EXCELLENT REVIEW OF THE TOP 10 MARINE SPEAKERS - Good Advice !

[MikeyL]

APRIL 32, 2015 EDITED NOTE: This website has been changed to:

"2015 TOP MARINE SPEAKER REVIEW"

It is totally changed all of the rankings. VERY surprising. For example, Wet Sounds is now rated 10th, the worst, and they do explain why. Anyways, I feel sure many are going to comment back in, and there are going to be those who dismiss everything this website states, but it makes for good reading nevertheless. And they do make some valid, and in some cases surprising, comments about some of the speakers.,
http://marine-speakers-review.toptenreviews.com/
Also, based on this additional comment, I have editted mine here to include this, from @Master-Spud, as i feel it merits noteworthiness !

"Just some food for thought on the whole toptenreview... I don't mean to start an argument if the site is legit or not, but some contrast is always good.

http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.toptenreviews.com"

==> Last April 21, 2015 comment: Since the "2015 Review" has changed so dramatically in "valid" content, it now appears that the validity and usefulness of this site is greatly diminished. If you do not understand the meaning of "valid" here, consider how ANY reliable review of Marine speakers does NOT include JL's most popular speaker ...... The MX650-CCX's !

Many peoples are looking for good advice on marine speakers.

There are several members herein who actually know what they are talking about.
However, sometimes, members wish to have more definitive advice.

Herein is a Wonderful, and ACCURATE comparison of the Top 10 Marine speakers.

http://marine-speakers-review.toptenreviews.com/

Please note this: There is a light blue rectangular box called "review" right below the price shown. If you click on that, you will get far more DETAILED information about that particular speaker - And the information is extremely useful.

Hopefully y'all will find this useful in your searches. Mikey Lulejian - Lake Oconee, GA

 

[dan144k]

Polk MM651UM (gold award winner)
I replaced the four stock speakers in my boat and added 2 on the swim deck.
Put in switches to select (swim port or bow port) and (Swim starboard or stearn starboard)
NO AMP and boat sounds great for our family now.

 

[Williamsone46]

Awesome source, Thanks @MikeyL. I wonder if there's anything like this for tower speakers?

 

[ScarabMike]

My Kickers were #7!! LOL.

Great info @MikeyL.

 

[Julian]

Interesting review, but there are a lot of things this article don't mention or glosses over. Sound quality is one of the hardest things to measure...and I've done it for a living....the following article summarizes the problem quite well:

http://www.cnet.com/news/can-sound-quality-be-measured/

Just because a speaker can reproduce a test tone well doesn't mean it will reproduce music well, and not to mention...all the different kinds of music.

@MikeyL I don't mean to say that this review is useless, but it needs to be balanced by a careful assessment by the purchaser. Ideally you'd connect each of your speakers to YOUR source and your music in your listening area and decide with your own ears, but this is never practical. Typically the best you can do is test them side by side in a store, but even then this can be difficult (cranking the volume in a store is frowned up).

So what do you do? Buy one of these top speakers and you'll likely be pretty happy. Listen to the advice of experts, but be careful about where their allegiances are - many are dealers for a particular brand and might be getting volume kick backs or might have old stock they are trying to move. And most important....trust your ears....if you like the sound...smile and be happy!

I was surprised to the the Polk MM speakers rated over the JLs....only because there are quite a lot of folks on here that swear by the JLs.....

 

[veedubtek]

I too am very surprised at the Polks over JL or WS. Really hard not to consider them as they are half the price of the other 2, but I remain skeptical.

I went googling for a tower speaker list last night @Williamsone46 , but came up empty. I do keep finding more and more good info on those RF 282's, which are hard to pass up for the price, but I want to do this only once.

 

[MikeyL]

A few points @Julian: First, I think you make excellent observations. 2 years ago, my original decision to purchase our 6 JL's (MX650's) was BASED on this website, (After JL's were first recommended strongly to us by close friends, who also appreciate "music") - and after the install, both Barbie & I HEARD the musical difference WITHOUT an amp.

What I find MORE interesting is that for about 25% of the price of some WET SOUNDS the Pioneer came out SUBSTANTIALLY ahead of the Wet Sounds, and this review appears to also say ... If you do not have an amp, Pioneers make a good choice. In fact the review almost says this is NOT a good choice if you have external amplification. And we read often that many of our members here wanna have been improved SOUND QUALITY without investing in an external amplifier.

As to now "why" the rankings may have come out the way they did ........
It is my personal opinion it is all a case of Effective Industry Marketing. Both JL and WetSounds spend a ton of $ working with installers and dealers, and doing trade shows. They effectively PROMOTE their products and to the intended audiences. Until this review came out, I did not even realize Pioneer had Marine-grade speakers. Now what is funny is that in our MKX, we replaced the stock plastic Sony speakers with Pioneers, and we could not be happier. This is the 2nd time we have done the same thing, as we also did it in our previous Ford Edge. The SOUND difference, and total QUALITY was immediately obvious. But again, I would never have considered or thought of Pioneer - for a MARINE solution - until I found this website a couple of years ago.

