How well will I able to hear tower speakers?

I just purchased some B60's, and am planning on purchasing a high quality amp. I am wondering though how well will I able to hear the music? Can I hear any bass? Clearly? Just barely?

Great Question? How good is you Hearing? J/K. It's funny when you get started (Building a Stereo) you think "Oo a set of speakers on the tower will make it great to hear music behind the boat. One set of anything is a "JOKE". If you want to hear music loud and clear behind the boat you need lots of power and lots of Speakers". Think about it your 70- feet behind a boat with the wind and noise of the boat, A set of b-60's and a high power amp. Your going to have to have that thing turned up so loud and distorted and you still are not going to hear it very well. I know allot of people are going to chime in here and say "B.S I have a pair of Radio Shack speakers and a 200w amp on my tower and you can hear it loud and clear you don't need all that power and speakers". "Disclaimer" Everyone has a different ear and what sounds loud and clear to you could sound like crap to me. In My opinion, If you want to hear the music "Loud and Clear" when you are riding behind the boat You need to go with 6X9's at least 4 of them and like 1000 watts, Of good clean power. Your "6inch B-60's will sound nice and clear but they don't throw the sound as well as 6X9's with lots of power. I think the sound will be cleaner and more clear with the MB-Quarts separates but not as loud as the 6X9's

You wont hear any bass at all, But you will hear the music fairly well. The only downside is that you'll have to floor the radio and the people in the boat will go deaf after a while. I used a switch on my dash that turns on the amp for the tower speakers so that it's only on when someone is riding or i feel like pimping the lake. The people in other boats can hear it much better than the rider. My friend who lives in a house near where we ride on the water says he can hear my tunes from inside his kitchen.....
The speakers i use are INFINITY 652I 6.5 and they rock the highs they put out are just incredible.

Marco....

As I will always say, car speakers are not designed to throw long distances. I recommend small PA speakers. When I eventually get tower speakers that will be the only option I will consider.

As Grant is right once again You go with your bad self DOGG - Grant & I are running the same tower speakers B-530'S & B-50'S (As he is adding an additional set of B-50's as we speak) but the boss brand sounds AWESOME but ridden 70' ft. + its sometimes hard to hear the music. But its all good. I think the 6x9 through the music alot farther then the serparets. but the boss equipment for quality and cripsness is the BOMB.

It would be cool to take a DB meter (It measures amount of Sound) and Do a sound comparison. Take a DB meter behind a boat "70 feet back" and see how loud it would be with 6x9’s as apposed to separates with the same amount of power applied to the 2 different speakers.

There is so much Misinformation out there about stereo equipment It's sad. Boat stereo's are so different that they should almost make different equipment "Amps and Speakers" for what we are doing with it. Like what Timmy Said "car speakers are not designed to throw long distances" It's so true. I don’t think "PA" speakers would sound as nice as what we have now .It would be loud as hell I have heard a Boat with PA speakers mounted to the tower. "EAR DAMAGE". When you talk with sales people trying to sell you equipment I don't think most places have any Idea how hard we push our stereo systems. Example a 1000w car stereo system is very loud. A 1000w boat stereo system, well that’s just getting started. I was talking with a salesperson yesterday who said you can feel the bass when you ride (he was talking about the New Defcon kicker tower speakers "with the 8 inc woofer") I call "Bull" Like your going to feel the Bass 70 feet back from a 200w set of tower speakers. Uuu I don't think so, But Joe consumer would be like "Yea I’m gonna get me a set of those and Blast the song “Back That Ass Up”. I have learned more from listening and seeing what equipment people have and are running than any tech seminar, or sheet. What sounds or looks good on paper remains to be seen in the real world

If want all ranges of sound out of tower speakers you'll be sadly disappointed. Putting a sub up on a tower is not going sound like something your pumping in your car. For one the enclosure probbly won't be the right air space for the speaker it self. Two your traveling 20 mph, 65-70 ft behind a boat with exhaust and engine noise. I've had customers put 8k-10k in to the stereo of their boat and the guy who is putting 5k could be louder. Yes, the expensive stuff sounds amazing but for the people on a budget a high power-cheaper amp not maybe really clean sounding will get it done. As for tower speakers I put boss on almost all our boats and haven't had any problems at all.

I've got a loud liquid box on my tower with 4 Crystal 6x9's and a 400 watt amp running with high pass crossover. It's kickin' loud @ 75 feet back. Getting any type of major bass response will be nearly impossible behind the boat because of noise cancellation, but 6x9's will be your best bet for getting mid bass and I recomend speakers with mids and tweets for as much volume as possible. As for power....I wired the speakers two each in series and then ran those wires paralell for a 4 ohm load. When bridged mono the amp sees 2 ohms and at 400 watts I haven't had a problems with power at all (no clipping or thermal problems). By the way the amp is an MTX.

This was my second round and was far more succesfull than the two 8" 2-ways that were on the tower before. You could hardly hear those.

