Category: Entertainment

Last week I had a long conference call with the Fusion Marine product management team in New Zealand. I came away even more impressed with how committed the company is to integrating its entertainment products with our boats and mobile A/V sources in every way possible. But I also got a deeper understanding of what a complicated mess their innovative ways has created!  I’ll start with the new MS-UNIDOCK Universal External Dock (above). It solves the problem Apple created by putting a new and entirely different Lightning connector on the iPhone 5 and current iPods — without even telling their accessory developers in advance! — but it also created a new issue for Fusion…

The Fusion IP700, first announced at last October’s NMEA Conference, is so shiny that it’s hard to photograph, which is why you’ll see reflections of the air holes in Gizmo’s overhead if you click/enlarge the shot above. But you’ll also see the IP700’s terrific volume control and the fact that you can now name your speaker zones. As shown by the green color I’m controlling all three sets of speakers at once but I can just push the big knob to select individual zones. In fact, this is just a photo setup as usually I have the Fly Bridge zone control shut off on this display because I plan to control it with a NRX200 remote that will be installed up there…

The Aquatic AV AQ-DM-4B Media Locker is purportedly so waterproof and rugged that you could install it on a Jet Ski, and though the company is relatively new to the marine world, it does have years of experience making stereos for the highly humid and harshly chemical environment around hot tubs. Plus there’s a nice simplicity to a black box iPod/MP3 amp run only by a wireless remote, especially when that’s a two-way RF remote capable of 50 foot range and even of showing iPod tune titles on its little screen… 

My photograph could be better, but hopefully it’s clear that the Poly-Planar MRD80i has its own solution for docking iPods and iPhones safely inside a waterproof marine stereo. Instead of supplying a variety of sleeves so that different-size iThings can be inserted into the dock, like Fusion does, the 80i uses a drawer with a cushioned pad, a hook’n’loop hold down, and a wired connector. The docking process takes a tad longer but you’ll never have to look for a box of sleeves when a guest brings a different model of iPod aboard, or you change up. And that’s just the beginning of what makes this digital-media-friendly stereo different from Fusion’s…

Seen above is the Sony head unit Jeffrey Schwartz installed as part of an elaborate stereo system on his Benateau. You may recall that Jeffrey has also installed the Mas-Tech M200 Yanmar-to-N2K system discussed...

While Fusion’s new MS_DA51600 marine audio amp is just being announced this week, a prototype was on display at the Miami Boat Show and I can tell you that the industrial design is even more striking in its cast aluminium and high-polish stainless flesh. But perhaps its real claim to fame is its ability to pump out 4 channels at 80 Watts RMS, plus 250 of sub woofer — and a freaking peak of 1,600 — all via Class D technology that purportedly requires less amps and causes less heat. Who needs that kind of power?…