8" or 6 1/2" speakers

[markt111]

I see a few companies putting out 8" round marine speakers now(bazooka and Pioneer) looking to upgrade my system with out spending a mint this year...so I am wondering if the 8' rounds will go much deeper than 6 1/2" rounds??

basically want to change my 4-61/2" speakers out now because the grills are all smashed and I can't get replacement grills(sounds OK thou) so I have 2 trains of thought

option 1-get Infinity Kappa or kicker 6 1/2s and maybe add a sub after..don't really want to start cutting thou even thou it would probably be best, I would probably have to throw the sub in the cabin loosing a little thump I think

option 2-put 4 8" rounds in and it will possibly hit better than my old sytem did, but how clean is the sound on these speakers and will they be around long if I ever need to replace again???

[us1]

The 8s will put out more bass than the 6.5s but nothing beats a sub-woofer with a separate amp and an electronic crossover.

[bigbore]

it's gonna take a substacial amount of power to power up 8s (and a low pass crossover)6.5s can be run off of deck power (its important to cross them over-high pass)the battery (in a boat)doesn't need to be drawn from in major leaaps n bounds-(it can't handle it)you could even end up burning up the stator or other electical components on the motor.run a seperate circut for the 8 or 10 and an amp,i would install onother battery and run the stereo off of that.and a pergo switch,so your not taking the chance of draining your boat battery.:cool:

[scfireman]

i have a pair of bazooka marine 8" co-axials. THEY SUCK!!!!! Go with the 6.5's

[sho305]

Back 10 or so years ago a friend of mine got these kenwoods that were bigger 6x9s, so they were 7x10s or something. I think they sat above the surface so the hole was the same size but don't remember. Anyway, we replaced the same kenwood 6x9s with these at the time, four of them on a good size amp in his boat. They really pounded, there were very loud and certainly worked better than the normal 6x9s had. We added a sub later, and they don't replace a sub no way, but they had no problem overcoming boat noises and handling more power while sounding clean. They were bright like most kenwoods, but were mounted low in a carpeted boat so it worked well.

I don't know about these 8"s, but those handled more power mostly with a little more bass than standard ones. It sounded pretty good with 4 of them really it just was not a thump machine if you listen to that type of stuff...until we got the subs in. But you could hear it great even if you were eight boats down the line in a cove.

In my experience nothing less than a 10" will give you the thunder when you put the power to it. I would say if you plan on a sub don't bother with them. You also might be able to change your enclosure to get more mid-bass out of 6.5s. If they are good speakers they should give more mid-bass being 8", but like others said you will have to do some stuff to take advantage of it. IMO you'd be easier and better off to invest the time and money in a sub(s) to complete the system. I've used 8s for mid woofers in systems too and was not impressed, it sounds/looks like a good idea but I could never get it to payoff for me. Just don't need them in most systems. 8" subs are ok for moderate powered systems but can't handle real power. I think part of it is you don't ever want too much mid-bass in a system, and about any sub can make it easy if you do. 8" subs were really only good for when a 10" just didn't fit.