2011 FLHTCU
PN4 1000d amp
4 Kicker speakers in fairing and TP

If I were to add two speakers to the lowers do I need another amp or do I wire the two front left speakers in parallel and the two front right speakers in parallel each to a channel?

I see a lot of different types of speakers being used. The speakers with the tweeters built in. (coax I believe)
The types that have just the woofer. (component?)
Some of those come with separate tweeters. I've seen some referred to as PA speakers or Loud speakers. I don't know if those are more types of speakers or just people describing them.

The Kickers have decent sound however I'm kind of reluctant to adjust the eq of them since I set the amp with everything level at 0. When I adjust mids and treble it makes a big difference in the volume level vs just the amount of mid or treble coming through so I'm afraid to make those adjustments and hurt the amp or speakers.

Should I just get two more kickers or go with something else? I want to adjust my kickers to have some more mid levels.

Any input is appreciated. The current parts should give you an idea of my price range.
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What model kickers do you have? Do you have enough volume?
With your current system, your amp will be fine. Feel free to adjust your EQ with subtle changes, a notch up or down here or there should be fine. Keep the adjustments minimal to shape your sound to your liking, and keep a good ear on your speakers until you learn what they are capable of.
Obviously we all want as much mid/bass as we can squeeze out of them, but at high volume and higher speeds, most speakers can struggle to produce the mids without distortion. I'll sometimes back off my lower frequencies a little at higher speeds in favor of a little more volume.

i see you are looking for mid-range. We are always limited with a 6.5" coax, but there are a few out there that can give you a bit of punch.
1. On a budget you could grab another set of kickers and parallel them with your front speaker or some guys parallel with their rear speakers. The downside is with them sharing a channel you lose the ability to adjust them separately. It is nice to have adjustability, especially on lowers and rear speakers, as you are going to want them a bit louder than your main speakers as they get lost in the wind easier.

2.Myself, I would lean towards a second amp like a Micro amp. The NVX Vadm 2 or the 4 bridged come to mind.
I don't see a DSP listed, so I would stick to Coax speakers.
With a second amp you could run another kicker.

3. As far as speaker options, I have a tendency to lean towards the Mmats PA601.cx and DB Moto WDX6 or G2's because they are a solid speaker capable of giving you good sound and more volume. The Mmats drops right into the lowers, but the DBs required a little grinding in the lower pods I have to fit. They are a little more money, but well worth it.

4. Here is a twist on your upgrade ideas. I think I would start off with just a fairing upgrade to the Mmats PA 601.4cx. Your amp has lots of power to run them, and they are a solid choice for volume and sound quality.
Your fairing is the best place to increase your volume and sound quality. The rest of the areas on the bike are more for filling in the sound, and in reality, need to be even louder than the fairing to overcome wind noise.
If you feel you still feel you need more, you can start looking at a second amp and lowers, or add the lowers and parallel them with the rear channel for now until you can afford a second amp.
Like you I started with 1 amp and 4 speakers, then added a second amp and lowers, but still wasn't satisfied, then I started upgrading speakers. The speaker upgrades were the best bang for my buck to get me where I am.
I'm currently running Mmats in the fairing and DB Moto in lowers off of the Stinger and it rocks. Your SS amp has more power than my Stinger and would definitely run the Mmats well in the fairing.
I also have speaker lids now running off my second amp, but even my JL 8.8" struggle to keep up to the volume of my fairing and lowers.

Rock on and play it LOUD!
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Speaker model 46csc654
So wiring them in parallel to the rears is a better option than to the fronts? The kickers are louder than before but at 70-80 mph I have the volume maxed (the new max). I hear them just fine at those speeds but again, they are maxed. So I guess I'm looking the increase the volume a tad and do so with a decent option.

 

My bike is newer so maybe things have changed, but here is the $20 HD wiring harness that I used to plug in my lowers. My head unit powered the up with out having to fuss with them. I found the connector on the bike hanging down above the headlight in the fairing.

maybe it will help you too. I hate to spice anything if there is a harness available. This will run the lowers independently (not parallel) if your head unit has 4 wires out to the harness connector.

 

Thanks but Id be running these directly to my amp.

 

I wouldn't say it's a better option, but if you parallel them with your rears, at least you can use your fader to help balance your rears and lowers with the fairing.

At the minimum, i prefer to run a second amp if I run 6 speakers, I also prefer to run a louder speaker in my lowers so that I can balance them with the fairing out there fighting the wind at 80mph.

Which Kickers do you have?

​​​​​​I have never run the kickers, but have been through a variety of 6.5" speakers over the years, Rockford, Sony, Pioneer, J&M, Hogtunes, and Klipsch. And have run some of them off the SS amp.
I am now running less power to the Mmats in my fairing, and have way better sound and more volume at 80mph.

Based on my experience, I would personally upgrade those fairing speakers to the Mmats. I think you would get more volume and better sound from that then adding a set of lowers and paralleling another kicker.

Others that have used those kickers may disagreee, but I think you would be just as far ahead replacing the kicker in the fairing with Mmats at $200 vs adding a lower pod, another set of kickers, and a second amp at approximately $400. Adding the lowers, a kicker, and an amp would definitely give you fuller sound, but that quite often fades as you pass the 70 mph mark.
A highway speeds, I don't think you will get as much benefit from the kicker/lowers combo as you would from the pair of Mmats in the fairing. You need a lot more volume from the lowers to really get the benefit. Just adding lowers and a set of kickers in parallel with either your fairing or your tour pack will not really gain much out on the highway. You might hear the difference in the parking lot, but will lose the lowers on the highway.

If you truly have your heart set on lowers. I would run a second amp, and at least a set of Mmats coax to give the volume and sound to compliment what you already have, but that starts to get pricey at around $500.
Probably further down the rabbit hole than you're looking to go.

 

No I don't have my heart set on lowers I just figured that would get me where I want to be. But I can see how at 80 mph they won't be doing much.

Both my kickers (link in the original post) and the Mmats pa601cx have the same rms handling but the sensitivity is higher at 95db @ 1w vs the 90 on the kickers. Other than producing a better sound does that increase volume as well?

If I went with mmats to replace the fairing speakers I wouldn't need to mess with my amp right? The power output would be the same from the amp to a set of 4ohm speakers. If I go with lowers I'd have to parallel two together making a 2 ohm load which gets more power from the amp. I assume I'd have to then adjust the amp gains on that set of channels to reflect the voltage difference?

 

If you get a small second amp to drive them lowers are one of the biggest improvements in listening comfort that can be made on these sleds. They are WELL worth the trouble. The Stinger SPX350x2 might be a good amp to run them that is easy to hide.

What I wound up doing is running my fairing speakers and lowers off of the front channels of my fader control. I used a cheap RCA level control on the fairing speaker inputs to adjust the volume to them to blend them with the lowers to my liking (I just stuck it under th eignition switch plate with outdoor rated Schotch double sided tape). I then put the rear speakers on the rear channel of the fader.

What lowers do for you is give more sound sources for your ears to pick up on, so you can hear the music easier without having to crank it up as loud. Basically it makes listening to music at highway speeds much less harsh.

 

Thank you for that input. I'll look into that amp. First, I just discovered that my rear speakers are buzzing. Gonna have to start looking into why.

 

I am running mats in fairing, and kickers in the back, And same amp if you maxing out your volume and can’t really hear the kickers check you gain, kickers for the money are good, I was also thinking about lowers but switching to mmats is a night and day, ajust that gain,
at 80 I don’t go over 7 bars on volume on stock radio , you get plants of sound out of that amp