Jenson Stereos [Tip]

[artbyjody]

On my Catalina - I used to use a Sony Xplod - but where it was mounted on the bulkhead, and the fact the distance from the cockpit to bulkhead where it was mounted made it easy for the remote to work efficiently.

The Barberis, however - without standing at the cockpit entrance to down below, would such work.

The boat came with a last years model Jenson stereo but it was not rigged with Sirius or other satellite radio. This is now of importance to me as I have installed the Raymarine Sirius Weather Reciever:



Which allows for not only the 24/7 weather updates for $29 a month, but for 6 extra a month - the full radio deal as well.

The Jenson model I have doesn't do anything fancy, and I wanted a model that would have a hard-wired remote that can be installed on my soon to be finished Nav station on the helm. West Marine sells the following remote (you'd be hardpressed to find it at a car / audio place)...



Its hardwired... does the basics.

So, I replaced the Jenson model I had and went to Car Toys in Seattle and got:



It doesn't replace the Polaroid TV, but it allows for a combination of uses. The unit comes with a multi-media adapter and the West Marine Jenson hard wired remote can be plugged into the IPOD ready jack and will take care of remotely handling the unit.

The reason I post this is - for some with space limitations, wanting DVD capability, and wanting to have fixed remotes (it can take up to two using a Y connector)... Its an ideal unit when you want satellite radio, IPOD, DVD, Multi-Media, and control it from different areas of your boat.

[Maine Sail]

This is how in handled a remote.. We don't use satellite radio or regular radio and only listen to the iPod so it's limited to the iPod but far less expensive and it works from anywhere on the boat being RF and not IR. It's made by ABT Tech and is called the iJet. Oh and the remote is key fob size and water resistant. I Velcro it to my Navpod..



We have little ones and thus needed a larger screen. Also the location of our stereo, at the sit down nav station, did not allow for a DVD/stereo combo. This is a 19" Polaroid I bought for about $379.00. It has a built in DVD and is wired directly into my 12V system. It comes home in the winter and is used in the guest bedroom..


This is a great thread and I'm not trying to hijack but rather add to the available options! Nice job Jody!!

[erps]

I took the el cheapo route for cockpit music. Got an Archer headphone jack/speaker volume control hardwired into the cockpit to control the cockpit speakers. For other functions, we had a strategically placed mirror down below that we used to bounce the IR signals to the Stereo/CD player down below with the supplied wireless controller. It took a while but we found the sweet spot in the companion way that made it pretty reliable. I haven't found a good way to do that yet with our current boat.