Audio link between boats- Wet Sounds A-Link

[Seadeals]

I could not find mention of this anywhere so I thought I would share. I know many of us could definitely use this.

When rafting up, we have always wanted to get the two (or more) boats playing the same music. Not wanting to be restricted to fm radio broadcasts or running cables between boats, I was excited to learn about the Wetsounds WS A-Link from a friend who has (and loves) it.

It comes as a pair of 2.4 GHz SKAA receiver/transmitters and can be used with other A-Links to make a cluster of audio systems (boats) all on the same source with very reliable quality (better fidelity and range) compared with Bluetooth or mini fm stations. It just came out a little over a year ago. I see this in my future.

https://wetsounds.com/pages/products/WS-A-LINK

 

[PEARCE]

Yep. We had that setup on our cruiser we lost in the fire. Several boats that also had amazing systems on our dock had it as well. We DOMINATED the beach when we all linked up. You also couldn't hear yourself think!

 

[Drift Away]

I have a set of these. They are alot of fun when you have 2 boats with loud setups you can rock the whole island with them. Been told you can hook up to ten to one source

 

[jcyamaharider]

@mattschepker @ar240owner I see this in our future!!!

 

[Jr15g]

@Augusto David Rodriguez we need this.

 

[ar240owner]

@mattschepker @ar240owner I see this in our future!!!

Lol knowing you it's prob already ordered!!! Lol

 

[geohil]

So how exactly does it hook up? I understand the one set to receive getting hooked up to an Aux input. But how does the broadcaster wire it into his/her stereo? Outside of the pre-amp outputs (all in use) I don't have anything that would output my stereos music?

 

[Seadeals]

I don't have it yet; but here is how I understand it: It has an 8mm (headphone) jack. If transmitting you feed a signal in through the jack from your system or other source device. If receiving, it sends a signal out through the jack to your audio system via an aux input. I don't have an aux out to use either but see a few ways it could work. For those with better experience, correct me if my thinking is flawed.

Scenario 1: Using the boat
I happen to use a personal device most often to play music on my boat. I run it through a USB input to my head unit. Assuming I stick with this, I think I could safely split either the front or rear channel signal RCAs (on their way to my amp) with these:

Then run RCAs to an 8mm output jack mounted somewhere convenient for plug-in of the A-Link (like next to my USB port).

Then use a male-male headphone cable like this to plug in the A-Link. I can't speak to whether or not this would materially affect the signal to the amp. Now you have an aux output.

Scenario 2: Use both A-Links
Since I am using a personal device to access my playlist anyway, I could just plug one A-Link into my iPod, then plug the other A-Link into my boat's head unit input. You use up both A-Links yourself; but let's face it, your buddies need to buy their own crap so they don't drop yours in the water when you pass it over to them. I don't like this as much; but since you only use the headphone jack of your device (if it has one!- thx Apple) you could still charge on the lightning connector and transmit through the 8mm; but that is a lot of cable mess at some point.

Scenario 1 involves a boat mod and drilling another hole in the boat. For some, a problem. For me, more fun garage time.

Someone let me know if splitting that RCA is a no-no.

 

[Drift Away]

Took a while buyi found the video of me amd @wallacerb linked up.

 

[LionShare]

Wet Sounds really is a fantastic marine audio company... LED light and control up next for me.

 

[FloJet]

Love these things. Just remember to buy high end 3.5 aux to use with them. Or distortion can be a problem as we have found out.

 

[FloJet]

Oh forgot to mention we have ran it with 6 boats before and it was crazy crazy loud day. My crew and I use it every weekend really when we are all at the cove.

 

[2kwik4u]

Going to update this post a little.

Bought the A-link setup through an Amazon vendor last week, and tried it out this weekend for the first time. It worked great. No real big issues getting it setup and working with two boats. Set one to send and the other to recieve, then "wire it in" through a series of 3.5mm audio cables (You will need (1) more male to male cable than is included to complete the setup). Once we had them up and running they worked great for the hour or so we were anchored out listening to music. Was super nice to have multiple boats with the same soundtrack all sync'd up. I can't wait to get a couple more and link in more boats!

Overall it's worth the cash IMO. $150 seemed a little pricey, but even after one use I think it's worthwhile!

 

[FloJet]

Going to update this post a little.

Bought the A-link setup through an Amazon vendor last week, and tried it out this weekend for the first time. It worked great. No real big issues getting it setup and working with two boats. Set one to send and the other to recieve, then "wire it in" through a series of 3.5mm audio cables (You will need (1) more male to male cable than is included to complete the setup). Once we had them up and running they worked great for the hour or so we were anchored out listening to music. Was super nice to have multiple boats with the same soundtrack all sync'd up. I can't wait to get a couple more and link in more boats!

Overall it's worth the cash IMO. $150 seemed a little pricey, but even after one use I think it's worthwhile!

Nice. Ya $150 is high. We got lucky and got them around here for $100 for our whole group. After having experience with these just remember to spend $ on good quality AUX cables. I've seen issues with them if everyone is not doing such. I went to Audio quest AUX cables just because of the issues I've experienced with quality loss in the music.