selecting marine speakers and full system

pololax1

Recruit
Joined
Mar 27, 2010
Messages
3
First I would like to apologize for the extremely long post in advance?.
I am looking for some marine speakers for my boat I have narrowed down what I think are decent speakers for a decent price range for me. I currently have 2 junk stock speakers that are shot and will be thrown away.

The brands I am considering are Kenwood, Kicker, and Cadence.
All speakers are somewhat comparable based on specs and price. Im looking for speakers that sound good with great clarity as most of the time I will be outside the boat in the water. Im looking to get 6 speakers total; 2 in the open bow and 4 in the cockpit.
Im going for 6.5 inch component speakers which all have some type of crossover. The main specs I have been looking at are the RMS wattage, sensitivity, and frequency all which I have been lead to believe are the most important

Kenwood specs?. 100 Watt RMS, 91db sensitivity, 30-35khz freq, ? inch tweeter, 6.5 inch woofer; but on spec sheet says 65 rated input power, 1 inch tweeter, 6.75 woofer
http://www.kenwood.ca/Car_Entertainment/Marine/KFC-P1603MRS
Kicker specs? 75 Watt RMS, 88 db sensitivity, 35-21 kHz freq, 1 inch tweeter, 6 inch woofer; external crossover is 18 high/12 low db
http://www.kicker.com/km_components
Cadence specs?. 75 watts RMS, 96 db sensitivity, 35-20 kHz freq, unknown tweeter, 6.5 inch woofer, external crossover
http://www.cadencestore.com/ProductCart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=131&idproduct=306#details
Im leaning with going with the kenwoods as my buddy said they would most likely sound the best. Then most likely choose kicker. The cadence look good based on specs but have never really heard of them before so I don?t know if they sound as good as the specs lead me to believe.

As far as the amp I am looking at
MB Quart Nautic NAU660. It is a six channel marine grade amp. A/B class amp, 70 amp fuse, low/high/full pass crossover, gold plated power components, signal-to noise ratio 93 db, 0-6 db bass boost, mosfet power
60 watts x 6 channels at 4 ohms, 180 watts x 3 channels at 4 ohms (some say at 1 ohm)
http://www.mbquartusa.com/nautic_amps_features.html#
or 2 Power Acoustik PS4-840 They are each 4 channel marine grade. A/B class amp. Unspecified fuse, low/high/full crossover, platinum plated components, signal to noise ratio 97 db, 0-18 db bass boost, mosfet power
80 watts x 4 channels at 4 ohms,
(don?t have company website as model is discontinued other places are selling it)
I am leaning more towards 2 power acoustik amps based on RMS and other features. If I could bridge the MB Quart I don?t think I would get enough RMS based on the ohms.

The deck I have I will be replacing with a kenwood KTS-400MR marine deck with wired remote. It seems to have all the features I want at a reasonable price. Is there another deck I should be looking at with the same features and comparable price? Maybe the Kenwood KMR-440U or other brands?
Here are the links
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_045MP400MR/Kenwood-KTS-MP400MR.html?search=kenwood+marine&ssi=0
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_113KMR440U/Kenwood-KMR-440U.html?search=kenwood+marine&ssi=0

The boat is already hooked up with a sub and a mono amp to power it.
I am not sure what they are as the boat is still in storage but they work fine for now and will most likely replace them both when one of them go. Also have a battery selector with dual batteries and charger so no worries with adding new speakers.

I did all this research being most budget minded as possible sacrificing the least amount of quality. Any helpful comments would be appreciated. Yes I know I could buy top quality like JL audio and professional tower speakers but I can?t afford it so please leave those comments out.
 

fsjcowboy

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Jul 22, 2009
Messages
41
Re: selecting marine speakers and full system

Check out woofersetc.com .
 

slia67

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jul 11, 2007
Messages
272
Re: selecting marine speakers and full system

What kind of boat do you have?

If you will be spending most of your time in the water listening to the tunes, I would recommend looking at some type of enclosed speaker that you can mount on your swim platform (and easily remove when you are underway). Someone in the water will benefit greatly by having speakers mounted facing downward toward the water. Your bow and cockpit speakers at best will be firing towards each other inside of a box (boat hull) that the only opening will be towards the sky which will limit sound travel to the swimmers.

Hope this makes sense.

To answer your question,... I don't know anything about the Cadence speakers. The Kenwood have a higher sensitivity level which indicates that they are a more effecient speaker, plus I like Kenwood. Kicker has always been a decent speaker, but you will need more power to drive them to achieve the same decibel level as the Kenwoods.
 

Audio Greg

Cadet
Joined
Mar 30, 2010
Messages
26
Re: selecting marine speakers and full system

A couple of things your last salesman didn't tell you....

The "specs" are given by the speaker/amp company.

Design and material quality are more important than numbers.

Doubling the power will not double the volume. In fact, it will only give you a 3dB increase (which is about what it takes for human ears to identify a change in volume).

Your boat, my opinion:
If you do not already have component speakers, buy high quality coaxial speakers for near the same price you will spend for low quality component speakers. If your old speakers are components, I like Kenwood over the two other brands.

I haven't had a chance to play with the MB Quart Marine amps, but they still win my thumbs up over Power Acoustic. I would not use the Power Acoustic amps.

Good luck,
Greg
 

dedios

Cadet
Joined
Mar 22, 2010
Messages
26
Re: selecting marine speakers and full system

Sometimes when reading thru threads like this one and reading some of your replies, i find myself cracking up in front of my computer. I really appreciate the humor, keep it up
 
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