How sync multiple boat stereos
 

I thought I saw on here where jl audio or wet sounds had a device to sync multiple boat stereos.. Can anyone help or advice..

I have a couple friends and we raft up occasionally and we do it the old fashioned way with splinters and long 3.5mm cables and plug same phone/ ipod I to beery boat. Tried fm modulator once but sounded like bucket of crap. I am curious what other higher tech things are out there,

I have an fm modulator that is run off the rca jacks on the stereo and is hard wired into my system, works pretty good and has a range of about a hundred and fifty feet. The cheap kind that plug into an ear phone jack dont work well, I actually got mine at BoatUS and was part of the Clarion marine line they carried. I dont think they make them anymore but I will get the part number off it and maybe one will turn up somewhere.

Nothing I have seen or tried works better than long cables and adapters.

Does anyone make an app to allow multiple devices to sync over Bluetooth? Or would the range be too short?

I think this is the best option on the market at the moment. http://www.jlaudio.com/home-audio-electronics-jlink

A buddy and I use the JL J link. Works pretty good and the sound quality is there. Like most wireless, placement is key. They don't go through a lot of fiberglass very well. We had to mess with positioning of the devices for best recpt. We make sure when we are out we tie up my SB to his Port to place the units close together.

Ipods and iphones have low output voltages. Long distances and low voltages do not mix well. Also, I would prefer that the host cannot alter the volume of every slave down the signal path. That is how speakers get blown. So I would prefer that the host has an EQ like the Wetsounds WS420 or a dedicated line driver to run the chain.

If all stereos have the aux input the you can use
- 3.5mm cables
- creat wifi network then conect ipnone/ipod/ipad or android tablet or phone to this wifi network. Then use software called VLCStreamer (PC or MAC) to send the stream of audio (even vide is possible) and anyone in the range of your Wifi network will be able to recive this stream and play it.
if they dont have the AUX input you can use
- Fm sender (works like your own radio station) and your stsreo dont have to be equiped with AUX but you can have problems with law if you transmit to strong signal if you transmit to weak signal the range will be minimal

FM transmitters don't work very well. Most only transmit at a 1/2 watt. Works great when you have a ground plane to transmit from and a ground plain to receive from. Since boats don't have a large metal surface for a ground plain, they do not transmit or receive well. Testing on land with a car radio you could pick up the signal 500+ feet away. On a boat you were lucky if a boat 20' away could pick it up.

I just have a collection of long RCA cables, y splitters, and RCA to 3.5 adapters. Then I just chain them all together. I then run signal from my computer using Virtual DJ software. This way everyone has control of their own volume. I bought a line driver because I expected to need it with as many as 15 boats connected, but the computer so far has had more than enough signal to work.