I installed it a month ago and I am really hoping it holds up. I've gone through lots of boat stereos over the years but this looks like the last one I will ever buy.
This unit does not have CD player in it which is a HUGE plus as far as I am concerned. CD players only last a season or two down here on the Texas Gulf coast. I wanted a stereo that had simple way to connect my iTouch/iPhone to the stereo. The Fusion IP600G makes it so easy. Flip down the gasketed face plate, push in the pod, flip up face plate and crank it. The pod is sealed in tight. No cables, no adaptors and no iPod sliding around on the deck.
I also ordered the IP56 Remote Control. Even though the stereo is supposed to be very weather resistant, I mounted it in the console to keep it out of the weather. I mounted the remote control on the dash. Mounting the remote requires drilling a big 3" hole in the dash but there was room. I drilled out a smaller 1 1/4" hole where an old remote use to be. Turned out to be a very neat installation.
The controls are big, easy to see, easy to use and very intuitive on both pieces. I really like the volumne knobs. You don't have to look at it to do someting as simple as changing the volume. Both units have a mute button which has always been one of my requirements. Being able to kill the stereo quickly is very useful when things go ballistic on board. The remote has a screen and shows song names and other important info as does the stereo unit.
It has a ton more capabilities than I will ever use. Got them both at a great price on Amazon I highly recommend it!There is plenty positive to say about this stereo. Firstly, it's built like a BSH. If you drop it during installation it might dent the floor. It is really solid. The keypad has a simple layout, something I also like and one of the reasons I replaced the Kenwood stereo in my boat. I had two Kenwoods so far and they can be pretty complicated to figure out.
This unit is powerful and has plenty of punch, so may not need an amplifier. I'm not an audiophile, but the sound quality seems pretty good. You can adjust the the bass and treble, but that's about it (a 5 band equalizer would have been nice). The lcd display is large, crisp and very readable, even from a short distance. The drop face design to plug in the ipod is clever and very well built. It comes with a variety of plastic harness adapaters to cradle just about any ipod model, and these adapters are beefy and built to last.
I wouldn't tell anyone to not buy this stereo, but here's a couple things I don't like about it (and this only pertains to the radio tuner). On lake Ontario I was able to receive a lot of radio stations clearly with the Kenwood. Using the same antenna (which is just a random length wire hidden under the fiberglass), the Fusion had trouble with a lot of stations and they came in weak. The Kenwood tuner has it beat there. Because of the weaker reception, the autoseek function found only a couple stations on the entire FM band. To move from autoseek to manual tuning (which allows you to toggle though the FM band .2 MHz at a time), you must hold down the Forward or Reverse button for 3 seconds. What really annoys me is it then retrurns to autoseek, so every time you want to move to another station manually you have to hold the F or R button down 3 seconds again. It would have been nice if the Fusion was programmable to allow it to lock onto one tuning method or the other.
But, since I rarely use the radio anyway and bought this unit mainly for ipod use, this isn't too much a problem for me. ipod functionality on this unit is simple and elegant. I'm hoping to improve tuner reception with a better antenna.
Buy Fusion MS-IP600G, iPOD Dock/AUX/AM/FM/ Sirrus Ready Marine Stereo Receiver Now
The stereo came right away and it works great. The sound is wonderful and using my IPOD with my selection of music is better than anything. And,,, the price was right.Read Best Reviews of Fusion MS-IP600G, iPOD Dock/AUX/AM/FM/ Sirrus Ready Marine Stereo Receiver Here
I shopped and shopped and kept coming back to this model. I'm glad I did! With three separate zones independently controllable, it lets us manage volume for each area of our boat. The face looks plain when compared with others, but it really falls in line with modern industrial design (Apple, for example) and is easy to operate without studying the users guide.The internal amps are plenty powerful for the 6.5" Rockford Fosgate coaxial speakers we chose, actually much better than I expected.
If I had one criticism it would be the lack of line level outputs for zones 1-2. The only way to use an amp with these zones is to use an amp with speaker-level inputs or add a speaker-level to line-level converter, neither of which are preferred methods. Again, since the on-board power is decent, it may eliminate my need to amp those channels anyway.
Overall we are thrilled with the purchase and would highly recommend this unit to others.
Want Fusion MS-IP600G, iPOD Dock/AUX/AM/FM/ Sirrus Ready Marine Stereo Receiver Discount?
we love this radio and we have sirrus hooked up ,we bought the fusion 6" speakers and adding more speakers and the sound is great.we put our sons iphone in the center and had his music and the radio charged the phone 100% in little time.

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