Entertainment systems upgrade

CLOUD9

CLOUD9

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Home in Bath, Boat in Cala d'Or, Mallorca
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Im thinking of updating the music system on board. The Standard equipment on my 2007 Princess is feeling a little dated, but Im no expert, so am unsure of the current possibilities. Something more integrated would be a start so that the same output is available in the saloon and Flybridge. The ability to stream by Bluetooth from an iPad and a remote control facility at the flybridge would also be useful. Are there any Marine AV experts in South Devon? A quick Google hasn't thrown much up.... Thanks, Rick
 
I would go for an inverter driven Sonos. total control using any phone or tablet, with indivual zones. Can stream or play own media on any pc on the boat. Plus can buy in modular form so extras can me added in cabins as required using its own wifi.

I installed mine in the cupboard in front of the TV. That way can cable the TV into the aux and use hi fi speakers for TV.
 
I would avoid anything which requires the use of an invertor / generator. You will knock hell out of your batteries for something which doesn't need to. You can potentially run music for a long time during the course of a day. Before you know it you're either running a generator all the time unnecessarily (assuming you don't need air conditioning) or else you'll have flat batteries.

Automotive audio options are plentiful, you just need to decide how to handle the interface between iPad / pod / phone and the boat audio. There are some head units from people like Pioneer which allow full phone function but they are a bit clunky and I think double DIN fittings.

The other option is to use a phone dock or Bluetooth link. Google "streaming music to car audio" for a number of options.

You may even be able to use you existing audio set up and just connect a docking station.

If you want to improve the sound look at your speakers first and work backwards from there.

Henry :)
 
I'm currently using some new Sony car head units - and for what I want they are very good. Everyone pairs their phone and can stream music to the cockpit, saloon or cabins. The Sony remote control app allows you to change the volume, choose a radio station etc from anywhere on the boat. Two DAB bluetooth head units gave me change from £250. When moored, we also have a B&O Beolit 15 which does very well for us.

Which leads me to a question... (apologies if I am creating thread drift)

The boat is a 2003 Fairline Targa 52 and has the original Sony 7inch speakers in the radar arch. At 25knots, with the covers off, you hear nothing. Is it feasible to by 7inch marine speakers that do produce reasonable audio while underway? I notice Fusion does some at £80 and £230 - would such an investment give me good music while underway or are the physics of wind and engine noise the issue?
 
BetweenBoats said:
I'm currently using some new Sony car head units - and for what I want they are very good. Everyone pairs their phone and can stream music to the cockpit, saloon or cabins. The Sony remote control app allows you to change the volume, choose a radio station etc from anywhere on the boat. Two DAB bluetooth head units gave me change from £250. When moored, we also have a B&O Beolit 15 which does very well for us.

Which leads me to a question... (apologies if I am creating thread drift)

The boat is a 2003 Fairline Targa 52 and has the original Sony 7inch speakers in the radar arch. At 25knots, with the covers off, you hear nothing. Is it feasible to by 7inch marine speakers that do produce reasonable audio while underway? I notice Fusion does some at £80 and £230 - would such an investment give me good music while underway or are the physics of wind and engine noise the issue?
Click to expand...

I had a similar prob on my Targa 40; my solution was to upgrade the arch speakers to 7.7" and mount them on a small enclosure, add two more 7;7" speakers on the dash under the windscreen, and finally add a sub under the helm seat. Sounds ok. Without the front speakers under the screen you won't hear anything under way at speed.
 
I have a kenwood bluetooth headunit in my boat, it allows my phone to stream music via bluetooth, and I can remotely control the phone from my watch (garmin fenix 3)via a bluetooth connection to the phone, so I can alter volume, skip tracks etc, from anywhere, including swimming in the sea. The headunit was fairly cheap, at about £90 I think, pretty pleased with it.

I originally had a sony automotive headunit , but this only lasted a couple of years before failing through corrosion of the main circuit board. The kenwood is a marine specific unit, and supposedly has a coated circuit board to resist corrosion.
 
We went with a Fusion 700-series based system to replace everything on a 2005 sports cruiser: Fusion 700 DVD/CD head unit in the saloon with a separate iPod/USB dock, connected to N200 remote control units in the cockpit and guest cabins, all set up as separate listening zones. There is a separate Fusion 700 head unit with built-in iPod dock for the master cabin.

Its not B&O or Bose sound quality, but its not far off. Its flexible, simple to use, everything is compatible and easy to configure, humidity/water resistant and with low power consumption it will run off batteries all day.
 
I have the Fusion 700 system, works perfect with Bluetooth interface to my ipad, also had a large sub woofer under the saloon seat for those moments when you need a bit more sound. Even links up with my TV for better sound quality than you normal tv system.
 
Had a poke around a mates new Sealine S48 last week. Forget his entire new boat with digital light dimming and 5 a/c units - it was all about the Raymarine MFD running his multi zone Fusion sound system!!
 
jimmy_the_builder said:
I had a similar prob on my Targa 40; my solution was to upgrade the arch speakers to 7.7" and mount them on a small enclosure, add two more 7;7" speakers on the dash under the windscreen, and finally add a sub under the helm seat. Sounds ok. Without the front speakers under the screen you won't hear anything under way at speed.
Click to expand...

Same problem for us on an open Portofino 53. Our solution was to replace the arch speakers with Fusion 7"/260 watt speakers, add two more of the same mounted as high as possible in the cockpit sides at the helm and nav stations and then place a sub-woofer under the cockpit seats, all driven by Fusion's 5-way/1600 watt power amp. It works OK up to about 30 knots without cranking it up too much.
 
Hi
We have a standard jvc head unit with a fusion Bluetooth connection to the back of it which we had fitted, also large amps and alpine speakers , make your ears bleed even at full tilt, we did not have whole system fitted, it was with the boat when we bought it ( targa 47) however we had to have it modified to work properly, this was done by plaitimum marine in Poole, I know they travel, and would highly recommend them, very knowledgable and leave the boat cleaner than when they arrived.
( we are half way down the pontoon fromm you at the moment visiting Torquay)
Regards
Nathan
 
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