Would like to see your stereo upgrades

[g00fy]

My wife and I picked up a brand new 2018 Grey wolf 27rr back in early November (And somebody already clipped it with their trailer the day after Thanksgiving and Ripped a hole in the front >:-|, pending repair) and even though we haven't taken it on its first trip yet, I noticed while moving some stuff into it the furrion stereo leaves a whole lot to be desired as far as sound quality & volume goes.

First thing I did was replace those cheap factory speakers with some nice middle of the road Rockford speakers, and that helped a little, but from what I'm reading the furrion units are just garbage. When doing the speaker install I had to take the furrion unit off the wall to clean up the terrible wiring job from the factory and discovered how the furrion unit is mounted, it's not as simple as I thought since it's not a true double din...

I was hoping some other members could post up pics of how they swapped out their furrion with what receiver and how they made it look nice and clean. Thanks

[Hclarkx]

Our FR unit had five ceiling speakers in the living area and a pair in the bedroom. All useless. They are still there but unused. I forget the brand of the home theater in a 5 lb box, but it was equally useless. It did everything but did nothing well. The "subwoofer" was an open-back thin box in a return air duct with a $4 6.5" woofer that also was utterly useless/ineffective. We found we never used the TVs that came with the rig so we removed them and the three steel mounts (two indoor and one outdoor) to save weight. For a sound system we have two powered media speakers that sit on a "mantle" above the "LED fireplace" (also removed due to non-use). This is basically a recessed book shelf. The speakers are high quality "media" speakers which, while quite compact, use a passive radiator and a bunch of digital processing to eke out a huge sound from a small cast aluminum box about 4.5" wide, 8"tall, and 7"deep. They have optical (TOSLink) input along with 3.5mm jack. They provide solid sound and ample volume. Bass response is far more impressive and cleaner than the factor thing. For music, we drive them from a tablet (8" Samsung S2) via Bluetooth with AptX (or an S8+ cell phone which is very similar). The tablet transmits AptX BT and a Trond BT receiver with AptX is connected to the speakers with a TOSLink cable. The sound is great and we even bothered some neighbors once.

In case we ever do want to watch TV, we have a two channel USB tuner that plugs into a laptop (or full size computer if we have it along). It can decode cable or over-the-air via the TV antenna. Sound is sent to the media speakers. There is a slight delay in the sound but AptX reduces it to about 40ms so it's tolerable. We also have a Trond BT AptX headset and may get a second (the tablet can drive two at once). Early on we used wired headsets.

We have an 88 key "keyboard" by Yamaha for my wife's piano practice (where a sofa was originally) and she uses mostly its built-in speakers or a headset (not via BT AptX because even the 30-40ms delay bothers her).

We've only watched enough TV on the laptop to do a proof-of-concept, the image quality was great (1600x900 13.3" screen). The powerhouse computer has a 21.5" higher resolution monitor that also works well and we can put the monitor on a coffee table in front of our easy chairs. We mostly boondock, so will rarey use the TV capability.

So, our approach is unconventional, but does give us high quality sound without much weight or space and pretty decent TV/sound. Hopefully there are some ideas here that will help.

[Hclarkx]

Forgot to mention, for music we are on our son's Google Play plan. For $5/month extra he has a family plan that we are on (it would be $10/month if we had our own plan). Google Play has 30million "songs" available and albums or "stations" can be downloaded for off-line play. I usually download several gigabytes of music before we head off into the wild spaces where we sometimes have internet on the road but almost never when we are parked (national park, BLM or national forest land, etc.). Several gigabytes is enough music for a month or more. I also have an SD card full of our own music transcribed from CDs as backup. We play music from the tablet via the sound system in the truck as well. Much cheaper than SiriusXM and a much wider choice of music. We have Amazon Prime which includes music and I think it allows download for off-line play but I've not explored it much. Google Play is 320 kbit/second so the quality is quite good. In the truck we use a 3.5mm cord because the truck does not have AptX so hard wired quality is better (it's probably better than BT with AptX as well, but being cordless in the RV is a big advantage.

[Moosey1]

I use the Yamaha ATS-1070 sound bar with the buit in subwoofers for the inside for the TV and it's blue tooth, which we play music from the phone or tablet. It's awesome. I have a pic posted in the modification section of this forum. I have the Vibe 313BHS , the sound is so much better to actually hear anything than base factory speakers. I know people say they don't watch TV, but when I do, I expect my TT to be luxury resort on wheels.

