Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Any recommendations on a basic radio/cd/speakers for marine use ? My toon stays in the water most of the time. Nothing too fancy, just a little backgound music.

i bought kicker marine speakers all the way around and i have observed they all do managed to get wet at some point...as for the stereo i just went into a pawn shop and bought a am/fm cd player for $50. what i did to protect it was buy a marine cover off fleabay to protect against rain and splash

I bought an actual marine cd player for my toon, SUPPOSEDLY they epoxy coat the circuit boards to protect them against corrosion... I am not sure if I buy it... You technically could use automotive stuff, only issue is moisture...

Because of the humidity problem, here in the deep south, I will probably go with a marine model and weather resistance (outdoor) speakers. Any certain brand to get or stay away from ?

i recently had to replace my radio (headunit). unfortunately, i was locked into a single DIN mount which is the typical single height mount. i was most impressed with the new sony units that have the splash proof faces. that same splash proof face made it too big to fit in my existing space. i ended up with the

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... 1665801217

its basically the same as the car version with coated circuits. unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any waterproofing to the face plate. i figure i'll add one of their remote commander stations before next season so the kids can use that to control the radio with their wet hands.

i don't have any brand loyalty to sony. in fact, i usually try to avoid their products. i just like the way they control my iphone through the standard apple usb cable.

Jafo9,

Thanks for the info .


Greg

I think I have the prior years version of that one from sony, no complaints so far...

I have a Clarion with a 6 CD changer and have been very pleased with the performance. This is my third Clarion system and all have performed well.

Thanks for the info, will check out the Sony and the Clarion

I tucked 4 internally amplified computer speakers into some dry corners of the boat (I had the speakers in my ski boat for at least 3 seasons with no water issues). External computer speakers run on 12vdc so I wired them into the boats electrical system. All I do is plug the speakers into a MP3 player with thousands of songs programmed into it and it plays all day, never hear the same song twice. When I leave the boat I put the MP3 player in my pocket.
You can get an 8Gig MP3 player for just under $100.00 and it will hold about 42 hours of music. The stereo in my car also has a jack that allows me to plug it in and listen to it in the car as well.
Just a thought.
Jerry...

Great idea, Thanks.

never would have thought of that. pretty smart. take that one step further, add the amp to each individual marine speaker. do away with the headunit all together, market it with an ipod dock and boom, you're gone from the forum because you are spending too much time counting your money.

Jerry D wrote:I tucked 4 internally amplified computer speakers into some dry corners of the boat (I had the speakers in my ski boat for at least 3 seasons with no water issues). External computer speakers run on 12vdc so I wired them into the boats electrical system. All I do is plug the speakers into a MP3 player with thousands of songs programmed into it and it plays all day, never hear the same song twice. When I leave the boat I put the MP3 player in my pocket.
You can get an 8Gig MP3 player for just under $100.00 and it will hold about 42 hours of music. The stereo in my car also has a jack that allows me to plug it in and listen to it in the car as well.
Just a thought.
Jerry...

Almost exactly what I have, as far as set up goes. I have a 16G ipod that i use on my boat. Hook it up to my on deck cd player, and I have enough music to not hear the same song twice all weekend. My head unit is a Clarion as well, ( Great Brand ) and not sure of the brand of regualr speakers on my boat. They were put on there new when I bought it this spring, but they sound terrible. For the good lows, I have a 15" sub under one of my rear seats, that used to be set up as a cooler ( therefore it is waterproof from the outside).

pick up an 8gb sansa clip+ for 76 bucks, pop in a 16gb microsd card for 40 bucks and you've got a 24gb mp3 player for less than $120. it also has an fm tuner that works surprisingly well. you can recharge it with a 12v mini-usb car charger plugged into your boat's cig lighter, although for me the battery lasts for days. forget the ipod with it's ridiculous digital rights management and proprietary cable connector.

then install a high powered booster amp. in a boat, rms power is more important than great s/n. i'm running 150 or 200w rms to each of 4 channels. the amp is buried in the helm with a stereo miniplug cable to plug in the mp3 player. be sure to run the separate large gauge power wire directly from the battery switch to the booster amp. my amp drives boston acoustics outdoor speakers. those are pretty pricey but they sound fantastic quiet or loud.

Wife bought me some pile of shit from Overtons, Radio is not bad but the Pyle speakers suck. Ended up getting some Bose outdoor speakers and they sound great..