ATF: Landmark - AM/FM Stereo

I am curious. We had a 2011 Bighorn and it came with a Jensen head unit that controlled 3 sets of speakers and had a simple AM/FM Stereo on board. We now have a Landmark Newport 365 and it did not come with a radio much less a unit of any kind on board. Even the sound bar inside the coach is NOT bluetooth capable. Is there a way to have a radio installed with speaker that would be "like" factory?

DW and I have looked at having a 12V auto radio installed in one of the top cabinets and then either use a soundbar or speakers installed in the space behind the TV. Problem is where to put the antennae - everything we looked at requires such so will need to get one installed. Have not been able to look around for a suitable 'RV' type antennae as yet.

Double check you sound bar manual, mine is Bluetooth capable. I had to slide the unit out to activate the Bluetooth.

ksucats said:

DW and I have looked at having a 12V auto radio installed in one of the top cabinets and then either use a soundbar or speakers installed in the space behind the TV. Problem is where to put the antennae - everything we looked at requires such so will need to get one installed. Have not been able to look around for a suitable 'RV' type antennae as yet.

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You can buy car stereo antennas at Wal*Mart, Best Buy, any auto parts store or car audio store.

Problem is you'll have to run the wire and then drill a hole in your trailer somewhere to mount one.

Our Prowler came with a Fusion AM/FM/CD/DVD unit that looks like a car stereo and it was connected to the TV antenna on the roof through a splitter behind the stereo unit and inside the entertainment cabinet under the livingroom TV.

However, we were having problems with the cable TV coming in at RV parks, and after months of trying to figure out what was going on, I unplugged that coax connection from the back of the radio unit . . . and suddenly the cable picture was perfect!

Our dealership supposedly fixed it, but when we went out on our next campout . . . no cable TV.

I knew what to do, except that when the dealership reinstalled the stereo I couldn't remove it from the cabinet as they screwed it in so tight that I couldn't get the stereo out.

The dealership sent a mobile tech out to our house to fix that (plus a few other things they didn't do right), and he basically destroyed the stereo trying to get it out, plus the cabinet was torn up as well.

Anyway, they replaced the unit with a new model and he mounted it so that it could be removed easily, but used the same radio coax connector, and our last campout last month . . . no cable TV.

So I pulled the stereo and unplugged that coax connector . . . and now a perfect cable signal!

I am now waiting for a new connector to arrive from them, plus I am trying to locate one of those simple 'T' shaped diapole antennas and am thinking about going that route instead due to the fact that when the radio is connected to the roof antenna you have to have the antenna amplifier on, so if I am outside I can't listen to the radio while someone is inside watching the TV.

Anyway . . . sorry for the long story.

On our last coach there was a small antenna attached to the outside of the entertainment slide. Not very long - the best I can describe it is to think of the door latch we have for keeping the coach door open. It has a small detent to keep it latched down when not needed - in the case of the antenna it was reversed, it folded down but could be latched up. Have not seen one of those around, at least not around here and the KC dealerships we've been to, to include Camping World (rolling eyes intended )

A thought, I might have to PM jeff and see if he can find one on Amazon, that man finds all types of intriguing electronic things there!!

Our '16 LM 365 Ashland came with a Samsung sound bar under the LG television...why they didn't pair the two from the same manufacturer, I haven't the foggiest however, ours IS bluetooth capable. I play music through it via my Android phone or Ipad to play my Pandora music App (using our own WiFi). It was quite easy to pair using the remote it came with by pressing the POWER button to turn on the sound bar and then BT (for bluetooth); then pair it with your phone or other device.

HTH's

We DO wish Heartland Landmarks have the same audio setup our '14 Cyclone had in the garage where you could play music inside speakers or outside speakers. We miss it. We had to buy a portable bluetooth capable speaker so we could have campfire happy hour music...it isn't the same quality sound as we had with our outdoor speakers on our Cyclone. Andy Wesdorp, are you following? LOL

Good morning--to the best of my knowledge we've only used the Samsung soundbar mentioned above and now, currently, the Sony "soundplate". Both are bluetoothers and both sounded really good in my opinion. The Samsung had an auxiliary subwoofer hidden behind the fireplace while the current soundplate has the bass built in. When we relaunched the LM365 two summers ago I remember the decision was made against exterior speakers because of the sound quality. Perhaps we need to revisit and I will investigate. At home we have a "Sonos" wireless wifi speaker and it sounds incredible. I think Bose also has a good one. Both of those would definitely be better than stationary exterior speakers for both sound quality as well as the ability to use them anywhere.

Hope this helps, have a great day,
Andy

Thank you for answering, Andy.

Okay, I'm understanding why outdoor speakers weren't installed (ie. moisture issue); although when we had our Cyclone, we didn't experience that problem. That said, was there a particular reason why a simple sound bar wasn't installed in the outdoor entertainment (television) of our Landmark 365 that we could pair like that of our indoor television soundbar? We barely can hear the television outside as it stands alone, especially when parked in busy campgrounds or RV parks/resorts. We currently are looking for a speaker or sound bar (that doesn't require the big bass box) to pair with the television (and other bluetooth capable devices...phones, ipads, etc.) so we can at least hear when those hockey pucks hit the boards or the NASCAR race cars hit the wall in a crash. We'd be more than happy to 'test' one if you provided it and report back to you of our experiences *hint hint*.

NoMadCats said:

Thank you for answering, Andy.

Okay, I'm understanding why outdoor speakers weren't installed (ie. moisture issue); although when we had our Cyclone, we didn't experience that problem. That said, was there a particular reason why a simple sound bar wasn't installed in the outdoor entertainment (television) of our Landmark 365 that we could pair like that of our indoor television soundbar? We barely can hear the television outside as it stands alone, especially when parked in busy campgrounds or RV parks/resorts. We currently are looking for a speaker or sound bar (that doesn't require the big bass box) to pair with the television (and other bluetooth capable devices...phones, ipads, etc.) so we can at least hear when those hockey pucks hit the boards or the NASCAR race cars hit the wall in a crash. We'd be more than happy to 'test' one if you provided it and report back to you of our experiences *hint hint*.

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I have a Sony Boom Box with a built-in sub woofer that I've used when hooking up to an outside TV.

Much easier to hookup and probably sounds better and carries over the park noise better.

John, what model # is it? Is it portable or did you mount it? How big is it? Photo?

NoMadCats said:

John, what model # is it? Is it portable or did you mount it? How big is it? Photo?

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It is one of the Sony XPlod series . . . model 505.

I don't have a shot of it, but I found this one on EBay:



I have an electronic keyboard stand that it fits on perfectly.

We used it at the Colorado HOC Rally at Rifle Gap State Park in 2014 when we gathered outside one of the members trailers to watch a Broncos game.

We couldn't hear the game out of the outside TV speakers, so I ran back to our trailer and grabbed my Sony XPlod and stand . . . and the game was heard by all!

I also use it inside of our trailer along with the ceiling speakers for surround sound when watching movies.