Need to update my boat stereo.

[Iggy]

I agree. Bluetooth is MP3 and doesn't sound as good as FM Broadcast even. Which CD or FLAC can easily best.

I also like an installed system on a boat and not some portable box on a table or shelf.

Flac is the way to go. It brings more dynamic range to the sound. Even on a good/middle of the road speaker.

 

[Benthic2]

I am a crusty old single curmudgeon. I do not have to share my sounds with anyone so all I really need is a good pair of wireless headphones. I have a nice sony over the ears pair for television and I have Airpods for music. I can go from home to car to boat without missing a beat. I can sit anywhere and still have perfect stereo separation. I think if I started spending significant time with someone else I would just buy them a set of Airpods instead of putting resources into a boat based sound system. I am so amazed at how many boat ads still show the sound system. If you are buying a $200k+ boat, do you really care about a $3-400 sound system?? You might as well show me a close up of the air filter . The sound game is changing drastically. I would not get too vested in any one technology or system right now. I would certainly not be cutting holes in my boat to listen to music when I can get it directly into my ears. Everyone is different and everyone has the right to be an individual, but a boat has so many aspects that could be improved, I will never think "Oooh...I can spend a ton of dollars and time to get slightly better sound than my headphones.."

Boats have so many bigger holes to throw money down.....I just do not understand the unwillingness to let go of the "head unit, big speakers" theory of the 70's & 80's.

 

[Delta Riverat]

Three to 4 hundred? The head costs that much -

Let's see, I have $1300 on the flybridge and $1700 in the saloon/cabins.

Different strokes for different folks -

 

[man7sell]

OK I'm old too. I just put all my CDs on one micro card. Ordered a Fusion Ms-Ra70nsx Stereo head unit. I will be interested in how it sounds bluetoothing a small mp3 player to the system. The existing system has some nice speakers already installed. We shall see.

 

[Benthic2]

Three to 4 hundred? The head costs that much -

Let's see, I have $1300 on the flybridge and $1700 in the saloon/cabins.

Different strokes for different folks -

Absolutely!!! You should fly your audiophile flag as high as you can!!

 

[Delta Riverat]

Hehe, yeah, but I'm really a budget kinda guy.

I have a lot of Kicker, Kenwood and Fusion.

It's that JL Audio and Wet Sounds stuff that gets expensive eh?

 

[tiltrider1]

My boat has an eight gigabyte server. I have all my music on the server in .wav format. I use Sonos. The Sonos system uses 8 portable speakers and independent surround sound system with both a 12" sub and a 15" sub in the saloon. It can be controlled by phone or pad.

It is not a cheap system but the quality is impressive.

Not for everyone as it is a bit techy.

 

[BruceK]

Listen to speakers before you buy. There can be surprises on best sound as against brand/price expectations.

 

[Iggy]

I am not sure on this point "The sound game is changing drastically."

To me it seams like a natural change. Records and CD are a thing of the past. unless your a real audiophile for records.

Records were the best way to listen to music. Due to the fact that there is no digital change to the music. Than CDs, pretty good depending what your playing it on.

Now comes the digital world which is my point. People just loved there MP3 players and songs. Not keeping in mind that bits of sounds in the song were being discarded to make the file smaller. In other words, poor sound.

At the same time, flac and other lossless formats come out. Even quality as the original master recording. Which for some of us, its hard to hear the difference with out a $5k or more system.

A lossless format to me is the way to go. Better sound and the file is about %50 bigger.

Talk about cost, $450 for the fusion head unit. Three remotes at $125 each, $300 for a external amp and at least $200 each for Four sets of speakers if not more.

Why, you cant take the money with you! And you only go around once in life. If it makes you happy, spend the money!

 

[Iggy]

Listen to speakers before you buy. There can be surprises on best sound as against brand/price expectations.

Not just that, look at the specs to.

 

[JackConnick]

I have an older Pioneer unit that works pretty well, although the controls are hard to figure out. I bought a small bluetooth adapter that plugs into it and just stream from my phone. I can control it with my Apple watch which is very convenient. I wouldn't overthink your installation.



Jack

 

[BruceK]

Some of you music enthusiasts could be posting on "Music Faves" in Harbour Chat.

 

[man7sell]

I'll just post my Amazon review of my Fusion RA670. I like the integration with Raymarine but that's literally it.

"Like many people, one of the first things I did was load up my USB stick with my boat music collection, hit "random" and waited for the stream of tunes to drive my day on the water. Disappointment #1. I quickly learned that the unit only randomizes WITHIN a folder, not across folders! So this is great if I only want to hear random Jimmy Buffett all day, but occasionally I'd like to throw something else into the mix, right?

So I take the time to copy all the songs out of each folder and put them into a single folder. Disappointment #2. When I do this, each song starts playing for 2 seconds then stops. You have to pause the song, then push play again. Every. Single. Song. I had a pretty good USB stick but it was a few years old, so I thought "hey maybe this is so modern that I need a more current version of USB?" So I get a new 256 GB Samsung USB 3.1 device. Copy it all over. Same thing.

I reach out to Fusion support, which to their credit got back quickly and in person by phone. Turns out
a) your USB stick can't be more than 16GB (hard to even find 'em that small any more)
b) you're limited to 250 songs in any folder
So basically "Random" doesn't work the way that 99% of people want it to. I can randomize within an artist or album (folder) but not across my collection, and only 250 songs. How difficult would it be to have it randomize across folders vs within? I think the answer lies not within the software but the hardware.

"

I just installed the Fusion yesterday and could not get it to play anything from my bluetooth player. I would guess that I have too many folders on the drive.


I do like that I can control the Fusion from my Garmin MFD. So now to sort out all my music into the correct folders, still have to work that out.

 

[Delta Riverat]

I ordered up (20) 16G thumb drives and plan to put albums of artists or themes on each drive. Beatles, Stones, Motown, Jazz, Classic Rock, Mellow, Blues, that kind of thing.

Use label maker to identify in drawer.

 

[Benthic2]

I ordered up (20) 16G thumb drives and plan to put albums of artists or themes on each drive. Beatles, Stones, Motown, Jazz, Classic Rock, Mellow, Blues, that kind of thing.

Use label maker to identify in drawer.

But with a service like Spotify, you can ask for anything you want. Ask for Motown, classic piano, Herb Alpert and the Tijuianna brass....its all there.

 

[Delta Riverat]

That's cool and easy with a phone. But is ogg vorbis as good as FLAC?