J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Stereo ideas ?

For those of you who enjoy your music, I am wondering what system ideas you have found work well with the J/30 ?

Go buy a cheap portable stereo that you can run on D-cell batteries. You can move the stereo/cd /AM/FM around the boat and will pay a fraction of what an installed system costs. When it dies, go buy another one. Not sexy but very practical. Or, get an iPod with rechargeable speakers. Much more bang for the buck. Don't forget, electronics and water and a bad combination.

Bob Rude
"Mmmmm"

Rhapsody has a Sony CDXGT610UI car stereo mounted on the port side in the shelf above the stove (that's where the previous owner had mounted the old radio that was replaced). This has a built in iPod interface and will accept USB inputs (e.g. memory stick with mp3 or wma files). It also has a CD player, with AM/FM stereo. It has an infrared remote I can use to control the tunes just by sticking my arm in the companionway and pointing it at the stereo.

I connect the stereo to the mast mounted VHF whip using the Shakespeare 4357-S splitter for good radio reception.

The speakers in the cabin are Bose 151 Environmental Speakers (rectangular enclosures - no longer available). These are mounted port and stbd side in between the lockers with the sliding Plexiglas doors above the settee. They are mounted on the aft bulkhead of the forward locker so as not to take up horizontal shelf space.

The speakers on the stern rail are Jensen MS6900SM Magnetically Shielded Marine Speakers that are no longer available. I used magnetically shielded speakers because without the shielding, I found the flux-gate compass in the Autohelm wouldn't track right. I did not want to cut any exterior fiberglass holes to mount speakers, so decided to use the stern rail mounting approach.

The speaker switching is shown on page 6 of this schematic. I used to pump the VHF radio out on these speakers for races, but now that a VHF remote mic/speaker is installed, I don't use that switching anymore. The speakers on the aft rail have custom Sunbrella covers that have a velcro flap that folds open on the front so tunes can be heard with maximum quality, yet the speakers are protected when not in use. Wires for the rear speakers are run inside the stern rail and exit where the speakers are mounted. You can see the rail mounted speakers with the Sunbrella covers in this photo.



The radio will not receive the New York Yankees, unless they are playing the Boston Red Sox.

Thanks Bob and Bill....I am leaning more in Bill's direction (except for the Yankee's games of course) When I am on the boat tomorrow night I am going to try and visualize the exact interior location of your 151's.....

I have a Jensen marine stereo(with a face plug for the ipod) with two box speakers mounted port and starboard on the main cabin bulkhead, and two cockpit speakers mounted in the face of the cockpit seats, about two feet aft of the traveler. I added the cockpit speakers last year, and they are a HUGE improvement. The quarter berth acts like a giant resonating chamber and boosts the bass a lot. If we are cruising and eating dinner below (yes, I use the table!) I will set the balance more to the cockpit speakers-great sound, and the speakers on the cabin bulkhead don't deafen the people sitting next to them!

On Rauzer II I built a teak cabinet for the Jensen stereo and mounted it under the bridge deck. Mounted the speakers on the lazarette bulkheads so they would be more at ear level yet out of the way. I will try to post a photo that displays this...

Breezin has a car stereo mounted below in the nav station area, with wiring to speakers down below mounted on the cabinets above the setees. There are two extra speaker wires that come out and travel over to the companionway. These hook into two marine box speakers that are mounted to a "custom" speaker holder that slides into the seahood tracks (made from a piece of finished hard wood flooring, cut to length and rabbitted on the sides to fit into the slides). Easily removed when racing and easily mounted when needed. Slid all the way forward they still allow easy access below and more importantly, avoided more holes in the boat!