These are only MY opinions. I DO feel the review raises good and bad points about each speaker that some may not have known previously. And both a) summarizes these points and b) compares the points effectively. The intent of starting this thread was simply to provide members here with 1 more tool they might use before spending money on an audio upgrade.
Thanks to all, Mikey Lulejian - Lake Oconee, GA

 

[redthumper9]

veedubtek.....the polk speakers they are referring to are the MM series which are along the same price range as the JL's.

Those of you looking for tower speakers....I want to share a little advice that helped me in my purchase. If you like LOUD, and you EVER think that you will engage in wake sports where you want to hear your music at rope length, bite the bullet and go with some form of HLCD speaker (ie. Exile Audio, Wet Sounds,etc). What these speakers do properly driven, is almost freaky. I personally went with Exile because of their price point and quick release swivel mount that comes standard. When I was researching for my first purchase, the Rockford's were really appealing and I nearly went that route, but I am glad I went the direction I did. I'm sure the Rockford towers (or Polk, JL, etc) will do the job very nicely if you are just into lounging at the cove or sandbar. It was a hard decision for me, because the first set of HLCD'S I ever heard, were mine.

 

[veedubtek]

Maybe I'm just shopping on the wrong site. The Polks are $140, JL's @ $220, and WS @ around $260 I believe on Amazon. (MM651UM vs MX650)

 

[redthumper9]

MikeyL......I to, do not put alot of faith in reviews like this, but here is my take. We all know that JL, Wetsounds, etc. make fantastic equipment.....top of the line.....but I get really bent when elitist get on forums and act like you can't possibly be happy with your stereo system unless you have JL or Wetsounds. I realize their equipment is first rate, but there are alot of us that simply don't have the budget for that stuff. My stereo last year consisted of Polk in boats, Rockford amps, and Subs and Exile towers. Now I have gone on to change some things this year, but I never heard anyone get in my boat and say......WOW, that would sound so much better with JL speakers......or WOW, those amps sure don't sound like the SYN amps from Wetsounds. Maybe they did say it and I didn't hear it because I was too busy taking song request or watching the girls on the sandbar shake what their momma gave them. Point is, do your best to get quality equipment that will last. Like Julian said....listen to experts and trust your ears. Take any free advice you can get and avoid getting caught up in thinking you have to have a certain kind of equipment to be happy. If you like the way your Pioneer or Polk or Kicker stuff sounds.....that's what matters. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise

 

[redthumper9]

Veedubtek......that's a good price on the Polks, but you can shop around and get the JL'S for around $169. Try Earmark Marine. Email Odin and ask him for the best price. I was able to buy all six of my JL650's locally for $169 a pair.

 

[MikeyL]

@redthumper9 .. could not agree more. Except that I feel the review can ASSIST members in their decision.
I use both a Rockford amp and marine 10" subwoofer in my Yamaha. Heresy you say ? ! WOW ! ..... That's not WetSounds.
But "It's (ie, Rockford) great quality, SOUNDS excellent, and is of quality construction.
The point being the review is a useful tool. And they make some important OBJECTIVE observations.
Again, all of this is simply my personal opinion, and I felt sharing a "tool" was a good idea.

 

[redthumper9]

@redthumper9 .. could not agree more. Except that I feel the review can ASSIST members in their decision.
I use both a Rockford amp and marine 10" subwoofer in my Yamaha. Heresy you say ? ! WOW ! ..... That's not WetSounds.
But "It's (ie, Rockford) great quality, SOUNDS excellent, and is of quality construction.
The point being the review is a useful tool. And they make some important OBJECTIVE observations.
Again, all of this is simply my personal opinion, and I felt sharing a "tool" was a good idea.

You're absolutely right MikeyL. I just meant personally am not going to get much out of that review, but I'm sure it could help other members.

 

[David Analog]

Sorry in advance because I don't want to trample on something that was done in the right spirit. But I have to interject and share my knowledge on this. I just can't overcome my compulsion to call out B.S. and this review has to be questioned.
I find the review more useless than useful. It's simply not factual. Here's why. The review is going mainly on the same information that you can collect and assemble from various product brochures. They are comparing unqualified specs from different manufacturers that have different standards. The review author has a very poor understanding of audio in general judging from many of his comments. They take the written propaganda at face value, plus the specs at face value, plus the market pricing as they perceive it, compile it and introduce that data into a value formula. They have not listened to all these speakers under real world conditions.
Don't get me wrong, the Polk Audio MM UM is a very good speaker and deserves to be among the top candidates. But here is just a few examples of what is wrong using it as an example. It is NOT several dB more sensitive than the bulk of the other speakers. In fact the less expensive Polk Audio dB series is actually more sensitive. The best sounding speakers are NEVER, EVER the most sensitive speakers. Sensitivity is the indiscriminant peak output at 1 watt. So the most erratic, non-linear and undamped speaker would normally be first in sensitivity. Furthermore, sensitivity in no way is an indication as to the efficiency of a speaker. Do you want to know what the maximum output is at 1 watt at a single peak unweighted frequency or do you want to know what the average & weighted output is over a broad bandwidth at 25 watts input like you would REALLY use and perceive a speaker?
40 Hz low frequency extension??? A totally bogus specification. That would be below the midbass driver's free-air resonance. Can the speaker actually produce 40 Hz at any sound pressure level? Yeah, maybe at 40 dB down, which would be totally inaudible to you and me. Just another unqualified spec. No +/- dB qualifier applied to the bandwidth.
And I've only begun to scratch the surface of the B.S. in this review.

