Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I was given a pyle (pile) for Fathers day last year. It lasted about 4 trips then just quit. No sound output. About 1 second thru the speakers when you power up then nothing. Everytime you power up 1 second of tunes then nothing. Any ideas? I'll probably try to return it to Cabella's for an upgrade. Anyone know of a good quality unit under about $150.00?

My $.02: Sounds like the deck may not be getting enough juice. Run decent size hot and ground wires directly to a battery and recheck before you replace.

Hellbelly's right. Some of the big power amps require 10 gauge wiring to be efficient. That's why they call them Monster Cables and Hot Wires.

I personally don't want a sound system that takes so much power. I want to be sure that my boat will have a strong enough battery to start at anytime.

Thanks for the input guys. that is easy enough to check out with a couple of jumper wires. Just for more info this is just a small 4 channel by 25 watt cheapo all in one package. Maybe $75.00 online. Certainly no better or bigger than what came factory. When i got the boat the radio worked except the display was out so it was a bitch to tune. I am not an audiophile but i do like jammin to oldies. Thanks again i will check it out tommorow.

Sony makes a very good marine radio that can be had at best buy pretty cheap.

In my observation at least many of the though I hate to say "cheaper" so called marine radios are nothing more or less than the same cheaper radio's some folks install in their cars and trucks. In one example I purchased myself a Kenwood marked marine on the box it came with a clear piece of self stick plastic you were to apply over the top of the unit that supposedly then made it marine waterproof. As such you may actually get a overall better radio buying cheap off the shelf wally world and just replace as it becomes necessary.

From my experience with car audio, I've always found that the quality of the speakers makes ten times the difference in sound quality than the deck. Top-of-the-line speakers powered by a $75 deck will sound better than a top-of-the-line deck powering $20 junk speakers.

The first upgrade my stock boat stereo will be getting are new higher quality speakers. Depending on price, I've had great experiences with Polk so would love to go with them.

The cheap Jensen deck will stay in there until it craps out.



LC.

Please don't go the big subwoofer route, however.

To us people that live on the water, it's hard to sleep when a boat with a subwoofer is within miles of our house. The barometric pressure can be felt rising before we can even hear the sound.

Thanks for the input everyone. I got hold of pyle and they told me it was a defective unit. I will trade it in on a sony i've looked at at Cabela's where the original was purchased. No amps, no subs, just tunes. If i cant hear my grandaughter talking its too loud anyway.

I bought a Sony deck at Bass Pro in 2010 for about $100. It did have to go back to Sony for replacement after it stopped working before the 1 year warranty was up. The deck would power on and cycle through it's demo on the display, but the pressing the buttons wouldn't do anything. I had to deal with like 3 "supervisors" during the warranty replacement as they kept claiming it wouldn't be covered under warranty due to "excessive corrosion". Funny, the box the stereo came in featured how it was coated with some proprietary stuff to prevent corrosion. Any way, it's been working great since it was replaced, but we make it a point to remove the faceplate when it's not being used.

Also, I just picked up a new set of Polk speakers from Amazon for about $62 shipped. I've only tested them once since I just installed them over the weekend, but they seem pretty good and they look a lot cooler than some of the other marine speakers I've seen for sale.

Best bang for the buck is to get Polk DB series speakers and a Sony Xplod with the built in 52W x 4 (peak) amp. Check ebay for the polks. Sony occasionally has their marine stereos dirt cheap as refurb on their site. Millenea also makes a good cheap unit that takes a USB or SD Card. It came with my Harris and sounds pretty decent for the buck.

http://www.amazon.com/Prospec-Electroni ... s=mil-mr50