Captain Ron's

Sailing and Cruising Pages

Marine Stereo Speakers

These guys are not high on my list of 'must haves' but the boat had a pair of them installed in the rear cockpit coaming of our Ericson 38 and they had broken plastic grills so I replaced them. I bought a pair of West Marine Speakers (made by Jensen) of the same size and type as the ones I removed. Rounded off, square cover...

The new ones looked good. Better than looking at the old broken grills anyway.

The new ones lasted a little longer than their one year warranty. Then they too developed broken grills and the new ones even had cracked cones ... the cones are made of Mylar...

The grills cracked from casual contact with a boat shoe ... not hard contact ... just a little bump ... it turns out that the white plastic, that the grills are made of, gets brittle from the constant exposure to the sun. Slight contact with the grill of a new speaker is no big deal, the grill just flexes. But after a year's exposure to the sun, this casual contact will break off pieces of the grill.

I've glued the grill pieces back in place ... super glue seems to be the least obvious fix but grill members keep breaking off. On top of that, the interior Mylar cone on one of the speakers has cracked ... ripped really ... all the way into the middle of the cone. Of course, the crack caused considerable buzz to that speaker, rendering the pair useless. I repaired the crack with a little silicone and the speaker worked again without buzzing but a week later I noticed another crack, then another ... this thing is falling apart. The other one was ok although its grill is missing parts now too.

They're complete junk and I can't afford to replace them every year at West Marine prices ... they cost about $100 a pair plus tax. This time around I found a pair at auction on EBay and I won the auction at $20 plus $10 shipping ... these are also plastic but they're a brown color rather than white; I think they're some off brand but they can't be any worse than the $100 version. Anyway, here's hoping they last longer than the old ones ... I'll keep you informed.