Multiple boats playing from one stereo when we're tied up together.

[House324]

Anyone have experience syncing a couple boats so they play from one stereo? A few of us raft up together and I'd like some ideas of how to have our systems playing together with a 3.5mm audio cable.

I have a Fusion 600 series (MS-IP600) that plays from my Iphone inside the stereo. I like the head unit cause of the control of the playlists and it keeps the phone out of the elements. The stereo is a little short on pre amp outputs. (1 stereo, 1 sub), but I've split the outputs with "y"s and everything is balanced well with the output on the amps.

I added a female 3.5mm-RCA stereo connection to the Aux input on back of the stereo which allows me to use a Iphone with a male to male 3.5mm cable. (essentially the same thing my stereo did before, but without any playlist control). I can now split the cable out of the Iphone with a 3 way splitter and send other cables to the aux inputs of the other stereos... It plays fine and sounds SICK playing at the same time, but there has to be a way to have it play from the head unit itself.

(The main question)... In an effort to have it play from the head unit, I added 2 RCA splitter "Ys" to each of the stereo outputs (1 red, 1 white) and connected them to a Male,Male RCA to Stereo female 3.5mm that should be able to output the signal to the Aux input on other boats. But when I connect the other boat via a 20' cable, no sound on their boat and no sound comes out of my boat speakers when connected. What am I doing wrong?

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks, Jeff

[EarmarkMarine]

Ipods and iphones have low output voltages. Long distances and low voltages do not mix well. Also, I would prefer that the host cannot alter the volume of every slave down the signal path. That is how speakers get blown. So I would prefer that the host has an EQ like the Wetsounds WS420 or a dedicated line driver to run the chain.

David
Earmark Marine

[House324]

David, Thanks for the reply. Everything I've read from you is spot on.

I'm not controlling volume with the host unit, each boat will have their own controls. I'm trying to export my music from my iphone to each boat; Not power their system in anyway.

My Iphone output with a splitter is only way I'm able to get it to work right now, but I know there should be a way to export from the head unit or amps.

[EchoLodge]

You can FM Modulate... I have bought one and hope to try it soon.

http://www.foilforum.com/forums/show...r-On-Your-Boat

[House324]

I've tried the FM modulator route and can't stand it. I tried two different ones, Belkin and Monster. I haven't been able to find one that doesn't hiss, whine, pop or start picking up some spanish ranchero music in the middle of a song. Good luck. And forget it if your in a busy city area...It gets worse with more radio stations and RF stuff.

If it works well for you, let us know what your using, cause that would be the easiest thing for sure.

Jeff

[EarmarkMarine]

A typical FM modulator doesn't have the strength for this particular application where you are trying to transmit a full 30 feet or so. But there are some that are more like an FM broadcast station.

Here is a funny thing about a typical wireless FM modulator. You could be driving over a mountain pass and the U-Haul truck two lanes over can pick up your music. But when you get in to an urban area with tons of broadcast radiation you are lucky to get 3 feet of clean transmission.

David
Earmark Marine

[EchoLodge]

I've tried the FM modulator route and can't stand it. I tried two different ones, Belkin and Monster. I haven't been able to find one that doesn't hiss, whine, pop or start picking up some spanish ranchero music in the middle of a song. Good luck. And forget it if your in a busy city area...It gets worse with more radio stations and RF stuff.

If it works well for you, let us know what your using, cause that would be the easiest thing for sure.

Jeff

http://www.amazon.com/0-5-Fail-Safe-...pr_product_top

This is not a typical FM Modulator... It has a mile plus radius not 30 feet... Read the reviews on it. Like this one!

I wanted to set up "whole home" audio around my house and yard. I didn't want some "toy" transmitter that goes 30 feet - I need a good signal out to a couple hundred feet. I ordered the Fail-Safe recently as it was on sale for $99.95. Though it was supposedly back-ordered a month away, I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived in about a week. I opened the package and was on-air within 5 minutes. It does everything it claims to do, and I am quite pleased.

The unit is quite compact - not much bigger than a bar of bath soap. The Xmtr looks a lot like the HLLY units you can find online, and like the HLLY, this one is Chinese-made, despite Fail-Safe's claims of "American made." In truth, they are "American sold." These are generic transmitters mass-produced overseas sold by numerous companies around the globe. That being said, I still chose the Fail-Safe over the lower-cost HLLY and others due to the good reviews about Fail-Safe's tech support. Nice to know I can call somebody in Indiana if I have a question or concern. Better to pay $100 and have domestic support than to pay $60 and give your credit card info to some guy in Guangzhou.