Anyway, for what it's worth...My .02

Almost forgot to mention that I agree with Gerry completely. It's really easy to get carried away with sound quality and sometimes lose sight of your initial goal...VOLUME. I am on my 3rd round of equipment in my boat (in 1 year) and have spent less and been happier each time. The keys for me have been: Simplicity, Power, Quantity of speakers (on tower), and you can never have too much bass (It tends to cancel as soon as you get moving).

(Message edited by guido on December 23, 2002)

It seems like no matter what system comes stock with the boat, people rip it out and upgrade to something different. Anybody satisfied with the OEM system? Why pay for it if you are gonna replace it anyway? How is the stock Kicker system in the Correct Craft? A waste or a good starting place?

The sound system that comes in the xstar is amazing all I added was tower speakers and a second amp. The xstar stock sound system includes.
6 -6.5" 2way speakers, 1 -10" subwoffer, 1- 500watt amp, Cd shuttle and a cd player with remote. All made by clarion. Now oviously theres better names and equipment out there but for a stock sound system its sound amazing.

Bruce has a good point about paying for a system your going to rip out and re-place/upgrage. The kicker upgrade system is ok. It has nice sound, But if your going to be playing music loud ,its not enough. it's a 5 channel amp with a total of like 400 watts. So I would say it a good starting place. Like I sad earlyer What sound's good to you might sound like crap to me. I say
you need like 1 to 2000 watts to be heard but that's just me 500 might be just enough for you and you friends. Listen to diffrent systems and deside for yourself

FYI you need 10X the power to make sound that your ear perceives as 2X as loud. I wouldn't even bother with less than 4 tower speakers and 700+ RMS watts if you want to hear it behind the boat... And a better alternator, 2 Optimas to run it. It is a never ending story. Plus, the people on the boat will be shredded and thoroughly pissed off by the volume. Kids crying, redneck bass fishermen shooting at you. Been there......

BTW Grant, that system looks pretty damn manly! I would guess that it sounds pretty OK at 75ft. As long as you stay away from that white trash rap stuff.

IMO 4 6x9's are enough for sound. It doesn't matter really whether you have pioneer or mb quart. When I'm wakeboarding I don't notice cleanness of speakers anyway. As long as the speakers are getting max. power everything is good. It would be cool just to load up the tower with lots of 4" speakers since all you can hear is higher frequencies when wakeboarding.

Have you seen these?

Kenwood KFC-X718
7" x 10" 3-Way Speaker

If size permits, the 320-watt, 7" x 10" three-way KFC-X718 is the speaker to select with its huge 18 oz magnet on the back of the silver PBO (high-performance) fiber woofer cone. The midrange driver uses a 2-3/4" PEI (Poly-Ether Imide) poly-film cone and the 1" dome tweeter is also the PEI type for exceptional response and excellent power handling.

Recommended Price $300.00

GENERAL FEATURES
- Designed to Fit Many 6" x 9" Cutouts Providing 30% More Cone Area
- Frequency Response: 22Hz - 33kHz
- Impedance: 4 ohms
- Magnet Weight: 18 oz
- Multiple Component Crossover Network: Outboard
- Power Handling: 320 Watts
- Rubber Surround
- Sensitivity: 93dB

AUDIO FEATURES
- Speaker Connectors: Gold-Plated

SPEAKER FEATURES
- Midrange: 2-3/4" PEI Film Cone
- Tweeter: 1" PEI Film Banalced Dome
- Woofer: 7" x 10" Silver PBO Advanced Fiber Cone

I used to sell these many years ago and they were pretty impressive back then. They are basically a 6x9 but larger, they come with an adaptor ring to let you fit them into 6x9 openings in cars. But for a tower application I would think they would be one of your best options. As stated above the ways to make it louder are more surface area and more power. Here is a way to improve on one.
here is a link to the website I took the above info from:
http://www.kenwoodusa.com/product/product.jsp?productTypeId=43&sortBy=price&productI d=735

In response to the question above: "satisfied with the OEM system?" I have an OEM system and with a few mods I am very satisfied.

I have a 90 Prostar 190 that didn't come with a system, but I found a guy who bought an 02 X-Star and was having kicker system installed. I bought the Clarion equipment from him very cheap including the 10" sub and the amp too! I built a box for the sub to fit under my closed bow, and installed the amp to the back of the box. Then I installed all the speakers and bridged the amp (4 channel 400 watt clarion marine). Now in my little boat it sounds awesome and the sub really thumps now that its in a box and not just through the kickplate on the floorboard!

So to date I have 4 6" Clarions, and a 10" Clarion sub in an insullated box wired to a clarion head unit with a remote next to the throttle! I know it isn't much, but in a prostar its enough!

You can hear it very well while you are surfing, but since there isn't any tower or speakers, forget about hearing it 70 feet behind the boat.

Does a bimini top help to deflect some of the noise from the tower speakers? Anybody tried insulating one a with dynamat layer?