[Kuba]

Replaced stereo with a 7" android unit. Purchased spacers and installed 6x9s along with an amplifier.

[itat]

[windsurfdog]

https://www.ultimateears.com/en-us/w...rs/boom-2.html

This, Google Play Music and about 50GB of GPM downloaded on my phone and "BOOM", excellent quality music inside and outside. I'd take all of the speakers and head unit out and throw'em in the trash except I can do the same sales pitch on the next buyer...heck, they'll be getting an unused system!

Really, it's a shame that the sound quality on these units are SOOOOO lame.

[BayouCamper1]

Originally Posted by Kuba

Replaced stereo with a 7" android unit. Purchased spacers and installed 6x9s along with an amplifier.

What android unit did you find that fits?

[Kuba]

Originally Posted by BayouCamper1

What android unit did you find that fits?

These are the spacers i used for 6x9 speakers. Just changing the speakers made a WORLD of difference. And i mean a LOT. FR must be using Train station PA speakers or something lol. Get 1 1/2 spacers.



As for the stereo, i used a chinese an-21 stereo. Guy has a store on ebay or just do a search on google for "Auto Pumpkin". My stereo plays videos/movies/youtube/everything you can imagine to my tv. It also sounds good(i know some people will question it since it's made in china). It is basically an android tablet. Does wifi, usb, sd card, ipod, blue toooth .. you name it. I have two of these, one in my truck and one in the trailer. Had these for about 4-5 years now. If you have more questions ask

[BayouCamper1]

You can get alot of electronics for dirt cheap from China if you know what you are looking at, check out AliExpress, basically a Chinese version of Amazon. You just have to be willing to wait 2-6 weeks for you order. Only bad thing is there usually there isn't a good detailed discription of the product. But for the same exact item on Amazon it is 1/3 the price.

Originally Posted by Kuba

These are the spacers i used for 6x9 speakers. Just changing the speakers made a WORLD of difference. And i mean a LOT. FR must be using Train station PA speakers or something lol. Get 1 1/2 spacers.
Attachment 167933


As for the stereo, i used a chinese an-21 stereo. Guy has a store on ebay or just do a search on google for "Auto Pumpkin". My stereo plays videos/movies/youtube/everything you can imagine to my tv. It also sounds good(i know some people will question it since it's made in china). It is basically an android tablet. Does wifi, usb, sd card, ipod, blue toooth .. you name it. I have two of these, one in my truck and one in the trailer. Had these for about 4-5 years now. If you have more questions ask
Attachment 167936

[mamcgoron]

If you've installed an aftermarket head unit, how are you guys dealing with directing the audio to the different zones? I'm guessing this is pretty standard, but in my 08 831BHSS I have 3 zones, Main Living Area, Bedroom, and Outside.

Do any aftermarket units let you dedicate different zones like the OEM unit, or would you have to wire up some manual type switches?

[itat]

Automotive head units only have Front, Rear Left and Right. If you want to maintain left-right control in each zone you'll only have 2 zones (using front and rear).

You probably could wire it up to use the front channels for the living room speakers and split/parallel the rear channel to feed your bedroom as a 2nd zone and the outside speakers as a 3rd zone with separate controls for those two zones.

Maybe the audiophiles here can give you some knowledgeable info on how to wire it up.

[howiez69]

I would think an unpowered zone switch could be wired in for A/B/C speakers.

I'm taking delivery of a new TT in a week, we'll be adding a TV and HTPC straight away. Hoping to upgrade speakers soon, and i've been looking into 5.1 solutions but i'm trying to stay 12v.

I enjoyed all the comments and perspectives in this thread, what a great forum!

[slw2206]

I replaced my stock Magnadyne head unit with a Onkyo RZ820 AV receiver. Luckily for me, the head unit was at the same height as the shelf just below my TV, so by removing a few "fake" wood panels I was able to extend that shelf and have plenty of room for the AV unit.

I've wired the 4 inside ceiling speakers (which I replaced with Alpine components) into the L/R F/R terminals of the receiver, Martin Logan 8i as the Center, along with a MartinLogan 700W sub.

The outside speakers/sub are wired into the Zone 2 terminals.

This seemed like a cheaper way (AV receiver was $500) to get great sound than trying to install a head unit intended for a car.

I'll also throw in that I'm on a seasonal campsite, so probably have more options at my disposal than those who haul OTR.