Marine speakers vs Dry speakers
 

Curious to see how many of you have upgraded the sound system and have elected to not go with a marine-grade speaker system.

Intuition tells me to get marine grade speakers as they’ll better handle the elements, however, doing so really limits the options. For instance, JL Audio does not offer a marine grade component speaker for the front 6.5 woofers/tweeters. I’d have to go with coaxial and a separate pair of tweeters. I think doing this may make the sound to bright.

So I was exploring the thought of ditching the marine-grade altogether and going with regular speakers in hopes that the speaker placement is far enough out of the way from the rain and mud.

When my speakers go they'll get replaced with waterproof units. But that's because they will most likely die of water and dust so it makes sense for me. Are you going to get caught in the rain with the roof off? If not, standard speakers are probably fine

Pretty much all the speakers out today are "marine grade" with poly cones and foam surrounds. That was a big selling point long ago when the standard issue was paper cones with fabric surrounds and whizzer cones for the highs. I've had great luck with Polk DB series in a few offroad vehicles that haven't lived a dry and sheltered life and they didn't miss a beat, no pun intended.

I put the Polk Audios in the sound bar and dash of my 2025 JKU. They sound pretty good and will hopefully be better when I install an amp and sub. They 6.5s fit in the dash pretty well. Crutchfield had a good selection and their customer service is top notch. The prices were competitive too.

I did a 5 channel Polk amp that I shoehorned in where the factory infinity amp was located. For the dash speakers, I pulled the tombstone tweeter mounts and got the new tweeters to fit in the factory location, and look stock. Upgraded and retrofitted the existing 8" sub with a new Polk 8" sub. Drilled some new holes and added screws, then drilled some additional holes and have the factory grille back over the sub for protection from cargo and eyes. It's night and day from what it was previously. I had it cranked and my rearview mirror and the mirrors on the half doors were vibrating. Never did that stock.