MacGregorSailors.com

So finally after six seasons of no tunes aboard I am contemplating the idea of supplementing the natural sound experience with a broader selection.
What sort of system would be adequate in terms of power, wattage, number of speakers and antenna? I am not sure I require speakers in the cockpit and really have no where to mount them with the SS pedestal & small pod. The only thing that comes to mind is a half height companionway door with two speakers mounted on it that I can put in place while underway but that would impede access below to some degree. I think I am relegated to just a couple speakers inside the cabin. What sort of setup are others using? I am looking for a Christmas gift some one can give me so cost is a factor. Any ideas?

All of our music is on an iPod and I don't care to listen to radio stations. We also don't listen to loud music so don't need a lot of power.

Aboard the 26X, we fed the iPod into a pair of Yamaha powered computer speakers with a 12 volt DC lighter plug cord in lieu of the 120 VAC power adapter.

On the Capri 18, our young previous owner had installed a system but kept the radio and left the speakers installed. So we installed a two-channel Poly-Planar Zone amplifier between the iPod and speakers.

Our used 07 Mac M came with a sound system and LCD TV, the radio works but the CD player does not and the TV playes thrught all the speakers if I want. Mostly my wife and I play music, banjo, mandolin, acoustic bass, dobro, 12 string guitar. If we listen to music it is radio on the jazz and mainly PBS stations. Just keep it symple and not too much wattage to drain your batteries when sailing all day or you will not be able to crank you motor unless you have 3 batteries (2 for the cabin and a sepirate one for the motor).

Four years ago, when I had my stereo installed, I bought a car stereo because I had it mounted in the cabin. I figured that it there, it would get as wet as it would in a car, and I would just operate it via remote control. The speakers though are marine grade. I can hook up an ipod, or play CD's, and the radio. The system works fine for me. The cockpit speakers are used often. You can see in the photograph where I placed them. They are accessible through the mirrors in the 05 M's cabin. Your 03 may have mirrors there also. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you will see the panel that controls my shore power. To the right of that (out of view) is the stereo. It is well in view from the captains seat while boating. The remote works quite well.




Ray

I've seen photos of lots of nice stereo speaker installations in Macs -- but couldn't bring myself to cut any holes that big! We use our iPod for music afloat, installed in this neat little portable case. http://www.ihomeaudio.com/products.asp? ... pt_id=1007

We opted for blue. If you look around, you'll find prices well below list. I think we paid $25 on line... don't recall the site.

We had the Clarion CMD5 Marine Receiver installed by the dealer. He installed the 2 6.5" speakers on either side of the comanionway in the cckpit the same as Rays. I also installed 2 Klipsch AW-400 Outdoor speakers inside the cockpit on either side of the door mounted just below the mirrors. The sound inside the boat is amazing, we watch DVD's and I frequently host some of my neighbors at the marina for Monday night football.

Speakers mounted in the cockpit come in handy when you beach the boat and want to listen to music.

Parrothead,

I like that little contraption. I still like my set up better, but I like that little contraption.

I neglected to say in my previous post that I also have two speaker mounted in the forward compartment. When we stay on the boat for the evening, we can limit the sound to the cabin, the cockpit, or both. By the way, changing over the cabin lights from bulbs to LED light cuts down on the draw from the battery hugely*. More juice for the stereo.

Ray


* All four of the cabin lights replaced with LED draw less power than one bulb.

My stereo and two speakers in the cabin were installed by the dealer. Now days, I'm all Ipod, but the stereo only plays cds and radio. I'm using an I-doc which works fine but I'm into good sound quality which the idoc does not deliver. Will probably bite the bullet one day and change out the stereo with ipod input. I find that with a decent pair of speakers in the cabin, you don't necessarily need them in the cockpit, though you do use more power by cranking up the volume when up above.

delevi wrote:My stereo and two speakers in the cabin were installed by the dealer. Now days, I'm all Ipod, but the stereo only plays cds and radio. I'm using an I-doc which works fine but I'm into good sound quality which the idoc does not deliver. Will probably bite the bullet one day and change out the stereo with ipod input. I find that with a decent pair of speakers in the cabin, you don't necessarily need them in the cockpit, though you do use more power by cranking up the volume when up above.

Try this....

http://www.polyplanar.com/productsingle.aspx?prt=IP-100

Thanks Kevin, but no cd changer port on mine or any other port for that matter. Just a radio with slot for single cd.

Leon:

My wife and I also have to listen to good quality sound and a stereo was the first mod I did on my 2007 M.

I installed a Pioneer car Stereo in the floatation pocket above the mirror with a port to plug in IPod and Sirrius port (did not bother with a AM/FM antenna).

I installed outdoor home (weatherproof) speakers from Home Theater Direct. Web page is www.htd.com and look for outdoor speakers. Great sound for the price. I bought the Q50 model.

The speakers are surface mount and I mounted them on each side of the inside of the campanion way bulkhead and under the 12V power panel and opposite side. Access through the cutouts and used an aluminum backing plate on inside for additional support. I purchased some Sony marine speakers to install in the cockpit on the exterior companion bulkhead, but the sound is so good from the two speakers inside the cabin, I did not bother and have other plans for that space.

We also plug in the laptop to watch movies and feed the sound through the stereo. Our stereo is on all the time.

I get many comments on how good our boat sounds.

There is always the arguement about installing marine grade verses standard car equoipment. The standard car and my home speakers sound way better than marine and half the cost of marine. We are not on the ocean and that enviroment is understandably harder on the equipment.

My Pioneer car stereo has more functions on it than I can use. You can set the screen to display all kinds of stuff including a battery monitor, which is where I leave it set at all the time.

May I suggest you take a look at my installation. After two years I still love it. By mounting the speakers on hinges I get great sound in the cockpit and the cabin. By using a marine stereo with wired remote controls I don't have to worry about losing an infrared remote or damage from salt water to my cockpit remote. I placed the stereo in the cabin where I can load CD's or hook up an iPod easily and turn it off from my bunk. Because my speakers are removable I can place them on deck or use the stanchion mounts for beach parties.

Thanks for the good ideas guys. I'll have to put some boat stereo equipment on the Christmas list

For years we used a Sony "Weather resistant" boom box as can be seen on the hatch top. Velcro to hold it in place and a lanyard to keep it from going over. It is MP3 compatable and 1 disk can hold up to 160 songs. We have a 12v lighter pug in that converts to 9v power, so you dont burn through batteries. It worked well but you still have to carry disks.



Our new and current system is a mini guitar amp slaved to an i-pod. fortunatly the power cord fits the amp and the polarity is the same. I paid around $6 on E-Bay for the amp and its a great dual purpose item. Ukulele amp and stereo!!



A charge on the i-pod will play for 2 or 3 days so I dont worry about powering it. Little bit of velcro on the back and your set to go!!

Yes, thanks for the ideas!
I also have been using a Sony boom box on occasion, but it takes up space and always has to be shuffled around below so I stopped using it. I do not own an ipod nor do I know what one is and since I suspect it uses headphones I will never aquire one. I am deaf in one ear (left) so it would sound like one speaker was allways disconnected. Funny, I was going through the grocery check out and the young babe noticed I had a large amount of points accumulated so she suggested I get an ipod with them. I looked at her with a blank stare and replied ' I wouldn't know an ipod from a g-string' she looked back equally blank and said 'whats' a g-string' Anyway I'm pretty old school, something familiar like a unit mounted above the mirror with a couple of speakers that I can put CD's into sounds simple enough. The boom box also has MP3 but I don't know what that is either.