2008 Wakesetter VLX Review

[Trentster]

Well, I got my boat! There are still a few bugs to work out, some stereo tuning, etc. I love the colors, but hate the trailer. When I ordered the boat I forgot to proof-read my order and made a mistake. I guess I missed the part where the trailer was going to be reuben instead of ebony. As I was unloading it yesterday I was like WTF? Then I checked the order and realized it was my error! Well, needless to say we will have a 21.5 boat with Reuben on it and an ebony trailer ordered today- you get the idea! It will probably take about a month though- oh well!

I like the new electronics! I thought the new shifter was cheap until I used it. If you play with it with the boat turned off you will think it was made by Mattel or something. But... it works great and it is really easy to adjust speed when not using the Malibu Cruise. I guess I now know what pilots must of thought when they got in their first fly-by-wire all-glass cockpit. At first they were probably wondering, "what the hell," but after they used it they loved it. Same thing here!

The wake is the same, but the one-touch wedge is really cool. I also REALLY like the presets. I scroll to my name in the Malibu Cruise and just hit enter. All four tanks fill, the wedge deploys, and my speed is set at 23.5. When I'm done I hit my wife's name. It puts up the wedge, drains all of the tanks except the center, and changes the speed to 21. When we surfed I hit Surf L and it fills the appropriate tanks, adjusts wedge and speed, etc. It's cool!!!

Not sure what I think about the stereo yet. It has the new Punch amps, but the install is far from clean because the amps don't have wire covers like last year!!! One thing I do like is the JBL head unit, or black box, that is mounted next to the amps. This makes stereo mods easy if you want to add amps, etc. It has pre-outs for front, rear, and sub!!!

*******ATTENTION************

When you get your boat and the sub doesn't work!!! PLEASE DO NOT SPEND HOURS RIPPING STUFF APART TRYING TO FIND OUT WHY!!!! Everytime the battery is disconnected from the stereo the sub pre-out is turned off. All that you need to do is go into the set-up menu and turn the sub on.

And another note- There is no mute. If there is a mute, someone let me know. For me it was volume up... volume down when we were out yesterday. I couldn't find a one touch mute.

As far as the controls the right set of switches only has the heater and wedge on it. The rests is the stereo. It does display the song title on the switch display when listening to an I-pod or the thumb drive. It's pretty cool! The left switch panel has all of the other accessories. One thing I do like is the boat interior lights and dash lights that dim. That's cool! My bow lights are also LED instead of halogen.

I will have pictures if it stops raining.

[Trentster]

Maybe I should have ordered a pink trailer-

[larrys]

Whats wrong with pink???

Is it a true iPod connections where you control the iPod from the remots? If so, is there also a standard mini-plug generic MP3 input? After reading the manual it looks like is has both! I didn't see a reference to a mute either??? Whats up with that?

How many presets are there for riders?

Edited August 2, 2007 by larrys

[tgaugh]

Looking forward to the pics!

You get a pink trailer, I'll trade you black!

[tmacwake]

Congrats!!! The Malibu cruise control sounds really cool. Every year I wonder how they can improve from the previous year. I can't imagine how they can make this type of system any better than what you have. Enjoy your new ride!

[jetskipro550]

Well, I got my boat! There are still a few bugs to work out, some stereo tuning, etc. I love the colors, but hate the trailer. When I ordered the boat I forgot to proof-read my order and made a mistake. I guess I missed the part where the trailer was going to be reuben instead of ebony. As I was unloading it yesterday I was like WTF? Then I checked the order and realized it was my error! Well, needless to say we will have a 21.5 boat with Reuben on it and an ebony trailer ordered today- you get the idea! It will probably take about a month though- oh well!

I like the new electronics! I thought the new shifter was cheap until I used it. If you play with it with the boat turned off you will think it was made by Mattel or something. But... it works great and it is really easy to adjust speed when not using the Malibu Cruise. I guess I now know what pilots must of thought when they got in their first fly-by-wire all-glass cockpit. At first they were probably wondering, "what the hell," but after they used it they loved it. Same thing here!

The wake is the same, but the one-touch wedge is really cool. I also REALLY like the presets. I scroll to my name in the Malibu Cruise and just hit enter. All four tanks fill, the wedge deploys, and my speed is set at 23.5. When I'm done I hit my wife's name. It puts up the wedge, drains all of the tanks except the center, and changes the speed to 21. When we surfed I hit Surf L and it fills the appropriate tanks, adjusts wedge and speed, etc. It's cool!!!

Not sure what I think about the stereo yet. It has the new Punch amps, but the install is far from clean because the amps don't have wire covers like last year!!! One thing I do like is the JBL head unit, or black box, that is mounted next to the amps. This makes stereo mods easy if you want to add amps, etc. It has pre-outs for front, rear, and sub!!!

*******ATTENTION************

When you get your boat and the sub doesn't work!!! PLEASE DO NOT SPEND HOURS RIPPING STUFF APART TRYING TO FIND OUT WHY!!!! Everytime the battery is disconnected from the stereo the sub pre-out is turned off. All that you need to do is go into the set-up menu and turn the sub on.

And another note- There is no mute. If there is a mute, someone let me know. For me it was volume up... volume down when we were out yesterday. I couldn't find a one touch mute.

As far as the controls the right set of switches only has the heater and wedge on it. The rests is the stereo. It does display the song title on the switch display when listening to an I-pod or the thumb drive. It's pretty cool! The left switch panel has all of the other accessories. One thing I do like is the boat interior lights and dash lights that dim. That's cool! My bow lights are also LED instead of halogen.

