Article by Capt. Steve Katz
All about that Bass
Heading out on the water for fishing and boating wouldn’t be the same without music to entertain the guests and crew. Some like background music, some like sports or news and some like the bass!
What Makes a Great Boat Stereo System?
There are a lot of parts of a marine stereo system that work together to make a system that is easy to use and sounds good. The basic components are a head unit or receiver, amplifier, and speakers.
The receiver – sometimes called head unit or just stereo is the heart of the system and the most important aspect of the entire system. Years ago the receiver was an automotive unit or a rebranded automotive unit with a marine part number. If you had one of these, you quickly learned that if the unit lasted for more than one season, you were lucky. The damp air, water and sunlight quickly deteriorated the automotive radio into a nonfunctional pile of rust.
Today’s marine receivers are purposely built for the marine environment thanks to Clarion, who was one of the first mainstream automotive stereo companies to produce a line specifically designed for the marine environment. Fusion stereo company was started in 1998 in New Zealand for automotive market, then in 2006, Navman (a marine electronics company) invested in Fusion and began focusing Fusion on the marine market. Today, Fusion (owned by Garmin since 2014) only offers marine products, built from scratch for use on the water. JL Audio, another automotive stereo company with marine products, offers receivers, amplifiers and speakers specifically designed for use on boats. Interestingly, JL Audio has recently sold the company to Garmin.
Today, most marine receivers are complex devices with connections for just about any use and feature. Some of these receivers are referred to a as “black boxes”, those some are white in color, where the receiver does not have a face or controls and mounts under the helm or in some other out of the way location and is controlled using a chartplotter, remote or a smartphone. Traditional style receivers come in all shapes and sizes, with buttons or touch screens and thankfully most still offer a round knob to adjust the volume level.
These modern receivers long ago lost their ability play cassette tapes and more recently CDs. Now the sources are often Bluetooth streaming from a smartphone, Wi-Fi streaming from a music service, AirPlay, SiriusXM satellite music streaming, USB for memory-based storage device, and of course the traditional AM/FM.
The days of controlling the volume in different areas by adjusting the fader or left and right setting have given way to “Zones” that can often be named for their geographic location on the boat, allowing the same music to be played at varying volume levels in different areas of the boat. This has been a much-welcomed addition to marine stereos.
Amplifiers
Marine receivers often have built-in amplifiers, capable of operating a few small speakers at moderate volume levers. Often the volume level is not loud enough to overcome the noise of being out on a boat competing for sound from engines, wind, and waves. Specifically designed marine amplifiers are available in varying power ratings to ensure the music can be enjoyed while underway. Installing a large powerful amplifier is not just to make the music loud, but to make it clear at low volume levels.
Speakers
As many audiophile know, a good speaker can make all the difference in the world on how the music is heard. While a home stereo enthusiast may dwell on the audio specifications, most boaters are more interested in the durability, size and looks of the speaker system. Luckily, most popular marine speakers do a good job of reproducing music at acceptable levels for most boaters. And yes, many speakers are now available with lighting built in - to add to the cool factor of your system.
Traditional speakers can produce a full range of sound and the mid and high frequency tones are more directional than the low frequency bass and therefore require speakers to be installed in locations near to and in the direction of the listeners.
One of the most interesting aspects of any music system is the bass, or the low frequency part of the music you can hear and feel. Speakers that reproduce bass are referred to as sub woofers, a speaker system optimized to only reproduce low frequencies. These can be placed almost anywhere on the boat since the low frequency sound travels in all directions with ease. This bass sound is generated by moving lots of air, using magnets and a speaker cone. The larger the diameter of the speaker, the more air it can move which translates to sound you can hear and feel. This rumble is easily felt through a boat and offers a complete listening experience when mixed with traditional speakers.
One customer wanted the most powerful hidden sub woofer to complement the cockpit music system. When the crew cranked up the music, the sub woofer was felt everywhere and it worked so well, moving lots of air, it rattled and raised the deck hatches to the point where the captain thought the boat ran over something – turns out it was just “good vibrations”.
A marine stereo system is an easy system to custom tailor to meet your needs through the careful selection of receiver, amplifier and speakers. Upgrades in any one of these three areas can add features and listening improvement to most any system. §
