Kicker KMT60 Tower Speakers

[sicktc06]

Well, after 2 years of no tower speakers and trying to blow the ear drums of the folks in the boat while I was on a wakeboard, I finally bit the bullet (more like saved my pennies) and bought a set of tower speakers! I picked up the new line of kicker KMT's that are out, the KMT60. I got them on ebay for half the price of what everywhere else is selling them for. These are new to the market so it doesn't even look like anyone has had a real chance to rate them or anything yet, but we shall see how they work. Does anyone happen to know anyone with these tower speakers and how they sound? I'll keep you guys updated as far as the install and how they sound! :) I'm as excited as a fat kid with cake on cloud 9 on a sugar high!!!!

http://images.sonicelectronix.com/images/707460/big/11kmt60.jpg

[mmandley]

HAHAH on the fat kid joke.


I ran the regular KMT6s for my first set of towers. Good solid bang for your buck speaker. They are power hungry speakers and absolutely hate Bass. They will distort and destroy themselves if you bass them.

They really want to see some serious power i think Kicker reccomends 225 watts per pod < ZX450.2 > is what i ran them on and High Pass the signal to them and keep the cross over at 100 or slightly higher. They can be herd at wake-board distance but they are not HLCDs.

I was very happy with them while i had them and only upgraded because i went to HLCDs. I still have that set of KMT6s i gave them to a friend and he used them and then went to a different set up, so i got them back and this year they are going on my friends Rienell.

[jmvotto]

much better looking than than the old setup.

[mmandley]

much better looking than than the old setup.

Yes sir they are a lot better looking i like the new grills they have on it. Looks more like there standard Kicker line of speakers now.

[sicktc06]

I honestly was looking at the KMT6's. I am on a real strict budget due to my tow rig's transmission taking a hike down the "I don't want to go anywhere" road... So the KMT6's looked real good for the money. But then I saw these and completely forgot about the others.

Bummer, I just got a 350.2 amp. I'll eventually have to upgrade I guess, but hey, it'll get me started. Some sound coming from the tower is better than not having any. I can vouch for that!!

[philwsailz]

Hey guys-

Thanks for the comments on the cosmetics. Glad to know you like the looks of the new KMT60. We did a few things different with this speaker system.

Know that the grills are removable now. If you wanted to paint them a different color to match the boat or whatever, all you have to do is pop them off and paint them. Also, know that oif you want to mount the new KMT60 on top of your bar(s) you can now unscrew the front baffle from the enclosure and flip it. This will make the KICKER name read right-side-up with the enclosures mounted high.


Proper power is the ZXM450.2 as mmandly shared, but sicktc06, you will still get reasonable performance out of your 350.2 amp. With the 350.2 you will be delivering somewhere between 110 and 130 watts to each speaker, pretty close to rated power handling.

Hope you guys like these!

Phil
Kicker

[moombadaze]

Nice looking speaker pod

[E4NASH]

I have the older Kicker KMT6's and are powered by the Kicker ZXM450.2 and they are LOUD! It is true they deffinitely don't like bass and will distort easily if they get too much. For the money they are a great set. I may upgrade to HLCDs later on but for now they serve their purpose. I wish mine had the removable grill, like the new ones have, so I could paint it. Looks MUCH better with a little bit of color.

[beedish]

I just installed the KMT60's on my Supra last weekend. Got to use them yesterday for the first time and these things are great. Granted, on the back of the boat it can get a little loud, but that was expected as these aren't HLCD's...

I powered them with an MB Quart NAU460 bridged to 2ch at 175w/each at 4ohms. They're rated for 150W/pod so my gain is about 80%-85% up at the amp.

Great deep sound up close, but enough high's for when you're 50'+ back. I think we got the same deal on eBay and for the price, I don't think these can be beat.

Very happy with the purchase.

[E4NASH]

[QUOTE=beedish;135286]I just installed the KMT60's on my Supra last weekend. Got to use them yesterday for the first time and these things are great. Granted, on the back of the boat it can get a little loud, but that was expected as these aren't HLCD's...[QUOTE]

Yeah I thought they were really loud at the back of the boat as well. I put a separate volume control on them so when we are just hanging out in the boat we aren't blasting everyone out of it. Works pretty well...

[philwsailz]

I just installed the KMT60's on my Supra last weekend. Got to use them yesterday for the first time and these things are great. Granted, on the back of the boat it can get a little loud, but that was expected as these aren't HLCD's...

I powered them with an MB Quart NAU460 bridged to 2ch at 175w/each at 4ohms. They're rated for 150W/pod so my gain is about 80%-85% up at the amp.

