It’s tough to please an aquatic audiophile, especially when so many marine stereos were originally designed for use on dry land. Worse yet, few boats are designed with stereos in mind. That means that speakers break, connections corrode, and you’re left rocking and rolling on your boat without being able to rock out. KICKER, which has been producing audio products since 1973, set out to change all that with what they call “Real Marine®”. Today that program is culminating in the form of new-for-2025 M-Class Premium Series marine speakers.
Real Marine® integrates design, materials and construction to make the M-Class not just a part on the boat, but a part of the boat. Design begins with sound quality—it doesn’t matter if that speaker lasts forever if it doesn’t deliver awesome audio. Since KICKER is already well-known for premium performance, it won’t come as any surprise that M-Class speakers produce sound quality that would be best described as luxurious. But these speakers are also specifically designed for life as part of a boat. Coaxial MSC speakers are available in 6.5-inch and 8-inch models for slick, inobtrusive installations and easy drop-in replacement, while Component Systems (MS models) provide a separate tweeter that is designed to be mounted adjacent to the midrange, smoothing out frequency response for greater sonic accuracy. M-Class subwoofers come in 10 and 12-inch models with both enclosure-style, (MWE) woofers for use in custom enclosures, and Free-air style, (MWF) woofers that can be used in large sealed areas such as center consoles. In addition to these four premium woofer models, Kicker builds the MWLE104, a compact bass-reflex subwoofer enclosure that can be mounted in a variety of configurations.
Critically, the M-Class Premium Series speakers are designed to integrate with the boat itself. When one of these speakers gets mounted, it’s in compliance with ISO 12216 standards. That’s the same watertightness requirement applied to a boat’s doors, hatches and windows. In fact, in addition to this ISO certification, KICKER has also been a member of the ABYC (which dictates National Marine Manufacturers Association standards) and NMMA for over 20 years, and the NMEA for a decade, with boater safety and standards compliance being an inherent part of all of its Real Marine® product designs.
And when it comes to materials, the M-Class maintains this same Real Marine® attitude. Midrange cones are carbon-fiber-infused polycarbonate, which not only makes for great sound reproduction, but it also has the light-yet-strong characteristics needed to survive the marine environment for the long term. Tweeter domes are made from a textile called Tetoron, which delivers the performance of a silk dome tweeter but has much better hydrophobic and UV-resistant characteristics. And stainless steel is used wherever possible rather than lower-grade metals.
Striving for longevity in the marine environment is one thing, but KICKER takes it to the next level with the M-Class. Speaker grills offer an excellent example. Everyone’s seen ABS speaker grills that have turned yellow and brittle, and sooner or later these break on impact when a cooler slides across the deck or a knee hits them. Decades ago, KICKER came up with a two-stage paint process that fought this UV deterioration. However, the color faded over time. They tried switching to a different clear coat that had better stability. Still not satisfied, KICKER started using a proprietary product molded with pigment and finished with a single-stage paint. It both protects the speaker and stays the intended color for the long haul.
The frame, or “basket,” of the speaker provides another illuminating example. Traditional stamped metal might work great in a car, but on a boat, it becomes a haven for corrosion. Plastic would seem to be a good alternative, but often, 95 percent of the power delivered to a stereo speaker becomes heat rather than sound. That means that under hard use, a thermoformed plastic frame can become deformed. So KICKER’s engineers developed a glass-filled nylon formulation that can withstand the heat without deforming and has zero possibility of corroding. Today, that material is used in all of the M-Class Premium Series speakers.
More construction highlights: Internal crossovers are sealed inside weatherproof enclosures, and wire connections are made via gasketed, watertight, quick-disconnect Amphenol connectors. On top of all that, these speakers have been subjected to ASTM B117 (salt-spray corrosion resistance) and G154 (UV weathering) testing to ensure that they’re equipped for long-term survival in the marine environment.
“Years ago we realized that marine was just different,” says Phil White, KICKER’s Director of Marine Audio. “Marine audio systems seemed to be designed as disposable; use it till it quits, then buy another one. I came into this as an audio guy professionally, but I was also a boater, so this felt really disingenuous to me. If we were going to do marine gear, it needed to be real marine gear. We created Real Marine® to improve our own internal standards so that our speakers would last in the marine environment and wouldn’t do things like leave rust streaks on gelcoat. We designed in drain channels so that they didn’t hold water when you washed down the boat after a day of fishing. We eliminated ferrous metals wherever possible, and fully enclosed and protected the metals where their use is a must. Real Marine® is our ‘cookbook’ for the design of all our marine products—it has to be, or it’s not KICKER Marine.”
The bottom line? There are plenty of marine stereos out there, but to be Real Marine®, it’s got to be a KICKER. And when you cast off the lines with KICKER aboard, you always know that cool, crisp tunes are what will be rocking the boat.
Learn more at kicker.com/premium-marine.
