This thread has been pretty quiet for a while but thought I'd post our speaker solution. We did not opt for built in anything mostly so the trailer stays adabtable to changing technology and for ease of moving items where we are—in the cabin or outside in the evenings.
We use the
Hover Bar from
12South that I think I mentioned somewhere on here prior to purchasing our CI. For a portable, install as you go bar it's also super industrial. It clamps up to 1" thick surfaces and it holds. We pop our iPad out of the carrier when traveling but otheweise the arm stays right there ready to go. We mount it in the top left cubby corner so it can access both the AC and DC ports below and be above the dogs. Here's a
close up of it in use. The extension arm is 22" long and is extending backwards into that top cubby kinda C shaped.
We bought the
JBL Flip from Best Buy for $100. While not real audiophiles we did still try all the bluetooth speakers out and this one even sounded better than the $200 and $250 models on hand. It's really small and can rest on it's horizontal flatter surface or stand upright vertically—can we say bag chair cupholder? It goes everywhere. So when we're in the cabin, we just rest it on the flip down tray beneath the iPad or it can stand upright on either nightstand shelf it's so slim. It also has a built in microphone. So if it is connected to your cell phone instead of your iPad, you can easily answer, converse and end phone calls directly through it. So when we have it out with us by the galley, taking a phone call while cooking is really simple too.
We've been really pleased with both items ease of set up and access to the music/tv options while on the road. And each items ability to multi-purpose cater to the campsite or at home, in the boat (speaker easily fits and plays through a waterproof bag), back porch...we actually used it in the car for most of the trip since our Explorer is older and doesn't have sync or any bluetooth car systems. We gave up on all the FM transmitters long ago-nothing's more annoying than constantly searching for a channel when driving long distances. We just rested it in the front console and streamed Pandora the whole drive. I thought it would sound weird in the car versus all the car speakers but it really wasn't at all.
It comes with an AC adapter but we also bought a pretty standard AC/DC converter kit with a few sizes. So it can run on either.