Boats stereo / suround sound system?

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rjcoles

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I have got to the stage of thinking about the entertainment system to have on board but I am hopelessly out of touch with the latest systems. We are now ready to run cables!

I would like to have:
1) a TV with 5.1 surround sound to be able to play movies from a hard disc in the saloon.
2) Stereo FM radio with speakers in the saloon, cockpit and aft deck.

So far I have acquired a couple of Boise external speakers for the aft deck and have a couple of marine speakers in the cockpit the rest is up for grabs.

Can the two two systems be integrated? Or what do the Entertainment Specialists recommend?

Low cost solutions will be greatly appreciated.
 
rjcoles said:
I have got to the stage of thinking about the entertainment system to have on board but I am hopelessly out of touch with the latest systems. We are now ready to run cables!

I would like to have:
1) a TV with 5.1 surround sound to be able to play movies from a hard disc in the saloon.
2) Stereo FM radio with speakers in the saloon, cockpit and aft deck.

So far I have acquired a couple of Boise external speakers for the aft deck and have a couple of marine speakers in the cockpit the rest is up for grabs.

Can the two two systems be integrated? Or what do the Entertainment Specialists recommend?

Low cost solutions will be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

SWMBO - bless her soul has recenrly passed me avery large whiskey Mac so I'm ready to attack anybody...

A tv can't play 5.1 sound - 'cos it's only got two speakers and you need 5 + 1 speakers (rude I know). However it may be capable of outputting Dolby surround for another device to process. Be aware thatnot all TV programs are Dolby encoded.

(I'm assuming you may not understand the potential challenges of the technology - so I apologise if I appear rude - it's the drink...).

What you need is a TV with HDMI output and a home cinema amplifier with HDMI input. That solves the TV / DVD processing.
Then you need something to input FM sound into the home cinema,
OR an amplifier which has an FM tuner bulit in.

At home I've got a Yamaha amplifier that does precisely that - but it's a big lump of kit - and it's got a secondary output for another "room".

On t'boat I have an elderly Pioneer home cinema box that is of a reasonable size and power consumption that nearly does everything - but having a SCART input it has to be fiddled to simulate 5.1 (works for me - the .1 side is good...)

IS that of any help? Richer Sounds are as good as any for a supply, but do you have the space to put all this kit? And the 240V supply to go with it?
 
I have a 7KVA genny and a 3500 watt inverter but no batteries currently!
The battery bank will be about 750Ah
As much as I would like a 12v system it seems that I will have to buy a 230v ac system unless you know better?
 
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I'm also interested to hear how it's all done these days. All I've got at the mo is a car stereo with 2 speakers in the wheelhouse and 2 down below.

Hope to add a flat screen with surround sound and hopefully stream music and films from a laptop via on board wifi. But possibly a separate system for music and radio in the wheelhouse.

Still looking for ideas about what's possible without getting too complicated...
 
Whatever you fit, please remember your neighbours may not want to enjoy your film. I am reminded of the **** who had a disco on his mobo the night before the RTIR - probably kept over a thousand people awake until 3am. Sad to say, the marina wouldn't tell him to p*ss off. Loud can encourage marine borers below the waterline...

Rob.
 
I believe that the Fusion Marine range will have what you want... linking any variety of audio or video sources to your speakers and TV etc and giving you complete control over the various zones you wanna set up and control independently.

As always... It all depends on how much you wanna pay. ;) It's very good quality gear, specifically built for the marine environment, 5 year warranty.

Some good deals around from JG Tech, Jimmy Green and others if you google 'em.

No connection etc... just a proud new owner who loves it!
 
I use a Sony car radio with a homemade circular fm aerial mounted under the side deck. Speakers are 3 way reflex book shelf speakers from the op shop. The sound quality is outstanding. The speakers make the system, $10 from the op shop, someones quality home speakers. Technology is wonderful! Don't need cockpit speakers.
 
On Rogue in 2006, I had a JVC car radio which also played DVDS, and sent the output to a 23" TV, and 4 Kef Egg speakers - it did 5.1, but I didn't have the speakers.mthe sound and pics were great, as was the FM radio, and the Aux facility.

So get a £300-£500 car stereo with DVD facility, and hook it up to a big screen, (Kogan do 12V TVs), and some big speakers. All 12V if you want it that way.
 
rob2 said:
Whatever you fit, please remember your neighbours
Rob.
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Hell yeah.... there's nothing worse than blo*dy muffled Iron Maiden late at night... It's gotta be LOUD and CLEAR DUDE!!!
party421.gif
 
