Aquatic AV Bluetooth Waterproof Marine Stereo AQ-MP-5BT

£165

www.aquaticav.com

Aquatic AV are an American company who produce stereos for boats, hot tubs and Harley Davidsons. Both this model and the more up-market MP-5UBT have the deepest bodies, with the unit protruding 18cm behind the panel – 3cm more than the next biggest, the Fusion, which also has a drawer inside.

The head unit is waterproof to IP55 – which means that ‘Water projected by a nozzle against the enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effect.’ It has a built in 288W amplifier, and you can connect up to eight speakers. In use the buttons felt fairly stiff, but were intuitive to use. You can remove the front panel to reveal a drawer for your media device. There’s also a USB socket, which will charge your device – although only at 1A, which rules out some larger devices. It also won’t play back over USB – unlike its more fully-featured unit (below).

You can play music via Bluetooth, and there is an AM/FM radio.

The sound was somewhat brash, but this was made up for by volume – the unit was plenty powerful enough to override any wind or water noise.