Marine Audio and CD Receivers

[Carmen258]

I have an older boat and the Kenwood KDC-232MR CD Receiver on longer works. Since they are no longer available is there a similiar unit, either made by Kenwood, or another brand that will plug into the old wire harness so I don't have the boat rewired? Or adapter plugs?
Thanks!

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

In general, crutchfield is a good source for that info. They have a live chat feature. Depending on the age, probably not. I have an 07 crownline and the wiring harness and interface to the remote on the transom are obsolete.

I found a pretty nice 2 zone head unit that will work pretty nice and has a wireless remote that should replace the obsolete wired one. It will require some significant wiring effort where I'll have to splice wires for speakers and amp power control.

I got this a couple weeks ago, but haven't had a chance to install yet (busy moving kids and entertaining extended family member house guests).

 

[briangcc]

You're only talking a few wires at most that may need to be cut/spliced in from the old plug to the new. This isn't a "rewire the boat" kind of project.

A few marine grade butt connectors and a few minutes of time will get you where you need to be in under an hour....probably much less time as color codes should be similar.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

You're only talking a few wires at most that may need to be cut/spliced in from the old plug to the new. This isn't a "rewire the boat" kind of project.

A few marine grade butt connectors and a few minutes of time will get you where you need to be in under an hour....probably much less time as color codes should be similar.

On my boat it's about 13 wires. 6 pairs for the 6 speakers and one for the control line that turns the amp on when the head unit is turned on.

Not a huge job, but not as nice as "here's a custom plug that will work from your boat's wiring harness to this receiver".

 

[shrew]

I've never seen a 'universal' connector. You're going to need to cut and re-crimp new butt connectors. It's not that difficult, as mentioned before. Usually the harness on the old stereo has line markers. If not, find the manual. Then cross-reference the old stereos coding with the new stereo.

Usually red is power, black is ground. The pos/neg on the speakers are all color coded. Write things down. The entire process isn't that hard and doesn't take that long. Make sure to crimp butt connectors. Don't twist and solder and for goodness sake, don't use electrical tape.

 

[shrew]

Also, I've had 3 Fusion head units. That is all I will use on my boats.

 

[briangcc]

I've never seen a 'universal' connector. You're going to need to cut and re-crimp new butt connectors. It's not that difficult, as mentioned before. Usually the harness on the old stereo has line markers. If not, find the manual. Then cross-reference the old stereos coding with the new stereo.

Usually red is power, black is ground. The pos/neg on the speakers are all color coded. Write things down. The entire process isn't that hard and doesn't take that long. Make sure to crimp butt connectors. Don't twist and solder and for goodness sake, don't use electrical tape.

I'm thinking this is a case of "cars have them to go from OEM to aftermarket" so boats must have them too...which is incorrect.

As any number of radios could be installed in a boat, there isn't an adapter...other than the one YOU make by cutting your existing wiring and splicing in the new plug. Think of the overhead involved if there were such a thing. Literally there would need to be hundreds if not thousands of adapters out there to go from ancient/archiac radios to modern versions....and everything inbetween.

Again, this isn't rocket science and no one is ever going to see this unless they're crawling up under a dash or into a cubby at which point...don't they have something better to do on a boat than inspect your head unit wiring?

If you're that worried about it...drag it to an installer and let them charge you $$$ for the installation.

 

[Outlw36]

Mine was a pain due to my boat being a 1988 model. wiring was easy but I had to enlarge the mounting hole for the stereo and the speakers. Was a messy project and itchy from the fiberglass dust.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I got Gardner-Bender Xtreme waterproof butt splice connectors for my installation. They have built in shrink wrap and are supposed to be waterproof when done. I haven't installed the unit yet, so I can't really recommend them, but the reviews are very good.

The new radio I got for my boat is a Fusion. The reviews looked good...I'm looking forward to getting it installed and getting my transom speakers working. We don't like to blast music, but some tunes are nice when we're hangin' on the water mat......

 

[dingbat]

Make sure to crimp butt connectors.

If I’m going through the hassle of splicing wires I’m switching over to a Molex style connector.

Quick, easy and the radio side can be done on the bench. Makes changing out radios quick and easy. Radio can still be removed for winter storage.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

If I’m going through the hassle of splicing wires I’m switching over to a Molex style connector.

Quick, easy and the radio side can be done on the bench. Makes changing out radios quick and easy. Radio can still be removed for winter storage.

I'm not sure what a molex connector is, but my new radio (Fusion) has plug in connectors to the radio, so removing the unit is easy regardless of how the rest of wiring is setup, that's not an issue.

The existing speaker wiring on my boat is all through a square plastic connector (I think it's about 4 x 4 for 16 connections) now, so I can unplug that and connect the wires on it to the wires on the new radio's plug on the bench.