Stereo for a Boat

Stemar

Stemar

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There have been some heated debates about the pros and cons of digital radio in the past, but silence for a few years. What are your thoughts about DAB for mostly Solent pottering, but with an option of Brittany canals next year?

I need a CD player and radio with an Aux or USB input. The ability to add a card (microSD?) for recorded music would be a bonus. I blew it when I sold Jissel, I left an aging but excellent pair of Pioneer speakers installed, so recommendations for surface mount speakers also welcomed.

Minimal budget - say £50 for the radio and £60 for speakers, but must have decent sound If that really isn't enough, I could stretch a bit, but the amount I've already spent on Jazzcat is scaring me!

Any suggestions - pro or con?

Thanks
 
I know this strictly doesn't fit your bill, but I ripped out my car stereo and speakers earlier in the year and replaced with a WonderBoom bluetooth speaker. Main benefits are, its easy to play music/radio from my phone and its portable. I can listen to music in the cockpit, down below or on the beach. The speaker is also splashproof.

Just a thought
 
I agree with Gixer. Just bought an Anker sound bar for £25 off flea bay. Dont think the boat (car) stereo will get used again.
 
I paid about 20 quid for a USB / SD card / Digital radio .. Bluetooth ... unit ... has remote and provision for two sets of speakers .. woofer etc.

Similar to this, (mine was a year ago and has been superceded) :

Bluetooth Car Radio Stereo Head Unit Player In-dash MP3/USB/SD/AUX/FM Non CD | eBay

It may be cheap ... but I have mounted speakers in cabin and roving speakers to place in cockpit or on deck .... VERY VERY pleased with it ...

The antenna is a common car telescopic job propped up behind divan cushion with antenna extended up into toerail. Even though inside cabin and low - it works a treat.
 
Stemar said:
I need a CD player...
Click to expand...

It's this requirement that is limiting your options. Have you thought about ripping your CD collection to mp3 files? It's easy to do if a bit time consuming, and legal for personal use. Once in mp3 format you could get a big SD card for your phone and stuff them all there. There are free music players apps available, & then you could use Bluetooth to send it to portable speakers or headphones.
 
Gixer said:
I know this strictly doesn't fit your bill, but I ripped out my car stereo and speakers earlier in the year and replaced with a WonderBoom bluetooth speaker. Main benefits are, its easy to play music/radio from my phone and its portable. I can listen to music in the cockpit, down below or on the beach. The speaker is also splashproof.

Just a thought
Click to expand...

I whole heartedly agree - We too have a wonder boom and it's marvellous. Water proof, so rugged the advert shows folk playing football with it!, and an exceptional sound. Being portable means you can move from the cabin to the cockpit so no need for loud music to annoy neighbours and the battery lasts ages.

There is not a single chance that I'd be installing a (energy heavy) car radio and speaker system this these days.
 
Thanks for your thoughts. Some interesting options.

I'm a bit leery of relying on the FM radio in our phones as they use the headphone lead for the antenna, and reception isn't brilliant (Moto G7, and otherwise an excellent phone, so not about to change). Playing classic FM, in Gosport, we get that fizzy distortion that's characteristic of a weak signal, which I don't get on the car radio 100 yards away.

It's true, needing the CD does limit my options and, thinking about it, I can't remember the last time I played a CD on Jissel, so I'll can that idea. Bonus - one less bit of clutter to find a home for!
 
DAB reception around the Solent and west has been disappointing for my car radio installed in the boat. I added a powered DAB aerial in an attempt to improve reception but it‘s still poor and I have to use FM in many ports. When I sit near the radio set it can sometimes pick up more stations. I think, as discussed before in this forum, that suggests I need a ground plane, which would be a sheet of metal bonded to the radio’s earth. That’s my next project.
 
LiftyK said:
DAB reception around the Solent and west has been disappointing
Click to expand...
Fixed that for you. DAB is a flawed concept from the start, and has been driven entirely for commercial reasons with zero regard to service. It wasn't even Stereo until very recently in many instances, and drops out if the signal isn't flawless. It's the biggest step backwards I've seen from a technology point of view in my lifetime and I'm sticking with FM as a vote with my feet to hold off the day DAB replaces it completely when I'll stop listening to radio. Streaming is all well and good while there's a good signal and cheap Internet, but since cheap roaming is a thing of the past that's less and less useful.
 
AngusMcDoon said:
It's this requirement that is limiting your options. Have you thought about ripping your CD collection to mp3 files? It's easy to do if a bit time consuming, and legal for personal use. Once in mp3 format you could get a big SD card for your phone and stuff them all there. There are free music players apps available, & then you could use Bluetooth to send it to portable speakers or headphones.
Click to expand...

Absolutely ... in fact if you don't mind using torrents - any music you want is out there....

But ripping CD's to MP3 is good option ... my radio in the boat - I have 3 small flash sticks I can choose from to plug in .......... 1. Heavy Rock ... 2. Easy Rock general ... 3. Wifes 'softy' stuff' !!
 
I got a free blue tooth, rechargeable boom speaker with my last phone it's brilliant. Tapes, CDs, LPs, mp3, SDcards are very passé these days they went out with pipes and slippers.
 
ghostlymoron said:
I got a free blue tooth, rechargeable boom speaker with my last phone it's brilliant. Tapes, CDs, LPs, mp3, SDcards are very passé these days they went out with pipes and slippers.
Click to expand...

OK on a boat ... maybe ...

But have you not noticed the resurgence of Vinyl .... CD ... and even cassettes recently ?

Personally Blue Tooth is fine - but that means BT from phone or similar ... means more power sucked from already limited smartphone battery ...

My 20 quid slot in radio on boat has BT, SD card, USB, and broadcast radio ........... all powered from boats 12V ..... as long as good speakers used - you'd never know it was only 20 quid !!
 
Using your phone for bluetooth music has a fairly negligable effect on the phone battery (assuming a reasonable quality phone) and it's certainly lower power at the stereo end than tape, CD, USB or SD Card.
 
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