New Fusion Apollo Marine Audio System

Last week I attended a product release event in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for marine audio company Fusion Entertainment. If you’re an audiophile and a boat owner, you’ll definitely be interested in the new Fusion Apollo series.

The Apollo line includes two new head units, the flagship Apollo RA 770 and the Apollo SRX 400.  Both units were built as marine units, not adapted from car stereos. The RA 770 has several source options, including wifi, digital optical, Bluetooth, and Sirius. Wifi offers better quality sound than Bluetooth because the files don’t need to be compressed, so you can stream your music as it was intended, giving a much clearer, truer sound. Each unit offers a “PartyBus” mode, allowing you to play your music across several areas of your boat, or segment it to personal mode if the kids want to go down below and listen to their music while the adults in the cockpit can play what they want at the sound level they prefer.

The RA 770 features a brilliant, optically bonded, full-color LCD display on a one-piece glass touchscreen. Simply tap the screen to pause and play, or swipe through a playlist to find a song. The stylish display blends perfectly with modern glass helms and is an attractive addition to any steering station. The more-compact SRX 400 has more traditional controls while still offering a screen and the volume control knob.  Fusion was also a pioneer in audio interface with multifunction displays. Each Fusion model is NMEA 2000 compatible, so they work with major marine electronics companies to run your audio from your helm’s GPS/Fishfinder display.

While other brands offer Digital Signal Processing (DSP), Fusion has taken that further by offering optimized DSP profiles that can be programmed through an easy-to-use phone app. This DSP programming also makes it impossible to blow your speakers while optimizing each song.  The units adjust levels microseconds prior to sending the music to the speakers, so it adjusts on the fly to optimize each note.

The Fusion-Link phone app serves as a remote control for your system anywhere on your boat.  With the wifi built in, system software upgrades are simple.

These are powerful units, too, offering higher output than competitors. On of the boats I tested sounded fantastic with no amplifier or subwoofer—just 2 pairs of speakers—while we cruised at 30 knots.

The RA 770 retails for $649 and the SRX400 comes in at a very reasonable $349.

Learn more about the Fusion Apollo series.