I set up the Xmtr in my home, at ground floor level, perhaps 6' height above average terrain (HAAT). I connected the antenna, plugged in the power supply, turned it on, set freq to an empty channel and connected my mp3 player. I set the power to low (100mW) and turned on radios around the house. The signal was rock-solid with very good fidelity. There is a small amount of noise in the signal, likely due to the switch-mode power supply. The noise is only apparent between songs, or when the music is very soft. Most of my music is very dynamic, so it won't be an issue.

I got in the car and drove around the neighborhood. I received a solid signal out to about 1/4 mile as the crow flies. I live in a suburban residential area with flat terrain. Beyond 1/4 mile the signal started to drop out, though I could still hear music fading in and out at a distance of 0.6 miles (according to my GPS). I also tested it with a portable pocket radio, but that lost the signal beyond 0.1 miles. Pretty good signal given that all I want is coverage for around the house and yard. I don't want to entertain the whole neighborhood. I moved the unit upstairs, about 15' HAAT, and the signal range was about the same.

I switched to high power (500mW) and there was a dramatic increase in range. I drove around and the signal stayed rock-solid to just over a mile with weaker coverage to about 1.5 miles. I switched the Tx back to 100mW, as that is more than enough power.

Keep in mind that this transmitter is NOT FCC Part 15 compliant. There is no Part 15 label on it, nor is there any transmitter certification. You're on your own here, and Fail-Safe makes that clear in their instruction sheet. In the U.S., the maximum for legal, unlicensed FM transmissions is 250uV/m, measured at 3 meters. Contrary to popular belief, the FCC does not state this limit in terms of power. Transmitter power is misleading - due to efficiencies, transmission line losses. antenna gain, antenna height, terrain, obstacles, etc., your mileage may vary. It's signal strength that matters to the FCC. I haven't measured the signal strength of the Fail-Safe unit, but I would not be surprised if it was several times that legal limit - even at the low power setting. So unless you live way out in the boonies, you might want to keep it at the 100mW setting if you want to avoid getting a NOUO letter from the FCC.

Whatever you do, don't ever transmit on an occupied channel. Radio stations take a dim view of people interfering with their signals. All it takes is one complaint and some FCC agent will be cruising your neighborhood in a van to triangulate your signal. And if you live close to an airport, you may want to think twice about operating one of these. The unit puts out some spurious harmonics and it may interfere with aircraft communications just above the FM band.

One minor gripe: the swivel function of the rubber duck antenna is a bit loose, and the antenna tends to droop over. A piece of electrical tape wound around the swivel fitting keeps the antenna upright.

[DanielC]

David has it right, but probably did not explain it well. Usually he does.
I do love sound for high school choir concerts, bands, dance competitions, and this week sound for Wilsonville High school graduation ceremony.

In professional audio equipment, audio amplifiers are usually designed with a fairly high input impedance. The outputs of mixers, and equalisers usually have a low output impedance.
This means you can connect more than one amplifier input to the output of a mixer, or EQ and it does not "load down" the mixer.

Not all mobile audio amplifiers have a high impedance input. If you have even one low impedance input amplifier in the chain, it will drag down the voltage available to all the amplifiers hooked together.

Additionally, most all interconnections between professional audio equipment is made with three conductor microphone cable. This cable is wired to a "balanced" configuration. Any desired signal is sent as positive and negative above and below the ground reference, and the amplifier responds to that signal only. Any static picked up by the cable usually the same polarity on both sides of the cable, and that signal is rejected by the amplifier.

[EarmarkMarine]

Nope. I definitely didn't attempt to offer up the same information that Daniel did nor did I consider that aspect but that is really good stuff.


David
Earmark Marine

[EchoLodge]

The other option is to use the line driver output on http://www.wetsounds.com/pages/products/WS-420.html or the knock off http://www.bulletlines.com/Krypt-KMA...-EQ-p/4555.htm

I will try to use the FM modulator this weekend. I tested it at home and was able to get pretty good sound from my car stereos while the unit was broadcasting from my house.