Marine Speakers

What’s so special about marine speakers?

Unlike automotive speakers, boat speakers are designed to withstand conditions associated with the marine environment. Marine speakers must contend with extremes of heat and cold, damaging UV light and with wet, damp conditions due to fog, rain or splashing waves. On the ocean, salt corrosion is also a problem. To assure dependable performance in this environment, marine speakers are generally made with aluminum, ABS plastic and polypropylene and include gaskets and seals to prevent water from damaging the components.

Along with being built out of water-resistant materials, manufacturers such as JBL and others subject their speakers to hundreds of hours of testing before a finished product ever lands on West Marine shelves.

What style of speakers do you want?

The speaker styles seen on boats include freestanding box speakers, flush-mounted speakers and tower speakers, like what are used on wakeboarding boats. A box speaker can go anywhere, so it offers a lot of flexibility, while correctly installed flush-mounted speakers generally produce superior sound. Tower speakers are characterized by a bullet shaped enclosure that helps to project their sound towards the rider behind the boat.

What size is right?

To produce rich, low-frequency bass notes, speakers generally have to be large to move a lot of air. While home speaker systems may have woofers (not to be confused with a subwoofers) which are 10″, 12″ or even 15″ across, most boats are not large enough to accommodate speakers in those sizes. For that reason, 6.5″ full-range speakers are the most popular size that West Marine sells.

Multiple speaker elements are better.

Multiple speaker elements in one enclosure do a better job of reproducing the spectrum of audio frequencies than a single cone. High frequencies are best handled by a small, rigid speaker called a tweeter. Low frequencies are best reproduced by a large conical speaker called a woofer. For even better sound, a third element called a midrange may be added. 2-way speakers have a woofer and a tweeter. 3-way speakers add a midrange.

How can you improve the bass sound on a boat?

For real bass sound on larger boats, adding a subwoofer will work miracles. Low frequency sound is non-directional, so a subwoofer can be located in an inconspicuous location. Sub woofers and multi-speaker systems require plenty of power, so in most cases, adding a subwoofer will require the purchase of a separate amplifier as well.

Need more help finding the right boat speakers?

Check out our article on choosing marine speakers for a full rundown on things to consider before you buy and our article on our top picks for marine speakers for some of our best-selling speakers. In the market for a stereo unit as well? Check out our article on choosing a marine stereo.