So I'm sure everyone who enjoys music was extremely disappointed when their $60,000 Forest River trailer came with a Furrion Soundbar and Jensen speakers that ultimately run at 14 watts rms. Not too mention they didn't take the time to connect a simple audio cable to the TV so you can have stereo sound, since the soundbar has an AUX input. I'm just getting started with this but what I did 1st for now, since the soundbar fits perfectly where it is... I took out whatever cheap 4" speakers are in the soundbar and replaced all four with Kicker CS 4.5" 80 watt competition grade 2-way speakers and 6.75" Kicker Marine grade speakers outside. They will fit barely and still run off the factory soundbar ($95 and $115 on Amazon) for another ($20 on Amazon) you can buy a DAC 3.5mm headphone jack converter to use your AUX input on the soundbar to connect your TV. Your awesome Furrion soundbar does have an audio output on the back if you look... For now I hooked up my 230 watt Onkyo home stereo subwoofer behind the couch so it's out of the way. Needless to say, compared to paying for a brand new soundbar that is anywhere decent will cost you well over $500 and still have no bass. To add a subwoofer otherwise you would also need an amplifier and probably spend a few hundred dollars easy. This whole thing cost me around $250 total, an hour of re-wiring and now the stereo or TV shakes the entire trailer in surround sound! It sounds pretty amazing for what it is and still fits and looks exactly the same without changing anything asthetic. Eventually I'm going to put a full-on 3000 watt competition grade car audio system in here and have it run on every TV and the stereo system but this is a great start on a budget. Let me know if you need help?
I was dumbfounded when I saw they used regular old car audio speakers outside and simply caulked around them! In my opinion Kicker makes the only marine grade speakers worth buying!
I just wanted to ad a little bass outside, Infinity makes a 10" 200 watt marine subwoofer I think will go nicely with the Kicker speakers and I might ad an extra set of tweeters but I'll check out what you got too. Normally when I'm outside my truck audio system is more than adequate hahaha. Cheers!
Waiting for some grouch to complain we shouldn't have outdoor speakers, lol. I will head them off: I use my speaker in a reasonable manner when other campers are nearby, and it's nice to be able to turn it up when boondocking with nobody around. It's nice to be able to sit outside and be able to control head unit with phone or Alexa remote.
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2019 Rockwood Geo Pro G19FD w/off road package
2015 Ford F150 XLT Super Cab 4x4 V8 Yes, I drink the water!
Someone will always ruin your party haha. I have a unique situation, I keep my trailer permanently on a lakefront piece of property my family owns and I don't have neighbors for a few hundred yards in any direction. Yet I definitely still get noise complaints from time to time!
I bought a Vizio 5.1 sound bar and connected an optical cable to it that runs from the TV. I can get full home theater sound in HD over the air, from my smart blu ray player or the DVR recorder. It will pickup Bluetooth off my computer and phone. Simple to mount and hook up. The only speaker wires I have are the ones from the sub-woofer to the left and right rear speakers. The sound is fantastic and I can move the entire system outdoors if I so desire. Simplicity is Bliss!!
The new Vizio soundbars aren't bad, I bought my mother the same setup, the Bluetooth bar with surround speakers. That's a great idea and basically what I did with the conversion box, to give me that option for TV surround sound. But you are missing the best part of having 12 volts in your living room! Home audio will never compare to the sound output of a car audio system at least not unless you want to spend thousands and have a bunch of large speakers and a full stereo receiver, not to mention it's a bunch more to plug in to your outlets on only 15 amps of your A/C system. My goal personally is to have my entire sound system installed in the ceiling and walls on D/C power. That way with a decent capacitor or backup battery I'm not tying up my outlet power. For me personally I like to go overboard on bass. Either way works it's just preference.
Someone will always ruin your party haha. I have a unique situation, I keep my trailer permanently on a lakefront piece of property my family owns and I don't have neighbors for a few hundred yards in any direction. Yet I definitely still get noise complaints from time to time!
Sound carries remarkably well over water. I was at a lake near China Lake in Maine and played my bagpipes on the end of dock. When I finished, I could hear people clapping. From the other side of lake. Had to be a mile away.
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2019 Rockwood Geo Pro G19FD w/off road package
2015 Ford F150 XLT Super Cab 4x4 V8 Yes, I drink the water!
Waiting for some grouch to complain we shouldn't have outdoor speakers, lol. I will head them off: I use my speaker in a reasonable manner when other campers are nearby, and it's nice to be able to turn it up when boondocking with nobody around. It's nice to be able to sit outside and be able to control head unit with phone or Alexa remote.
