MacGregorSailors.com

Weighed in here a bit late. I have a Clarion AM/FM CD player Marine stereo with a 6 disc cd changer and a remote mounted on the center console. There are 4 speakers- 2 in the cockpit (mounted through the liner below the seat in the forward portion of the cockpit) and 2 in the cabin (1 mounted facing aft just before the v-berth, and 1 mounted facing aft behind the dinette.) A fader controls the amp power, but you can always here some tunes in the cabin since the cockpit ones protrude slightly into the aft berth. I have these sealed with 5200 and they are Marine speakers. The stereo unit is mounted on the left side of the galley facing aft toward the aft bunk. I rarely use the controls on it as it is controlled most of the time from the helm.

Controlling the whole thing from the helm is awesome- volume, channels, Tracks, etc. I like to program my 6 CD's with what I want, so it works nicely. The CD changer is mounted hanging from under the forward dinette seat. Usually 6 CD's is enough, if not changing for 6 more takes a few minutes but lasts for quite a long time. I don't even us the CD player in the stereo unit.

I have a CD player installed on my boat, but now with my Ipod I never use it. I have 300 CD's on my Ipod and room for probaby another 200 CD's should I want to. I bought the Jensen model that allows auxillary inputs for my Ipod, but I never use them. Instead I have the 12V Ipod adapter which broadcasts over selected FM stations directly to the radio and that works fine.

I have two speaker down below, but couldn't bear to drill a big speaker hole(s) in the cockpit yet I like having a permanent speaker in the cockpit. So here was my compromise. My Odin has a large 7 inch plastic waterproof deckplate installed on the pedestal to give you access to the steering and outboard controls etc etc (on the Mac, as I recall, this is a plexiglass cover screwed on?) I just unscrewd the deckplate from it's mounting plate, drilled a hole big enough for my speaker cone/magnet and then with waterproof contact cement glued the speaker in the deckplate and then screwed it right back into the mounting plate. VOILA !! Now i just unscrew my speaker if I need access inside the pedestal. I only put one speaker in the cockpit and wired all the speaker wires together to get 'mono only', but in the cockpit ,I don't really need surround sound, plus the pedestal makes a nice 'reflex' for the bass range. This was a West Marine waterproof speaker as well as I woudn't want any leakage there !

I also have a portable Pioneer XM-2-Go portable XM radio that I use almost exclusively for CNBC (I do alot of stock market work aboardship....my floating office) and of course as Frank mentions it is GREAT for such a wide vareity of music, any baseball game in the country and a wide range of other programming. In fact, I canceled Cable TV after I got XM because I get all I want from XM and don't need any more excuses for sitting in front of the TV !!!

Sorry I can't help with this one. Loud music is strictly forbidden on board my boat. I have three teenage girls and it gets pretty loud at home. So, the boat is my chance for peace and quiet - only the sound of wind and water. The girls bring their iPods and headphones if they want tunes, otherwise they read, play games, help sail, or talk with the old folks.

Seems like we are working on a moving target. The tech is moving so fast that yesterdays' stuff is out of date. We chose to use a modest expense solution and anticipate tossing it in a couple years. Am still searching for the optimum speakers. In response to this thread, today, I posted a mod showing our approach. Have Fun.
BTW, just back last night from 10 days on a friends 40' Pearson in the Bahamas....Wow...hull of trip. Sun burn and all. Tahoe Jack