Having trouble deciding on tower speakers

[cedarcreek216]

I went and listened to all the Wetsound products and can't make up my mind. I know everyone goes with the Rev series for projection, but I can't get used to the horn sound. The Icons just sound more real to me. If hearing them while wakeboarding is not a decision making criteria would you still go with the Revs? Mostly used for surfing and floating. None of us stay up on a wakeboard long enough to listen to a ton of music.

The rev 10's sounded better than the 8's, but they were $500 more than the Icons. Just can't decide.


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[RideButter]

I hear you (pun not intended) about the horn sound. I think Wetsounds makes a great product, and they are very loud, but the horns, in my opinion broadcast too much of the high frequencies for close distance listening.

Not familiar with the Icons, but if they sound better to you, I would say you are not crazy.

I recently replaced a set of HLCD towerspeakers with Roswell Neptunes (not HLCD) and I am very pleased at close distance sound quality and wakeboarding distance sound quality.

[cedarcreek216]

I guess if I open up to a non HLCD set up then I open myself up to more options than just wet sounds as well.


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[Super B]

I am currently rocking the Icon's on my 211,and I love them! They are great sounding speakers for surfing and floating.

[David Analog]

Certainly with an HLCD the primary objective is having enough output for distance projection. And if you are going to project to wake range with any degree of intelligibility, then the treble has to be a bit aggressive. Otherwise a perfectly flat speaker up close would sound like it had a wool army blanket thrown over it at wake range.
Even though the Icon8 was designed to fit your application as you have described it and does a great job, I still like the Wetsounds Rev10 over the Wetsounds Icon8, even for near field listening (at rest and surfing), because the Rev10 has a much larger midbass driver and much larger pod displacement. So you will get a stronger midbass with more midbass extension with the Rev10. If you can add an EQ, especially one with more frequency selections, then you can pull down the aggressiveness for near field listening and really flatten out the speaker. In the case of the Rev, what you hear from the HLCD is actually less about the fact that the speaker uses a compression horn tweeter and more about the bias in the amplitude response. Again, it's an easy contour adjustment with the right EQ. And it doesn't have to be an exposed EQ. Or, it can be a processor that does everthing in the digital domain with far more frequency increments. You would be shocked to hear what you can do with a really good digital processor that isn't terribly expensive. Since you are in Dallas, check in with Earmark Marine. There are a couple of guys there that really know acoustics.
Between the Icon8 and the Rev10, I look at these two options with the power amplifier included. The Icon8 will handle less power, demand less power and the total amplifier/tower speaker package will come in at a much lower cost. With a Rev10 amp/speaker package, you must balance the power with the speaker potential. Much of your value is going to be determined by having the correct match and not under-powering the Rev. Btw, there isn't much worse then listening to an under-powered HLCD. A horn loaded compression driver will ruthlessly reproduce the slightest amount of amplifier clipping.