Marine amp with Bluetooth capabilities on a cruiser

[Tim francis]

Anyone know of or have a quality amp for listening to music off cell phones?
I just bought a Catalina 400 and there’s six speakers wired above the nav station
I’m looking for an amp with its own built in Bluetooth I can plug six speakers into and look on my iPhone for it under settings and play iTunes. I’m not looking for really loud music or bass or anything over the top.
Thanks for any recommendations

Also I have a bng Zeus 2 and I read briefly in the manual I can subscribe to satellite radio. Does it have any other capabilities?
Aloha and mahalo.

[B23iL23]

Have you looked at Fusion (owned by Garmin)? Expensive but depends on what you are looking for. see
https://www.fusionentertainment.com/...ereo-unitsHave

[sailormed]

Ordinary car radio?

[JKP]

Ordinary car head units usually don’t last in salt marine environments. Even “marine grade” stereo equipment struggles. In this arena you get what you pay for.

[torrmundi]

I Have a Teac TE-A275 car audio amp, since 2014. The only issue has been a filter selection switch that has needed movement to get 100% connectivity on one channel. You might find that you could buy 2 or 3 car audio devices for the price of one marine device.

[Auspicious]

Fusion does make good stuff. For satellite radio you can control one from the B&G but you still need a satellite radio and antenna to receive.

[SailSonoma]

I bought an inexpensive Bluetooth receiver from Amazon and connected it to my stereo through a standard 3.5 mm audio jack. Doesn't turn the system on, but I can control tunes and volume from my phone. Guests aboard can connect and play their stuff too. Works great, and only cost $14!

[dcarratt]

I have used this Fusion unit for two years with no problems - very happy wit its performance

https://www.fusionentertainment.com/...-units/ms-ra55

It supports Bluetooth streaming from a phone. I have two zones (4 speakers) but Fusion have other products which support more zones.

[tarian]

Originally Posted by JKP

Ordinary car head units usually don’t last in salt marine environments. Even “marine grade” stereo equipment struggles. In this arena you get what you pay for.

Nonsense there are plenty of car audios out there on boats that are dry, keep it in a dry location do not throw water on it and no problems.
Fusion is geared for those who want it in their cockpits , fly bridges etc. (and are sucked in by marketing IMHO.)
A well ventilated boat and a humidifier will keep your boat dry , also much cheaper , easier to wire up and get spares and link it up to all sorts of amps and speaker controls.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by tarian

Nonsense there are plenty of car audios out there on boats that are dry, keep it in a dry location do not throw water on it and no problems.
Fusion is geared for those who want it in their cockpits , fly bridges etc. (and are sucked in by marketing IMHO.)
A well ventilated boat and a humidifier will keep your boat dry , also much cheaper , easier to wire up and get spares and link it up to all sorts of amps and speaker controls.

^^^^^+1,000


I've been doing this for 21 years. Very simple.


www.crutchfield.com has every type of unit known to man.


I now have a Sony BT that replaced an older Sony cassette deck with a 10 disc CD changer.


BT via phone is great.

[duckpond49]

I've sailed AND worked in audio for almost 50 years. The possibilities today are amazing.
one of the many online audio outfits I rely on for stuff is Parts Express, although there are certainly others.
https://www.parts-express.com/fx-aud...black--309-423
This simple rig runs on 12v-24v DC, has Bluetooth, Aux input and puts out 30W/channel.It does lack tone controls but is only $50+. There are many others similar to this out there. I've got an AM/FM CD unit on my boat with Aux in that I have a separate BT receiver feeding it.

[Pizzazz]

Originally Posted by duckpond49

I've sailed AND worked in audio for almost 50 years. The possibilities today are amazing.
one of the many online audio outfits I rely on for stuff is Parts Express, although there are certainly others.
https://www.parts-express.com/fx-aud...black--309-423
This simple rig runs on 12v-24v DC, has Bluetooth, Aux input and puts out 30W/channel.It does lack tone controls but is only $50+. There are many others similar to this out there. I've got an AM/FM CD unit on my boat with Aux in that I have a separate BT receiver feeding it.

I second the choice above. These are marketed under different brands, one of the more popular ones is Fosi Audio on Amazon. I have the unit below. It has an excellent Bluetooth receiver, it is very power efficient (my old Sony car stereo was consuming 1A in standby which this one is negligible) and very small. It also has a subwoofer output which makes a big difference to sound.

A few notes to Bluetooth amplifiers on board:
1) Most important is to have an AptX codec, it gives both higher quality and low latency
2) If you have multiple speakers around the box, you can easily install switches for various rooms
3) If you have a TV on board, you can get one of these small Bluetooth transmitters (AptX again) that transmit the TV sound to your Bluetooth amp. You need AptX to have low latency and lip sync. It avoids running wires from the TV to the amp. Also, if you are watching a movie on the chart plotter or on a projector in the cockpit, again much easier to route the sound to the amp.

SV Pizzazz

https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Aud...s%2C219&sr=8-8

[Davidhoy]

I'm on a Catalina 470, and installed a Sony MEX-M718T car-style, but marinined, stereo about 6 months ago. Not an amp, but it drives my 4 speakers just fine. It plays CDs, MP3/WMA from a USB thumb drive, can connect your phone via a USB cable, and of course does Bluetooth. I've been very happy with it so far. There's a mobile app that allows you to control and configure the unit from your phone too.

[TackSeason]

I bought a Fusion 750 a few years ago, looking for a good Bluetooth stereo. The Bluetooth range is only a couple feet. In fact I was sitting right next to the unit on the phone recently and realized the Bluetooth signal was interrupted just by turning my head. And no, I don’t have any steel plates!
Beware of this brand, their tech support couldn’t do anything about it and left me stuck. I’m going to buy a real stereo this winter and throw my Fusion overboard.

[CarinaPDX]

I had a Denon AM/FM/cassette player aboard from the 80's until 2010, then gave it to another boat - it still worked great. Salt air did put a little rust on the painted steel mounts where there were breaks in the paint but the interior looked like new. There is no need to buy an overpriced "marinized" unit unless it is going to be outside - and why would you do that on a cruising boat? If there is salt water flying around below decks then you need to deal with that - there is no excuse for allowing a cruiser to become that uncomfortable. Of course if you get pooped and a wave comes down the companionway then all bets are off.

Six Speakers? What are they? Car stereos typically have front stereo, rear stereo, and increasingly a mono subwoofer - 5 speakers. It is common for each "speaker" to have two speaker elements, a tweeter for highs and a mid-range, connected with a cross-over circuit (usually just a pair of capacitors or a capacitor and an inductor). It is possible that it also has a crossover for a subwoofer on either side, which would be a total of six speakers. It is also possible that four of the speakers are front R, front L, rear R and rear L, with stereo subs. It is impossible to know without further information. Also, is there a crossover or two between the stereo and speakers? How was it wired to the old stereo?

Greg