Best tower speaker pairs for under $1,000?

I'm looking for two good pair of tower speakers (four speakers total) that are mostly good for entertaining in the boat, with a secondary purpose of the wakeboarder hearing the music. With that said, what's the best bang for the buck under $1,000?

wetsounds double up look into that. Little over your budget but sounds like what you want. Remember you'll need a good amp to run the speakers or you might as well not buy speakers if you dont have the amp to power them.

Yeah don't forget to budget for an Amp. I got these this year and have been super impressed. They are not horns and can still hear them riding and sound awesome in the boat. You are gonna get a million Exile Vs Wetsounds on this so get ready......
http://exileaudio.com/products/sxt65/

There's not a whole lot of support (seemingly, from my newbie perspective) down here for these types of speakers here. Is there an online ordering for WetSounds or Exile or these other companies? Thanks for the support!

the SXT65's are great for the money!!!

You can contact Brian at Exile and he can put you in contact with a dealer or help you out. He is real good to work with and will help you with your set up choices too. Here is the number off their website 1.888.249.0970

Tman -

Sorry to be late to the party. I've been away from the forums over the last few weeks working on moving the Exile offices to a newer, bigger space. We've all had our hands full.

To answer your question, if 1K is in the budget, I'd look at the SXT speakers. Lots of guys run these and they sound fantastic. If you are wanting to go into the HLCD's they get more expensive and would put you out of your target upgrade cost. I think from what you've shared about your goal, the SXT's would be the best ticket over an HLCD design as they can sound a bit to "live" right up in the boat....

Going with a 4 speaker setup, you'll want to make sure you properly power the system. And frankly speaking, the more power the better.

A spectacular setup would be

2 pr SXT65 + Harpoon amplifier. That would put 1000 real watts of power across your tower (250W per speaker). This would push your budget a bit. Do you have a good amplifier for the tower now?

If you want to shoot me an email, I'd be happy to go over your entire stereo configuration and help you put something into play that makes sense.

Cheers!

-Brian
Exile Audio
brian.exile@gmail.com

At that price you are looking at either one pair of HLCD's or 2 pair of the SXT's or wetsounds similar coaxial tower speaker. It sounds like some of the newer HLCD's like the XM9 and the Rev10 have a warmer and not so bright sound compared to what HLCD's use to have.

If you are wanting to hear music at the end of the rope - you seriously need to look into a pair of HLCD's. For a single pair of HLCD's I think there is no better match than a pair of Rev 8's or Rev10's. There is no "live" feeling when standing in the boat.

They are by far the most musically accurate HLCD on the market that can stand alone on a tower. I have listened to every signle HLCD on the market, so you can take my opinion however you would like.

Call David at Earmark, I bet he could offer you a nice package deal with a pair of speakers and an amp.

Let me add a little more context to my above comment. I think that the REV 8's sound best to m "my ears" and you may like how another speaker sounds using your ear's. None of the above speakers are bad or poor produts.

Murphy - with all due respect, an HLCD design (regardless of brand) is going to give much more of a live sound feel. It's just plain fact. This is because the transducer loads up and fires through a horn opening / flange that is generally patterned for narrow dispersion. This is what gives you the crisp non antenuated sound people enjoy back at 80+feet. This is a very different style sound than direct radiating speakers which offer ~90-130 degrees of additional dispersion characteristic / overlap.

I think you know this, but the record should be set straight. Setting aside all the tech speak, if you stick your face in front of an HLCD up close, it's going to give you a headache REAL fast. More specifically, the OP is looking for speakers (4 of them) under 1,000.00. I don't think its realistic to suggest XM's or REV's because its going to be WAY beyond his financial target. Am I off base here?

Please don't take it personal because thats not the mind set I'm typing with. Your definitely entitled to your opinion and brand choices. Someday I'd like to hear your boat for sure. I'm sure it sounds great!

-Brian
Exile Audio

With a well-designed HLCD there is absolutely no reason that it has to have the tell-tale signs of having a horn speaker unless the design is flawed in some way. Many incredible sounding vehicles have won the IASCA and USAC world sound-off finals using compression horn tweeters. IASCA for one set some very lofty esoteric SQ standards. Also, some very expensive and famous two-channel home speakers have successfully used compression horn tweeters and midranges and are still coveted by many today.
The budget of the OP (if I understand it correctly to be $1000 for the collective tower speakers) would dictate the use of two pair of surf speakers like the Exile SXT65s. I highly recommend these in their price bracket because they are truly very good sounding tower speakers.
For more authority at wake range a single pair of larger HLCDs would be stronger. The Wetsounds REV speakers will not alienate occupants in the boat unless you play them louder than the near field listeners can tolerate which is a function of pure amplitude rather than a sonic characteristic of this particular speaker.

