Favorite 6.5" Speakers

I need to replace the factory speakers on my '97. I believe that they are 6.5" units,

The Polk MM651 speakers consistently get the best overall rating for 6.5" marine speakers, but all of the negative reviews on Amazon address quality control issues, which appear to be significant.

Has anyone used these speakers and if so, what is your experience with them?

I know this will be a loaded question, but what 6.5" speakers would you recommend? They've all got pros and cons. I'm not trying to produce sound that can be heard by a skier or by the crew in the boat at WOT. I'm looking for decent quality sound during breaks and cruising along at slower speeds. Assume that I'm going with a head unit producing 100W peak/channel and not using an amp if that helps.

Have the factory original polks still in my 206 and after 12 hard years the cabin speakers which are pushed through an amp sound great, the bow speakers which are pushed through the deck are a bit fatigued. IMO an amp can do more for sound quality then what speaker you choose.

I have had the MM651 in my old car and now my Sport Nautique and I upgraded to the MM6501 in my new car. and really like them. I don't like very bright speakers and the Polks tend to fit the bill. I think of them as being nice easy on the ears speakers, maybe not the highest fidelity but they do what I need in a boat.

I feel like once you are spending over $100 bucks on speakers the differences are either small and in most cases just preference unless you start sending alot more.

I listen to most of my music on Pandora and Spotify and I think unless you are playing your Music from CD's or FLAC, the speakers will perform just fine. JL's and Wetsounds get a lot of love in the boat world and I have never tried them as I have always been very satisfied with my Polks. I also don't listen to my music particularly loud so I can't really speak much to that.

Lastly If you are looking to rear mount the speakers, I would not go with the MM651. They cannot be rear mounted. The db651s can though.

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Blamey wrote: 86ER wrote: Assume that I'm going with a head unit producing 100W peak/channel and not using an amp if that helps. Okay, I just saw this. Don't get the MM651. They need an amp. If you are just going to use a head unit then the DB651 are a better choice and no need in spending more then $50 on a pair of speakers if you are not going to use an amp, it is just not worth it. I installed the db651 rear mounted in my coaming pad slast year. (I have MM651 in the front and DB651 as the reasr speakers). I uses two plastic mounting rings I got off amazon. I did a write up of it on Planet Nautique. Very simple process and the speakers are marine rated.

I 2nd this... my buddy has MM651s and I have the DB651s and w/o an amp there isn't a noticeable difference.. I think you can get 4 db for less than a pair of mm. Both are marine grade. I felt the need to add a sub last summer. Sounds decent.

I just installed JL 6.5s in my Air. They sound pretty good, but I honestly don't think it's justifiably nicer than the lower range speakers. At least not for the money spent. Also, because the tweeters are integrated into the grill, they had to be surface mounted on the combing pad, which is fine, but I was hoping to keep the stock mesh cover things. Just a heads up.