Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5" Marine Speakers?

[TheChad]

Hey all,

In my 2005 Lowe Fish & Ski, It came with a JBL stereo, and Sea Worthy Speakers.

The speakers sound like crap. They are dual cone type speakers.

I am in the market to get some nicer speakers, but there arn't many place to go and listen to different marine speakers.

I know Infinity Makes great Car Audio speakers, so that is the direction I first looked, Infinity does make a 6.5" Marine Speaker. But does it sound as good as their Car Audio speakers?

Any input you guys have for who makes the best sounding 6.5" Marine speakers would be apperciated.

Thanks,

-TheChad

 

[Speedwagon]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Marine speakers do not sound as good as their equivalent(in price) car audio counterparts.

But anyone that you think makes decent/good car audio gear, will make decent/good marine audio gear.

If the speakers are in a location that they are not going to see alot of water, you can put car audio speakers in, in place of marine gear. The marine lines are designed to withstand more water splashing, and sometimes salt water. Car audio components do get wet on occasion, and normally work fine.

But "the best" is subjective, and really depends on the price you want to spend.

 

[TigerSharkCrazy]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

I installed some Boss marine 6.5's and they sound great and look great. Infinity's are a little pricey The cheapest place to buy them is cardomain.com. About 26.00 for the pair.

 

[Gone]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

As Speedwagon says, speakers are subjective. What sounds great to my ears sounds like crap to you.

What i usually recommend to friends is to go to a Best Buy, Circuit City or excellent car audio shop. Listen to their "best" speakers. A-B them against less expensive speakers in your price range. Pick the ones that more closely sound like the "best" speakers.
One caveat! The loudest speaker always sounds the best, even if it is junk. Try to equalize the volume level with between station noise before playing music.

 

[--GQ--]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

As Speedwagon says, speakers are subjective. What sounds great to my ears sounds like crap to you.

What i usually recommend to friends is to go to a Best Buy, Circuit City or excellent car audio shop. Listen to their "best" speakers. A-B them against less expensive speakers in your price range. Pick the ones that more closely sound like the "best" speakers.
One caveat! The loudest speaker always sounds the best, even if it is junk. Try to equalize the volume level with between station noise before playing music.

Crusty, I think you are referring to the type of music not sound. High degree of stereo separation is what make "sound" enjoyable to the ear no matter what "type" of music you listen to. Hence the term "surround sound". Although speakers reproduce "sound", it can only generate quality "sound" as good as the "head unit". In my opinion, speakers are not categorized by their ability to produce quality sound but by their ability to handle sound output since they are the last link in the chain. 8)

 

[--GQ--]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

However, I recommend Bose or Alpine speakers as a first choice.

 

[Gone]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

There are individual characteristics and criteria that apply to each part of the component selection process. It's different for the headunit than it is for the speaker.

He wanted to know how to tell a "quality" speaker. The test I recommended is a very good way to campare an individual speaker against another, (not pairs). The type of music matters only in its frequency make up when you are listening to specific parts of the sound spectrum. I often use three different types of music to evaluate speakers. Classical music is rich in highs. Guitars do well for the mids and the lows vary with speaker size as to what I choose.
Separation only applies to highs and lows. If you only want "sound" just pick the most efficient (db/W) speaker off of the spec sheet. I'm sure that you'll think that it's great. Yes, select a wattage that allows enough headroom to match your amp, usually 50% over but don't over do it. The efficiency will be reduced as it requires more power to move the larger voice coil around.
I've been buying and selling high end speaker systems for 40 years, just trying to give some tips on how to recognize junk.
As for junk, the Bose name has suffered greatly in the last 4 years due to poor product offerings, IMO. It used to be very good.
Not categorized by their ability to produce quality sound? Dude you need to read reviews more!

 

[mfgsuzuki]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Hey all,

In my 2005 Lowe Fish & Ski, It came with a JBL stereo, and Sea Worthy Speakers.

The speakers sound like crap. They are dual cone type speakers.

I am in the market to get some nicer speakers, but there arn't many place to go and listen to different marine speakers.

