marine amplifier quality question

[fishdog4449]

For the Wellcraft's new stereo, since I use my IPod the majority of the time instead of installing a cd/fm/am receiver I've decided to go with a 4 channel amp and wire a permanant input for the ipod on the dash.

Question is, can I get away with one of these cheaper brands like Pyle or Boss
http://www.jr.com/pyle/pe/PYL_PLMRA400/

or will there be noticably better sound quality with something like this?

http://www.dealercostcaraudio.com/jblma6004.aspx

I'll be using it with marine grade speakers from a quality brand I've been looking at these
http://www.dealercostcaraudio.com/ts-mr1600.aspx

I won't be blasting music at WOT or expect it to sound like a expensive system but I do want it to sound decent.
Thanks guys!

 

[slia67]

Re: marine amplifier quality question

My suggestion is to stay away for the cheap amp. You may like it in the short term but you will wish you spent the extra money later. As far as the speakers go, instead of going with a dual cone like you are looking at, spend another $20 on the co-ax Pioneer or the Sony speakers are the same price and have great reviews. http://www.sonicelectronix.com/viewcat.php?category_id=181&sort_order=price_asc

Hope this helps.

 

[brick75]

Re: marine amplifier quality question

I'd stay away from Pyle and Boss. I acutally just bought that same JBL amp, but haven't hooked it up yet. That still isn't what I'd call a "great" quality amp, but it is much better than what you'd be getting with Pyle or Boss. Spend the extra money.

Oh and by the way, I was thinking of buying from dealercostcaraudio.com as well, but came across some pretty bad reviews on them. Not sure if you're planning to actually buy from them, or just browsing for products. But I'd recommend going with someone like Crutchfield or Amazon instead.

 

[fishdog4449]

Re: marine amplifier quality question

thanks guys! I've looked a few sites; how do you know if speakers are co-axial or not most I've seen say either 2-way dual cone or some combination of the two?
I'll definitly stick with the JBL amp.

 

[brick75]

Re: marine amplifier quality question

Well, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If you want a great pair of 6 1/2" 2-way coax marine grade speakers, you'll get the most for your money with Polk db651. You can get them through Amazon for about $75 right now. They come from other retailers at that price, but there are a couple of highly rated ones to choose from.

 

[RickJ6956]

Re: marine amplifier quality question

Two-way speakers have a woofer and tweeter. The high frequencies are sent to the tweeter and the low frequencies are sent to the woofer.

Dual-cone speakers have a single standard speaker cone that handles all of the frequencies, plus a second concentric "whizzer" cone that guides high frequencies.

The difference between the two styles is dramatic, and if you can set up an A/B comparison I doubt you would choose dual-cones.

 

[slia67]

Re: marine amplifier quality question

thanks guys! I've looked a few sites; how do you know if speakers are co-axial or not most I've seen say either 2-way dual cone or some combination of the two?
I'll definitly stick with the JBL amp.

A co-axial speaker is a two way speaker. Like Rick said, the sound difference between the two is like night and day. Spend the extra $20 or so and get hte better two way speaker.

 

[wca_tim]

Re: marine amplifier quality question

Well, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If you want a great pair of 6 1/2" 2-way coax marine grade speakers, you'll get the most for your money with Polk db651. You can get them through Amazon for about $75 right now. They come from other retailers at that price, but there are a couple of highly rated ones to choose from.

ding, ding, ding... we have a winner! I have them in one car and two sets in the boat mounted in enclosures with a base relief - for the price range they simply can't be beat!

 

[fishdog4449]

Re: marine amplifier quality question

ding, ding, ding... we have a winner! I have them in one car and two sets in the boat mounted in enclosures with a base relief - for the price range they simply can't be beat!

I've heard good things about the db651s too..only thing is I would have to make some sort of cover or enclosure for them. From pictures it looks like the cover doesn't provide much protection to the actual speaker, mine are going on deck and will probably get wet.

 

[brick75]

Re: marine amplifier quality question

Any speaker grille you use is going to allow water through. If you have to mount in a location where there is potential for getting them wet, you just need to be sure to get marine grade speakers (which the Polk's are). While not ideal, they are designed to stand up to getting wet.

 

[bouttime007]

Re: marine amplifier quality question

Wish I wouldve noticed the Pioneer TS-Mr1600 speakers I bought were dual cone.

They sound like garbage and distort at half volume. Gotta go back and buy 2-ways now.....

 

[korygrandy]

Re: marine amplifier quality question

I installed the clarion 490M 4 channel amp. Plenty of power...too much power as I had the gain turned up too much on the front and blew my Polk DB651. Waiting for Polk Audio to repair or replace the blown speaker. It smelt like something was burning and turns out it was the speaker.

Being mounted under the driver console, the amp stayed cool on a 90+ degree day for 7 hours and that was enough to impress me

In the rear I have the Infinity 6912M. With this setup in my glastron I can hear the music just fine when cruising WOT. It gives you a headache if you listen to it that loud for a long time but it's pretty clear sound.

DO NOT BUY from Dealercostcaraudio. I made this mistake and got the same runaround as ALL of there customers. After waiting 1 1/2 months I finally cancelled my order for non-shipment and ordered from amazon.

 

[RickJ6956]

Re: marine amplifier quality question

I'm curious to hear if Polk repairs it under warranty. Not only did you feed it 50% more power than it was designed to handle, you admitted it!

 

[korygrandy]

Re: marine amplifier quality question

Haha, I am curious too. I played stupid when speaking with customer service and said after a month of great tunes it just "quit working". I guess it's up to the service tech's on wether they fix it or not. Lets just say I might be crossing my fingers.