strereo

If you were buying a new boat, and you wanted a stereo would you upgrade to the stereo that you can order with the boat or would buy an after market stereo,

Or in other words do the stereos that you can buy with the boat sound good or would I be better off with an after market stereo. Thanks for the help

aftermarket. Especially if you decent sound and quality equip.

The actual stereo (head unit) will not make a great deal of difference. If you want to upgrade you should consider an amplifier and better speakers. Do some checking for local talent, but your best money is probably spent at your local high-end car/boat stereo shop.

Where are you located?

www.soundillusionsaudio.com

The stereo system that came with my new Sanger sounds awesome. Downfall after spending 4k on it was that the head unit was a base model Sony and would not even play a CDR. So if you are going to have an aftermarket install on a new boat make sure you know what you are getting. I ended up buying another Sony head unit that was CDR and I-pod ready. About 200 bucks but I didnt ecpect that after spending that much money on stereo. Lesson learned.

Generally you will pay more for factory installed equipment.
You can buy much nicer equipment for about what you would pay for factory installed stuff..
And you can pick the options you want ie: I-pod ready and MP3 etc...

Some manufacturers are putting in good quality equipment. So find out what the options are and do some research.

My first reaction is aftermarket because the install is relatively easy and as Ryan mentioned, you will pay much higher dollars for factory installed equipment.

I would also consider where you will be storing the boat (indoor vs. outdoor)and if that will determine the level of quality of your equipment.

Mikeski... The head unit can make a HUGE difference. Compare a high quality Alpine unit to a •••••• sony or something that you can buy at walmart and you will hear the difference. It's night and day. There's also a lot of feature you will get with a higher end HU that will allow you to tweak the sound to make it optimal in a boat environment. Also cheaper HU won't have 3 sets of preouts, which IMO are essential and you can't do without a dedicated sub preout.

Put it in yourself.