I know Infinity Makes great Car Audio speakers, so that is the direction I first looked, Infinity does make a 6.5" Marine Speaker. But does it sound as good as their Car Audio speakers?

Any input you guys have for who makes the best sounding 6.5" Marine speakers would be apperciated.

Thanks,

-TheChad

 

[mfgsuzuki]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Hey all,

In my 2005 Lowe Fish & Ski, It came with a JBL stereo, and Sea Worthy Speakers.

The speakers sound like crap. They are dual cone type speakers.

I am in the market to get some nicer speakers, but there arn't many place to go and listen to different marine speakers.

I know Infinity Makes great Car Audio speakers, so that is the direction I first looked, Infinity does make a 6.5" Marine Speaker. But does it sound as good as their Car Audio speakers?

Any input you guys have for who makes the best sounding 6.5" Marine speakers would be apperciated.

Thanks,

-TheChad

 

[mfgsuzuki]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Chad you are right. Infinity makes very good sounding speakers... have (4) 6x9's in my boat powered by an Alpine head unit. They were the best marine speakers I've heard loud and clear. They've even been under water and still sound great years later. The 6.5's sound great as well...good luck

 

[--GQ--]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Folks, the fact that a speaker sounds great is due mainly to the head unit. The technological differences between speakers are not that great. In fact the only difference is the type of materials used to make speakers. Certain material; paper foam produces low frequency (deeper bass) where plastic cone more in tune with mid-high frequency. They have NO affect on sound clarity or richness.

Again, sound output is only as good as the head unit that produces it. Mfgsuzuki, if you connect those same speakers to a cheap head unit other than an Alpine, you will notice the different. Big emphasis on clarity. Alpine are known for rich clear sound. Case and point; we all agree digital music is far better than analog. So if you digitize music from your analog tape would it sound as great? Of-course not because it's limited by the source (head unit) that produces it.

I do alot of editing. Part of my work is to edit "sound" files to match movie clips. With the type of software I'm using, I can add effect or degrade sound quality drastically. I can tell you no matter what speakers i use, the sound quality depends on my head unit. In this case my computer.

 

[Gone]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

There's an old axiom in the audio industry. Buy the best speakers that you can afford. Good speakers make even a crappy head unit sound good, but crappy speakers make an expensive headunit a waste of money!
I guess according to your logic mfrs are wasting their time in matching frequency response and cross overs to get a broad, flat reponse curve with no holes.
I respect your knowledge in other threads/fields but you're out of your league here!

 

[--GQ--]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Crusty, did you test to see if my "theory" is correct? I'm willing to bet a dime on a dollar.

 

[Gone]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

I'll go half way. Put your Alpine and an Audiovox headunit on an inexpensive dual cone speaker and you would not be able to tell the difference in a blind A-B test.
Put them on a triaxial speaker and you probably will be able to discerne differences.
The key is the speaker being up to the task.

 

[NBE]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

A lot of the reviews I read while looking for a system for my boat said that Pioneer had the best rated marine speaker. Of course we all know that reviews are like opinions....we all have one. But never the less I went with the Pioneers and absolutely love them.

 

[--GQ--]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

I'll go half way. Put your Alpine and an Audiovox headunit on an inexpensive dual cone speaker and you would not be able to tell the difference in a blind A-B test.
Put them on a triaxial speaker and you probably will be able to discerne differences.
The key is the speaker being up to the task.

Hmmm Crusty, I think you're trying to pull a fast one. There is only a small gap in stereo technology. Comparing two head units of similiar characteristics defeats the purpose of this subject. To keep everyone honest, a more extreme approach will yield better result. Like between a CD player and a tape deck. So to prove my point I did.

First test, a pair of Bose bookshelf speakers connected to an Alpine CD player in cd mode.

Second test, same hook-up with an addition of an Alpine DSP unit. A sound field processor used to create "sweet spot", listening position.

Third test, the same pair of Bose bookshelf speakers connected to a tape player "Walkman".


Need i explain the result? My point was/is a speaker is a dummy device. All it does is convert electrical pulses into sounds by vibrating back and forth.

