Stereo Thoughts
 

Looking to upgrade my stereo head unit and wired remote in my Donzi 2008 27ZR. Right now I have a sony head unit and the original wired remote, which was not a Sony but some other brand that I can't remember. I also have a separate jack for my iPod in the dash. Last year I upgraded the speakers and amp. Went with JL Audio speakers (4) sub (1), and amp. Love the sound, but want a better remote and a head unit built for iPod. I also like the idea of storing the iPod in the head unit.

So, I'm down to Fusion and Kenwood. Guess I'm ruling out Alpine because I don't really care for their remotes.

Does anyone have any thoughts on these two brands, and which they prefer? For me I think the most important thing is the ease of use of the remote with the iPod. It would also be nice if the head unit fit in a standard opening, which I think both of these will, but I'm not sure.

http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Car_Entert...arine/KMR-700U

http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Car_Entert...ne/KCA-RC107MR


http://www.fusionelectronics.com/mar...eries/ms-ip700

http://www.fusionelectronics.com/mar...otes/ms-nrx200

Can't comment on either of those but have you checked out the clarion? Prett good units and they have connections built in for the iPod and a wired remote as well

I have never heard of fusion. I have always had great luck with pioneer premiere, alpine and kenwood. I would stay away from anything like Sony or knockoff brands, I haven't had good luck. Have you heard the audio quality of the fusion, the displays intrigue me a little. Are you only looking for iPod control? If you are i would stay away from head units with cd decks in them, less to rattle around and break.

tomahdonzi I own a stereo shop and we are doing more and more boat installs . I have a sick Clarion/Alpine in my superboat and have sold several jobs showing it off on the beach . I also have the Kenwood in my Pantera and love it . It has so much room inside it that I can put my cell and Ipod touch in it together .
The Clarion has the new wireless waterproof remote that you can mount on your dash and then detach to cary on the beach but does not have interior storage .

WARRING the fusion is the biggest POS I have ever seen . Just did a boat and the customer supplied the Fusion . Burnt out and cut off and on by it's self. He got it exchanged at West marine and now 30 days later it went again taking it's second amp with it. 2 subs one each time and now three 6 1/2's .
We have another boat sponsored by Fusion so the units have been free but its on the fifth one in six months

We have installed a ton of Fusion units and have not seen many failures. The iPod dock is nice but does not work with IPhone 5. They also have an app for the iPad/iPhone that you can control the stereo from if you have a wireless access point. Also Garmin now controls the fusion unit from their plotters thru nmea 2000. Ray marine and Furuno also will have control soon from thei units as well. The clarion cmv1 is a nice unit also..
JL to release a head unit in the spring also.

Good point . I just cant get past the Idea of Fusion being a flee market brand and the Zone settings produce a really bad signal to the amp .
It will be interesting to see what the big boys step up to the plate with at CES this year . We are installing a Ipad mini in a boat next week , were even making a universal pod mount that we might try to market .
If I like it I'm gonna put one in my Superboat before the spring . The best feature ! LOCAL RADAR $350 bucks

Interesting thoughts on the Fusion. I have no idea of their quality (or lack thereof). Just thought they looked nice and had nice features with respect to the iPod.

I have Sirius in the boat, but really, the only thing we listen to is iPod for music. So, CD capability is not important.

I looked again at Clarion and Alpine. Nice units. And I've heard a lot of good things about Alpine. The only problem is none of them allow for storage of the iPod IN the unit (like the Fusion or Kenwood does). It appears to me they all have cables in the back of the head unit. So I would have to figure out some kind of mount for the iPod, which I'm not really thrilled about. As it is now, it sits in front of the throttle, and I don't really like it there.

What is everyone doing with mounting their iPod if you are using Clarion or Alpine head units?

I have had the Kenwood 700u for a few years and it has need great. The wired remotes work great with the iPod. It fits in a single DIN opening but the front face is larger.

The sound quality between the Ipod and a CD is something to consider. A CD will sound wayyyy better than an audio file 100% of the time. but it is nice to be able to create files and a playlist, but if you are going for quality sound the CD is unsurpassed.

One of my buddies has the Clarion 309 with a blue tooth accessory and it sounds great, he controls the whole system from his phone wherever he is in the boat or on the dock. He has six speakers, (2) JL770s and (4) JL M6.5's. He also runs (2) JL 10" subs with two amps, a JL600/6 and a JL600/1. His system is unbelieviable. I'm trying to do something similiar and just bought the Clarion 309, (4) JLM6.5's and (2) JL10" subs. I got the JL 400/4 and JL 600/1 amps as well. I need to figure out the blue tooth part because the one he bought is shown as discontinued. From what I heard this summer and am expecting myself the Clarion 309 is a good choice.

I had the Fusion MS-IP500 and loved it. Wanted the iPhone control option and color screen and Moved up to the MS-IP700 and love it. http://www.fusionelectronics.com/marine

Neither have ever failed me once. Fusion's online and phone tech support was superb every time I called em with my rookie questions.

I like the Polk audio DB series speakers. great bang for the buck.

There is only one amp of choice in all my rigs. Krypt Amplifiers

I have been wondering about downloading uncompressed music from sites that specialize in that. It looks like around $2.50 a song, so a little more. But I am curious how it'll sound on my big system compared to MP3s.

I'd go with one of these before I worried about a wired remote...

http://remotesthatfloat.com/zencart/