Polk Momo's, please explain?

[nautiques4life]

What are your thoughts on these speakers? I think they sound great as cabin speakers but am not really impressed as tower speakers. Got the boat all set up this winter took the boat out this weekend, couldn't hear any audio at 80 ft of rope. Wondering if volume was too low, i've gone deaf, or these tower speakers just aren't anywhere as good as my last set up- or if that's the case- is it because they are somehow set up wrong. Currently I am running 6 cabin 6.5 momos and 4 tower 6.5 momos (defcon 3 tower set-up). I have 2 factory installed amps, and have the fader set to favor the tower +3 over the cabin. Any help or insight and opinions would be greaatly appreciated, thanks everyone.

[crowland]

Re: Polk Momo's, please explain?

What are your thoughts on these speakers? I think they sound great as cabin speakers but am not really impressed as tower speakers. Got the boat all set up this winter took the boat out this weekend, couldn't hear any audio at 80 ft of rope. Wondering if volume was too low, i've gone deaf, or these tower speakers just aren't anywhere as good as my last set up- or if that's the case- is it because they are somehow set up wrong.

The Polks are designed as a car speaker, not tower specific (i.e.-Wetsounds, NVS,Bullet,etc) - you shouldnt be surprised that you were not able to hear them at 80ft out. What did you have set up before that you were able to hear while riding?

How do you have the speakers wired/setup and to what amps? Reconfiguring them might help, but I do not think there is anything that you will be able to do to "clearly" hear the speakers while riding at 80ft out - they just are not made for that application.

[EarmarkMarine]

RE: Re: Polk Momo

nautiques4life,

Crowland said it well. The Polk MOMOs are a very musically accurate speaker and will serve admirably as in-boat speakers.

But for the tower you need a highly efficient speaker with an extra treble kick (may sound false at close range) so that it will not only project at 80 feet but will still sound fairly articulate at 80 feet.

Also, the factory is adequately powered for in the boat but seriously underpowered for the tower.

I would suggest reconfiguring your factory power so that your bow speakers are driven off an amplifier versus the source unit and adding a larger tower amplifier.

Send us your pods, since you've got a sizeable investment in them, and we'll retro them to fit two pair of HLCDs.

David
Earmark Marine

[nautiques4life]

RE: Re: Polk Momo

My last boat had a fiberglass housing with 4 pioneer 4 way 6x9s run off one amp, cabin speakers were straight of head unit. And it was epic. I could hear the audio clearly from the end of the slalom course on a calm day (no joke- it wasn't loud but it was clear) At 80ft it was great, loud and clear as day. The guy I sold my boat to said he got a ticket on san diego bay- and the police said they had to give him a ticket because they could hear the music without seeing the boat and spent 10 minutes driving and stopping and driving stopping etc. to find where the music was coming from.
That all being said, I'm wondering if adding another 2 matching 6.5" speakers (and/or a new amp to push them) up top is going to do anything or if I'm just gonna be dissappointed and out of more $. If that's the case I might as well just sell the defcon IIIs and search out my old set up.

[tazz3069]

David,
Good question about the tower speakers. I do like the look of the Titan cans. I also am concerned about the sound. I have a set of MB Quartz in my Tower right now. They sound awesome at 80' back. What would be a good speaker that will fit in that 6"x9" speaker can? by the way, i just got my LED rings that I ordered from Justin. They look awesome. I will wire them this weekend. By the way I do not have a nautique yet. I am just getting all the information together so when i do get the boat, I have everything I need to do my mods.

[Laptom]

I rewired and reconfigured the amps on our stock 2007 Team system.

The standard tower cans now have their own Clarion 480 Amp.
The interior speakers (6) have their own Clarion 480 Amp.
The sub has its own Clarion 280 Amp.

As you can see, I added a single Clarion 480 Amp for the tower speakers. This system is now pretty nice (I'm sure it's no NVS or Wetsounds quality), but much much much better then stock from factory. The standard settings on the amps and radio from stock are really bad and will not work out. You'll need to reconfigure the Amp settings to work correctly. This was a 45 minutes job for us and it worked out great.

Now we can hear the music clear (not really loud, but good enough) at 80ft. And it all looks stock.

[nautiques4life]

Thanks everyone for the help, I'm still not sure what the best way to go is, but at least I've got some new ideas now. I'm thinking the next step is to try re-wiring the existing set up; once I've decided that I can't get it good enough with what I've got, I'll buy a new amp just to run the tower. After that I'll decide wether or not to bail on the whole defcon setup, and worst case scenario I'll have a new amp for whatever I decide to do for the new tower set up.

If it comes to that, all power/wattage the same, what do you all think is gonna be better, 4 6x9s or 6 6.5s, thanks everyone.

[gride300]

will cc start wiring their speakers correctly and crossovers? i mean everything else is top notch. and im sure wet sounds would love to put their speakers in all the boats from the factory. and i don't know anyone who likes clarion h/u's. their amps are fine though

[OHLNautique]

will cc start wiring their speakers correctly and crossovers? i mean everything else is top notch. and im sure wet sounds would love to put their speakers in all the boats from the factory. and i don't know anyone who likes clarion h/u's. their amps are fine though

I second that. CC makes the best wakeboard/ski boats money can buy. Why are the stereos crap?

[CD]

I just received my new 216 with the factory stereo, the bow speakers are not very loud but the tower speakers are, does this thing need to setup properly? Or? Need some help...thanks!

[CD]

One other question...i have heard a few times that the 09 stereo is way better than the 08, what did they do to make it better?

[scoootnz]

I to have the defcon 3 set up running 4 x 6.5 kicker components. I would be very interested to see what the retro fitting of HLCD would be like. I have great sound at 55 ft but any further back and its lost apart from directly behind the boat.

[Laptom]

Like said before, the standard factory settings of the '05-'08 stereo's are not good and need some tweaking.

I heard the '09 setup on the water and was really not impressed compared to our '07 tuned setup. Most likely the '09 setups needs some tweaking also. Didn't asked the owner if he did that. I don't think the '09 speakers are alot better, but most likely the Polk amps are.

[SuperSquirt]

I've got the Polk Momos that came in my 08 model. I am an audio/video snob and I can say that these speakers are legit, there is no need to upgrade the in-boat speakers (sorry WS, you know its true). I'm pushing all of my in-boat speakers at 125 watts/channel and they don't distort . I did not order factory tower speakers, so I will not comment on them.

As for the wiring, in 08, CC wired 2 in-boat speakers, 2 tower speakers, and the sub all off of the wimpy Clarion Apx480 amp (the other 4 in-boats off the head unit). It sounded awful and was clearly a lack of power. So in 09, it seems they listened to some complaints and switched amps.

[CD]

Thanks for all your comments, my next questions is with what i have, what do I need to do specifically to tweak the amp to get better sound than what i am getting now?

thx...CD