Help me with speaker and amp selections

I am ready to put a system on my 2001. I have a monster tower that was just installed. I want soemthing i can hear behind the boat but dont watnt ospend an arm and a leg. What is a good option for me, but the cans and put my own speakers in them, or buy already together. I would like my cans to shine so keep that in mind. I have a black tower and the more bling the better. Also do i have to add an amp right away? I have no speakers in the boat so i could send all the power from the head unit up to them (52 X 4) I have soem money to spend on them but dont wantt to spend the big bucks to get eh best. I dotn want crap but somewhere inbetween

Well for one thing a stock head unit is barely good enough to power boat speakers so no it wont work to power your tower speakers. Sound,like speed, costs money so how loud do you want to go. Ive got three amps, two tower speakers, two 10" subs, and 4 infinity boat speakers.

You're never going to be able to hear tower speakers while riding if you're powering them with the head unit. I did a lot of research before getting my system and found I could get exactly what I wanted for cheaper if I bought the speaker cans and put my own speakers in them. I found a guy on Ebay selling chrome speaker cans for $170 a pair, I got 2 pair, put 4 new Sony Xplods in them (250 watts peak for each), and I'm powering them with an Alpine 4 channel amp (I also have 4 onboard Xplods, a JL Audio W7 10" and 2 more amps to power those...). Basically long story short, I'd probably buy the speaker cans and speakers seperate and I'd definately power the speakers with an amp.

Where can i get speaker cans on the internet. WHat kind and size of xplods did you put in them. How much $$? I dont know alot about spekares or amp but if i put tower speakers on and then sent all the power up to them from the head unit, that wouldnt be enough to hear them. The two tower speakers are all i have in the boat so the head puts out 52 watts per channel and if i bridge them that would be 104 watts to each speaker. If that not enough or does it not work that way. I am not a speaker buff so help me out.

I found my speaker cans on Ebay, and then ended up buying some from the seller off auction. At the time I found them on Ebay they were up to $175 a pair (I know they ended up going for more but I don't remember how much more). I emailed the seller and asked him if he had more to sell (I wanted 2 pair) and if he'd give me a deal for purchasing a second pair. He sold them to me for $170 a pair with $15 a pair for shipping so $370 total for the order. I couldn't find any of his cans on Ebay just now when I checked but his email is audio@velocitus.net if you want to email him diredctly, I'm pretty sure he makes them himself. They're chrome (almost guaranteed you won't be able to find chrome cans any cheaper than this) and they have removable backs so you could add forward facing speakers eventually if you wanted to. There are other companies that will put whatever speakers you want in their cans (www.piketech.net ...), but they're going to cost you a lot more. There are other cans and speakers on ebay (http://search.ebay.com/tower-speakers_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ1QQfromZR10QQcoac tionZcompareQQcopagenumZ1QQcoentrypageZsearch) but you really won't be able to find chrome or polished aluminum for any cheaper than this and you said you wanted your cans to shine. I have the 6.5 inch XS-V1635X in them (http://sm.crutchfield.com/S-ubONBzkTBKz/cgi-bin/ProdGroup.asp?c=10&g=52000&s=45&cc=01&avf=N&search =) Sony lists them as $99 a pair but I got them from a company off ebay for $45 a pair (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=18799&item=5706560 883). Some people will say you should put Infinitys or MB Quartz in there but I know people who have spent over $200 a pair on those and they really don't sound noticably better than mine. I doubt you're really going to be able to get 104 true watts to each speaker from the head unit and even if you do, getting it loud enough for the rider to hear it is probably going to cause it to distort (I have 2 friends that have tried and that's what happened). I'd highly recommend a good amp.

Presicion Metal Works in Rancho Cordova, CA is selling empty speaker cans for cheap. I just bought some tower clamps from them of ebay and they were cheap. Look for user ID raul659 on ebay and see what he has for sale. If not you can possibly us ebay to get a message to them. I know they are just getting their shop opened up.