Boxed marine speakers

[tuffyluffy 76]

The interior refit of my old girl (the boat that is) is nearly complete and i want to mount some modest stereo speakers in the interior. The stereo is just a simple GME unit, and Im not going to flaff around with an amp. What do people recommend as a good quality, box speaker for the interior? I want decent volume, sound quality and some bass, but nothing OTT.

 

It will be just two interior speakers at this stage, later on Ill add some cockpit speakers.

 

Any suggestions/recommendations?

 

Ta

[Murky 1]

Went through this exercise a couple of years back - at that stage I was surprised to find that the flush-mount speakers have almost entirely taken over and it was almost impossible to find the box speakers that thundered out from the parcel shelves of my youth. The closest they seem to come these days is the same flush-mount version installed in a customwood box which is covered with commercial-grade carpet. Which are heavier and a lot bigger if you are aiming to install them on the chainplates. And more expensive too.

 

Even went around the wreckers in the hope of finding some that were old but still good but no luck there.

 

Eventually found a set of the customwood/carpet models that would fit - and at a very reasonable price - at a car stereo place in Whangarei. Pioneers. Very happy with 'em and never looked back since then.

[wheels 543]

Fusion have proper marine box speakers.

[Absolution 7]

You don't really need marine stuff for the interior. I would suggest using something like this:

 

http://www.surplustronics.co.nz/shop/pr ... 0.016.html

[Guest]

Only problem with those though is they are 8 ohm... Not sure what the impact on longevity is running 4ohm stereo Signal through an 8ohm rated speaker...?

[wheels 543]

It won't hurt anything running the 8ohm boxes. But what it does mean is that you get only half the power out of the Radio. Or in otherwords, it will only go half as loud. So 11 on the dial will only be 5 1/2.

[Guest]

Thats often not a bad thing for the speakers downstairs.

 

These guys from Fusion look pretty fly.

 

http://www.fusioncaraudio.com/new-zeala ... oduct.aspx

[shanson 0]

Wootons carry a range of ply boxes, got a set in Spellbound.

 

SHANE

[wheels 543]

Shane, It depends on how good a sound you actually want. If you want to have a really good sound, it is not a case of just putting a speaker in a box. Most especially car speakers. Because of of the limitations of cars, the main speakers are designed to work with no fixed volume nor sealed volume behind them. Subs are designed to work in a very small volume, because you don't have the luxury of space.

 

I do have a proffesional Speaker design program here somewhere. But I have one small problem. It's all on floppy disc and I don't have a computer with a floppy drive. Otherwise I could run off measurements for some custom box designs and anyone with a bit of woodworking or glassing skill could make themselves some marine speakers. There are plenty of drivers available that have polypropelyne cones, making them waterproof.

[Absolution 7]

I do have a proffesional Speaker design program here somewhere. But I have one small problem. It's all on floppy disc and I don't have a computer with a floppy drive. Otherwise I could run off measurements for some custom box design

....

 

You would still need to know the Thiele-Small parameters for the drivers to feed into the program. Hence my first post.. there is a ton of work involved to do this properly so $75 for a pair of small monitors is pretty good value!

[wheels 543]

Oooooo, someone that knows something. Cool. How did you know about that Fineline?

Yeah the program has all the parameters of just about every driver biult, or usually those figures can be got if the program can't find them. It has a regular driver update on line. But i have used the program for something like 10 or 12 years, so I assume the website still exists.

[Absolution 7]

Oooooo, someone that knows something. Cool. How did you know about that Fineline?

Yeah the program has all the parameters of just about every driver biult, or usually those figures can be got if the program can't find them. It has a regular driver update on line. But i have used the program for something like 10 or 12 years, so I assume the website still exists.

 

I thought that would get a reaction Wheels

 

I used to do a bit of live sound work and have built a few sets of PA and home audio speakers. While I was at uni I used to design and build sub cabinets for mates who were into car audio. I was doing my BE (E&E) at the time so had access to lots of cool simulation software for designing stuff properly including high-order and active crossovers.

[Guest]

Thiele-Small, you sure that's knot a German with a tiny dick?

[wheels 543]

I used to do a bit of live sound work and have built a few sets of PA and home audio speakers.

Awesome.

Nice to know i am not the only Nerd here

[Kiteroa 8]

Don't make your boxes out of carbon and foam. I have some of this construction and they don't sound very good! Marine ply is probably the best bet.

[wheels 543]

It is possibly not that they are mae from Carbon and Foam that doesn't make them sound good. In fact, I couldn't imagine a better material, although never having tested it, it is only "Imagine". It also depends on what you want to "hear" from a speaker. No speaker is perfect. in fact sometimes the ones approaching perfect are not actually what people want to hear.

In the recording studio's, you will have very accurate and highly expensive monitors that take pride of place and position in the Studio for the main mixing. But when it comes to the final mixdown, there is often a "cheap" pair of speakers that are common to all Studio's, usually a pair of yamaha NSX boxes. Nothing spectacular at all, but used because most of those that will listen to the album will have nothing more than Gettoblasters, boomboxes and cheap stereo's etc, so you balance the final mix so it sounds good on what you mass market is going to mostly listen to it on. Only "special" albums that ones on the high end systems will listen to it on will have the final mix down on the proper studio monitors.

So to go back to the carbon idea. The Perfect speaker is one that the box itself adds nothing to the sound. A concrete or Lead box is probably closest to the best. But then there is also reflection inside the box, so a box is not the best design either. It gets complex from there on.