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Resale value - is the stereo that important?


RedOwl

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^^^ I couldn't agree more. I look at Boats everyday all over North America and am amazed at how much attention the sound systems get. Not important to me at all. But judging by how the adds are drafted it is clearly important to a good chunk.

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audio costs a lot to upgrade to, so knowing that someone has expensive equipment properly installed in a prospective boat would make a difference for me. i'm in agreement that i would take a motor/surfgate/ballast upgrade any day of the week over sound, but i would also like to just be able to get into a boat i'm buying and have the tunes dialed in as well.

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Boat stereo is way more important than a car. We utilize it for lake parties (anchor off shore) and the cove outside of using it while underway. Agree with others that it depends on the buyer, and you don't get a more than 1/2 back.

Just look at Wet Sounds and Exile who have made this a business. No one really cares about car audio anymore, boats and UTVs are still strong.

Edited by tjklein
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I think it comes down to the type of buyer.

New to towboats? Man that big sound system will be the deal breaker.

Had a few towboats and realised that the motor needs extra power and you'll need bags to get that surf wave mackin'? Want things plumbed in? A cargo bimini that holds big surfboards? None of these features look as sexy as 4 rev 10's or some big exile speakers hanging off the tower. Most buyers judge it by its cover. That's why we have flake on boats.

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Out of curiosity, what does an upgrade to a 555 (or comparable) cost?

And

What does a high-end stereo upgrade cost? (we're talking a Brewster's Millions upgrade here)

12-15K

Stereo: as much as you want to spend. Retail I'd guess $5-7K gets you a plenty loud system installed with a custom sub. But you could easily spend double that to be "that guy." DIY you can do a really nice system (better than the nicest factory option) for about $4-5K (assuming your time is worth nothing).

Having tower speakers and a sub matters for resale. What kind of tower speakers and sub prolly matters not to most.

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DocPhil had a good post about this last year or the year before. He mentioned how nearly every call he got on his boat had the first or second question of "does it have tower speakers?"

To me the stereo is a useless upgrade. I would not pay a dime more for a factory or non-factory stereo upgrade over 2 identical boats. The upgrades people have done on here are really neat, but add no value to the boat as far as I am concerened.

Who is DocPhil?

:whistle:

  • Like 3
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I think a stereo will help your boat sell quicker ie. more folks will come to look which means more opportunity to make a deal.

I don't think it add's much to your selling price at all though.

I understand that a stereo seems to drive the market/resale - I am just not sure I understand why.

Personally, I don't care about stereos & audio, but I would want my boat to have it - only so I could sell it again.

I just never realized how highly some sellers/buyers prioritized that part of the boat. It seems somewhat disproportionate to me.

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I was happy that the vtx I settled on didn't have tower speakers since it saved me the trouble of removing them. Likely has to do with the folks who buy the vtx, but most of the ones I see locally have no tower speakers and a ski rack.

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Only if the boat has the exact stereo that I want installed does it make a difference to me. In the past few weeks I have been looking at year old Axis and I find a lot of them with tower speakers but they aren't the ones I would want. I'm not going to pay for them then just remove them to buy the ones that I want. In my case the ones with the rev 10's are worth the most but anything else is worth less to me than one with no tower speakers.

I guess the point I am trying to make with this rant is that it depends on the specific buyer. Not every buyer wants the same thing and they don't want to pay for 2 stereos to get the one they want.

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I think its crazy how much time and money is spent on audio in a boat. I used to work in a recording studio and did commercial audio installs for a number of years and thinking about all the variables to consider when installing a system in a boat nearly gives me an aneurysm. Spend hours in your garage tunning your system in your garage.......tow boat across town drop in it a completly different environment, temperatures, humidity, air preassure....etc. Now I am thr furthest thing from an expert on car/boat audio and maybe I am completly missing something but in my head it would be like getting the studio prepared for Rick Rubin and once he arrives turing the heat up to 90 degrees, filling a swimming pool in the live room and busting down one of the walls.

I think the sweet spot for return on investment would be a HU with Aux or Ipod connection, Tower speakers and a sub all from a recognizable brand. Clean non-hillbilly install.

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DocPhil had a good post about this last year or the year before. He mentioned how nearly every call he got on his boat had the first or second question of "does it have tower speakers?"

To me the stereo is a useless upgrade. I would not pay a dime more for a factory or non-factory stereo upgrade over 2 identical boats. The upgrades people have done on here are really neat, but add no value to the boat as far as I am concerened.

Couldnt agree more. Every boat I have sold has been disregarded without tower speakers.

I don't get it.

WLTS

Wallies love tower speakers

Edited by Avicenna
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I think a stereo will help your boat sell quicker ie. more folks will come to look which means more opportunity to make a deal.

I don't think it add's much to your selling price at all though.

I agree - I think a nice system will make some buyers more interested in your boat, but IMO no one wants to pay extra for the equipment that has no guarantees and is prone to "issues". When I bought mine, I was pleased it had the Wetsounds system, but made it clear to the buyer that I had no intention of allowing him to recover his costs. We agreed on the amount the boat was worth based on it's own merits.

So to answer your original question - I don't understand why put so much info on the stereo, other than because he put too much money into it, so it's a value to him! Value to the owner doesn't sell a boat, Value to the buyer does!

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Question for the site members

Would you rather have

1)a kick azz stereo

2)significant motor upgrade

Give me 2 every day and twice on Sunday

I'd bet at least 20 Ndawg bucks that the majority of the members here will say #2

BUT

If you look on onlyinboards or boattrader - there are a lot of sellers that would lose me my Ndawg fortune...

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I'd bet at least 20 Ndawg bucks that the majority of the members here will say #2

BUT

If you look on onlyinboards or boattrader - there are a lot of sellers that would lose me my Ndawg fortune...

No doubt.

You need towers to sell it but a motor is so much fun!

I call it the Malibu paradox

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I am in the group that would not give a dime for a sound system upgrade. I will take a factory system and be just fine. I don't go on a boat for music. I don't need a tower so tower speakers are nothing to me. Just give me a good tug boat! :whistle:

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