Thoughts on Bose 131

What's happening to the Sony marine speakers? What are you using to drive them? I'm running Polk Momo separates and love them. They're not "marine" speakers but they have an aluminum basket, minimal plastic covers, rubberized cone, etc. 6yrs now and no rust and excellent sound. Both of my little girls have tried poking things through them without success and I don't really do a good job of keeping the hose from hitting them when I clean. They've held up well to abuse. I've also run non-marine/automotive Boston Acoustic, ADS, and SoundStream (old stuff) and the worst thing I've experienced is a little rust after 5+yrs.

Not an expert on the Bose 131's but most of the Bose products I've seen use a lot of paper based components that would not lend themselves well to marine use. Regardless of what you choose, I'd focus on minimizing anything that can rust and anything that's not clearly rubberized or semi-shiny.
 
Believe it or not, the West Marine premium 6.5's sound great and are relatively cheap. I had to open the holes a little.
 
I have a pair of BOSE 251's on top of my hardtop. Love them. Can't say enough. Bose customer service is the best. I bought a SA-2 amplifier and installed it vertically on a wall with the wrong end down. After a day or so, the Amp blew. I took it back to Bose and with no questions asked they handed me a complete new amp. While there I asked about the 251's. The salesman said that you can take a hose and squirt it directly at the speaker for as long as you want and nothing will happen to the speaker. He said that if the sound of the speaker dimishes at all within in the 5 year warranty period, they will replace them both free of charge. Based on how they treated me on the Amp issue, I believe them.
 
Torque said:
What's happening to the Sony marine speakers? What are you using to drive them?

Not an expert on the Bose 131's but most of the Bose products I've seen use a lot of paper based components that would not lend themselves well to marine use. Regardless of what you choose, I'd focus on minimizing anything that can rust and anything that's not clearly rubberized or semi-shiny.
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The rubber has completely separeted and deteriorated.. UV has destroyed them. They have not been "pushed too hard" or otherwise abused, they just plain suck! The Bose are fully encased and seem to be far beter protected.
 
Wow, that's pretty bad for it to break down that quickly. I have several sets of outdoor speakers that have never been covered that have lasted over 10yrs as well. I guess the good news is, anything you pick other than those should outlast them ;-).

Just checked them out and I like the enclosures that come with the Bose 131 marines. Aside from the good customer service, the other thing that they do well is enclosures. They get a lot more out of an efficient lower powered speaker by ensuring they're optimized with an appropriate/matched enclosure. Nice feature for a 40 watt speaker.
 
Agreed, I thought that was pretty low, particularly for an exterior speaker. Seems like it's designed to be driven by a stock(ish) head unit, not for any type of amplified application. I think the stock amps they install on our boats are about 40 watts per channel and they're not very clean and I could not hear my stock speakers under normal cruising conditions while on plane from the cockpit. I've noticed it seems to take more power to get decent sound and DB out of "marine" or "outdoor" speakers due to the extra "weatherproofing" which I think reduces their efficiency.

My separates are getting 180 watts of very clean power from an old school 15yr old ADS amp and it seems like a good balance, Great sound when I want it but it's not too much to where I could be mistaken for a wakeboard boat....... Seems like 80-100 watts per channel from a decent amp with appropriately matched speakers is what it takes to hear decent sound while cruising without Isinglass, reasonable wind, engine noise, etc.

Sea Ray used the Polk Audio speakers for my boat which is one of the reasons I chose them for my upgrade.
 
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