 

[Speedwagon]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

I'll go half way. Put your Alpine and an Audiovox headunit on an inexpensive dual cone speaker and you would not be able to tell the difference in a blind A-B test.
Put them on a triaxial speaker and you probably will be able to discerne differences.
The key is the speaker being up to the task.

Hmmm Crusty, I think you're trying to pull a fast one. There is only a small gap in stereo technology. Comparing two head units of similiar characteristics defeats the purpose of this subject. To keep everyone honest, a more extreme approach will yield better result. Like between a CD player and a tape deck. So to prove my point I did.

First test, a pair of Bose bookshelf speakers connected to an Alpine CD player in cd mode.

Second test, same hook-up with an addition of an Alpine DSP unit. A sound field processor used to create "sweet spot", listening position.

Third test, the same pair of Bose bookshelf speakers connected to a tape player "Walkman".


Need i explain the result? My point was/is a speaker is a dummy device. All it does is convert electrical pulses into sounds by vibrating back and forth.

What it seems like you are trying to say, is that the $2 speaker that comes in a car stock, sounds just as good as a $100 speaker that replaces the $2 speaker, given the same head unit.

And that just doesn't pass the logic test. A $2 speaker uses a paper cone, and is normally just a coaxial speaker. The $100 speaker normally uses a seperate tweeter, either in the center of the cone(which is usually not paper), or out of the midbass driver entirely. And this makes a large difference in clarity and sound quality.

And I'll even go a step farther. A paper cone, under power, can begin to flex, which will lead to distortion. A kevlar or plastic(or whatever) cone, is more resistant to this flex under power, and will therefore yield a higher quality result.

I'm sure that the material, given enough money, could all be comparable to each other. But in the real world, cost is the issue, and these products are simply NOT comparable to each other.

But a stereo is only as good as it's weakest link. So a crappy speaker will make a crappy stereo, just as easily as a crappy head unit.

 

[Gone]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

GQ continue on with your test, you've only done half of the task.
You've used a bookshelf system that is up to the task for the first half. Redo your tests using a full range or dual cone speaker and see if the differences are so dramatic.
Speedwagon is right about the weakest link. At the moment, the item that has the most variables in quality is the speaker.

 

[Reel Poor]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

[color=lt blue]Stereo sound quality is all in the ears of the beholder. I prefer the sound tones and the durable quality of the pioneer speakers. Hands down.[/color]

 

[--GQ--]

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

Re: Who Makes The Best Sounding 6.5

SpeedWagon, the $2 stock speaker you're talking about is actually worth more than you think on a fair market price. The fact car manufactures are able to buy them in huge quantity at a cheaper price doesn't mean they are cheap with regard to "music quality".

Stock speakers in most cars have wattage(RMS) ratting lower than your average after market speakers. Not a fair comparison by any mean. Compound that with the fact people now-a-day listen to music at a higher volume, they don't perform best at such level. At this volume most stock speakers will be distorted thus lowering the "music quality". In any case it doesn't matter how much the speakers cost, when pushed beyond their ratting, they will become distorted. This fact often leads the mass consumers to believe stock speakers produce lower "music quality". Not the case.

Again the subject of this debate, to sum it up, does one particle brand of speakers produce higher "music quality" than another. The answer is NO. Your "$100 speaker" mentioned above doesn't fair any better than the stock "$2 speaker". You are paying for higher wattage(RMS) capability. Which means you can listen to music at a higher volume before distortion kicks in. Say what you will but no speaker will convert an 8 bit analog music source into 16 bit CD quality. Hint why bother with CD players, digital music for that matter when speakers can produce the same "quality music" from a tape player.

Anyhow feel free to read my post again. I said speakers technological differences are not that great. The different types material used in speakers construction don't account for enriching "music quality" any better than what the "head unit" sends out. And as far as the "weakest link" analogy goes, it doesn't apply in this situation. In a chain, each link is responsible for the unity of all the links. The weakest one will certainly disrupt that unity. Stereos speakers relationship on the other hand is more like a pyramid. Sh*t flows down hill. The head unit decides what sound to play and of what quality the sound should be played. The speaker is just a "yes man". Silver doesn't turn into gold coming out the speaker is what I'm saying.

And don't forget the plug on your next outing 8)