Best stereo option for 2016 Alumacraft ?

Looking for recommendations for a stereo. Nothing fancy, just am/fm/xm radio/Bluetooth and maybe 2 speakers?

Has anyone tried the gauge style stereos?

Does anyone know if the alumacraft boats have prewired any speaker wires to particular spots in the boat? I don’t see any obvious speaker cutouts but I’ve heard that wires may be already ran.

Do I need an amplifier ?

Recommendations on someone or some place to get it installed? My dealer is too far away and the one closest to me, I’m not familiar with at all.

Location?

Southern Minnesota

I have a 2014 Competitor with the side console and it has the speaker wires installed in it. It looks like it is just for 2 speakers, one in each side panel right behind the front casting deck.

fishingdm wrote:

I have a 2014 Competitor with the side console and it has the speaker wires installed in it. It looks like it is just for 2 speakers, one in each side panel right behind the front casting deck.

Any speaker cutouts on your 2014, visible before taking off the side panels? Mine doesn’t have any visible.

Deleted wrote:

Has anyone tried the gauge style stereos?

I installed a gauge style Boss stereo and I really like it. Gets great reception, but I’ve been in a boat with a very similar one that didn’t get the best reception, so maybe it has something to do with the antenna. One word of caution is the back gets quite warm so don’t put it near fuel lines or anything that could burn or melt.

No cutouts that I can tell. I have been wondering how you would cut out for speakers with the carpet and not ruining the carpet.

Kenwood makes a marine radio so does Sony, get what you pay for. As far as speaker placement, My Alumacraft Trophy has then down by my feet cut in the side. I have seen them in the back also. If you need help installing let me know, done many working at Mach One years ago.

You can have the one out of my Warrior, it has never been turned on in 14 years…

I use MGH30BT
Gauge hole receiver.

Low amps!
Works great.

I see it is discontinued now for some reason.

When I pick a Marine radio I focus on amp draw. Some radios pull crazy amps.

Stick with Kenwood marine for the radio. This is about the best bang for your buck radio that is not junk. I don’t use a radio in my boat unless my wife comes with me. Than we just use her blue tooth speaker and she is happy.

Clarion 303 and add clarions speakers to handle it. Got it in my boat, quite an upgrade to what I had with little extra cost.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_020M303/Clarion-M303.html?tp=61742&awkw=75620779705&awat=pla&awnw=g&awcr=47439321145&awdv=c&awug=9017955&gclid=CjwKCAjwsJ3ZBRBJEiwAtuvtlOU7SmBqhRPkIvqXOwgFDvO3slEbygt8_UWguZWarwfsAq87jbkQOhoCKYoQAvD_BwE

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

When I pick a Marine radio I focus on amp draw. Some radios pull crazy amps.

This is important – I replaced the 15yr old factory radio on my boat 2 years ago and that sucker pulls on the battery really hard to the point that I have be mindful of it, will probably be replacing it this fall because it’s a PITA.

Thanks everyone! I’ve been off the grid for the past day and a half so I’m taking in all of your recommendations now and trying to get a direction to go with.

We do try the Bluetooth speaker route but spotty cell service takes that out as the permanent solution for us.

When I’m fishing I don’t want to ever hear the radio for some reason. The wife, kids, grandkids …..just out cruising , then we all want to hear the music.

Heard back from alumacraft via email and with my serial number , they were able to tell me, that our boat does not have speaker wires pre-run. Bummer…not sure what to do yet.

Get yourself a “fish tape” from any hardware store and start running your wires.
Start small with your cut outs. Just make sure there’s no wires on the other side of where you’re cutting. 4 hours and you should be listening to new tunes.

I have a fish tape somewhere, if I’m up to installing it myself I may take advantage of this cruddy high water that has me leaving the boat in the garage anyways. Thanks everyone!

I installed a Boss gauge FM/AM/BT/Weather stereo in place of my speedometer as it was inaccurate and redundant with GPS on my sonar. Works well, reception dependent on how you run the wire antenna.

I got tunes in the boat, finally!

Gander sent me a flash sale 20% off code a month or so back. The infinity prv 350 stereo was already on sale and so where the kenwood speakers & I still got 20% off of the sale prices. Total cost was $230 for all (plus a case of beer to install it).

Despite being told by Alumacraft (after providing my hull ID) that my boat did not come wired for speakers & didn’t have speaker cutouts… I found that speaker wires were there, as well as the speaker cutouts. Just had to find them behind the carpet.

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Deleted wrote:

Thanks everyone! I’ve been off the grid for the past day and a half so I’m taking in all of your recommendations now and trying to get a direction to go with.

We do try the Bluetooth speaker route but spotty cell service takes that out as the permanent solution for us.

When I’m fishing I don’t want to ever hear the radio for some reason. The wife, kids, grandkids …..just out cruising , then we all want to hear the music.

going to get a radio with BT set up this year on my alumacraft too. mine is a 2012 Dominator and it has cut outs and wires ran. as far as spotty cell service goes……install a hacked pandora APK file on your phone. every time you thumbs up a song, it downloads it to your phone or SD card so no need for signal. unless you have an Iphone that is…..you have to pay for everything on those things!

Do not for get to get a 1000w amp and 2 15″ kicker subs………

Do not forget to get a 1000w amp and 2 15″ kicker subs………

bigcrappie wrote:

Do not forget to get a 1000w amp and 2 15″ kicker subs………

Well, duh. You can’t wake surf without!

Were the speaker cut outs filled in with something and you had to knock them out?

There were three aluminum tabs (about 1/4”) that I had to cut to remove the center circle piece. They were cut perfect and just barley held in by the three tabs and then carpet over that. Just had to reach behind there and feel for it then use a knife to remove the carpet along the slots. That revealed the rest and made it pretty straightforward.

If your going to run the wires, see if you can find a tube to slide them down once you pull everything apart. Should help protect the wires.