jstrubberg wrote:Do you own a smartphone? Or an iPod?
If so, I would skip the "Stereo" completely. MP3 music or an online radio service will give you all the tunes you can handle, and there are Bluetooth speakers that will blow you away. I purchased a Bose color speaker for work a few weeks back. It's like sitting in a concert hall.
Low cost (the speaker is it, and it's less than $150), no wiring, no power draw and portable. Can't beat it.
I agree! One of our Tearjerkers had just one Bluetooth-like speaker (I don't know what kind) tuned into music coming from his cell phone at one of last summer's gatherings and it worked great. Everyone commented on it positively. Unless you want to run speakers so loud that you can hear them vibrate, there's no reason to build them 'in' anymore. You could be building in something equivalent to a cassette or (dating myself) 8-track stereo....with eventual obsolescence. Also, if the speakers go bad, it's extra effort to replace them. If someone decides to remove them, they've got a hole in the wall or ceiling to deal with. If you use one of those new style portable speakers, you can take it anywhere you want it, in the cabin, the galley, your chaise lounge, the pool/lake......
When I built my trailer, I laid in front to back speaker wire, just in case I, or someone else, ever wanted built-in speakers. But, I have never once missed having them nor thought about adding them since then. I have radios available and find that I don't even use those. There's just too much else to see, hear, and do when you are out camping! So, my suggestion is that you do the same: Lay in some speaker wire, making certain that you know where it is and can get to it if you ever want to connect it. You, too, may find that you never use it. Okay, I'll get off the soap box now.