Bluetooth marine speakers

[seansea]

Planning to replace my ‘marine’ speakers, third set in about 12 years. Don’t seem to cope well with marine environment. I got rid of the stereo which had lasted well but gave up the ghost. It seems to me a set up which uses Bluetooth technology would be very useful but most of of these marine speakers seem to be the audio wired set up. Unfortunately I now have holes in the cockpit for the speakers otherwise would probably just manage with my excellent UE portable speaker using music downloaded on a device. Any experience or ideas on this?

 

[scruff]

If it were me, I'd glass up the existing holes in the cockpit and buy either one or a pair of Ultimate Ears wonderboom 2's - can be linked to play in stereo, waterproof, float, rugged and sound good. Can use either in cockpit, cabin or beach for a bbq.

The days of needing/wanting wired in stereo speakers for music are gone imo.

 

[Andrew_Trayfoot]

I have some wired speakers that are designed to go on the outside skin of bath. Epoxied to the inside of the coming...

 

[steve yates]

They llok great, any idea how they compare soundwise to mini rigs? I loved my old minirig.

 

[laika]

Any experience or ideas on this?

Experience for sure.

When I bought my boat it had two cr@ppy marine speakers in the back of the cockpit which were buzzy and two big holes at foot level in the cockpit sides where presumably some speakers used to be, but were covered over with pieces of acrylic.

I replaced the car stereo by the chart table with a fusion ipod player / radio and replaced the buzzy speakers with new fusion ones. The fusion speakers have been fine. ipod players are all a little last-but-one decade now. When the headlining was off a year or so later I took the opportunity to glass the speaker holes: You can still see where they were, but only if you're looking and it's *much* better than the old acrylic covers. I have cabin speakers connected to a different zone on the fusion but they're rubbish, badly positioned ones so I generally use a UE boom 2 inside connected to my phone when moored.

Thoughts:
* Glassing the speaker holes was a valuable learning exercise (I'd never worked with polyester before) and glad I did it but that's only because the the holes were actual holes, not speakers I'd removed.
* My cockpit speakers have lasted 10 years and still fine
* I prefer the fixed speakers in the cockpit: I don't have to find somewhere to secure a bluetooth speaker when it's bumpy
* People with old stereos with an aux socket can give them a new lease of life by plugging a cheap bluetooth receiver into it. This is how I deliver spotify through the fusion ipod player.
* If you don't have a stereo, I'm sure others can recommend one with a bluetooth receiver built in
* A little amp (or a radio) with a separate bluetooth receiver might allow you to upgrade the receiver as new bluetooth standards come along more cheaply than having to replace the whole unit.

So in your position I'd replace the speakers with decent marine ones (I don't like the wide-boy fusion image, but no complaints about the speakers), install something with bluetooth receiving capabilities to drive it and keep the UE bluetooth speaker for the beach or the cabin.