Cobaltchat.com

jhnmdahl wrote: ↑Fri Feb 23, 2024 1:05 pm Regarding speakers, I'd put JL Audio and Wet Sounds solidly above Rockford Fosgate (I wouldn't spend the kind of money you're looking at and put Rockford Fosgate speakers in a boat). There are some smaller brands like Roswell Marine that may be another step up yet in quality (Cobalt used them as a step up from JL Audio in premium systems), but JL is sort of a sweet spot for many. Marine speaker brands competitive with Rockford Fosgate include Polk, Infinity, JBL, and Fusion. MB Quart used to be a high end product, but they seem to have given that up for mass market. I know of some truly high-end installations that have used Focal speakers, either from their car audio line or mixed and matched with their Littora line oriented at yachts - https://www.focal.com/en/boat-k2-power

To my ear, Wet Sounds are good but are a bit bright and can be fatiguing, but to be fair some people like that and I rarely like the way most metal dome tweeters sound. JL is somewhat similar but a bit more balanced, and Roswell has a smooth, low distortion sound that's hard to achieve in a boat. I bought JL and Roswell to test in my boat, and ended up going with Roswell. In the JL line, the M6 are the "premium" and the M3 the cheaper speaker - they sound somewhat similar, and while the M6 do sound noticeably better they also seem to need discrete amplification to sound their best while the M3 doesn't. I don't have a great explanation for this.

Amps matter a fair bit less - most manufacturers can make a pretty good amp at a pretty good price, so lots of options there. No reason not to go with class D at this point - power consumption and performance are really leaving traditional amplifier topologies in the dust. 300W per channel is likely gross overkill except for the subs, so you may be able to drive your main speakers with something like https://creativeaudio.net/mv800-8i/ and the subs with a dedicated amp with more power per channel like https://creativeaudio.net/mv600-2i/.

I just swapped out my factory Sony head unit, using the same remote you're looking at but the Fusion MS-RA670 head unit. It's a great ecosystem, and works much better than the Rockford Fosgate I tried to install first. You can read more about that experience here:

viewtopic.php?p=113875

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=4198

Obviously I'm on a similar path but am doing mine piecemeal and doing the labor myself. I enjoy doing that kind of thing, but not everybody does. If you're inclined to look at DIY, one of our forum friends, Creativeaudio.net, gives VERY competitive pricing/discounts to members of this forum. See:

viewtopic.php?p=114293

John

wss48126 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 26, 2024 7:58 am One thing with speakers is to look at how efficient they run. When I did my audio upgrades about 18 months ago, my wife had given me a $5K total budget for audio upgrades and for putting in the Garmin Touchscreen. I ended up going with the JL M3 speakers as they had close to the same spec's as the M6's and when I went to an audio shop to listen, the difference was not noticeable. The RMS was slightly higher on the M6's, but they were the same efficiency and range ratings on response. For my tower speakers, I went with JL M6's and have been pretty pleased with those. If you are on a budget, take the time to shop and look at open box, or new take outs. I took a month or so to gather everything together including finding deals on my wiring and all supplies. I kept a spreadsheet of everything I bought and every supply I bought and ended up at $5,008.00 for what I also calculated would have been $11,000 in equipment had I not used the Creative Audio Cobalt Forum discount, and also bought many things as open box off ebay and other sources. I didn't post pictures of the tower audio upgrades as I did those a few months later as I wanted to find a deal on those so I could stay around my $5K budget.

viewtopic.php?p=108097&hilit=wss48126#p108097