Stereo System Upgrade Survey

[denpooch]

Hey folks.
The 15 year old Clarion speakers are distorting and its time to upgrade. I am certain many of you faced similar situations and am interested in how you approached it. As an older system the receiver is not 'bluetooth' capable. That would be a good thing to have given today's streaming technology. I understand that there is a bluetooth receiver that can be plugged into the auxiliary port of the Clarion that will enable this function,
Did you simply replace the speakers? ( 2 on bridge, 2 in aft cockpit, 2 in the salon)
Did you replace the entire system? What brand did you go with and why?
I do know that since I have a Garmin plotter I can replace with a Fusion receiver and run an ethernet cable to the bridge and control function from the plotter. How challenging would that be and what is best approach if I go that route?
What do you guys think?
Thanks.

[RGrew176]

On my last boat, 1999 Bayliner 3055 Ciera I replaced both the radio and speakers in the radar arch. Sound was better overall.

[Midnightsun]

IMHO there is really only 1 option out there which is Fusion. Face it, tape players and CD's are history. Streaming, bluetooth and apps are here for a long time. I purchased a Siruis lifetime subscription way back which I enjoy on the boat which I added to my Fusion system. There are a few options to choose from at Fusion, just need to choose what suits your life style and installation. As for speakers I ended up with Polk Audio, not that they are the best but they looked cool, are marine speakers and were cheap on eBay.

[denpooch]

Thanks guys.

[Schoony]

Buy all Fusion products, they are the best for marine applications.

[tomschauer]

I separated the bridge from the salon stereo. For the bridge I installed a kicker kmc 10 head unit with blue tooth, four 6.5" kicker coaxials, a 10" kicker sub and a 800.5 amp. it is crystal clear at any level. If you want you can crank it up and hear it for quite a distance.
For the salon i replaced the factory Kenwood cassette receiver and cd changer with a Kenwood bt5hd unit and four alpine speakers in the original locations. It sounds really good.
I can stream to both from my phone and also control them via apps.

[Danpmart]

Awesome! I just started a separate bridge stereo upgrade. Ordered all of the equipment, got the power pulled to the bridge... Hopefully get it finished before this weekend.

[Midnightsun]

Zones is a good idea especially on a fly bridge. Fusion comes with 3 zones so rather easy to accomplish. I broke them up into flybridge, salon and master suite.

[tomschauer]

Here's a couple pics. The kicker head unit is compact and fits in a gauge hole. The sub is mounted just below in the helm console. The amp is mounted inside the helm console. I added a wired remote in the aft deck area

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also.