Best Marine Sound System

I have always had good luck and been happy with Eclipse marine stuff. I think JL audio makes some good marine speakers also.

there may be others, I don't have that much experience beyond a couple of installs.

Polyplaner makes good marine speakers

I did some research on this and got some professional feedback that JL speakers and Amps are the best. Hook them up to a good Sony head unit and you will be Jammin!

JL speakers, they look and sound the best imo. The poly planners have metal grills that look bad.

speakers

Inside speakers, Speakercraft. Outside, JL audio or Polyplanar

Stereo Systems...

I just put a new system in last month. In researching forums and speaking with local marine audio installers, all of them said to stay away from Sony head units. I found this hard to believe, but apparently Sony isn't what is used to be in this sector. I was replacing a 5 year old Pioneer head unit, expecting another Pioneer would be plug & play. Wrong. I still had to rewire a new harness. Below is a picture of the new unit. I purposely chose a unit with preset buttons, but if you turn off your batteries, you've lost your presets. I also wanted a unit free of frills. No removable panel. No flip-down face. Basically, no moving parts.

And by the way, there is no need to pay extra for a marine grade unit if it's going to housed in a cabinet, inside your boat. My head unit (which is automotive grade) is located on the side of my center console helm and covered with a splash resistant lid, but it is still subject to humidity and will likely fail just as fast as its marinized counterpart. I see these units as disposable at their price points. Also, if the head unit will be located where sunlight is present, be sure you can see the display. Certain LCD's are harder to see.

On speakers, I'm using Bazookas because they came with the boat. The sound is excellent and they are waterproof. They are a popular choice on wakeboard boats so the skier can hear the music. I'm guessing headbangin' wakejumpers would know the most about sound on the water. Pic attached...

I purchased the Pioneer receiver because it was a good price point, but I won't buy another one. In researching forums and speaking with audio installers, Polyplanar kept coming up, but I don't have any experience with them.

This is the automotive-style Polyplanar receiver that I'm considering. I have not been able to locate the unit independent of a combo package that includes Polyplanar speakers, although I haven't had time to really research it. If someone comes across this system - receiver only - please post a note.

Poly-Planar Marine Unit

Don't think this is exact unit, but it is AM/FM/CD/MP3/WMA with USB Port, and can be bought separately, sans speakers. I've included link below:

http://www.turtlemarine.com/polyplanarmr40w.html

Hope that helps.

Here are a couple of stores. I am not familiar with either of them, however, a quick google search revealed a number of others.
http://www.rnrmarinestore.com/default.php?cPath=1694822_1694823&page=6
http://www.newagemarine.com/polmr41.html
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=Polyplanar+mr41

Crutchfield also sells marine head units

Do they sell the Polyplanar unit?

I never really cared for Crutchfield.

Not sure........I bought a Kenwod unit from them a few years back for my Mastercraft

I recently installed a waterproof Clarion CMS-1 paired with JL MX770 speakers. I bring the music aboard on my cheapie generic MP3 player with music from my "Rhapsody To Go" account. The MP3 plugs in to the "Aux" input with a patch cord. I'm very happy with this simple combo. It really kicks butt on the FB of my 315 Chris Commander. That's it on the lower left corner of the helm.

If your still looking, check out the Fusion range, they have a 2 set range (rebadged car units... I wouldn't buy it), or the proper marine staff, which is fantastic... they were playing the speakers under water at one of the boat shows down here. The speakers them selves I believe are the most powerful on the market. The speaker covers are pretty strong as well, and won't/shouldn't degrade in the weather like most other brands, and you can even kick them with your knee and they shouldn't break, they are part of the speaker when mounted.

The head units are pretty nice too, there's DVD, CD, IPOD models (and IPOD docks). And like all of the fusion range, it's waterproof, not weather resistant, like the others.

Good luck!

Far

X2^

I have run poly planar, Sony, Fusion, and Kenwood in different boats over the years. Once I found the Fusion head units I never looked back. They offer multi-zone capability with separate wired controllers. Plus, Fusion will upgrade the software as needed for free.

As far as speakers go, I have four Bazooka Tubbies on my CC Fountain and love them, but they need to be paired with a sub. They have held up under some pretty hard use over the last 5 years or so. In addition, they can be cranked up to unbelievable levels.

For traditional speakers (mounted in a hole), I have used Poly Planar and JL Audio for years on our Bertram. As the Poly Planar speakers "retire" I am replacing with nothing but JL. I have found that they offer the best combination of sound quality and durability. Skip the components and go with coaxials, they are cheaper and the sound quality difference is unnoticeable due to wind noise.

As for amplifiers, the JL class D (digital) amps are great. They don't have over heating issues that older style amps have and they can be stacked, saving valuable space on board. I have four of them on the Bert in the same amount of space one of my old amps used.

In my experience, the two key aspects involved in any quality marine stereo system are power (watts...install as many as you can) and the installation (be sure to use someone who really knows what they are doing).