaker except:

1/they are silver
2/ they have 4000 hrs sea spray as opposed to industry standard of 2000 hrs (like the regular mm6501)

3 the x-over in mountable to the back of the magnet or removable to remotely mount it

The JL makes a good product too, I am just not a fan of the harsher sounding tweeter (aka louder),very good speaker too.

i have not had the opportunity to test the wetsounds on the bench for parameters ,but from what I have heard (in boat) they sound very conducive to the outdoor (marine atmosphere).

Good Job Wet Sounds

IMO many speakers are subject to unfair criticism because of other underlying : amps, eq's, gaining ,etc.....
Many manufactures make good product (which ones will still perform and hold up when installs,tuning and usage are less than desirable.

I've got the kicker marines and am very pleased with the sound along with the marine enclosures and wiring etc.. that come with them.

spencer, what is your amp setup? 90% of the time, it's a problem with the power and not the speakers. Typically, speakers and crossovers don't blow up because of too much power. They blow from too little power.

Kevin, Sampsons uses Focal on their tower speakers so they must be able to stand up to the marine environment fairly well.

http://www.samsonsports.com/wakeboard_accessories_speakers.html

wetsounds 650's are the ones you want!! the rest are competing for second place. i put three sets in my boat and they are awsome!

As was said above, def. make sure that your speakers are getting enough power. I've seen far too many folks have problems with not enough power and blame it on the speakers themselves.

I haven't got to hear any Wetsounds coaxil's, but I'm sure they jam. I used Alpine Type S' in my boat last season and really liked them. The tweeters get a lil harsh on the high end when cranked. I'm gonna get stupid this year and switch them out for Dynaudio 2 ways for some kick ass mid bass and awesome clarity. I haven't had a "marine" speaker as my interior speaker since I've owned the boat and never had a problem, so I'll take my chances again.

(Message edited by muckinaround on January 05, 2009)

(Message edited by muckinaround on January 05, 2009)

boston pros. deff better then wet sounds

we have wet sounds tower and in boat. the in boat speakers sound beyond amazing. i like them over JL

CDT or Zapco should do the trick.

Then there is Lightning Wakeboard Accessories that is made by Arc Audio. 150 rms watts and sound very good...

I have ARC's for my interior speakers and they sound awesome.

They look nice. What do 6.5's run a set?

Depends on the line of Arc's you are refering too...

I have DSL in my car... you could be into the thousands... lol

In all honesty... many good speakers, key is in the AMP, Cables and sound source... clean signal=clean sound!

Second Hate N Pain on the zapco , especially since zapco has a huge price break at the moment .A little steeper in price than the rest discussed here,but right now a very good deal.

oh.... reference reds/ blue

They are a modified ARC 6000 speaker specific to the marine environment (http://www.arcaudio.com/productdescription_pages/speakers/arc-series/arc6000.asp) from my understanding.

Lightning Accessories (http://www.lightningaccessories.com/)

My SQ Set-Up. Clean Clean Clean:
-(1) Zapco 360.4 driving one pair Polk Momo 6.5's and one pair Polk Momo 6x9's
-(1) Zapco 500.1 Driving JL 10W6 Sub
-(1) Zapco 350.2 Driving one pair wetsounds Pro60's,
-(1) 4D AGM Battery (Weighs 130#)
-155A Balmar Alternator
-Pioneer DEH-P800PRS (Top of the Line SQ head unit with the Burr Brown ADCs)
-Pioneer IPOD adapter (IP-BUS type)
-Zapco SP4L Pre-Amp.

I could not go with Pro 80's because I did not have room for larger amps (750.2's). I might add another pair Pro60's and another 350.2.

This system is so amazingly clean sounding. Everyone who listens to it is amazed. I also have an FAE to keep the engine sound down. It makes a difference....

Thanks for all the input, as for power I have plenty but where the stereo shop found issues is with these particular speaker themselves. For boat installs they do a lot of the Rockford Power series components and never had any issues with them. Anyone have any feedback on those?

I have 2 pair of the Lightning/ARC's on the tower run buy the ARC Foose 4150 amp....they rip pretty good. The kids will be hearing impaired by their teens for sure

I'm looking for interior speakers not tower, I'm running NVS on the tower. Anyone have any feedback on the Power Series Rockford components?

i've run those kappa perfects before, they're killer speakers...if your stereo guys can't get those sounding better than a pair of Rockfords, you need to find a new shop.

Wetsounds XS 650

The perfects sound good but the way I play my music is on loud all the time. The perfects are a great speaker but for a Marine enviroment I've had issues. Even my shop said the Kappas's which is a step below them does better. Not sure why but being this shop does a lot of custom boat intalls and are very well respected I'm going to trust them.

Patrick,

Looks sweet in the supra! Red interior is pretty sick.

Here are some close up shots of the XS-650.

And here are some details about the XS-650 and things to compare when looking at speakers for in boats.

-Component style coax. So separate tweeter and woofer so no worry of water intrusion down a pole piece like a typical coax.
-Thick rubber surround. We also thermoform the surround to the cone (melted together) so there is no glue to fail.
-Larger magnet with larger voice coil. higher power handling, more mid bass punch, rubber boot over magnet to protect it and keep the magnet from rusting
-composite frame we call Nylas (nylon fiberglass) many use plastics as well which is fine but try to stay away from a stamped steel frame that will rust.
-Coated tinsel leads. Leads are coated as well to protect them from moisture. Make sure the leads are not exposed. As this is a point of failure.
-we use a special rubber spider. So even the spider is marine. Most marine speakers use a coated cloth. But most car coaxs use plain cloth spiders that will deteriorate over time and dry out etc..
-perimeter venting on the frame. Same technology used in a lot of subwoofers (our subs as well) This allows higher power handling as the voice coil can stay cooler. These are the small holes in the second pic. Holes that are under the spider above the magnet.
-Titanium tweeter. We tune our speakers for a boat. So the freq response is tailored for a marine environment. Crisp highs, lots of mid bass. Made to play loud and clean and lots of punch. When at the lake, the system is ripping and it is rock or rap etc...Not jazz or classical. So we tune the speakers for this type of music and environment.
-Install, can't see it from the pic but there is a large air cooled capacitor for the tweeter integrated into the grille. So there is no need to install a crossover box. Making it an easier install.

Hope this gives ya'll some ideas on what to look for and areas to compare to. So take a look at which ones you like and compare these areas and then take a listen to them if you can do the demo.

Tim
Wet Sounds

My vote is for the 6.5" Polk Momo's, they are great quality and rock. Just my thoughts.

(Message edited by scwellman on January 15, 2009)