Stereo replacement

Mar 27, 2016
89
Catalina 30 Hingham
I'm replacing the stereo in my new to me 2004 hunter 36 the old didn't have bluetooth or even and aux input so replacing my old sony with new of course wiring harness are different so no plug and play speaker wire is stright forward not a problem. But not a 100% sure on power wires any help would be appreciated . Here the wire in the boat from my boat manual 20190605_194157.jpg. And here's the stereo manual 20190605_194157.jpg
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Feb 26, 2004
22,759
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
But not a 100% sure on power wires
Why? Power is red, ground is black or yellow. Can you be more specific about what you don't "get?"
Disclaimer: I did just this in March 2017,Sony Bluetooth, too.
 
Mar 27, 2016
89
Catalina 30 Hingham
That's what I thought but when I looked at the boat manual its saying ground is yellow and on radio wire harness its black so am I going yellow to black ? Red to red . Then yellow/red to yellow ? Or am I overthinking this?
 
Nov 6, 2006
9,884
Hunter 34 Mandeville Louisiana
The boat ground shows "YLW".. I don't know what that means, but I think it is a cable type and not a color..?? (one of the electric guys will have to decipher that) .. but solid yellow is the "memory" power (hot all the time) red is main switched power, and on the radio, black is ground.. so black from the new radio to "YLW" in the boat, probably black .. Probably would be good to break out the voltmeter to be sure..
 
Mar 27, 2016
89
Catalina 30 Hingham
Well there is from the boat a yellow/red wire , a red wire and a solid yellow wire . So I'm assuming ( I know assuming lol) the YLW means yellow. On wire harness there is black red and yellow
 
Feb 6, 1998
11,665
Canadian Sailcraft 36T Casco Bay, ME
That's what I thought but when I looked at the boat manual its saying ground is yellow and on radio wire harness its black so am I going yellow to black ? Red to red . Then yellow/red to yellow ? Or am I overthinking this?
On car stereos YELLOW is 12V POSITIVE to the battery, it is NOT a negative.. Yellow is the wire that powers the amplifier etc. and typically gets connected to the always-on 12V positive bus. The red stereo wire is your "switched +12V" and this is the wire that actually turns the stereo on or off.
 
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Mar 27, 2016
89
Catalina 30 Hingham
Ok more confused. In the boat manual ( see above picture) its Says YLW which I'm still assuming mean yellow lol. Is the ground . But on stereo wire harness ( other above picture stereo wire diagram its black ) so I'm connecting YLW boat ground wire to black stereo ground . Then I'm connecting yellow/red boat (hot wire) to yellow stereo wire . Then connecting red boat wire to red stereo wire ? Thanks everyone for all your help
 
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Nov 6, 2006
9,884
Hunter 34 Mandeville Louisiana
That seems correct, Chris.. Yellow/red boat wire to Yellow stereo wire for memory retention.. Red boat wire to red stereo wire.. stereo ground (black) to whatever boat YLW is.. Voltmeter check before letting the magic smoke out..
 
Jul 7, 2004
8,402
Hunter 30T Cheney, KS
I think you and a partner (teen perhaps) that knows a little about car stereos could knock this out in no time. Get a good crimper like the one Mainsail sells and splices.
You'll love having bluetooth, USB, and aux in. We got rid of the old Sony with CD Changer. Still have to 'glass over the remote control panel hole in the cockpit. My new Alpine has an RF remote. I can control the stereo even from the dock.
 
Apr 8, 2011
768
Hunter 40 Deale, MD
I thought about doing the same - my 2009 H36 has the original stereo in it which luckily has an Aux, but no Bluetooth. At least with an Aux you can plug a battery powered Bluetooth device into the aux and send your phone/ipad music to the stereo that way.

