Malibu Black Box

After much confusion and more frustration. I have decided to eliminate the JBL Black box all together. There are plenty of better head units out there that will allow you to play every type of Ipod. I know we will loose the capability of playing video and controlling the stereo on the Maliview but it is very slow and kind of a pain to flip through screens anyway. As far as the video goes, I am perfectly fine with not having this option out on the river or lake.
Has anyone else choose to go this route? Any other pros or cons?
I am planning on removing the remote to the left of the helm and having the Kenwood 700U installed in its place. Anyone have any pics of a similar install?

Will removing your factory head unit void any warranties for the Malivew option? You may want to call Malibu and verify that.

m-

Brady,

Have you looked into Malibu's new headunit? It's a Rockford and it fits into the same opening as your JBL. I went to AWS's Malibu demo on Saturday and rode in a 2010 Wakesetter LSV (just for fun... don't get any ideas). It had the new Rockerford head unit in it. Radich told me they switched to this unit half way through the 2010 builds. The reason I mention it is because while out on the water, we discovered something pretty cool about it... it has automatic speed sensative volume control. As the boat speeds up or slows down, you can see and hear the head unit adjusting the volume to compensate for the noise from wind, engine, etc.

It's kind of cool to have your stereo volume go down automatically after your rider goes down and you turn around to go get them. You should check it out.

Is your main concern the iPod integration? What's the issue with the JBL? Does it only play the older units or something?

I played with the new Rockford unit on the LSV we borrowed from AWS for the day. It sucks just about as bad as the previous version. Stupid touch sensative buttons that you have to hold down or push a million times to turn it up or down. Brady is not the average Malibu customer. Boats need knobs,.... anything with volume control should be knob based if you asked me. Much more user friendly. The ipod interface is still slightly clunky and slow too. Volume control is nice, but I wouldn't buy it because of that fact alone.

Originally Posted by ixfe

Brady,

Have you looked into Malibu's new headunit? It's a Rockford and it fits into the same opening as your JBL. I went to AWS's Malibu demo on Saturday and rode in a 2010 Wakesetter LSV (just for fun... don't get any ideas). It had the new Rockerford head unit in it. Radich told me they switched to this unit half way through the 2010 builds. The reason I mention it is because while out on the water, we discovered something pretty cool about it... it has automatic speed sensative volume control. As the boat speeds up or slows down, you can see and hear the head unit adjusting the volume to compensate for the noise from wind, engine, etc.

It's kind of cool to have your stereo volume go down automatically after your rider goes down and you turn around to go get them. You should check it out.

Is your main concern the iPod integration? What's the issue with the JBL? Does it only play the older units or something?

My 2008 23LSV with the Black Box and Maliview has automatic speed sensative volume control... it's a feature of Maliview. It works great.

Finally got this done and tuned up this weekend. Its great to actually be able to control the iPod again.

It sounds amazing. Thanks to the guys at Exile and Kingpin for again dealing with my OCD.

Before






After

Looks good fella

Nice install. Does the transom remote also control the ipod?

m-

Yup. Just like the headunit.

Does the automatic volume control on the black box work pretty well?
Does it jump the volume up to the level you want? Do you have to fiddle with it to get it to work right?

Does it fade the volume back off pretty quickly after you cut the engine and stop?

-Disclaimer- I represent The Boost Box product on the web, and I'm really looking for some feedback on the alternatives we have for automatic volume control. I want to make sure that our product is meeting its niche need, aftermarket automatic volume control, as best as possible.

Braon