Entertainment system

I have to confess to old age and no desire to entertain for a large distance or damge my hearing any more however I can't let this thread pass without comment.
Firstly a boat is a confined space so you can not get true hifi and you will not have space for correct sitting of listeners/viewers. You will not need the huge power output of modern HiFi amplifiers. You would be hard pressed to get a decent sized speaker enclosure let alone 5 of them on a boat. Yet the speaker enclosure is the limiting factor in sound quality (wide frequency response)
IMHO to a large degree amplifiers are of high power simply because they can easily be and they sell. They are not needed.
I remember my old boss in radio repair who used to run a movie theatre saying he could fill the theatre with sound from a 5watt amp.(long ago) Now the cheapest car radio gives 10+ 10 watts and many claim much more power. While old small portable transistor radios gave a max of about 1/4 watt that were quite adequate.
Power and sound level being a logarythmic function. It is not uncommon to find a home theatre system of hundreds of watts. Why? for bragging power alone.
So all things considered keep your existing system. (car radio) add extra speakers and switching if you want speakers outside but any more is just a big w........k It is certainly not worth the trouble of running an AC generator just to power amplifiers whose power you will never use. good luck olewill
 
Last season we had two batteries, an 110ah leisure battery that was new, and a 10 year old 80ah car battery that wouldn't hold a charge so was never used.

The big battery alone managed for the season to start the engine, which had a problem where the first use each day would require around a minute of cranking, run the cabin lights, run a 21" 12v tv for two long dvds, so around 5 hours (was originally a 230v-12v tv which had a step down transformer that I cut off and put a cigarette lighter plug onto) , car cd stereo, and anchor windlass.

All that charged it was the 45 amp alternator on the engine and we took it home when not on board and trickle charged it, only because we don't yet have any means to trickle charge while on board.
 
rob2 said:
Whatever you fit, please remember your neighbours may not want to enjoy your film. I am reminded of the **** who had a disco on his mobo the night before the RTIR - probably kept over a thousand people awake until 3am. Sad to say, the marina wouldn't tell him to p*ss off. Loud can encourage marine borers below the waterline...

Rob.
Click to expand...

Neighbours don't normally enjoy others music regardless of location. Nothing worse than being at anchor in a nice location and some boat blasting out their choice of music to all and sundry so please don't fit cockpit speakers.
 
Seashoreman said:
I would like to upgrade a fairly ancient car radio to something up to date, with at least pre-set stations. My worry is: when batteries are isolated/turned off do I have to reset the radio code, as on a car? That would be a right PITA.
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Just make sure that the car stero that you buy doesn't have this feature.... We have a Sony one with an aux jack and USB port that has given us no trouble in 4 years living aboard. Only cost about £50 IIRC and fills the saloon well enough without being audible more than baout 10 foot from the outside of the boat.
 
Seashoreman said:
I would like to upgrade a fairly ancient car radio to something up to date, with at least pre-set stations. My worry is: when batteries are isolated/turned off do I have to reset the radio code, as on a car? That would be a right PITA.
Click to expand...

just take a separate, fused feed from before the battery switch. All decent car derived hi fis need a perm 12v. You need it to remember tonal setting as well as presets.
 
Boathook said:
Neighbours don't normally enjoy others music regardless of location. Nothing worse than being at anchor in a nice location and some boat blasting out their choice of music to all and sundry so please don't fit cockpit speakers.
Click to expand...

some people dont like pointless moaning on internet forums but still have to put up with it.
 
Richard10002 said:
On Rogue in 2006, I had a JVC car radio which also played DVDS, and sent the output to a 23" TV, and 4 Kef Egg speakers - it did 5.1, but I didn't have the speakers.mthe sound and pics were great, as was the FM radio, and the Aux facility.

So get a £300-£500 car stereo with DVD facility, and hook it up to a big screen, (Kogan do 12V TVs), and some big speakers. All 12V if you want it that way.
Click to expand...

I'm just refitting my boat and am interested in this - KEF make great speakers. Did you supplement the eggs with a subwoofer? Did you use separate amps of just come straight out of the head unit?

I'm considering KEF bookshelf speakers because i have the space. But speakers with a base port on the back need to be near a wall.

I do know that home units like the KEFs usually have 8 ohm impedance so you need a bigger amp.

Ideally I'd fit rogers LS3/5a. They are infinite baffle (ie sealed) so don't need a wall but they are very very inefficient so need a big amp. And evryone seems to have worked out how good they are and they're flippin expensive.

But on a boat it isn't about out and out volume (although it's nice to have sometime to annoy the whingers) it is about clarity so you still need a decent amp.

The speaker cable fitted is usually bell wire mustn't forget to change that.

Really interested in true hi fi set ups that people have done.

Also interested to know if anyone has got good sounding stereo out of a 5.1 set up. Only DVDs can play 5.1 so you're listening in stereo most of the time, I'd happily do without the 5.1 on a boat for good stereo.
 
fishermantwo said:
I use a Sony car radio with a homemade circular fm aerial mounted under the side deck. Speakers are 3 way reflex book shelf speakers from the op shop. The sound quality is outstanding. The speakers make the system, $10 from the op shop, someones quality home speakers. Technology is wonderful! Don't need cockpit speakers.
Click to expand...

by reflex you mean with a bass port? was this on the front or the back? I am thinking of going this way. What's the op shop??
 
My speakers were Kef Eggs whatever the model was in 2005. I had 4 of them, and no subwoofer. Connected directly to the JVC, (AVX - 1 I think).

In the saloon of a Moody 44, the system sounded quite amazing. Even though not 5.1, movies were great.
 
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