Motorcycle Audio

Outside of in helmet...Does anyone know of a good diy motorcycle audio forum?

I'm thinking of console mounted speakers, a hidden sub and amplifier.

Simple solution----full fairing. Pricey solution----Goldwing!

Get your bike quiet, reduce wind noise as much as possible.

I've had fairing mounted sterio systems. With all the wind and engine noise, I usually couldn't tell if a song was playing, or the DJ was talking.

I have not liked helmet mounted speakers. Seems they all touch my ears and just uncomfortable to put up with. You also end up blasting them trying to hear through all the wind and engine noise. Never got pulled over for the line going to my helmet.

Never run any of the earbuds in a helmet, but this generally strikes me as the most usefull. Especially with the noise reduction they give by sealing your ears.

quiet...one word that does not describe my bike. Minimac will agree

There are many options to improve a bike's audio, from Cobra, Vance and Hines, FMF...

POWA! MOAR POWA!

My bike isn't exactly quiet. Right now, I have a marine radio that is supposed to be rated at 20 watts/channel, but it is not as good as the 30 year old 18W/channel Alpine amp and low power Alpine head unit that it replaced.

Shop for a marine radio. You can hit them in the face with a high pressure hose and not bother them at all. Next, I suggest one with a USB jack. My current radio plays MP3's, but only on a disk, as the USB jack feature was not out when I bought it. It won't play a MP3 disk when the bike is running. Too much vibration. Read all the specs on the amp carefully. They play fast and loose with the distortion numbers and power (PEP v. RMS). I think that about 30 watts/channel RMS of CLEAN power would be more than enough. Actually, 20 watts if it is really clean is enough, but 30 would be better. Also remember that it takes double the power to raise the sound level 3db, with 1db being the minimum difference the human ear can tell in sound volume.

Speakers: Bigger is better. I'm limited to the size that will fit in my faring speaker hole/grill without serious hacking, so I went with JBL GTO427's. JBL has forgotten more about speaker design than the rest of the speaker industry will ever know. No problems with water, etc. The original HD speakers were a paper cone 1 way. They worked fine for 20 years. Still work, actually, but when I replaced them with the GTO's, there was a noticeable improvement in the sound. 5" speakers would have been better than the 4's, but, as I said, won't fit my bike. Later years have 5" openings and a lot of people run the GTO527's. I actually bought some 527's, only to find they wouldn't fit my bike. They're on the shelf. I think I'll put them in a Europa.

pinchvalve wrote: There are many options to improve a bike's audio, from Cobra, Vance and Hines, FMF...

Mine resonates from D&D with a 4-1 pipe