I will have pictures if it stops raining.

Thats really cool!

[Willy]

What color is the boat? My boat is white, rueben, and black and when it came, in my trailer was not in yet (rueben) so they gave me a black loaner and I was like wtf, should I have ordered a black trailer? Well, now that I have the reuben I AM VERY GLAD I HAVE THE REUBEN. It looks much better after a few launches. Like any car, black looks sweet when it is spotless but lets face it, these things are in and out of the water all of time and the reuben doesn't look as DULL after one dunk like the black did!! You will be very happy with your decision. Also what brand? Mine is a boatmate and it looked really plain so I added some Tribal graphics they sell at Murray's and now it is the bomb!!!!!!!!!

Here is the link to some early pics!

http://www.wakesiderides.com/rides/index.p...out&id=2478

Edited August 3, 2007 by Willy

[Trentster]

larrys- Yes you can control an Ipod. In the glove box there is a power supply, MP3 jack, and a USB jack. If you plug your Ipod into the USB cable you can control it from the boat dash, or any of the stereo remotes. It is more song up and song down though instead of full funtion although it does say the song title, arist, etc. I prefer to just plug the Ipod into the mp3 jack, so that song selection is easier from the Ipod. My daughter has a Creative MuVo that I plugged into the USB cable, and I was able to control it from the dash too. I suspect you could control a Zune, and other types of players.

Also- 10 presets for riders.

Willy- My boat is graphite, ebony, and light graphite. The trailer could have been any color and looked fine. I just want one in ebony so that it completes the whole "Darth Vader" thing. I also always go with an Extreme.

I'm going to the lake today and taking a camera!

Edited August 3, 2007 by Trentster

[Mike d Wakeboarder]

larrys- Yes you can control an Ipod. In the glove box there is a power supply, MP3 jack, and a USB jack. If you plug your Ipod into the USB cable you can control it from the boat dash, or any of the stereo remotes. It is more song up and song down though instead of full funtion although it does say the song title, arist, etc. I prefer to just plug the Ipod into the mp3 jack, so that song selection is easier from the Ipod. My daughter has a Creative MuVo that I plugged into the USB cable, and I was able to control it from the dash too. I suspect you could control a Zune, and other types of players.

Also- 10 presets for riders.

Willy- My boat is graphite, ebony, and light graphite. The trailer could have been any color and looked fine. I just want one in ebony so that it completes the whole "Darth Vader" thing. I also always go with an Extreme.

I'm going to the lake today and taking a camera!

great, can't wait to see the pics.

[larrys]

I am more excited about this boat than any of my previous boats. It is going to be a long several weeks!!! They did move my spray date up by 2 days. Aug 8th

Trentster, If you want to add Sirius, the JBL SIR2.5 is the model number for the box. I have found them for under $100.

[Trentster]

O.K.- pictures are up!!! Here's the link: 2008 VLX

[Mike d Wakeboarder]

O.K.- pictures are up!!! Here's the link: 2008 VLX

that is amazing. hope you enjoy it. the trailer is not to bad.

[INTChamp]

That is sick! My dealer is supposed to start getting 08's in the next few weeks. Making it very hard for me fight the trading in temptation. killer boat dude.

[NvBoarder]

Sweet looking boat! Hows the switches work, my only concern with them is they look high tech and would be concerend about having problems with them and not being able to replace just the bad switch. Keep us informed on how well they work. Where is the actual head unit now? I heard they moved it?

Just a thought on the trailer, you order a new boat every year so you are well known by the dealer. Why don't you talk to him and if someone orders a red boat see if they will order a black trailer and switch them out. But it's not bad looking just different.

Enjoy the new ride!

[larrys]

Nice!!! Did the VLX get the new driver seat?

[Trentster]

larrys- Yes it has the new driver's seat.

NvBoarder- One step ahead, my new black trailer is on the way. As for the stereo check the link and scroll down. If you look at the picture of the amps you can see that it's mounted next to them. As for the switches- so far so good and they are easy to operate. I really like the presets in the cruise.

[Mike d Wakeboarder]

what stereo package did you get. you have the sub with the 500.2 amp. then you have a 400.4 amp, what does that cover, how many boat speakers?

[Trentster]

Not sure, but I think it is stereo pack 2 with six speakers. It looks like the amp is wired to run eight speakers off of it. I am assuming that the wires are just capped off in the bow where I don't have speakers. It appears that the rear channel is running four speakers at 2 ohms and the front channel is running the dash speakers at 4 ohms. I'm considering ordering two more for the bow to complete the set. The sub runs off the 500.2 by itself. All of the speaker wires from the JBL head unit are capped and not used.

[pcm617]

I'm glad your from Idaho because I think your boat is going to have a close twin in TN.

[stewart]

Trentster, thanks for the review! You VLX is amazing. Almost makes me want to get one.

[Mike d Wakeboarder]

Not sure, but I think it is stereo pack 2 with six speakers. It looks like the amp is wired to run eight speakers off of it. I am assuming that the wires are just capped off in the bow where I don't have speakers. It appears that the rear channel is running four speakers at 2 ohms and the front channel is running the dash speakers at 4 ohms. I'm considering ordering two more for the bow to complete the set. The sub runs off the 500.2 by itself. All of the speaker wires from the JBL head unit are capped and not used.

i bet it sounds amazing. that sounds like sound package 2, package 3 has 8 speakers. is the radio easy to control with the new LCD switch pannals?