Memphis unveiled at the SEMA Show this month what it calls the first radio of its kind: a black box hideaway radio for powersports vehicles. There’s no face to the radio so controls are located on your smartphone through an app.
The Bluetooth deck has 4 x 50 watt power; front, rear and subwoofer RCA outputs, USB, AM/FM/Weather band radio and auxiliary input.
The app provides simple interfaces for source selection, equalization settings, and other controls.
It is expected to ship in the first quarter 2019 at a tentative price of around $249.
The radio will also be built into a soundbar to be offered in January or February. The 28-inch powersports soundbar delivers 300 watt output and includes four 6.5 inch drivers and four tweeters. It has a control pad for basic settings, but, like the radio, it is app-controlled from a smartphone.
The soundbar has an integrated dome light and RGB lighting. It also has a USB charging output.
Memphis is targeting an $849 price point for the soundbar, model MXA46SB28.
On the bright side, it can pave the way for app based individual profiles including genre, loudness, audio enhancement preferences et al. A radio that works differently for different drivers or different times of day/week or for that long drive with someone special…
(one of the things proposed by yours truly several years ago, but never mind… we’ll get there one of these years 🙂
Looking at the graphics of the control app, I forgot what year it is…
That is a truly ugly GUI they have.
Kudos for trying to be innovative!