Sorta did the same think, but little better
I redid my arch speakers by purchasing a factory blank holder from Hunter. Had them ship it to me blank with no cut outs. I installed Bose speakers. I took the existing center light out of my old panel installed it in the new one, hooked up to a wireless control, purchased on Amazon, that is controlled by a key fob. I also added two LED lights that swivel, tilt, turn white blue or red, and can be dimmed. LEDs are only 11/2 inches long, so they are a problem for head room. Sound is awesome. The LEDs are perfect for night travel or at the dock reading. The wireless remote is perfect for approaching or boarding at night. My fob works line of sight. I can activate lights even before entering pier, 100 yds. Plus. I am very happy with this retrofit.
In my opinion,,,of course.
So, here is what I did.
Firstly, having speakers in the overhead pod, regardless of quality, just doesn't sound as good as high quality box speakers mounted under the stern seats.
By mounting the speakers under the stern seats, you get a wonderful surround- sound effect in the cockpit.
Furthermore, you can get much higher quality box speakers than ones you need to cram into the overhead arch pod.
So, here is what I did,,
I bought a new pod from Huntet, and junked the original. On the overhead pod, I mounted 2 light fixtures in the spot where the original speakers were. Not huge lights. Just small 3" units
And then I mounted a dimmer on the pod.
This is really wonderful, cause you can have the cockpit lighting go from candlelight intensity all the way up to real bright. The original overhead light in the pod was just on/off. The dimmer is a fantastic uograde.
I kept the Sony cd unit in the pod, but didn't wire them directly to the box speakers.
I put in a 200 watt power amp, which is mounted in the aft compartment. It is a Pyle Amp, which is marine rated and sounds great.
Now, here is where I got a little fancy.
Down below on the 49, there is the Bose stereo, which sounds wonderful.
But, I wanted the option to "fill the boat" with sound.
On the Sony CD unit, it has an Aux sound input.
And the Bose system has a line level audio output.
So, I ran an audio feed from the line level Bose audio out to the Sony Audio input.
So, you can run tunes on the Bose, switch the Sony to Aux input select, and you now have your interior Bose, and the cockpit with a 200 watt power amp cranking out serious neighbour- disturbing tunes. This definitely GOES TO 11. (As per movie Spinal Tap)
I can't tell you how great this is while flying a Gennaker blasting downwind at 10 knots, sitting on the foredeck on autopilot, and having your boat sound like the showroom at Best Buy.
Only downside is that you need the inverter running cause the Bose runs off 120.
This whole setup was actually pretty inexpensive.
The Amp was approx $120, and the speakers were about $150 for the set.
Just took some time to wire it all up.
