Jim Timber
Veteran Member
I've been giving serious though to adding a stereo to the tractor and found they have Bluetooth amplifiers which pair to your phone and skip needing/using a head unit at all now. :thumbsup: The issue is what kind of range do they get and how durable are they in a rough environment? Most seem to be catering to boats, bikes, and atvs, and there are some water resistant offerings. Bikers and boaters aren't likely to stretch the range like I would skidding trees.
My intention is to carry my phone and have it streaming Pandora to the tractor while I work. If the pairing is lost, I don't know what Pandora will do (it pauses if the headphones are unplugged). So if I end up out of range and it needs to be opened up to resume playing, that'd get annoying real fast. The Toyota camry I rented a few months back had automatic pairing and Pandora would start as soon as I got in the car - that'd be pretty slick.
Boss has a couple offerings for around $100, but when I was involved in high end stereo's in the 90's they had a less than ideal reputation. The biggest complaint on the reviews is lack of power, so it appears they still over-state their output.
Kenwood has at least one amp with Bluetooth that's around $160, so that might be another option. The only complaint seen on the one I looked at was lack of tone controls and lacking bass. Playing music in open-air is going to be hard without gobs of power and big bass speakers. I don't expect "good" sound, but having something to listen to other than the diesel drone would be nice.
Anyone have experience with these amplifiers?
My intention is to carry my phone and have it streaming Pandora to the tractor while I work. If the pairing is lost, I don't know what Pandora will do (it pauses if the headphones are unplugged). So if I end up out of range and it needs to be opened up to resume playing, that'd get annoying real fast. The Toyota camry I rented a few months back had automatic pairing and Pandora would start as soon as I got in the car - that'd be pretty slick.
Boss has a couple offerings for around $100, but when I was involved in high end stereo's in the 90's they had a less than ideal reputation. The biggest complaint on the reviews is lack of power, so it appears they still over-state their output.
Kenwood has at least one amp with Bluetooth that's around $160, so that might be another option. The only complaint seen on the one I looked at was lack of tone controls and lacking bass. Playing music in open-air is going to be hard without gobs of power and big bass speakers. I don't expect "good" sound, but having something to listen to other than the diesel drone would be nice.
Anyone have experience with these amplifiers?