David
Earmark Marine

Wow and I thought we were talking about marine audio here.

If that were my budget, I would not hesitate to move to the used market. There are lots of guys always looking to upgrade. Check the classifieds here and on your favorite boat website (malibu crew, Tigeowners, MC teamtalk). And of course, keep in mind whether or not you are going to want to be one of those upgrades next year trying to sell something that was great, but just not quite enough.

I wonder if this guy in Texas still has these NVS speakers for $700?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/220844092915...#ht_500wt_1204

Some discrepancies in the description need to be clarified, like why you buy $2,000 worth of speakers and only put 125 Watts to them. I think he was thinking it would make them sound less likely to be abused, but I am concerned he seems to be lying or not on top of his game as far as knowing what to do with the speakers.

Ok, let me just say that everyone is correct here... but I've a question for David. (And I say this in a fun spirited manner). After all, my friend Jack, and his buddy Daniel stopped by to see me this evening.

Anyway, David, how many of the vehicles at any IASCA FINALS, made a podium placement with an HLCD? quite a few eh I recall. But you omitted one critical detail. They all had a 700.00 stereo 1/3 octave EQ riding shotgun with them (pg eq 232 with tab balanced line inputs was the competitors choose back then).. In the years from '93-96. I was lead SQ judge in many of the PRO classes. And the years, I wasn't judging I was working the PG tweak and tune clinics explaining to HLCD competitors why they either need a 1/3 octave eq involved or, running RTA's all night look trying to eliminate +/- peeks of 6-9db deviations. Yikes! some of those horns where u g l y.

I remember Eric stevens first horns back in the day when he came rolling in. The throats on those babies took up a whole door panel. He was so pumped getting on the podium but we spent the better part of 3 hours dialing in the front stage of that car. Same with fishman.

Trust me guys, Marine audio is way more more more fun!

-Brian

Brian - no offense taken at all.

If you are ever in Dallas Fort Worth, I'd be happy to crank up the stereo for you.

Brian,
In some of those years you referred to we were not observing from the sidelines. We were actually competing and earned a first place title in The Car Audio Nationals plus a 'Best Install' (all classes inclusive) in the USAC world finals. Most of the horn molds used were comprised of right angles to conserve depth and interfaced with surrounding planes do to the fact that the horn mouth was rather large, flush-mounted or often used the windshield, dash or other interior surfaces to continue the flare of the horns. All those elements plus the interiors of a confined cabin with tons of reflected energy raised the need for equalization. Most of the top competitors were also using pro grade equalizers with direct radiating drivers...and not just those using horns.
The Klipsch Klipschorn, La Scala, etc. did not typical need or use active equalizers with their midrange and tweeter horn loaded compression drivers. Some may have preferred other speakers but these speakers were routinely used for near field listening, did not have radical peaks and are very respected to this day.
So a horn loaded compression driver does not have to be synonymous with erratic sound.
However, the largest criticism in the past of many wake tower HLCD speakers has been the non-linearity (response peaks and valleys). After you have heard some of the latest offerings from NVS and specifically the new Wetsounds REV series you will find that the old blanket pre-judgements no longer apply. Larger midbass drivers can contribute to better balance and nullify some of the HLCD issues. Well-designed horns, better passive crossover designs and midbass drivers with a more extended upper response have all helped tower HLCDs improve their sound quality.
I'm recommending that potential consumers hear these new offerings for themselves.

David
Earmark Marine

Let's bring this back to home and back on topic. David would it be safe to say that the equipment you're referring to and bragging about cost 10 fold what this equipment in this current discussion is about? Some of the irrelevent home theater equipment you're referring to cost as much as a boat does.

We are also talking about a bolt up application here without a team of people tweeking on it for weeks on end.

Its simple.
There are many horn tweeters in various applications that do sound good out of the box in finished products without external equalization. There is nothing inherent in the proper design of a horn tweeter that dictates otherwise. Distinction made.
Now, as of this season versus prior seasons, there are tower HLCDs that sound good near field without the erratic characteristics of the first several generations. There has been a change.
We've done a ton of boats this particular year where the boat owners would strongly support that statement. I think a number of marine audio dealers would find this agreeable in their case as well.

David
Earmark Marine