This is pure self indulgence!

I bought a Sony MP3 deck because it had a Wired Marine Remote. Cool. The instructions that came with it said
".... Do Not Expose to Water or Direct Sunlight."
Hmm...
Lawyers...
Sony wanted me to drill a big hole and mount it directly to the boat. Sorry, but I don't drill holes in my boat! Besides, I'll bet this thing is going to quit someday, and then what to do with the hole? Audio gear goes through radical changes annually and they do nasty things like redesign the electrical interfaces, so I want to be able to say
"heck with it" and pull it off without leaving a scar.

Since I make a major project out of everything, I built this trick enclosure out of fiberglass. Note the threaded holes on the front --
I made a cover that screws on if I really want to protect it.

Look, I know this is a bit over the top, but it makes me happy!

Here's how it looks in action.

It can be swung around to face forward when hanging out in the cockpit, so I can reach it with my toe while snoozing on the bench --
a major benefit for those
with an active lifestyle.

The backside sticks out because that's where the wires come out.
They exit down and are tightly clamped between the housing
(I used my Handy Dremel Tool to make a groove) and the
off-the-shelf rail mount.
It's all sealed with silicone.

Sony made a proprietary control cable that has the dual gotchas of small
64 gauge wires (like about 8 strands of copper) and big connectors that are 5/8" round. Why, Why, Why? There was no way to fish that cable down my pedestal without cutting it, so I had to splice it by soldering all the wires back together. Pain. Note the Red Wire. It's HOT. I tested everything out and it worked perfect, and turned everything off but didn't disconnect the cable from the head unit, and when I started insulating the connections I managed to fry the main deck, requiring me to send it back to Sony.
Yes, I knew not to do that.
I'm not half as smart as I think I am.

All the cable connections are packed with silicone and covered with two layers of heat shrink tubing so there's no chance of it flexing and breaking a solder connection, and it all stays dry. It's important, since there are also connections about 8 inches down the cable from the wired remote. I don't know why they didn't put a nice 8 foot cable on the remote itself, but they must have been thinking that the unit would be mounted on a bulkhead and the wires would be inside the boat.

I didn't take pictures of the actual head unit. It looks exactly like a car stereo (duh) and is mounted in the starboard forward cabinet in the main salon. That's where every other C&C Landfall 38 owner seems to have mounted the stereo, and if you don't have a Landfall 38 you'll have an entirely different spot that is just exactly right...

I will say that MP3 is GREAT! I didn't have to put in a multi-disk changer, as the MP3 format lets me create multiple virtual disks on a single disk, so it's like having about 12 CD's on one disk, that I can switch using the "next disk" button, just like a changer. Besides, changers are going to be obsolete soon -- the little flash cards holding MP3 files are already shipping, they're just ridiculously expensive right now. I'll bet that in a few years you'll be able to get a little box that holds a dozen flash cards, and use it just like a CD changer without the space/power/mechanical complexity issues.