Music Aboard - A Slight Return

[wsonntag]

I have reviewed the posts from 2007 on music equipment aboard - helpful, suggesting an iPod is a must, XM radio nice to have, buying a high priced cd/am/fm radio "marine" deck is not cost effective.

I have the ipod and a separate portable XM radio, so the choice come down to the best sounding, automobile cd player/am/fm radio deck, an ipod/mp3 input a must. All of these, marine included seem to be dashboard mount now, not the self contained bracket mount that my Standard Horizon (RIP) used. I hate to put holes in any part of a boat so I guess I'll have to buy a mounting box and put the unit in that.

Has anyone purchased and used a particularly good cd/radio/mp3 unit recently? Can you rate sound and ease of use?

Thanks in advance, my Standard Horizon cassette tape unit, now 15 years old gave up the ghost this summer - guess the well over 100 degree heat finally fused something. Sad, now I'll have to transfer all those 20 year old + mix tapes to cd - what was I thinking when I made some of those? They capture some uniquely deranged moments in music however!

Thanks in advance,

Bill Sonntag
SURPRISE
CD 31

[mashenden]

While I have yet to buy one, I am narrowing my focus. My requirements are to have 1) an iPod dock built in so charging and control of the iPod is easy as well as 2) remote control functionality. So far I am considering two units.

The high end unit is the Fusion MS-IP500G (or 600G) which is built specifically for a marine environment to keep everything dry. It has multiple zones and wired remote control as an option, but is very expensive.

On the other end of the spectrum is the XML8100 (or XML8110). It is not marine quality, but at its price ($88 at Wallymart) it can be replaced several times. Many feel "marine grade" is overrated anyhow... certainly such equipment seems over priced.

If remote control functionality is not a requirement but iPod docking is, the Fusion CA-IP500 at Wallymart seems like a bargain at $48.

That is my $0.02, for what it is worth.

[bottomscraper]

Our truck has a USB input on the radio, for the price of a USB
powered hard drive I can carry all of the music I own. I wish we
had the same on the boat, maybe next year.

I added a Sony car stereo to Mahalo about 6 years ago. It still
works fine but it has no audio (or USB) input. We use one of those
radio adapters to allow us to play the MP3 player. It's ok but sort
of a kludge.

The truck came with a free trial of XM, didn't think much of it.
Maybe it would be better on the water but in the truck around
town it kept cutting in and out like AM radio. Between that, the
high price and the nagging phone calls to renew we said thanks
but no thanks.

[Joe CD MS 300]

I bought a relatively inexpensive marine Dual radio package from West Maine five years back. It came with two marine speakers that happened to fit perfectly into two inspection ports in the cockpit so no need to cut any holes. Kept the original owners speakers in the cabin. Also replaced an old Loran antenna with a Sirius antenna on the transom. The Dual radio has an AUX input that I use for either the Sirius receiver or an Ipod.

I'd go with a marine radio. If you shop around the price is pretty close to automotive models and they come with mounting brackets and full covers for the unit.

[Cathy Monaghan]

Technology has been changing so fast that it almost isn't worth it to purchase anything that needs to be "installed". Whatever you buy will be obsolete in a heartbeat. That said, in 2009 we replaced a perfectly good Standard Horizon AM/FM/CD player on our boat with a Sony AM/FM/CD/CD-R/CD-RW/MP3/WMA/AAC player. It also has as AUX IN port right on its face so portable devices, like an iPOD, can be plugged into it, and it's HD and satellite ready.

I don't know if you're interested in them or not, but you can CLICK HERE to see the Sony marine stereo products.

A good option would be to purchase a portable, battery operated unit with attached speakers that you can mount to a bulkhead or build a little shelfcase for it to sit in and attach the shelf to a bulkhead. Then you can take the radio off the shelf and put it in the cockpit and easily remove it from the boat in the fall.

Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

[Jeff and Sarah]

I have a classic car with just an AM radio that I didn't want to modify so I mounted an amp that had speaker level inputs in the trunk. I ran a component to 3.5mm (headphone jack) wire from the amp forward to the cabin and just plugged it in to an MP3 player. It's a easy way to set up a pretty good system in otherwise unused space without cutting any holes.

[mike ritenour]

We decided to buy a Bose IPod portable dock.
Awesome sound and we can take it anywhere.
Rit

[mashenden]

While it has been discontinued, I decided to buy a VR3 VR100IA by Roadmaster from the clearance rack. Needless to say I was not going for top of the line, but for $75 at WM, it seemed to have everything that I wanted (FM, iPod dock and remote control).

The iPod dock is built in (behind the faceplate) and also has a AM/FM tuner, USB port, a SD/MMC card slot and a 3.5mm Aux Input. The IR remote controls the iPod and radio functions nicely.

Although I have not yet tested various generations of iPods in the dock, all else seems to be very impressive for the $$.

As you may have gathered I respectfully disagree with the "Buy Marine" advise and would better describe my direction to be aligned with Cathy's in that I bought cheap in anticipation of upgrading in a year or two.

[mashenden]

While it has been discontinued, I decided to buy a VR3 VR100IA by Roadmaster from the clearance rack. Needless to say I was not going for top of the line, but for $75 at WM, it seemed to have everything that I wanted (FM, iPod dock and remote control).

The iPod dock is built in (behind the faceplate) and also has a AM/FM tuner, USB port, a SD/MMC card slot and a 3.5mm Aux Input. The IR remote controls the iPod and radio functions nicely.

Although I have not yet tested various generations of iPods in the dock, all else seems to be very impressive for the $$...

OK, I have to admit it, I went too cheap. The VR100IA unit I bought was crap. While it had all of the features I wanted, it had one extra - that being it would stop responding to the controls on the unit or the remote after being on for about 10 minutes. The music would still be playing, but everything on the remote would not work, and everything on the unit would not work, except for the volume control - even the power button would do nothing.

My actions regarding VR-3 Roadmaster and their Customer Support:

• 3 e-mails with nothing but an automated response saying they would contact me - they did not.
  
  Calling customer support twice on a business day, during business hours. Even their message said they were open M-F, 8-5 est, but it also said they were currently closed and then disconnected me when it was done.
  
  Calling customer support and waiting on hold for no less than 3.5 hours - Granted their message said they had extremely high volume with hold times that exceed 25 minutes, but REALLY... nobody was available for 3.5 hours???
  
  Calling customer support and opting out as instructed to the Operator so I could leave a message with my callback number. I did that and left a reasonable explanation about my frustration on the above points - Not so much as a callback.

I only tried this hard because this unit really had everything I wanted, but enough is enough. Next stop... Walmart's Return line.

I have now decided to go somewhere in between "cheap" and "marine made"... hopefully the sweet spot for value and quality. I have ordered a Sony CDX-GT700HD. It meant giving up on the built in iPod dock, but should give me everything else plus the ability to play AAC (iTunes) files and a HD tuner.