 

[McMark]

Are you guys able to listen to the stereo while crushing along? Or is it more for when you are just hanging out? Im curious if you can hear a difference over wind noise? I like good stereo stuff but if it's more of a floating thing, I'll probably just suffer with the stock speakers that are in the AR.

 

[Bruce]

From my cursory review of the article I also felt that it was based on interpretation of published number, some of which are wrong, and written by someone with limited experience or understanding of basic electronic theories. My guess is that the primary purpose of the article is to generate advertising revenue by covering a lot of key words. In the worst case scenario it could simply be paid product placement.

@McMark, with the stock speakers in my SX230 the audio quality was poor above 20 MPH. I upgraded the four stock speakers in the cabin and even without an amplifier we could clearly hear the words to music at full throttle. Your 2015 has better speakers and is quieter in stock form so I expect that you would see less benefit from a speaker only upgrade.

 

[d_coyne1984]

Does anybody know when Wet Sounds was founded? I know both Polk and JL were founded in the 70's and have a vast amount of experience engineering speakers. I would venture to say that Polk is the largest manufacturer among thee three which would lead me to believe they have the most money to throw into engineering so I am not at all surprised that Polk topped this list. I have always said that Polk is the best bang for your buck brand when it comes to audio. That said Polk also focuses as much time on home audio as car/marine audio where as JL and Wet Sounds are auto/marine (although I did see that JL makes a small line of home subs, but for the sake of argument I don't think that really counts). I have always been a proponent of JL's as well, but never found them worth the higher price personally. I am very skeptical about Wet Sounds however. In fairness, I have never heard any, but I have a hard time not getting the impression that these speakers bank heavily on their "branding image" that has become such a huge deal these days and the fact that they are "loud" . Has anyone who has heard these things found that to be true or can these really compete with Polk and JL for quality?

 

[MikeyL]

........ Does anybody know when Wet Sounds was founded? I know both Polk and JL were founded in the 70's ................

ANSWER: Approimately 2005, according to the company. Hope this helps. Mikey Lulejian - Lake Oconee, GA

 

[MikeyL]

........ these speakers bank heavily on their "branding image" that has become such a huge deal these days and the fact that they are "loud" . Has anyone who has heard these things found that to be true or can these really compete with Polk and JL for quality? ...........

What's really amazing is how people totally disregard the Pioneer brand marine speakers. They are just "too cheap" and "low grade" peoples say.
Without actually having ever heard them. Why? Because it's not "COOL" to say you just INVESTED in Pioneer speakers as an audio upgrade on your boat.
Life is funny. That's my 2 cents worth for a sunny, 74 degree weather day on Lake Oconee, GA

 

[David Analog]

Does anybody know when Wet Sounds was founded? I know both Polk and JL were founded in the 70's and have a vast amount of experience engineering speakers. I would venture to say that Polk is the largest manufacturer among thee three which would lead me to believe they have the most money to throw into engineering so I am not at all surprised that Polk topped this list. I have always said that Polk is the best bang for your buck brand when it comes to audio. That said Polk also focuses as much time on home audio as car/marine audio where as JL and Wet Sounds are auto/marine (although I did see that JL makes a small line of home subs, but for the sake of argument I don't think that really counts). I have always been a proponent of JL's as well, but never found them worth the higher price personally. I am very skeptical about Wet Sounds however. In fairness, I have never heard any, but I have a hard time not getting the impression that these speakers bank heavily on their "branding image" that has become such a huge deal these days and the fact that they are "loud" . Has anyone who has heard these things found that to be true or can these really compete with Polk and JL for quality?

Hold on there. Let's add some actual facts to this conversation. First, let me say that I generally like Polk Audio car and marine speakers and believe they are a good value. But there isn't a morsel of sound reasoning when comparing Polk Audio to JL Audio or Wetsounds based on history or past engineering.
Polk Audio is no longer Polk Audio. There have been just too many Polk Audio manifestations. DEI, Direct Electronics, bought Polk Audio 12 volt a decade or so ago. Basically DEI was an alarm company....Viper, Python, AutoStart, etc. Over time they changed into a holding company for any number of products for which they had no expertise. Domestic engineering gets cast off. They simply market the name and import products from Asia, allowing China to do the engineering. Polk Audio, PPI, and a number of pure marketing brands share amplifier platforms. Polk Audio home speakers is an entirely different entity, and their future direction could be considered vague. Polk, not Polk Audio, black box head units may actual be a licensing agreement with Prospec who imports that product.
Every JL Audio marine speaker is researched, designed & tested in this country, and built in this country, with 100% proprietary JL Audio parts.
Wetsounds may be more recent, and they certainly didn't invent the HLCD, as it has been around since the 1920's, but they have certainly brought a mountain of audio innovation to the wake market, with every other HLCD-based product being a direct Wetsounds knock-off.