Exile XM7 paired with XM9 ?

I currently have 1 pair of XM7s powered up by the Exile Harpoon amp. I am looking to get another set of speakers and wanted to know if a pair of XM7s and a pair of XM9s would be good together or should I stick with 2 pair of XM7s?? Is bigger better or is matching better? I have an Exile 12" sub for the base. Thanks.

I heard two boats this weekend that had a pair of XM9 and two pairs of SXT65's and an Exile Big 12". They sounded awesome. Really really clean and the sub brought it all together in and outside of the boat. Have not seen the XM7 and XM9's mixed yet, but there is no reason you couldn't. They will scream behind the boat. Other option is to get two sets of the SXT65's and run them as a hybrid with your XM7's. That Harpoon can handle it and there have been lots of raves on this hybrid set up lately.

I'd stick with the xm7's since you already have a pair. The 9's will give you better midbass but you won't be able to take advantage of it all because they will outstroke the 7's. You can't tune for the 9's and 7's both on the harpoon since it's a 2 channel amp.

RanchDweller -

You have several options in upgrading.

- You could add 2 surf speakers to your tower array and go into the hybrid setup which gives amazing sound quality and also great projection with the summing of all the enclosures.

VIDEO HERE

- You could Add another XM7 into the mix and call it a day.

- You could go 2 pair XM9. And have a lot of output for your rider up there on the tower.

I would not suggest mixing 7's and 9's. It looks goofy on the 1 to 1 relationship, and also doesn't allow for proper crossover point tuning.

Check out our face book page for more examples of all this. A lot of XM9's are getting posted up there...

FACEBOOK


And if you want a hand in walking you through some of your options, give us a call at the office (800) 249-0970 and we can go over the details, find a dealer for you, etc.

-Brian
Exile Audio

RD,
Here are a few of the considerations when mixing dissimilar speakers, particularly different sizes of speakers.
If you double identical speakers then the output will increase by 3 dB. 3 dB is the equivalent of doubling the electronics power and is a perceivable difference. If you add a second set of speakers in a dissimilar mix, say one 100 dB speaker and one 97 dB speaker for example, then you will only get an increase of actually less than 2 dB. That's barely above the perceivable threshold and you have devoted considerable resources in the expense of extra amplifier power and an additional set of speakers at minimum. Not exactly the summed efficiency model we are looking for in the context of HLCDs where the primary goal is output. The stronger speaker, in this case the XM9, dominates your perception and much of the subordinate XM7 goes unappreciated.
Next, if these speakers have different power handling cababilities then you are muting one or the other pair for protection and in the process furthering the gap between the speaker system potential and what is actually realized...and you would need to have separate channels for the XM7s and XM9s to accomplish this. If they are paralleled on a large 2-channel amplifier then the speakers seek their own amplitude level, the XM9 dominates and the XM7 is put at some risk.
My recommendation would be to get a pair of XM9s in route to a second set of XM9s or simply add a second set of XM7s.

David
Earmark Marine

That sucks, I was all excited to get the XM9's on the tower with the XM7s. From the 2 guys that would know both say no good. Well, I guess now would be the time to get some good used XM7's from someone that wants to upgrade.

So if I am reading this right, a 2nd set of XM7's will be about twice as loud? When does the law of diminishing returns kick in? Thanks.

RD,
A second set of tower speakers will pull 2/3 more output from your power amplifier and double the tower speaker surface area. That will make a big difference. Anytime you double up your tower speakers the sound gets a touch warmer too. This is a good upgrade and what the Harpoon was really intended to do.

David
Earmark Marine

RD - I had the 2 pair of XM-7 set-up run by the Harpoon amp and upgraded to the Hybrid set-up that Brian mentioned above. IMO a pair of XM-7's is too much high's and not enough midbass, plus they blasted the heck out of anyone sitting in the back of the boat.

I promote local dealerships and installs (Liquid Trends in San Jose, CA), but since David provided some feedback already, I'll offer some free marketing using his site. I'm not sure what your budget is, but I would:

1) Add the 2nd Harpoon amp and run the Hybrid set-up (add something like this to your system for $1,450):

http://www.earmarkcaraudio.com/Xcart...9&cat=0&page=1

2) Add only a pair of SXT65 for $1000 ($499 x2) :

http://www.earmarkcaraudio.com/Xcart...9&cat=0&page=1

Where are you located (You might want to find some local shops or fellow WW peeps to demo this stuff)? What's your budget?

Check out the previous post I had for XM-9's... has a lot of what I was thinking and going through several months ago:

http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=786851

-- Jeff

RanchDweller - shoot me an email to brian@exileaudio.com, I spoke to a guy today that might be willing to take your XM7's off your hands for a price. I can connect you guys. This would allow you to go XM9's all the way around pretty painlessly. -Brian