JL Audio M3 6.5" 4 Speakers + Subwoofer Stereo Package

JL Audio M3-650x 4 Speakers + Subwoofer Stereo Package

Our JL Audio 6.5 inch, 4 speaker and subwoofer stereo package delivers full range sound, from the best brand in marine audio, while taking the guess work out of component selection. This kit includes the 4 6.5" M3 speakers in your choice of grille style and color, with or without LEDs. It also includes a matching, 10" JL Audio M3 infinite baffle subwoofer, a JL Audio M-series amplifier, and an amp wiring kit.

(4) JL Audio M3 6.5" Speakers

The 6.5" JL Audio M3 speakers are one of our favorites for those that want the best sound quality possible, but aren't willing to spend the big bucks for the M6. These are the best overall 6.5" speakers in our opinion as they handle similar power as the M6, they have a similar sized tweeter, and they just sound great. The 6.5" M3 speakers are available in with sport grilles in either white or titanium or with classic style grilles in white. Both the white and the titanium sport grille models are available with or without RGB LEDs.

(1) M3 10" Subwoofer Included + Option to Add a Second

Out on the water, you are in an open air environment and bass can be difficult to hear. The JL Audio 10" M3 subwoofer will help fill out the bottom end of your music so that you have true, full-range sound. The JL Audio M3-10IB subwoofers are designed for infinite baffle, or free-air installations. This means, you don't need to put the subwoofer in a box, instead you can mount it directly in the hull of your boat. The M3 10 inch subwoofers can handle 175 watts RMS and come with a single 4 ohm voice coil. A single subwoofer is perfect for the M700/5, 5-channel amplifier. As for the second subwoofer, there is no such thing as too much bass in an open air environment like a boat. This is a matter of preference and/or budget.

JL Audio M-Series 5 Channel Amplifier

With this kit, you have the option of choosing between the JL Audio M700/5 or the M1000/5. The output for the speakers is identical between the two amplifiers with rated power for 75W x 4 at 4 ohms and 100W x 4 @ 2 ohms. The big difference is the output for the subwoofer channel. The M700/5 puts out 180 watts at 4 ohms and 300 watts at 2 ohms. The M1000/5 puts out 400 watts at 4 ohms and 600 watts and 2 ohms. The M700/5 will provide enough power for the four speakers and one subwoofer. If you are adding a second subwoofer, the M700/5 is slightly under powered while the M1000/5 has more than you need, assuming you wire the two subwoofers to a 2 ohm load. If you are opting for a second subwoofer, we recommend that you go with the M1000/5 and keep the gain for the subwoofer channels turned down, and add the MHD-RLC bass know. If you have too much power, your subwoofer hits harder, sounds better, and you can always turn the bass down. If you don't have enough power and you want more bass, you turn your stereo up and you turn the bass up. When this happens you get distortion. Distortion ruins speakers and subwoofers way more often than too much power. If you go with two subwoofers, spend the money for the M1000/5, don't max out the gain, the amp will have zero strain, and you will be golden.

Option to add Stinger Marine Amp Wiring Kit

If you don't have an amplifier already, we recommend adding a Stinger marine amp wiring kit. The difference between the Stinger marine amp kits and a car amp kit is the length of the ground wire and the copper conductors are tinned to resist corrosion. The length of the ground wire is important becuase you typically do not have a place to connect to ground. In a car, the battery is grounded to the chassis or body of the vehicle and as long as you can find a mounting point, you can get to ground. Your boat does not typically have that luxury so instead of grounding to the body, we have to take the negative amp wire and run it to the negative terminal on the battery. The Stinger marine amp kit comes with 7 meters of red/yellow, 4 AWG, "Siamese", power wire. The wires are molded together much like speaker wire so that you only need to pull one cable instead of two. Of course, like speaker wire, you can pull them apart, but the Siamese wire is easier to run. The amp wiring kit includes a fuse holder, ring terminals, and remote wire.

We include the core essentials to any marine stereo system with this package, but there are also items that vary significantly from person-to-person and from boat-to-boat and it makes it nearly impossible to come up with a "good" solution to make everyone happy. So becuase of this, there are items that you will likely need to purchase in addition to the package items to complete your stereo system, assuming you don't have them already.

You need to get the signal from your radio to your amplifier. The most common way of doing this is with RCA cables. The JL Audio M-Series amplifiers do not accept high level inputs so you will need to use the pre-amp outputs from your head unit to connect the radio to the amplifier(s).

