iPod on board

[CheckRaise]

I have a stereo on board, but with the pounding a C-Dory gives it, I found the cd player to be pretty useless when I'm underway. I was skeptical about using an iPod, and an outing in chop where I had it lying loosely on the dash did nothing to dispel those concerns. Yesterday, though, I velcroed it vertically to the edge of the overhead shelf, and it didn't skip once, even in some fairly violent 3 foot waves. I'm delighted. Hundreds of CDs, all in a tiny unit that I carry in my shirt pocket. And when I decided to anchor in a bay and wait two hours for slack tide, I had books-on-tape ready to go.

For those who are interested, I hook a FM transmitter (powered by the lighter) to the iPod's headphone jack. I then set the FM radio to whatever frequency the transmitter is using, and voila: whatever the iPod plays, my stereo plays. No muss, no wiring. I have an identical setup in my car and use the same iPod there.

[D5800877351]

I'm sorry to say that I hate ipods...
no reliability, such a high cost, and after a purchase they even drill from you even more money...it's sad to say that there is a majority of the music player industry with apple, and people STILL BUY!

They're the Devil!!!

[CheckRaise]

Well I work for the bloodsuckers at Microsoft, and familiarity hath indeed bred contempt. In my case, better the devil I don't know. Much better. I've had no problems whatsoever with iPod; indeed, I've been quite delighted. (And lest anyone get confused, you don't have to keep paying money; only if you choose to download music from Apple's site do you have to pay additional $. You can copy music you already own just like you always did.)

Brand loyalities aside, everything I say about the performance in chop should be true independent of the player hardware you prefer.

[rogerbum]

[Pat Anderson]

I have an iPod mini and Creative battery powered speakers - works great on board.

[Baboy]

I have an ipod and it works great. The boat's stereo receiver has audio input jacks. I just plug the ipod into the audio inputs on the receiver. I have often experienced CDs skipping while cruising even though the receiver/CD player are made for marine use. The ipod never skips and as a bonus has about 5,000 songs/tracks loaded in it with the capacity to hold much more. The music in my ipod came from my CD collection, Per-To-Per resources, and audio purchased on-line. The ipod is very easy to use and update. My wife is from the Philippines. We have music, comedy and audio books in Filipino, Spanish and English on the ipod. My wife also has an ipod photo and just loves it. I've been very impressed with the ipod and other Apple products.

Bob Miles

[chromer]

Got this new Creative docking station I like (After trying two others). Its one big battery that lasts 10 hours. When on AC power its internal battery charges and iPod also charges. Comes w/remote. Its small but powerful. Has foldout stability legs.

There is a picture in my album Checkpoint II.

[matt_unique]

The versions change every 37 seconds but I have the 1000 song Ipod and I love it. I use it nearly every day between gym or boat or car. In the boat I can plug it in to an Aux input right on the front. You can drop the thing on pavement and it will still work (I have done this several times...butter fingers).

In a previous version I also used the FM transmitter. That system works pretty good actually except in cars going longer distances, an "open" frequency in one location may become used by another source as you travel. If you are on the hook for example with a few other boats you could tune into the same frequency and all pick up the Ipod signal with the FM transmitter.

[Dene]

Gotta add my two bits about my IPOD. I love it. Most of the music I listen to come from it now, via a Monster FM transmitter or directly into the car or boat system.

We have about 500 CD's. My kid wanted to earn $$ for a snowboard. For a buck a CD, he loaded all into my 30 gig IPOD, which I bought used via Craigslist. I made different playlists to reflect my mood. Sometimes I just choose a specific artist or genre.

CD's are gathering dust.

Also, there is plenty of room on the IPOD for pictures. We use it as a backup for all our digital pictures.

-Greg

[Doryman]

I have a signlificant hearing loss, as many of you know, but it may also come as a surprise to some of you to learn that I enjoy music, particularly jazz. I actually own an iPod but instead of ear buds I have adapters that connect the iPod directly to my hearing aids. One shortcoming of this solution is a lack of a "subwoofer" -- the bass frequencies that you feel as well as hear.

Because of that. I also like to listen to music through speakers (I have a fairly decent stereo at home.) The discussion on this thread prompts me to inquire whether there are iPod docking systems out there, suitable for use on the boat, that put out good bass -- with the understanding that "good" is a relative term when discussing small 12v speakers.

Thanks,
Warren

[thataway]

I run my I pod and Sirius radio both thru a radio, with 200 watt output, and Bose speakers. The base is certainly decent. For me this allows the best of all worlds.
The radio has an aux input (1/8" sterior mini plug...3.5mm).

There are also some cheaper speakers which have decent base--and many of the radios (including the one I have) have aux output for an amp so you can easily drive a sub woofer. You know--now you can have a C Dory which goes by vibrating the water with is "Umpah" sound.....The problem with many of these amps is that they pull a lot of power. In 1985 we were cruising with a close friend in Majorca Spain. He found this thing called a CD player. Brought it home--and then found out he needed an amplifier--and all that was available was a 500 watt pioneer unit. He purchased it, and ran it for about 6 hours--completely draining one of his 8 D house batteries!

I suspect you can find smaller output subwoofer amps, and have a real "blaster"

[Doryman]

Thanks, Bob -- I had considered installing a radio and routing the iPod through that, but wanted to explore the dock alternative first...

Warren

[Belltown]

It's hard to beat dropping 7,000 plus tunes (over 24 days worth) in my pocket when we head to the marina. Our iPod performs just fine under any condition.

If you have a disk-based large capacity model the disk only spins long enough to read data into the iPod's cache, then it stops. For practical purposes, the music comes from the flash memory buffer and isn't subject to motion. If you have a smaller capacity flash memory-based iPod, there are no moving parts.

We velcro ours, vertically, to the inside of the dash next to the Clarion CMD5 head unit which comes installed in the R25. I purchased a Clarion iPod Interface Cable which allows me to control the iPod via the head unit. It can access the entire catalog including playlists, artists, albums, genre, random (shuffle) repeat, etc., plus it keeps the iPod charged.

Interface: http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?i=020CCAIPOD&tp=120

[thataway]

Somehow I missed this one, it was reviewed by Ben Ellison (Panbo) a year ago. I saw it at West Marine today--they had 6 of them:
Fusion Marine I pod dock:
http://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/boat-electronics/fusion-marine-stereo/

The big rub is that this unit is about $400, only puts out about 70 watts a channel and apparently does not utalize all of the I pods....I like the other ways better, but for the boater which really has to have a dedicated I pod dock--here it is!

http://www.fusionelectronics.com/Splash.aspx

[breausaw]

My wife brings her 200GB ipod along but we only use it on anchor at night. Underway we are usually hooked up with other things and music just doesn’t seem to matter.
If you have skip problems buy one with memory instead of a hard drive, you’ll never have a skip.
BTW, we just plug a little self powered speaker set-ups into the headphone jack, does the trick.
Myself, I would never buy an ipod because its way too proprietary; there are other brands out there for way less money and with far fewer fallacies.