anyone have a Fusion marine stereo?

[BELLATRIX1965]

Originally Posted by casey1999

With the radio I cannot figure out how just tune manually. If I use the fwd and rev buttons the turner goes to fast. It would be nice if the knob could tune but does not seem to be set up that way. Unit looks to have a great warranty- 5 years.

OK - to manually tune, you press AND HOLD the fwd or rev seek button for about 3 seconds. This puts you into manual tune mode, and then you will get a "manual" indication on the screen. You then push the fwd or rev button to go up or down band. It's a bit counter-intuitive, and awkward, I know

[crazyfish]

I like mine a lot but I am on my third unit in less then 3 years.

West Marine has never questioned the exchange of the unit under warranty for a new one. The impression I got is they see a high rate of return on the units.

The Fusion iPod HMI has improved with each new unit.

Marc Hall
Crazy Fish, Crealock 37, Hull 207
San Diego, CA

[floatsome]

We are very happy with our sailboat's Fusion 2-zone system: one in the cockpit, one in the main cabin. Easy to install and use, very flexibile digital options. Second season.

[luzum]

Originally Posted by casey1999

I have the Ipod/ am/fm model and just installed. Can only receive a couple of stations either am or fm. Does anyone have problems receiving? Otherwise the unit is very well built, just wish it would receive better

I had it installed on new boat, barely got 10 stations, tried 3 antenna, and now trying a 2nd unit. When compared to small handheld am/fm radio, it appear the fusion has very poor sensitivity or some type of intermod issue, I will know more tomorrow, but if it is just a poor fm radio not sure how to replace it since size of radio is far bigger than others.

[rmeador]

I think only the faceplate part is bigger. I believe the behind-dash portion of the radio is a standard size, as is the hole it fits into. I'm still in the process of installing mine... hopefully I'll have it working this afternoon and I can write my own review. I don't really care about FM performance though. It will be connected to my computer (I just built a DC-powered mini desktop mounted under the nav station) or satellite radio.

[casey1999]

Originally Posted by luzum

I had it installed on new boat, barely got 10 stations, tried 3 antenna, and now trying a 2nd unit. When compared to small handheld am/fm radio, it appear the fusion has very poor sensitivity or some type of intermod issue, I will know more tomorrow, but if it is just a poor fm radio not sure how to replace it since size of radio is far bigger than others.

I first tried the West Marine FM stereo antenna- the 40 inch wire inside the cabin of my sail boat. Got only got one FM station a few miles away. Next tried the west marine 4 foot AM/FM antenna outside the boat on targa- reception was no better. Last friday I install the Shaksphere 8 foot AM/FM antenna outside the boat on targa. Now I get good reception on both am and fm. I need to take a portable radio the the boat and see how that compares. Even though I am getting good reception- seems a little extreme to require an 8 foot antennna to do so. Stills seems the the sensativity on the Fusion is weak. I looked and the units specs and manufacturer does not give the sensativity spec for the unit- strange.

Other than that, the unit is great.

[windward54]

I always had bad reception on any stereo I had, especially in the marina. All the masts from the surrounding boats makes getting signals tough. I solved my reception problem when I installed an AIS receiver. the unit I used had a connection for an AM/FM radio antenna.

[rmeador]

I finished installing my unit last night. I really like it! It sounds good, it's easy to use, and has a bunch of cool features (like showing the song names for CDs that have them encoded). I got moderately good FM reception with the silly little west marine antenna. I didn't try AM. I only found one drawback, and that is the LCD screen on the unit. It seems rather slow to update, so you get ghosting when text is scrolling (as it does when scrolling a long song name). That's a really nitpicky thing to complain about though. On the whole, I'm very happy with it.

[Figjam]

I just installed my fusion IP 500...i replaced my poly-planar because i wanted to play my Ipod. The IP works beautifully for IPOD and satallite as well as FM stereo but my am reception is almost zero. I am attached to an 8 foot Shakespear antenna. The poly-planar received both am and fm perfectly but the IP-500 does not receive am. I talked to customer service and they had me attach a wire and move it around....no change. It seems that there are other experiencing this problem but I have not seen any solution except to try different antenna...i cannot believe that i would have to change antennea' until i found one that was compatible with the Fusion stereo...has anyone found any other solution...like maybe certain models are better than others for this or the company can tweak something inside?

[dhays]

It is these reports about poor radio reception/sensitivity that keeps me from jumping on this. I have a Sony that has a very poor ergonomic design and no good way to integrate iPod. The Fusion is great on the features it offers and the design looks great. However, I would like decent FM reception.

Dave