Which new music radio on a boat (marine radio or not)

Nostrodamus

Nostrodamus

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Our old car radio we have fitted to the boat has alzhiemers and needs replacing.
I was looking at the options of getting a new one.
The new Fusion 700 marine radio looks good and it has some excellent options including receiving marine VHF and interfacing with new chart plotters so you can control it from them or even your phone. It can also be set up for different areas of the boat. Yes it does look good but at over £400 for the basic radio without bluetooth it is very expensive.
Although given the choice I would have one it is just too expensive so it looks like a normal car radio.
These seem to be going towards big flashy displays that can show video and also feed from a camera fitted to the boat.
Is a marine music radio really worth the price is is a car radio just as good?
Any suggestions for a good music radio on a boat?
 
One that takes USB sticks for stored music.
I had a £40 ebay one in my car for a while, worked fine, except struggled to read usb sticks bigger than 2GB.
That was bought about 5 years ago, so I expect they are better sorted now.

A socket to plug in your phone for stored music is good too.
Would you still want Long Wave?

How about DAB?
 
We use personal music players, with headphones, as my daughter things I play "fuddy duddy music" and she plays cr^p music.
 
I've got a Sony car stereo onboard. It does CD, MP3, Bluetooth connectivity, USB, AM, FM and importantly (for weather forecasts) LW. I can also charge my phone from the USB slot. It used to have a remote control too but sadly that got lost somewhere never to be found. This was £150 about 5 years ago and I believe they're still made. I'll note down the model number next time I go out there. One feature I find very useful is to actually have a proper knob for the volume rather than having to mess about trying to press the right button whilst being thrown around.
 
Nostrodamus said:
Any suggestions for a good music radio on a boat?
Click to expand...

Depends on your normal usage I'd say - personally I listen to radio and music from my dedicated MP3 player (I could I guess transfer it all to my phone if I wanted to lose another gadget) so my only requirement was for a decent amplifer with an input jack, and a couple of good speakers...

If you still listen to a lot of music on CD my solution isn't going to work; ditto if you need LW radio (don't think mine can get it)

How about Bluetooth - do you need it?

People have mentioned inbuilt USB - do you need it to access music? I'm assuming that for charging stuff you have a dedicated USB port already if not - throw that in the mix as well...

From a purely personal view the next iteration of sound machine on my boat will be a slightly more powerful amplifier, better speakers, and the ability to blue tooth from the gadget that has all my music and sounds on it - that way I can control everything from the cockpit...
 
G12 said:
I've got a Sony car stereo onboard. It does CD, MP3, Bluetooth connectivity, USB, AM, FM and importantly (for weather forecasts) LW. I can also charge my phone from the USB slot. It used to have a remote control too but sadly that got lost somewhere never to be found. This was £150 about 5 years ago and I believe they're still made. I'll note down the model number next time I go out there. One feature I find very useful is to actually have a proper knob for the volume rather than having to mess about trying to press the right button whilst being thrown around.
Click to expand...

Same here, Just installed http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2592042.htm
 
If you have waterproof speakers in the cockpit, it makes sense to also have a waterproof system control in the cockpit. Otherwise, any decent car stereo will do. We have a Fusion system with cockpit control, and I find it very useful.
 
Interesting that most people do not have a marine stereo but a normal car stereo.
I agree that you get more bang for your bucks by going the normal car stereo route yet marine stereos seem to be twice as expensive with half the functions.
 
Nostrodamus said:
The new Fusion 700 marine radio looks good and it has some excellent options including receiving marine VHF and interfacing with new chart plotters so you can control it from them or even your phone. Any suggestions for a good music radio on a boat?
Click to expand...

I listen to theFusion every day, I pump out the sound and can control it via wifi while I am washing the boat down.

Great bit of kit :-)

Buy it enjoy it. Move on to which speakers you need. A sub would be good too oh and don't forget the massive TV :-)
 
Nostrodamus said:
Our old car radio we have fitted to the boat has alzhiemers and needs replacing.
I was looking at the options of getting a new one.
The new Fusion 700 marine radio looks good and it has some excellent options including receiving marine VHF and interfacing with new chart plotters so you can control it from them or even your phone. It can also be set up for different areas of the boat. Yes it does look good but at over £400 for the basic radio without bluetooth it is very expensive.
Although given the choice I would have one it is just too expensive so it looks like a normal car radio.
These seem to be going towards big flashy displays that can show video and also feed from a camera fitted to the boat.
Is a marine music radio really worth the price is is a car radio just as good?
Any suggestions for a good music radio on a boat?
Click to expand...

The different zones on the fusion are good so you can have volume control of the cockpit rather than having to use a fader in a menu.
Having said that I went for the cheap option and have an alpine car unit. I feed the deck speakers via a switch so the can be killed without going into the menu.
The speakers matter of course and I have domestic bookshelf speakers and a car subwoofer. The stereo actually has a reasonable image if sat in the saloon opposite the speakers. A 1000w amp for the speakers and another for the sub ensures it always sounds clear and unstrained. And it's a good when I'm the party boat too and I turn the wick up. (I always do that in quiet anchorages to give them some atmosphere if the other boaters look bored - before some berk asks)
Head unit, woofer and amplifiers were £200 on eBay. Wharfdale diamonds an astonishing £50 new from richer sounds.
 
pvb said:
If you have waterproof speakers in the cockpit, it makes sense to also have a waterproof system control in the cockpit. Otherwise, any decent car stereo will do. We have a Fusion system with cockpit control, and I find it very useful.
Click to expand...

I bought a Fusion MS RA205 system (with 6" waterproof speakers and the remote control unit in the cockpit), bog-standard car speakers in the saloon. I use it all the time and I really like it. Much better than the car stereo unit that used to be below.
 
Although I would like the new fusion 700 there are better and more needy things to spend the money on. I also e mailed Kenwood with an enquiry and got no reply at all.
In the end I bought the radio for 20 euros from someone who had just bought a new Fusion.
Guess what.. music comes out of it.. amazing
 
I Get something with an ipod interface, bluetooth and a USB slot ( or two ) and a line in connection.

Then subscribe to a service like spotify that allows you to download and store playlists.

Get an ipad or android phone to download and store music and to download stuff from the BBC iplayer.

I fitted a nice up-market fm/am radio/cd player but the radio only ever gets Greek radio so I rarely play anything but streamed or stored stuff.
 
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