Wex, I was an IASCA and USAC competitor, too. Competed at the Pro level, without sponsorship - - - got myself into a regional event in Santa Fe, was looking at the power classes on everyone's windshield, noticed I didn't see any Pro competitors in my power class, so when I checked in I asked about the Pro level. They said it's either by choice, or by sponsorship, or by being employed by a retailer where you can buy at a discounted price. I thought why not ... only they didn't tell me that there were no power classes in the Pro regionals. It didn't matter if you had one watt or 10,000 ... Pro was Pro and that was it. Ouch. Took home a 3rd place trophy, though for SoundQ Plus. I was running a single-cab Ford Ranger with 3 JL 8W6's, some Soundstream Reference components, and pushed out 148 dB on only 300 watts. I used an AudioControl EQL and managed a 27/30 for the RTA score setting by ear. It was a big passion.
I did all my own installs, too. Enjoyed it quite a bit. My first big install for someone else was on a 1991 Acura Integra for John deJohn (I know, funny name) done in the garage of a friend named Bob Kessler. He (John) was an MP at Ft. Bliss in Texas. He went on to get a ton of first place trophies, USAC Nationals, articles in Car Audio & Electronics. Douche said he did the install mostly himself. I'm a real nut for speaker enclosures. Calculating volume, really pushing for efficiency, tricking a few things out. I enjoyed competing. I really enjoyed the sound quality. My favorite speakers are the Focal Utobia Be's --- smmmmoooooooth. They need a lot of clean power, though. In the affordable range, though, I've been extremely satisfied with the Alpine Pro X line.
In regards to speakers - the only real test anyone needs to perform is with their own ears. A boat is a completely different environment. People can get up and move around in a boat. I think you'd have a real difficult time trying to generate any real soundstage. If a set of speakers sounds good to you, get it. But realize that all things being equal, the less efficient speaker will require more power/amplification to play at the same perceived volume as a more efficient speaker. In general terms, on the water, the higher frequencies will carry to our ears more easily, while the lower frequencies will be attenuated because of the flexing in materials. You'd need to set your midbass driver in a really rigid baffle, and probably have a full enclosure to not lose some of that range through the back wave.
We should get together and take a free donor boat and make a psycho audio install on it ... :-)
