Good deal on Kicker LED speakers? Plus Install help!!

[Miitch]

I found this set of 4 Kicker 6.5” speakers on amazon. Seemed like a pretty good deal to me, but I don’t know much about speakers. Looking to upgrade the stock sound system in my 2011 challenger 180 SE. I was going to pair them to a
Rockville RXM-S20 1600w Max 4 Channel amp.

thoughts on this set up? I don’t want to completely destroy the bank as this is my first boat, and I do plan to upgrade eventually.

additionally, I’m confident in my modification skills, but I’m confused on how to wire the LEDs. Do The LED wires go separately to the battery? Or should they be wired with the speaker wires?

Amazon.com: Kicker 6.5" Charcoal LED Marine Speakers (QTY 4) 2 pairs of OEM replacement speakers

Amazon.com: Kicker 6.5" Charcoal LED Marine Speakers (QTY 4) 2 pairs of OEM replacement speakers

www.amazon.com

 

[Inthrustwetrust]

I found this set of 4 Kicker 6.5” speakers on amazon. Seemed like a pretty good deal to me, but I don’t know much about speakers. Looking to upgrade the stock sound system in my 2011 challenger 180 SE. I was going to pair them to a
Rockville RXM-S20 1600w Max 4 Channel amp.

thoughts on this set up? I don’t want to completely destroy the bank as this is my first boat, and I do plan to upgrade eventually.

additionally, I’m confident in my modification skills, but I’m confused on how to wire the LEDs. Do The LED wires go separately to the battery? Or should they be wired with the speaker wires?

Amazon.com: Kicker 6.5" Charcoal LED Marine Speakers (QTY 4) 2 pairs of OEM replacement speakers

Amazon.com: Kicker 6.5" Charcoal LED Marine Speakers (QTY 4) 2 pairs of OEM replacement speakers

www.amazon.com

The lights get wired separate. You need a 12v power and ground. They come with instructions. I believe the power goes to the red and the ground goes to whatever color/colors light you want. You can also buy a LED controller for like 30 bucks so you can change colors and do cool light things. I would not recommend wiring power directly to the battery as they will always be on. Wire to a battery switch or some other way so the power can be turned off when not in use.

I blew my 2 8 inch kicker tower speakers, I think had to much gain from the amp.

if you are running a amp you are going to want a battery charger and a second battery (starter battery) if you don’t already have one. A day at the sandbar will kill the battery and these boats don’t put out enough power to fully recharge a battery.

 

[Crob83]

I hav

I found this set of 4 Kicker 6.5” speakers on amazon. Seemed like a pretty good deal to me, but I don’t know much about speakers. Looking to upgrade the stock sound system in my 2011 challenger 180 SE. I was going to pair them to a
Rockville RXM-S20 1600w Max 4 Channel amp.

thoughts on this set up? I don’t want to completely destroy the bank as this is my first boat, and I do plan to upgrade eventually.

additionally, I’m confident in my modification skills, but I’m confused on how to wire the LEDs. Do The LED wires go separately to the battery? Or should they be wired with the speaker wires?

Amazon.com: Kicker 6.5" Charcoal LED Marine Speakers (QTY 4) 2 pairs of OEM replacement speakers

Amazon.com: Kicker 6.5" Charcoal LED Marine Speakers (QTY 4) 2 pairs of OEM replacement speakers

www.amazon.com

I have the same speakers, I didn't mess with the LEDs though. Don't really boat at night anyways, the speakers are pretty decent. I have an MTX 2 channel 450 watt on the towers (which are the kickers) left the factory polks as is as they are not too shabby at all either

 

[Miitch]

The lights get wired separate. You need a 12v power and ground. They come with instructions. I believe the power goes to the red and the ground goes to whatever color/colors light you want. You can also buy a LED controller for like 30 bucks so you can change colors and do cool light things. I would not recommend wiring power directly to the battery as they will always be on. Wire to a battery switch or some other way so the power can be turned off when not in use.

I blew my 2 8 inch kicker tower speakers, I think had to much gain from the amp.

if you are running a amp you are going to want a battery charger and a second battery (starter battery) if you don’t already have one. A day at the sandbar will kill the battery and these boats don’t put out enough power to fully recharge a battery.

I have already installed a second battery the the boat came with a battery kill switch that i always turn off when leaving the boat. both the batteries are wired together but i cant switch from one to the other. Just use both of them, charge both of them, or kill both of them via switch. Do you think this will be good enough to run the speakers and not kill the battery after a day out anchored?

Also, i do have a 12 volt plug right above the radio head unit. Should i be wiring the LEDs to the 12v power from this plug? maybe tap into it from behind?

