Head Unit Recommendation

scooper321

scooper321

Well-Known Member
Jul 4, 2015
1,863
Baltimore, MD
Boat Info
2003 Sea Ray 400DB
Engines
Twin Cummins 6CTA-8.3
Interested in recommendations for a head unit with wireless remotes. It's going into the cabin of a 400 Sedan Bridge so I suppose it doesn't need to be a marine head unit. But the remote would be on the helm, so that would need to be a weatherproof unit. Fusion is NOT an option.

Constructive assistance is appreciated.
 
Stee6043 said:
I feel like you'd have 30 replies by now had you not excluded Fusion :):)
Click to expand...

Ha ha. You are probably right. But in owning two Fusion head units (RA70 and RA210) I have found their Bluetooth compatibility with iPhones stinks. Maybe it’s because I have bought ithe lower priced units, But I have heard of Bluetooth issues with the 670 as well. I’d rather not spend close to $500 on something like the 770. I just want a simple two zone head unit to which I can stream Bluetooth. We have had so much frustration trying to connect and control Fusion head units from iPhones. Previously paired phones simply would not connect over the weekend. We had to factory reset the head unit to get anything to work. Then it stopped working and nothing would connect again. So that’s why I asked for recommendations other than fusion. For a boat with an interior cabin, I don’t believe we need a marine rated head unit. Although I wouldn’t mind an NMEA2000 unit, it’s not a requirement. I can’t see controlling the radio from my plotter. That’s what a wireless remote is for. The original head unit in my boat was a clarion, and I know it was not a marine rated unit. It worked fine when I pulled it out, but I wanted one with BT. It had a wired remote on the helm. I do love the wireless remotes from fusion! If I’m going to pull wires from my fly bridge, it’s going to be for a new radar, not for a stupid radio remote. Lol!
 
scooper321 said:
Ha ha. You are probably right. But in owning two Fusion head units (RA70 and RA210) I have found their Bluetooth compatibility with iPhones stinks. Maybe it’s because I have bought ithe lower priced units, But I have heard of Bluetooth issues with the 670 as well. I’d rather not spend close to $500 on something like the 770. I just want a simple two zone head unit to which I can stream Bluetooth. We have had so much frustration trying to connect and control Fusion head units from iPhones. Previously paired phones simply would not connect over the weekend. We had to factory reset the head unit to get anything to work. Then it stopped working and nothing would connect again. So that’s why I asked for recommendations other than fusion. For a boat with an interior cabin, I don’t believe we need a marine rated head unit. Although I wouldn’t mind an NMEA2000 unit, it’s not a requirement. I can’t see controlling the radio from my plotter. That’s what a wireless remote is for. The original head unit in my boat was a clarion, and I know it was not a marine rated unit. It worked fine when I pulled it out, but I wanted one with BT. It had a wired remote on the helm. I do love the wireless remotes from fusion! If I’m going to pull wires from my fly bridge, it’s going to be for a new radar, not for a stupid radio remote. Lol!
Click to expand...

Hah. I hear ya. The BT on my 70 and 55 can be a bit wonky at times but nothing quite like what you're experiencing. Have you updated the firmware on your head units recently? Might wanna give that a try.

In the modern era the only other brand I've tried is Clarion. I will never go back to Clarion. I've never experienced a more clumsy user interface...
 
Stee6043 said:
Hah. I hear ya. The BT on my 70 and 55 can be a bit wonky at times but nothing quite like what you're experiencing. Have you updated the firmware on your head units recently? Might wanna give that a try.

In the modern era the only other brand I've tried is Clarion. I will never go back to Clarion. I've never experienced a more clumsy user interface...
Click to expand...
Updating the firmware on the RA210 is the next step. But fusion has messed that up for me, too. When I go to the website to download the update there are two choices For the RA210. The first just says RA210, the second says RA210, NMEA2000. Since I have the one with the network interface, I chose that. That link takes me to a website to download firmware for the RA 670. Go figure. I may try and update it with the vanilla RA210 firmware and see what happens.
 
scooper321 said:
Updating the firmware on the RA210 is the next step. But fusion has messed that up for me, too. When I go to the website to download the update there are two choices For the RA210. The first just says RA210, the second says RA210, NMEA2000. Since I have the one with the network interface, I chose that. That link takes me to a website to download firmware for the RA 670. Go figure. I may try and update it with the vanilla RA210 firmware and see what happens.
Click to expand...

