onboard entertainment system

[Strygaldwir]

Great thread! Let me add a couple of points.

I have a decent system on board. It consists of the following:

o 4 Bose 131 marine speakers. 2 on the interior, 2 for the exterior.

o 2 bose acustimass double cube speakers

o 1 Audiobahn 6601 Amplifier. 6 channel amp 600 watt amp

o Dell 2405 FPW 24" flat screen LCD monitor

o Audigy 4 Pro Audio card

o Radeon 9800 Video board

o Sony DVD Drive

o Ahnix D-Vine aluminum case with .... Stuff , lots of it.

o I use DPST switches to shut the external and external speakers off. A little of a pain, but I love the flexibility. No need to play the movie for the whole marina.

Some overservations. I was going to install sub-woofers. Probably overkill (2 Solo Baric L7's they work GREAT in my car!) The sound I get out of the Bose is just great for a boat.

I was going to get a Radeon controller that would allow me to use it as a TV tuner. I am cruising, making my own life, don't need someone elses version!

Now, this is a great system. Lets me play all my music. I have about 55 gigs worth. I use Jukebox to capture my CD library to take with me. Have had a couple of friends. Let's me listen to CD or watch DVD's. I didn't install a cassette player, haven't used one in years. I also didn't do a VHS player.

Now the problem I face is, I can really only use it affectively when I am at a marina. It consumes too much power. My inverter handles it just fine, but I have to turn on my engine to keep up with the drain. My solar and wind won't do it. That's one of the things you should be aware of as you design your system. How and where you'll use it and how much you'd like to use it.

Well, got to run cocktail time!

Keith

[CaptainK]

Hey Keith.

You're telling us. That the solar and wind gen didn't help you out at all. While using the stereo, while out at sea?

[CaptainK]

Keith

Sounds to me, that you may have to reorganize your entire electrical system.

[jimini]

WELL! I certainly learned alot on this forum... Thinking seriously on buying a four battery (double AA) powered AM-FM DVD player and stuffing the money I would have spent on a entertainment center in my boating pockets for a rainny day...

jimini®

That is my kind of system. Works great for a boat with no electric. Low power, high quality is a good way to go in my mind. Like I said, I really enjoy my Bose. It is probably less than 50watts, but the sound is excellent.

[CaptainK]

Hell man.

If electricity is going to be a problem. Hell, I'll just bring a ghetto blaster (boombox) radio. With CD and radio setup.

Don't give a rat's ass about cassette tapes. They're so old fashion!!

[Alan Wheeler]

The other side to look at, if you have it all tooo powerful and tooooo LOUD, then you are going to make many enemies of your neigbours in that tranquail mooring. We had that one night. Somebody had a cheap nasty sounding stereo. He had playing on it over and over, the folk legend of (I forget, it's some story of a shipwreck) but anyway's to add to the noise, they were also singing to it at the top of there voices. They couldn't sing and but they still sounded better than this little stereo being sent into clipping at full tilt.

[CaptainK]

CaptainK partying his ass off.

(loud music blarring)

CaptainK lights off some bottle rockets.

Sets some boats on fire in the process.

CaptainK laughs like a madman. And yells to his party guests, if they want more!!

Reminds me of a weekend at a local lake. It is close to Oakland. I am sure that will be telling for some. We woke up at 7am to a battle of the boom boxes. Now that these boom boxes are pushing a few hundred watts, and since every camp site around us had one, it was a miserable day. I do not really understand the point. It all just mixed and sounded like noise. If, at least they had enough common sense to put on the same station, it would have been far less painful. Really, with the exception of artists like AC/DC, music at high volume loses allot, regardless of the quality of the sound system.

[CaptainK]

I agree with you on that Kai.

I remember during the 80's when metal was in.

And I used to hear almost on a daily basis. You had four sides.

The metal guys. The rap guys. The top 40 guys. And the country/western guys.

Man talking aobut the mix of all the different tones. Whew!!!

Talking about a headache there man!!

[windthief]

Alot of you have already seen this pic put check it out again. Swing arm mounted LCD/dvd/t.v. and repeater for the laptop nav program. The LCD works off of A.C. or D.C. and I have used it plenty on anchor in Catalina with only the solar panels keeping my battery bank up. IT IS A BEAUTIFUL THING.


As well the LCD has RCA jacks so I have the AUX on my stereo putting the movie audio out into the cockpit or the the salon or v-berth. Poor mans surround sound.

[Strygaldwir]

Yeah; I just reorganized all the electrical. I just haven't installed the last 2 solar panels yet. I want to have a new Bimini, davits, and solar panel mounts built. I was waiting until I got to Venezuela to do that though. I have had quotes of $10,000 to do just the metal work up in the states. WAY more than I want to spend. So, I'll hobble along until I get that part of the system built.

The point I was trying to make though was, you do have to calculate your supply and powering scheme too. A first class audio system does not just end with the stereo components, your utilization and power requirements must/should be a factor also. Indeed, a very significant portion as it turns out.

Cheer, (sipping Nassau royale, watching the sun set,cruising the net and yes, listening to tunes,)



Keith

[southernman]

Wheels will know Nelson marina pretty well - a certain boat that I was on (might have been mine) got our stereo confiscated by the police for having it too loud!! Got it back in the morning - got to blame that strange liquid in Blue and Gold cans from the deep south - speights!!

You can't beat a good stereo on a yacht but remember that it can suck your batteries pretty quickly if you crank it!

[CaptainK]

Aye Matey !!! That it will!!

[Alan Wheeler]

Just got back from another stunning weekend trip. We were in our favorite bay on a mooring and our friend was expecting a group of people to arrive at her guest house for the weekend. It was a fishing party. We were sitting there enjoying the beatuiful evening when we heard this music coming from "out there" somewhere. Then around a point came the fishing boat. (Can take 40 people by the way.) Well this boat must have been a couple of miles away. Compleately out of ear shot to hear the boats engine. But plain as day was this 80's music playing over a very tinny sounding horn speaker.