Customer Reviews

Bose 131 Flush-Mounted Marine Speakers (Arctic White) - 1 Pair

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

just be aware of the actual shape -- there is a large block of hollow plastic (some sort of acoustical chamber, no doubt) that extends beyond the diameter of the speakers; they are probably twice as long as the diameter, and 3 or so inches thick. There is an obvious acoustical reason for this, but if you have a small space where a conventional speaker might just squeeze in (if you are just looking at the speaker diameter), these won't.

What is very clever, however, is these are designed to be blind mounted -- so long as the space you want to mount them in has enough depth and radial clearance for the acoustical chamber, you can mount these in tough spots.

what I mean by this is: if you have a surface where you don't have good access to the rear, you can still put these in, so long as you can fish a speaker wire back there. I use an actual electrician's fish tape. On my boat, the gunwhales are a good example - I could never reach up under these with my hand, but I can fish a wire from there down into my bilge where the wiring chase is. You can cut a slightly larger hole than necessary for a behind mount (and a template is included), and instead mount these from the front side of the surface you want the speakers in.

The cone is polymerized, and these looked to me to be the best engineered for the marine environment of all the speakers I looked at. The acoustic box even has 6 or 7 drain holes engineered in (you only open one up, depending on the angle you mount them at), so the plan from the Bose engineers is for these to get wet. If you are a boater, you have to admire that line of thinking.

I have one complaint which is the reason for my average ratings above....

I mounted these into the center console of my bay boat. After making a 60 mile trip down the interstate, averaging 70 mph, I arrived at my destination, whereupon I found that one of the speaker covers had come off. I checked the remaining cover and only then did I realize that that they do NOT as tight as they should to the speaker; without exagerating, the fit is extremely loose. I'm not happy in the least about this. I'm now going to have to contact Bose for a replacement. This really pisses me off.

Bought these speakers for my boat and they seem to be just average speakers that requires more space then regular speakers. After installing these speakers I noticed they are not shielded so now my compass is off. For the price I paid for them and these being marine speakers I would have thought they would be shielded. The sound is average as well as compared to my much cheaper JBL marine speakers which are shielded. I have had a good experience with bose but "better sound through research" does not really apply to these.