Not to pore salt into the wound but, you should use the Fusion app to get and apply new firmware.

But if you want to do it directly here is the firmware link for the RA210 and the 5.70.xx firmware: https://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=15723
 
mrsrobinson said:
Yeah, what happened to Kenwood? Back in the day there were the go to for car stereo stuff.
Click to expand...

No idea, but Fusion pulled ahead of the pack years ago with there N2K support and everything being controlled by the MFD's. All of the new CC's jumped right on that because of space and it soared. A few years ago JL Audio saw what was going on and they dove in with N2K support. While Fusion is really good, JL Audio top's them, IMO. The only thing that will never happen is the Garmin integration. I think Simrad/Lowrance supports them (unsure though). But for most people Fusion is the way to go and not look back, unless you have to be that guy and spend 5K or more on your system then it will be powered by JL Audio ...
 
SKybolt said:
Not to pore salt into the wound but, you should use the Fusion app to get and apply new firmware.

But if you want to do it directly here is the firmware link for the RA210 and the 5.70.xx firmware: https://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=15723
Click to expand...

Yep. That's the firmware I downloaded. It's on the drive, ready to take to the boat.

And I have no issue with with the Fusion app. WHEN THE PHONE CONNECTS to the head unit, the app is great for controlling tone, configuring the radio, etc. When I had the RA70 the app was the ONLY way you could control the volume with the phone. The iphone volume buttons didn't work to adjust volume (like they do on every other Bluetooth audio device). That's why I dumped the RA70 and went to the RA210. For a while, it worked OK. Still flaky connecting to phones, but this past weekend was a disasater. My wife's phone is normally connected to it (and default connects when she is in range) but for some reason she couldn't connect. Nor could I. In fact, when we tried to go through the menus on the HU to connect, before you could get to the menu to choose the phone, the HU kept resetting to "Select Bluetooth Device" screen. When you did get connected, the song would show on the screen but the audio came out the phone. Then the HU dropped the connection. Total clusterf@#$. We had to factory reboot the HU to connect to any phones. And that worked for a while. Until it started dropping connections again. Hopefully a firmware update will correct this madness. Otherwise a Kenwood unit might not be too bad of an idea (kidding)!
 
scooper321 said:
Yep. That's the firmware I downloaded. It's on the drive, ready to take to the boat.

And I have no issue with with the Fusion app. WHEN THE PHONE CONNECTS to the head unit, the app is great for controlling tone, configuring the radio, etc. When I had the RA70 the app was the ONLY way you could control the volume with the phone. The iphone volume buttons didn't work to adjust volume (like they do on every other Bluetooth audio device). That's why I dumped the RA70 and went to the RA210. For a while, it worked OK. Still flaky connecting to phones, but this past weekend was a disasater. My wife's phone is normally connected to it (and default connects when she is in range) but for some reason she couldn't connect. Nor could I. In fact, when we tried to go through the menus on the HU to connect, before you could get to the menu to choose the phone, the HU kept resetting to "Select Bluetooth Device" screen. When you did get connected, the song would show on the screen but the audio came out the phone. Then the HU dropped the connection. Total clusterf@#$. We had to factory reboot the HU to connect to any phones. And that worked for a while. Until it started dropping connections again. Hopefully a firmware update will correct this madness. Otherwise a Kenwood unit might not be too bad of an idea (kidding)!
Click to expand...

Sad, but I think it is just the Fusion BT issues. I know I'll get slammed for this one, but I think Fusion's BT is total crap. I don't ever use it for anything. I have the RA770 and it is wifi and it works flawlessly always. I have a tablet in the salon that is dedicated to the Fusion and Sonos use only. I also use my phone but the tablet is always there supper easy. They also have a WB670, it's a headless unit that mimic's the RA670 in features. I am going to switch to that and put the RA770 in my CC. That's how well it all works for me. Sorry your having issues like this.
 
SKybolt said:
Sad, but I think it is just the Fusion BT issues. I know I'll get slammed for this one, but I think Fusion's BT is total crap. I don't ever use it for anything. I have the RA770 and it is wifi and it works flawlessly always. I have a tablet in the salon that is dedicated to the Fusion and Sonos use only. I also use my phone but the tablet is always there supper easy. They also have a WB670, it's a headless unit that mimic's the RA670 in features. I am going to switch to that and put the RA770 in my CC. That's how well it all works for me. Sorry your having issues like this.
Click to expand...