 

[Miitch]

I hav
I have the same speakers, I didn't mess with the LEDs though. Don't really boat at night anyways, the speakers are pretty decent. I have an MTX 2 channel 450 watt on the towers (which are the kickers) left the factory polks as is as they are not too shabby at all either

I Will only be running the 4 Kicker cockpit speakers with the amp. No tower speakers though, however in the future, i was looking at the 4" kicker tower speakers. Run for about $400-600? are these the ones you have? How do they sound with no tower speakers? Loud enough to be heard off the back of the boat?

 

[Ronnie]

I have 4 6.5” kicker multi color led speakers installed on my boat and have had this mode” for about 2 seasons already. They are good speakers. No need to go nuts on power they are rated at 65 watts rms. I went with a matching kicker non marine amp for about $200. The ironic thing is that kicker includes a certificate which shows how many watts the amp tested to, mine was close to 100 watts over the written specs so I had to reduce the gain to keep the amp from blowing the speakers at high volume. I recommend that You stay away from the Kicker led controller and go with wet sounds equivelemt/Imitation on Amazon. The difference being that the latter unit can be plugged into the music source and kind of be synched to The music.

 

[Miitch]

I have 4 6.5” kicker multi color led speakers installed on my boat and have had this mode” for about 2 seasons already. They are good speakers. No need to go nuts on power they are rated at 65 watts rms. I went with a matching kicker non marine amp for about $200. The ironic thing is that kicker includes a certificate which shows how many watts the amp tested to, mine was close to 100 watts over the written specs so I had to reduce the gain to keep the amp from blowing the speakers at high volume. I recommend that You stay away from the Kicker led controller and go with wet sounds equivelemt/Imitation on Amazon. The difference being that the latter unit can be plugged into the music source and kind of be synched to The music.

the wet sounds Remote will work with the kicker speakers?? Is it plug and play, or will there be some programming required. In all honesty, I was really only interested in using the blue LEDs - so just the one wire. if I can get a remote and have access to the other settings for under $100 or so I’m okay with it, but it will only be changed from blue to show the other colours off to my friends LOL!

 

[Peelz]

The lights get wired separate. You need a 12v power and ground. They come with instructions. I believe the power goes to the red and the ground goes to whatever color/colors light you want. You can also buy a LED controller for like 30 bucks so you can change colors and do cool light things. I would not recommend wiring power directly to the battery as they will always be on. Wire to a battery switch or some other way so the power can be turned off when not in use.

I have them. this is correct. theres a second wire set coming out of it... VERY VERY tiny wires lol

MIne are the older blue LED only version. so I have them wired to the same switch that operates the blue leds in the cabin area.

 

[Inthrustwetrust]

I have already installed a second battery the the boat came with a battery kill switch that i always turn off when leaving the boat. both the batteries are wired together but i cant switch from one to the other. Just use both of them, charge both of them, or kill both of them via switch. Do you think this will be good enough to run the speakers and not kill the battery after a day out anchored?

Also, i do have a 12 volt plug right above the radio head unit. Should i be wiring the LEDs to the 12v power from this plug? maybe tap into it from behind?

Eh, I personally would feel much more comfortable having the batteries separate with a emergency tie just in case. You can keep the set up you got, I would highly recommend buying a jumper pack just in case. You could go to the 12v outlet, that’s going to require some splicing. You could go direct from the battery switch. or you can run another power cable with a inline fuse to a bus bar as you are going to have to power your amp. There are a several ways to attack it.
I put the lights on the house battery switch, amp is in the battery compartment to its power is attached right to the battery post with a inline fuse.

 

[Miitch]

I have them. this is correct. theres a second wire set coming out of it... VERY VERY tiny wires lol

MIne are the older blue LED only version. so I have them wired to the same switch that operates the blue leds in the cabin area.

I like this idea of wiring the LEDs to the existing interior light switch..Did you find any troubles when doing this? Like running out of wire, or running out of room?

 

[Miitch]

Eh, I personally would feel much more comfortable having the batteries separate with a emergency tie just in case. You can keep the set up you got, I would highly recommend buying a jumper pack just in case. You could go to the 12v outlet, that’s going to require some splicing. You could go direct from the battery switch. or you can run another power cable with a inline fuse to a bus bar as you are going to have to power your amp. There are a several ways to attack it.
I put the lights on the house battery switch, amp is in the battery compartment to its power is attached right to the battery post with a inline fuse.

I think I might have to invest in a better wiring/battery set up.. seems to be the safer option. no point having a good sound system if it drains the battery and doesn’t work half the time. Bring Out Another Thousand...

 

[Ronnie]

@Miitch , I don’t think you kneed to overthink this. The less don’t draw much power at all. Any rgb controller should work. I went with the wer sounds imitation pictured because of the music sync feature and the $100 price difference. I had the kicker version pictured and still have the fusion model. 4 lead insulated wiring is cheap, 6 lead including thicker power and ground leads is a little more expensive.