Great deep sound up close, but enough high's for when you're 50'+ back. I think we got the same deal on eBay and for the price, I don't think these can be beat.

Very happy with the purchase.

beedish-

Thaks for the great feedback! Glad you kine the KMT60!

Know that your gains are not volume controls... You claim to have then at 80% - 85% and that is usually too high for most head units. The amp is in all likelihood clipping way before your head unit runs out of steam.

You want your gains as LOW as possible, so that your amp reaches rated power, (usually just below clipping) at the same time your head unit just starts to show signs of clipping. Usually a head unit will go to about 75% of its max volume range cleanly, so if your radio goes to 50, you really want to think of max volume at roughly 35 for most source material played trhrough your head unit. With your gain controls set to 85%, I am betting your radio only goes to about 8 or 10 before you amplifier is runing at full tilt max power. When you turn it up from there, all you will get is more clipping distortion.


For most radio and amplfier setups, you will usually find that your amp gains are going to be set to half, and often less. You might want to dig around and find a gain setting tutorial that has been written in another forum here. It will help you get things set up correctly where you have the greatest control over volume level and the minimum in terms of injected noise, (hiss, clicks, pops, alternator whine, etc). I will go try to find one and post a link here.

Know too that the KMT60 has a dynamic impedance of more like 3-ohms. Many 4-channel amps do not like to be bridged into these speakers as it really shows about 1.5 ohms to each amp channel. We will find out when it gets hotter hotter, but know I always recommend a stereo amp for the KMT6/KMT60's instead of a bridged 4-channel amp. If your tower system starts cutting out when it gets hot, know it is due to the bridged configuration.

I'll go try to find a good link to a gains-setting tutorial.

Hope this helps ya enjoy your system more!

Phil
Kicker

[philwsailz]

Sorry for the hijack guys, I will be quick, (or try). Here are a few posts to start. Take a look and read these.



https://forum.moomba.com/showpost.php?p=83766&postcount=1

https://forum.moomba.com/showpost.php?p=130159&postcount=9

https://forum.moomba.com/showpost.php?p=82768&postcount=1



In general and quickly:

*Turn your amp(s) most of the way down
*Set your radio's tone controls flat, (bass, treble, highs, all to "zero" or in the middle, i.e not boosted or cut). Turn any loudness control to OFF.
* With a CD, such as one of NICKLEBACK's, (see aboe) slowly turn your radio up until you hear it starting to compress, sound bad, get crunchy, start distorting, etc... Turn it up until it starts sounding bad, usually at about 75% of max volume. Then turn it just barely down so the sound is clean again.
* Go to each amp and with the gain, slowly turn it up until you again hear it going crunchy, distorting, starting to sound "flat" starting to have excessive midrange... All of these describe the onset of clipping distortion. Then trurn it down a little until the distortion goes away. As I share above, this is usually with the gains set to half or less.

If you can turn your gains all the way up without souding bad, you either can't hear distortion or something is not set right, (fader?) in your audio system.

After you get each amp turned this way, listen to the system. Is there not enough bass? turn your in-boat amps gain down a little. Too much bass? Turn your sub amp down a little. Whatever you do, after going through the setting guideline above, don;t turn an amp's gain up. It till only cause that amp to distort first when you turn up the system.

Again, this is a very short explanation. Hopefully it makes sense and will allow you guys to better set up your gains for all your amps. Again gains are not volume controls, they are matching devices and allow you to match all amps to to each other and also match all amps to the head unit.

Happy tuning!

Phil
Kicker

[moombadaze]

Phil, thanks for that explanation-makes perfect sense now when its not in techo terms

[sicktc06]

Phil, thanks so much for those links! that will help out when I install mine as well! And sweet!!! Beedish, that feedback right there makes me feel a LOT better about them. Not like I didn't know they would not be good, but the fact that I've never heard them before so now I feel a lot better about it. :)

[csm]

I'm running the KMT6s as well, and I agree with everyone, the new style looks great. Much better than the originals.

Now if we could just get Phil to retro-fit some quick-disconnects, they would be perfect....:D

[sicktc06]

Just an update to you guys on these. They sound awesome!! Clear as day on the board behind the boat. 2 years of no tower speakers to having these on there now, to me, is like complete night and day (obviously)!! I would recommend them to anyone looking for a set. No, they aren't HLCD's but they do the trick!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/226972_10150165639385684_706715683_7161006_7807394 _n.jpg

[mmandley]

Nice nice man looking good.. Id recommend putting a little Armor All tire wipe on them. It will make them black and shinny and makes it super easy to wipe the bugs off. They are excellent bug catchers LOL.