But I decided the cockpit speakers aimed straight down at the helm - even after replacing - sounded awful. In the end I bought two portable, battery powered Bluetooth Bose Color Soundlink II speakers and they go up against the dodger, aimed back at the cockpit. They run all day, connected to my (or anyone else's) phone, and stream music beautifully. The two of them can be paired (otherwise known as Party Mode) and placed in stereo mode in the Bose app. I recharge them overnight, and they're ready to go again all day the next day. And, since they're portable, they sound great in the cabin at night with a movie, dinner music, etc. No rewiring necessary. And you can control the music from anywhere. Bonus: You can take phone calls thru the speakers as well - it will pause the music and connect your phone call automatically.

I eventually disconnected the awful cockpit speakers in order to make room in the arch wire run for solar panel wires, but left the old stereo connected to the speakers in the cabin. Reality is we NEVER use it, since we stream music to the portable Bose speakers when we want it. The stereo is connected to XM/Sirius, but since you can stream that on your phone, why use the old stereo?

YMMV. We love this modern solution and can't see going back. Just a thought for others who are contemplating upgrading the old stereo system and haven't started drilling yet!
 
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Jul 12, 2011
1,165
Leopard 40 Jupiter, Florida
I just did this on my 20 year old boat, and it's amazing how much more I listen to my music than the radio music. Well worth the hours in rigging. My main problem was fitting a plastic under-dash radio mount from Amazon to replace the old custom plywood mounts. The splicing of the boat's speaker and power into the radio harness was not really troubling, other than a whole bunch of soldering of 22 gauge wires (I didn't trust crimping of such small stuff). I confess that I thought twice about connecting the yellow (always on) wire to the battery lead before the main power switch. The only other thing there is the bilge switch leads, and it makes me nervous to have anything that I cannot cutoff with the main power breaker. I did put an in-line fuse in (10A) right at that connection, in addition to the one mounted on the radio -- I'm not a trusting person.

Good luck with your project, and enjoy the sweet tunes!
 
Sep 24, 2018
2,549
O'Day 25 Chicago
A tip for crimping small wires: Strip off twice as much as needed and fold over so there's twice as much copper for the connector to bite into
 
Feb 26, 2004
22,759
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
A tip for crimping small wires: Strip off twice as much as needed and fold over so there's twice as much copper for the connector to bite into
there's a better way and much easier:

When I was shopping online for the head-end unit, I stumbled over the Posi-Product 16 piece wiring connector kit. It consists of two clear plastic tubes with male and female threads for each wire. You twist the two wires together, slide the male piece over them and simply screw the female onto it. It saved me having to make up 11 butt wire splices with the small wires on the stereo harness. I removed the harness from the back of the radio, removed the insulation, and made the splices with the Posi-Product pieces. I was able to do all of the splices while comfortably seated at the saloon table because the old stereo wiring harness came with two additional plastic disconnects for the power/ground/memory and the eight speaker wires downstream of the basic back-of-unit harness plug. Like the BT-139 Gell Filled telephone wire connectors I used for our fridge module replacement in August 2016, both of these little connector tools are true “must haves” for your electrical tool kit for splicing small wires easily.

Sony & these goodies came from Crutchfield.

Photo 3  connectors.jpg
 
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Jul 12, 2011
1,165
Leopard 40 Jupiter, Florida
@Stu Jackson -- Where were you with this suggestion a month ago? Seriously, I could have avoided soldering 16 little wires, and individually dipping in liquid wire tape? Well, it's done now, and I expect never to have to replace one again, but now I've got a great suggestion. Cheers.
 
Mar 27, 2016
89
Catalina 30 Hingham
Just your basic Sony . Biggest feature was that it had bluetooth.Old systems didnt have it, or even an Aux port , I wanted to be able to play Spotify and change music from the cockpit.
Only advice is it never hurts to ask questions before you just cut wires and go for it lol..there are a lot of smart people on here that know more than me and are very helpful.
 
Feb 26, 2004
22,759
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
Where were you with this suggestion a month ago?
WADR, that text I shared is from my stereo replacement article which was published in Mainsheet magazine only a couple of years ago ('cuz I did the installation in March 2017). That's why I recommend to all our skippers to read the entire magazine, not "just" "our" sections.

And I learned about those connectors from the Crutchfield website when I was looking for the stereo unit.
 
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