Best 6.5" round speaker?

[Dub C]

Opinions are like a** holes, everyboday has one. All the above mentioned spekers are good for boats. It all depends on what you want to spend. I do recommend metal dome tweeters in a boat because of it being an open environment and because of that low and high frequencies suffer greatly. Soft dome tweeters tend to be more accurate but can't play as high in the frequency range as a metal dome.
agreed, and for midbass the enclosure it's in is EVERYTHING highs don't need an enclosure and will perform with or without and are only diminished by the open air enviorment and also dispersion pattern is important. think of it like a sprinkler head, some are very directional and sound well off axis and some are very non-directional and will sound very good not directly aimed. a good trick is to reflect them off a windshield and this can yield good results if done properly with a very directional tweeter. For mids a good sealed area or baffles work. a cool trick is using aperiodic membranes, think of a cylinder shaped enclosure with one end having a speaker and one end having a foam plug and the density of the foam can control the resonant frequency/tonal qualities. this works really well with minimal space when done properly.

[BadKachina]

My last boat (34' cat) I ran 6.5" coax Focal speakers. They were awesome and I had tot tow the boat through some storms without the cover, no damage to the speakers, although i did have billet speaker covers with screens, but they still got wet sometimes.
My new boat is a 370SS Formula and I am installing only 3 pairs in this boat and putting about 800 watts to them. In my cat I had 4 pairs and for the cruiser, 3 pairs is more than enough for a very loud and CLEAR sound. The 4 pairs of Focal were louder and more clear than 6 pairs of MB Quart with more power.
I am running the Focal without question, as it is one of the best I have ever owned, and I have tried a ton of different stuff (MB Quart, Rockford, JL, Diamond).
Focal is as good as it gets. You could argue there are some at their level, but most stuff isn't even close. I run Focal Utopia's in my boat, at 1k per pair and worth every penny of it.

[Froggystyle]

I have used, installed and listened to the gamut of the available speakers, and found that once you got to a certain level, they all sounded great, but with different character...
The last boat I built before Trident used Infinity Kappa Perfects without crossovers. The crossovers in the Infinity gear are by far the weakest links, and lose a lot of efficiency and rob power. I used a discrete amp signal to do away with them and improved clarity and volume considerably.
I have installed Focal's in the past as well, and they always struck me as boutique-ish... expensive without the payoff. They sound great, but as good as many other premium speakers for a lot more money. Diamond Hex, MB Quartz etc... All have premium sound quality, but lacked DB in similar installs to my current favorites...
Speakers need to have a carefull balance of SPL and SQ... Sound pressure level and Sound Quality. In a boat, it is hugely rare to be able to hear the difference in any situation other than on the trailer in your garage, and so nuance is often right out the door. A better compromise is durability and SPL in a boat, as you can crank louder with less THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) but you give up a bit of clarity.
In a boat, at the river you need SPL. Loud, clear, durable and efficient. I have looked long and hard at the best application for our boats and come up with two brands... Zapco and Exile.
Zapco makes a phenomenal speaker, with carbon fiber cones, metal tweeters and butyl rubber surrounds. Water-resistant, warm, efficient and very, very loud. At under $750 per pair retail they mark a great bargain for truly premium audio components. They are my no-holds barred first choice for marine.
Exile is a new brand designed by the original designers for Phoenix Gold back in the 90's. One of the best US audio houses, they made competition crushing stuff back in the day, and now continue that as Exile. PG started going sideways about two years ago and the original folks left and started Exile as a result. At $350 per pair, it represents the best value on high end speakers with poly cones, butyl rubber surrounds and composite tweeters. Very durable, not as loud or clear as the Zapco's, but I haven't found anything that is frankly. I will probably run these components in boats with more middle of the road audio requirements. I have them in my truck, and they are really great sounding.
To each their own, but for a boat I don't think Zapco has an equal.

[Tom Brown]

Personally, I like the JBL C608GTi's the best. Very accurate, more mid bass than any 6.5" speaker I've ever heard, and very detailed smooth and accurate highs.
Right on. Let's have a look at your RTA data, reverse null graphs, etc.
What is the best marine speaker to replace these with?
The question is not entirely valid, in the same way it's not valid to talk about what the best prop is. While some props are better than others, the absolute best prop will vary not only from boat model/engine combination, but it will even vary from individual setup to individual setup... not to mention the type of boating it needs to do.
With speakers, it's much the same. The response curve of a speaker will vary wildly depending on what axis the measurement is taken on, with respect to the firing direction of the driver, and also on a number of other acoustic factors from the enclosure and mount to the type of materials in the listening space. I suppose you could throw in that thing we like to call taste, too.
I've been to a number of DIY audio shows and learned a surprising chunk of information from doing so. One of the things that has become crystal clear is that people will hear what they see. Aluminum or titanium dome speakers sound brighter than doped cloth tweeters, regardless of the response curve. At least, this holds true when the listener can see the speaker and the glint of the tweeter. When a double blind listening test is done, this changes and it would seem to become impossible to distinguish driver material choices of well executed designs.
When I built my last pair of speakers, I went with a Hyquophon tweeter over a 26 dollar GR-Research chinese tweeter that puts out remarkably similar response and everyone agrees sounds light years better than it has a right to for it's cost and station in the audio world. I've always loved the sweetness of the Hyquophon but have wondered if I wasted several hundred dollars on the exclusive danish tweeters.
Drivers do make a difference but they aren't the entire sound equation, by a long shot. Are these speakers going to be mounted free-air, infinite baffle, bass reflex, closed box,... what?
I like Focal a lot, in the acoustic suspension world. You're probably working with something closer to free-air in which case I have no knowledge or opinion.