 

[Miitch]

@Miitch , I don’t think you kneed to overthink this. The less don’t draw much power at all. Any rgb controller should work. I went with the wer sounds imitation pictured because of the music sync feature and the $100 price difference. I had the kicker version pictured and still have the fusion model. 4 lead insulated wiring is cheap, 6 lead including thicker power and ground leads is a little more expensive.
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I think I’m going to go with that remote... I had no idea you could switch up brands and still have them be functional.. the kicker remote was around $60 which seemed crazy to me. The wet sounds one is just insane.. the lights don’t even cost that much for crying out loud ?

 

[Theryan]

I Will only be running the 4 Kicker cockpit speakers with the amp. No tower speakers though, however in the future, i was looking at the 4" kicker tower speakers. Run for about $400-600? are these the ones you have? How do they sound with no tower speakers? Loud enough to be heard off the back of the boat?

I have four of the 6.5" kickers installed in mine, and just a small Kenwood marine amp. No sub or tower speakers or anything. They sound great. Obviously, if you go too high on the volume you're going to get some feedback on them, but otherwise they work just fine. The are clean sounding and have decent power behind them.

I didn't wire the LEDs up, but can down the road if I decide to. Kicker makes an LED lighting controller that you'd want to get for them that allows you to control the power, color, etc. for these speakers.

 

[Miitch]

I have four of the 6.5" kickers installed in mine, and just a small Kenwood marine amp. No sub or tower speakers or anything. They sound great. Obviously, if you go too high on the volume you're going to get some feedback on them, but otherwise they work just fine. The are clean sounding and have decent power behind them.

I didn't wire the LEDs up, but can down the road if I decide to. Kicker makes an LED lighting controller that you'd want to get for them that allows you to control the power, color, etc. for these speakers.

This is exactly what I am planning to do. I ordered the speakers and a small amp already. Just want to have good sound. I don’t need the entire beach to hear my music, I just want it so sound good to everyone on-board without breaking the bank. How are they for low end sound? I heard they put out a decent bass tone

 

[Theryan]

Honestly, I think they sound great. I like having some bass, but don't personally think having a sub on a boat is worth the money.

These put out enough bass with my setup to vibrate the boat. And they get loud enough to easily hear it when you're on the transom or in the water behind.

I've got no complaints at all. I've considered adding in a couple of 4.5" matching speakers and wiring them in parallel, but really don't know that I care enough to.

I also swapped out the head unit for a kenwood marine one, and you can fine tune a bunch of stuff with the audio if you want.

 

[Miitch]

Honestly, I think they sound great. I like having some bass, but don't personally think having a sub on a boat is worth the money.

These put out enough bass with my setup to vibrate the boat. And they get loud enough to easily hear it when you're on the transom or in the water behind.

I've got no complaints at all. I've considered adding in a couple of 4.5" matching speakers and wiring them in parallel, but really don't know that I care enough to.

I also swapped out the head unit for a kenwood marine one, and you can fine tune a bunch of stuff with the audio if you want.

That’s good to know... sounds like they’re going to be exactly what I’m looking for. I’ve thought about switching out my head unit solely for Bluetooth. My stock head unit actually has quite a bit of EQ control options and fade options as is, just no Bluetooth - so we’re stuck using aux.

Not sure if you can help, but my stock Head unit has a little built in controller on the captains side next to the steering wheel. Just for quick access to volume, power and skipping songs. If you had something similar, did it give you problems when swapping head units??

 

[Theryan]

Those control units are, to the best of my knowledge, model specific. So, if you swapped out your head unit to a different brand/model that isn't compatible you would either just leave it disconnected, or you would swap out the control thing.

Other brands, like Kenwood, have the little controller thing that you could swap it out if you want to and you just wire it to the head unit.

 

[Miitch]

Those control units are, to the best of my knowledge, model specific. So, if you swapped out your head unit to a different brand/model that isn't compatible you would either just leave it disconnected, or you would swap out the control thing.

Other brands, like Kenwood, have the little controller thing that you could swap it out if you want to and you just wire it to the head unit.

Yet another purchase I wasn’t planning on ? such is life! Taking a week vacation end of July so hopefully I can use that time to get it all finished up. Pics to come shortly !!

 

[Theryan]

It's honestly a pretty quick install. The speakers that I swapped out had holes that all lined up nicely with the Kickers. The most time-consuming part was honestly adding the terminal ends to the existing wires that I had in the boat in order to connect to the Kickers.

The head unit took some wiring to get the harness connected up, but overall all four speakers and the head unit plus amp was maybe an hour or so of work (I have installed a lot of car audio stuff, so it was pretty quick for me, but realistically it shouldn't take long at all for you).