Hard Wire or Wireless

[C. C. & Company]

Looking to upgrade my stereo. Trying to decide to go with a hard wire remote or a wireless remote.
Any experience with the pros and cons of these?
Thanks in Advance,

 

[GrandMaster]

I have a wireless remote for mine. Only downside for me is that the cabin door has to be open to use it from the cockpit.

 

[Phlorida]

As has been stated already, the wireless remote is line of sight. I use a wired remote. It is convenient on the dash and it stays in one place.

 

[MonacoMike]

The line of site remotes are IR. There are radio frequency remotes that work within 100 feet available. That said I prefer the hard wired with display at the helm and use my RF when lounging on the bow deck or swimplatform. This is based on a Clarion marine unit.

MM

 

[C. C. & Company]

I do like the idea of not losing the thing. Is it relatively painless to wire? Do they come with its own wire and if they do, is the length sufficient?

 

[Phlorida]

The remotes come with their own cables and extension cables. All of the ones that I am aware of have plugs on the end that just plug in. Because they don't offer extension cables I do not recommend Kenwood marine units. If I was currently in the market I would be looking at Fusion or Clarion but there are lots of options.

 

[archangel73]

This past weekend I installed a "hard-wired" remote for my Clarion CMD6 headunit. Not hard at all once you drill a hole to run the cable. While I was at it, I also installed my Sirius/XM antenna at the same time.

I believe you will be happy with a hard wired remote.

 

[magstang1]

Infrared remotes are line of sight. Radio frequency remotes are not. Usually about a 100' range.

Wired remotes give you the option of a display screen in addition to control.

You can have both wired and wireless at the same time. (ideal combination)

Kenwood does offer extension cables. I had one in my last boat.

The wired remotes are plug and play. Cut a hole, plug it in and turn it on. Need more length, add an extension. Want another wired remote, add a splitter and plug it in. Simple.

 

[C. C. & Company]

"Drill the hole for the cable". Definitely the downside of hard wiring. Everything is kind of pointing that way though.
Thanks for the input.

 

[MonacoMike]

The line of site remotes are IR. There are radio frequency remotes that work within 100 feet available. That said I prefer the hard wired with display at the helm and use my RF when lounging on the bow deck or swimplatform. This is based on a Clarion marine unit.

MM

Infrared remotes are line of sight. Radio frequency remotes are not. Usually about a 100' range.

Wired remotes give you the option of a display screen in addition to control.

You can have both wired and wireless at the same time. (ideal combination)

Kenwood does offer extension cables. I had one in my last boat.

The wired remotes are plug and play. Cut a hole, plug it in and turn it on. Need more length, add an extension. Want another wired remote, add a splitter and plug it in. Simple.

Great minds think alike...

 

[Phlorida]

RF remotes makes much more sense on a boat (and in the home), who is offering them in the marine stereo market? I know that Fusion is offering an 802.11x interface for operating their units with a phone application.

 

[Phlorida]

I Kenwood does offer extension cables. I had one in my last boat. /QUOTE]

This might be a recent change by Kenwood. I called Kenwood tech support and they indicated that they were not available. I ended up fashioning an extension cable using Ethernet cable which was a total P-I-T-A but it works.

 

[MonacoMike]

RF remotes makes much more sense on a boat (and in the home), who is offering them in the marine stereo market? I know that Fusion is offering an 802.11x interface for operating their units with a phone application.

I have a Clarion.Someone on this site told me who actually makes thme to answer some questions I had.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_020MF1/Clarion-MF1.html?tp=13308&kw=&org=pla&nw=g&crv=14052690025

MM

 

[tdschafer]

I will have the wired & RF wireless remote when I do my install this spring. When I was shopping Earmark Marine turned me onto an Alpine system that uses mounted WIRELESS remotes that function as the wired ones do. I was tempted to go that route but, it was out of my budget as I was also purchasing 4 JL Audio amps, a 10" JL Audio Marine Sub & 4 pairs of 6.5" JL Audio cockpit speakers. The Clarion M309 with all of my add-ons was approximately 1/2 the cost of the Alpine set-up. I had to run new speaker wires and power for the amps etc, so a wired remote feed was a non-issue for me. I will say, if I was only changing the head unit, I would have went with the Alpine set-up. Good luck with the upgrade!

 

[magstang1]

This is what my forward speakers look like:

And this is what's behind the grill. The crossover is part of the new speaker I was installing. The speaker size was 5 1/4"

 

[magstang1]

To expand on some of the pms I've sent:

Here is my current dash. The remote is obsolete and the new one won't fit exactly in its place.

So I had this panel custom made. And it gave me a reason to replace all the dash panels, but that's another thread.