Stereo up-grade fast and on the cheap

[JohnEGraham]

I see alot of people spending lots of money on big stereo up-grade. I spent $139 ( J&R music nyc.) on a Clarion M475 to replace my 1998 M5170 Cassete player stereo. Keeping the Helm remote and the original speakers. I am still using the old APA2030 30 watt 2 channel amp for the front two speakers and the built in 50watt 4 channel.for the other 4 speakers in the cockpit.
The speaker sound 100% better.
I now have a front AUX input ( mini jack plus new cable) for my new TV /DVD it also sounds great (The Sharp TV had poor volume )
Now the new unit has the updated CE-bus so My old 6 CD changer will not work with out spending $99 on a converter but instead I can just add the I-pod converter and copy my songs onto my I-pod and forget the CDs. Possible CE additons with extera cost ( Approx $30 -$50 each I can add Sirus radio - Blue tooth Phone ( Listen to caller over the stereo)
RE: The installation: Pretty easy. The Main Wire plug was not the same but all the colors are! so I just Butt spliced the Old wires to the New wires following the colors and thats it took 2 hours. The remote fits and works fine.
See ya. Last up-date before splash.:thumbsup:
John Graham

 

[djboots]

There is alot of ways to keep it cheap and simple you are right. Really depends on what you want out of your system, for me loud music is a must so I had to get all new speakers in the cockpit and add a couple amps and a sub. I was able to keep the cost down because I had so many amps laying around from when I was younger (back in the bass bumping car days) The good thing was that alot of the old amps are actually better then some of the newer ones. So it worked out for me.

Glad it was able to be cheap and easy for you...Happy Boating!

 

[jamesgang]

Does yours have a hand held remote? I think I got the same receiver when I upgraded my system last fall. We mainly wanted a stereo with mp3 capabilities so we didn't have to tote our cds back and forth and now we just download the songs we like to our Sansa View. We also upgraded the amp, cd changer and speakers. Kept the helm remote but want one for the swim platform some day. Hope to get a sub too, already figured out a place for it. If I remember correctly, the total cost + S/H was less than $400 not including the speakers as we had upgraded those earlier. A friend tweaked the system for us and now we can "rock the dock".

 

[Bill Gillespie]

John,

Are the dimensions of your new purchase the same as the older radio?

Bill