Nope, you're spot on. But I'm not going to spend the money or the complexity to make a Wifi network for audio. My wife tends to be the DJ and for her, the radio needs to work like her JBL bluetooth speaker. That is, through her phone. All she wants to do is connect, fire up Spotify and flip tracks and adjust volume from her iphone or her watch. And really, that's not an unreasonable use case. That's how I want to use it, too. I know there are way more features and capabilities that these systems offer. But those are for the 1%'ers. The rest of us just want a BT music source through which we can stream Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud or our favorite podcasts. And we want the device to operate like every other BT music device we own, without disconnecting, without needing extra apps to run, etc. And that means flawless Bluetooth. THIS is why I asked in my original post for recommendations other than Fusion. Their BT is far from flawless. (Disclaimer: I've heard a lot of the issues with the iphone compatibility are because Fusion uses older BT chips and Apple keeps changing the iOS and how BT works in it. So really, Apple bears some responsibility here. Nevertheless, my 10 year old Bose BT speaker, our several JBL and UE BT speakers, and countless other devices work flawlessly with the iPhones. So Fusion does deserve some of my ire).
 
scooper321 said:
Nope, you're spot on. But I'm not going to spend the money or the complexity to make a Wifi network for audio. My wife tends to be the DJ and for her, the radio needs to work like her JBL bluetooth speaker. That is, through her phone. All she wants to do is connect, fire up Spotify and flip tracks and adjust volume from her iphone or her watch. And really, that's not an unreasonable use case. That's how I want to use it, too. I know there are way more features and capabilities that these systems offer. But those are for the 1%'ers. The rest of us just want a BT music source through which we can stream Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud or our favorite podcasts. And we want the device to operate like every other BT music device we own, without disconnecting, without needing extra apps to run, etc. And that means flawless Bluetooth. THIS is why I asked in my original post for recommendations other than Fusion. Their BT is far from flawless. (Disclaimer: I've heard a lot of the issues with the iphone compatibility are because Fusion uses older BT chips and Apple keeps changing the iOS and how BT works in it. So really, Apple bears some responsibility here. Nevertheless, my 10 year old Bose BT speaker, our several JBL and UE BT speakers, and countless other devices work flawlessly with the iPhones. So Fusion does deserve some of my ire).
Click to expand...

I think you'll find that Fusion are the leaders for head units, while there are plenty of better options for speakers and amplifiers. The RA770 builds its own WiFi network and you simply connect to it as you would wifi in your home, in fact your iphone will automatically connect to it when the radio is on and in range and the range of WiFi streaming is FAR greater than Bluetooth, WiFi also has a much higher quality playback... The 770 is pretty complex to set up but once it's set up it's awesome.

Since you seem pretty set against Fusion, the only other GOOD options I know of for head units are the Rockford Fosgate and Infinity head units. The JL head unit is absolute junk (rebranded Chinese crap). It's just a crapshoot figuring out which one will work better, I had both head units and they worked pretty well. The Infinity in my Sea Fox was super simple and easy to use but zero frills. The Rockford in my 290 SDX had more frills but was also pretty easy to use. Ive never had a problem connecting to any radios with bluetooth, wondering if there could be signal interference on your boat? If this is the case the WiFi streaming should clear that up.
 
I just replaced my Fusion 755 with a Fusion 770. If it wasn't for the Garmin integration, which makes the Fusion radically easy to control from the helm, I would have returned the 770. It sounds really good and has 4 zone support that I need, but the interface is a big step backwards from the 755. They misfired almost every step of the way in the interface design.

That being said, you might consider calling the folks at Crutchfield and talking to them about your needs and getting recommendations. I bought my 770 through them, and they were absolutely excellent when it came to tech support, which I needed first because the amp remote wouldn't trigger all 4 amps, and then second when the 770 died on me and I needed to get it replaced. Crutchfield has US-based customer service, their people answer the phone, and THEY ARE THERE ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON WHEN I'M WORKING ON STUFF. Where else are you going to get tech support at 4:00 on a Sunday afternoon? Highly recommended, and they carry a variety of brands of marine stereo gear.
 
scooper321 said:
... But I'm not going to spend the money or the complexity to make a Wifi network for audio. ...
Click to expand...

You don't have too. You can connect directly to the stereo via wifi. The 770 is truly worth the money.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,188
Messages
1,428,237
Members
61,099
Latest member
Lorenzo512
Back
Top