You need to know how many channels you have coming out of your head unit and how long the cables need to be. With this package, you only NEED 2 channels. The JL M700/5 and the M1000/5 both have input selector switches and can operate with as few as 2 channels of input. However, if your head unit has front, rear, and subwoofer outputs you can have up to 6 channels of output from your head unit assuming you want to fade between front and rear as well as have separate subwoofer control. If you don't care about fading front and rear, you only need two RCA cables, one for the speakers and one for the subwoofer.

In terms of length, you want to make sure that you have enough room to reach from your head unit to the amplifiers without pulling or straining the cables. At the same time, you don't want a 23 foot cable for a 6 foot run. The best way to measure is with rope, string, or any other wire you may have laying around. Route the rope or string from your head unit to the amplifier location while making sure that you keep the wire close to a surface where you may actually secure it. It is best to keep your signal wires separate from your power wires to limit EFI noise. One you route the rope or string where the RCAs will go, mark the string and measure the length. Once you have the length, you now know the minimum length of cable you will need.

Simlar to the RCA situation, we do not include speaker wire with this package as there are too many variables from boat-to-boat. If you are not using speakers with RGB LEDs, you can use standard marine speaker wire. We recommend using marine speaker wire because it is tinned to resist corrosion. Use rope, string, or a measuring tape to measure the runs from each speaker to the amplifier. Repeat the process for the subwoofer. Add up all of the runs from the amplifier to each speaker and subwoofer location and remember that you would rather be too long than too short as you can alwayus cut down the wire later.

If you choose speakers WITH RGB LEDs, we recommend 6 conductor, RGB LED speaker wire. This is marine grade cable that has 6 wires in it. 2 wires to deliver sound for the speakers and 4 smaller wires to deliver power to the RGB LEDs. The two wires for the speakers connect to the respective positive and negative terminals on the speaker. Then, there are wire leads on the back of the speakers for the RGB LEDs. The yellow wire is 12V+ while the red, blue, and green wires illuminate the red, blue, and green on the LED.

For marine applications, we recommend using a marine circuit breaker instead of a fuse to protect your amplifier. The circuit breaker is usually installed within a couple of feet of the battery and the biggest advantage over a fuse is that it can be reset. If you are out on the water and for whatever reason, you blow a fuse, you can't easily fix your problem. You have to have extra fuses on your boat, remember where you put them, and you need the tools to disconnect the fuse from the fuse holder. With a circuit breaker, it trips, and you simply reset it and you are back in business. We know it all seems to add up, but we definitely recommend using a circuit breaker over a fuse to protect your amplifier.

If you select the M3 speakers with RGB LEDs, we recommend adding an RGB LED controller. This RGB LED controller will allow you to change the illumination color and/or select from various color-changing modes. Some even have Bluetooth and can connect to your Bluetooth source to light up and color change with the beat of the music. The RGB LED controllers vary by brand, price, and features. The most important aspect is knowing the current draw of each speaker and subwoofer within your LED system to ensure that your RGB LED controller can handle the amount of current that the speakers and other lights connected to it will draw. Most RGB LED controllers can handle much more than the 4 speakers and subwoofer included with this kit.

We recommend the mHD-RLC bass knob to control the subwoofer output of your system. The amount of bass varies from song to song. Sometimes you want more bass, other times the track is recorded with too much bass and you need to turn it down because you hear distortion. The fastest and easiest way to do this is with the JL Audio MHD-RLC. It connects to the amplifier and is a rotary knob that allows you to adjust the bass easier and faster than messing with the subwoofer level on your head unit. You may be listening to some Guns n Roses and then someone decides that they need to hear Dr. Dre and they change the song. Those two songs are not going to have the same amount of bass output and the MHD-RLC allows you to quickly adjust the subwoofer output accordingly.

The JL Audio M3-650X-S-41 package delivers great sound quality while still filling out the bottom end with the 10" subwoofer. JL Audio is by far the most popular brand of premium marine speakers and the M3 6.5" speakers deliver the sound quality you expect from JL with the silk dome tweeter. The M700/5 or the M1000/5 are both perfect amplifiers to power this system. The M series amps use efficient, class-d circuitry, they outperform their rated power specs, and they have the best thermal management of any marine amplifier out there. You can run these amps as loud as you want, all day long, without worrying about them cutting out due to overheating. If you are looking for a 4 speaker marine stereo system with a subwoofer, this package is a no brainer.