You may be one of the good guys, most are not that considerate.
Waiting for some grouch to complain we shouldn't have outdoor speakers, lol. I will head them off: I use my speaker in a reasonable manner when other campers are nearby, and it's nice to be able to turn it up when boondocking with nobody around. It's nice to be able to sit outside and be able to control head unit with phone or Alexa remote.
With bluetooth earbuds why are speakers even necessary today?
Muisic doesn't as a rule bother me when camping. All too often it's so loud it's just noise.
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2018 Flagstaff Micro Lite 25BDS
2023 f-150 SCREW XLT 3.5 Ecoboost (The result of a $68,000 oil change)
With bluetooth earbuds why are speakers even necessary today?
Muisic doesn't as a rule bother me when camping. All too often it's so loud it's just noise.
It's a good idea if you camp alone like you often do, but doesn't work so well when sharing music with a group. I try to follow the Golden Rule when camping and otherwise. I even often tell nearby campers I introduce myself to please let me know if the music is bothering them, that I will not be the least bit butt hurt, and that I am mostly deaf and can sometimes let volume get away from me, especially after a few drinks and my favorite Johnny Cash song comes on!
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2019 Rockwood Geo Pro G19FD w/off road package
2015 Ford F150 XLT Super Cab 4x4 V8 Yes, I drink the water!
These kinds of threads show us people are passionate about different things.
Studio quality sound wasn't part of my consideration for spending whatever I spent on my R/V but some believe differently.
I do suppose if you lived in your R/V full time then spending hundreds of extra dollars on media sound might be a different consideration but for the weekends and winter months we spend in ours, my ears get along just fine until I get back to my home studio.
For me, the hundreds of dollars spent upgrading an already working sound system isn't as high on my priority list as spending those same hundreds of dollars getting to and enjoying the great outdoors.
No sound system needed in serenity.
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2022 Cedar Creek 345IK 5th Wheel•Solar & Inverter•2024 Ford F-Series SCREW•7.3L•4x4•Factory Puck•B&W Companion•TST Tire Monitor w/Repeater•Sinemate 3500w Gen.
F&AM Lodge 358 Somerset, PA - JAFFA Shrine - Altoona, PA Days Camped ☼ '19=118 ☼ '20=116 ☼ '21=123 ☼ '22=134 ☼ '23=118☼ '24=101
My crappy Furrion TV has the worst built in speakers ever, as do most TV's in that category. Without subtitles, I can't make out what they are saying. I have to turn on the head unit, volume at max, to be able to make anything out if central blast AC unit is running and dehumidifier is on.
Fortunately I, like you, see TV as just an unnecessary distraction when camping, but useful for an hour or so while lying in bed to help make me sleepy until I conk out.
Also, useful during dinner time if we eat inside. Otherwise I am forced into awkward and weird conversation with wife. We have gotten into such a habit of watching TV during dinner for past 30 years, when we sit facing each other at dinner with no TV at home it gets weird and arguments sometimes start over nothing.
Yet out at a restaurant, we don't have this issue. It's really weird, lol.
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2019 Rockwood Geo Pro G19FD w/off road package
2015 Ford F150 XLT Super Cab 4x4 V8 Yes, I drink the water!
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2018 Sunseeker 2430S-CD
Ex Canadream Rental
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"Forced into an awkward dinner conversation with the wife"... Lol, that's pretty funny bro, I'll have to use that sometime! Ya idk in my opinion it's awesome being able to put a 12volt audio system in the living room. My shower doors shake haha. If I were camping I wouldn't be blasting music depending on how many beers I had that day? If the vodka comes out then all bets are off! When I go stay at my trailer sometimes it's for weeks or even a month so I have a 65" 4K Ultra HD TV on a extended swivel wall mount and the PS4... So I can lay on the couch or pull the bed out and relax. Like I said I don't take the trailer anywhere I just go down there for a change of scenery and to get away from the wifey and do some fishing and drinking with the men! Mounting a 65" TV and a 35 lb. wall mount into particle board above the fireplace was no small feat either!!! But that's a whole different story.
I replaced the crappy 4" Kenwood speakers that came in my Puma 257RESS with JL Audio CS-2 6.5" speakers and the difference in sound is amazing, and I now also have fairly decent bass. I also installed a 12V single din blue-ray player under the factory stereo/dvd player.
It's very hard to find a better automotive speaker, especially when it comes to subwoofers than JL Audio speakers. IMO the only other brands that are comparable to JL Audio are Soundstream, Polk Audio & MB Quartz.
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