KICKER® Marine Audio Tunes In for Every Boat & Budget
Published: Saturday, June 19, 2021
The rumble of an engine is music to a boater’s ear, but while some may want to listen to a ballgame or fishing show, others may want to blare their tunes out over a wakesurfer or sandbar. Depending on your music choice, entertainment preferences, size of your hull—and your wallet—KICKER Marine Audio has the ideal sound set-up for every boat and budget.
“KICKER entered the marine industry to bring its 12-volt reputation for quality and perfect sound to the water,” says Phil White, Marine Unit Director. “Our durability is second-to-none and we’ve done the R&D, testing, certification, and compliance work to ensure the reliability of all of our components in the marine environment—even in salt, fog, water, and intense sun. In addition, our new products with enhanced power match the performance of the great boats that are being manufactured around the world.”
For retrofits and re-powering, KICKER Marine Audio works directly with its dealers and installers, ensuring that boat dealers and consumers can easily upgrade their music systems, using interchangeable 3” gauge mountings for all head units.
A new head unit series makes controlling your sound easy and are designed to fit square or round dash layouts. With additional features like an Auto-Preset System (APS) that finds the strongest local signal in the area for AM/FM tuning and provides Bluetooth® streaming up to 30 feet, chrome or black trim bezels, and anti-glare LCD screens that make reading easy in bright sunlight, KICKER works on the water. KICKER Marine Audio has removed complexity from much of its technology, so boaters who want to keep it simple can tune-in with a push of a rotary encoder volume knob.
“Not everything has to be touch-screen and overly technical,” says White. “It all depends on your preferences.”
For those who want a more robust or complex system, KICKER has options including dual-zones so you can control sound from the bow or stern, and video input with a rear camera to easily view a skier or rider or back your boat in or out of the water. KICKER Marine Audio also offers wiring accessories to ensure that all systems can be installed properly for the marine environment, as well as remotes, amplifiers, and a full range of speakers.
KICKER Marine Audio All-Weather Head Units Range
The KMC2 or KMC3 are the basic, budget-friendly, and bullet-proof devices that pack over 200 watts of peak power into four channels, with USB charging and thumb drive playback included. $179.95/$199.95
The KMC5 Premium Marine Media Center is KICKER’s 240-watt, top watercraft source unit with a color, non-glare LCD screen, RCA output for front and rear subwoofer and a second zone, Bluetooth®, four sets of RCA output for easy expansion, AUX RCA input, USB charging, thumb-drive playback, and camera/video input with a trigger wire or push button. Power up to 12 speakers at 2-Ohm stable power with this 6-channel unit which works with other instruments, via NMEA 2000 interface, including AM/FM/weather-band and Sirius XM (with a subscription). $549.95
Also available with 200-watt power, dual-zone option, driving 8 speakers is the KMC4. $349.95
To KICK It Up A Notch…
Light your boat with the KM654L (6.5”, $199.95) or the KM84L (8” coaxial speakers in 7 LED colors, $229.95). With charcoal or white grilles, the speakers have UV treated, injection-molded cans, Santoprene® surround, splash and spray resisting sealed motors, cone, and locking terminal covers. Combine these with the KMLC LED Remote for up to 20 colors and 19 dynamic modes ($39.95).
For more information, visit kicker.com/marine-audio today.
A version of this article appeared in the Launch Issue (May/June) 2021 of Great Lakes Scuttlebutt magazine.
tags: Electronics, Retrofitting