[Froggystyle]

Right on. Let's have a look at your RTA data, reverse null graphs, etc.
The question is not entirely valid, in the same way it's not valid to talk about what the best prop is. While some props are better than others, the absolute best prop will vary not only from boat model/engine combination, but it will even vary from individual setup to individual setup... not to mention the type of boating it needs to do.
With speakers, it's much the same. The response curve of a speaker will vary wildly depending on what axis the measurement is taken on, with respect to the firing direction of the driver, and also on a number of other acoustic factors from the enclosure and mount to the type of materials in the listening space. I suppose you could throw in that thing we like to call taste, too.
I've been to a number of DIY audio shows and learned a surprising chunk of information from doing so. One of the things that has become crystal clear is that people will hear what they see. Aluminum or titanium dome speakers sound brighter than doped cloth tweeters, regardless of the response curve. At least, this holds true when the listener can see the speaker and the glint of the tweeter. When a double blind listening test is done, this changes and it would seem to become impossible to distinguish driver material choices of well executed designs.
When I built my last pair of speakers, I went with a Hyquophon tweeter over a 26 dollar GR-Research chinese tweeter that puts out remarkably similar response and everyone agrees sounds light years better than it has a right to for it's cost and station in the audio world. I've always loved the sweetness of the Hyquophon but have wondered if I wasted several hundred dollars on the exclusive danish tweeters.
Drivers do make a difference but they aren't the entire sound equation, by a long shot. Are these speakers going to be mounted free-air, infinite baffle, bass reflex, closed box,... what?
I like Focal a lot, in the acoustic suspension world. You're probably working with something closer to free-air in which case I have no knowledge or opinion.
What he said...
More importantly in a lot of respects, as is so often the case... is optimizing what you have.
Build an enclosure for ANY high quality mid that you put in your boat and it will sound better, clearer and more punchy than an absolutely premier speaker with no enclosure. Add an enclosure to a premium speaker and you are out of the park.
Don't get me wrong... I love Focal's in luxury automobiles. If you were asking what to put in your Benzo that would be my recommendation for image reasons if nothing else... make the install appropriate and all that... In a boat, there are mitigating factors that nullify the advantage the Focal's have over others, and put clear SPL leaders in front for marine use.
There is nothing like a noisy free-air environment to make you appreciate speaker area, efficiency and wattage.

[Tom Brown]

I love Focal's in luxury automobiles.
I should point out that I have no experience with Focal in a boat environment. I don't have a lot of experience with them in the car environment, either.
I mostly work with their stuff in home audio.
There is nothing like a noisy free-air environment to make you appreciate speaker area, efficiency and wattage.
This sounds like really good advice to me.
I'm going to bow out of this thread since I'm a short on expertise in boat audio. Good luck DRJZ1974.

[Legal Chemistry]

I'm curious, for the midbass, what type of enclosure do you recommend (ie. small "box", baffles, something else.)? I have various components that I'm waiting to put it, and am curious to the difference between the typical infinite baffle vs. enclosed. I believe the speakers I have come specs for enclosure volumes -but never really thought about it.

[Froggystyle]

I'm curious, for the midbass, what type of enclosure do you recommend (ie. small "box", baffles, something else.)? I have various components that I'm waiting to put it, and am curious to the difference between the typical infinite baffle vs. enclosed. I believe the speakers I have come specs for enclosure volumes -but never really thought about it.
For mid-bass, I use a vented enclosure that has about 1/2" of space around the entire speaker. It looks about the same size and shape as a tupperware container, which strangely enough was my "plug" to build the part from.
I have even used tupperware in car installs. It works great, and really does a great job too.

[rivercrazy]

Most of the 6.5" speaker mfg's recommend a sealed 1/3 cubic foot box for seperates.
I've done this a few times, according to this recommendation. The difference is output and accuracy is pretty significant.

[rivercrazy]

All Passive crossovers, included with seperates, will consume some power. Its just the way it is. Infinity and JBL crossovers are as good or better than anyone elses.
Like Wes said though if you want to maximize your system's potential, active crossovers are a good investment.