I've been reading alot about what radio to put in my fairing, but I am hoping to get some concrete answers from someone with a similar setup as mine. My setup is a batwing style fairing, with a small 6 inch windshield, I am 5'9". I'll be riding about 80mph on the hwy. So if thats similar to you, what radio and speakers and amp (if you have an amp) are you using? How many RMS? Thanks in advance for your help.

 

what do you have for speaker openings in your fairing?

 

4 holes, 5" each.

 

im running fosgate 6.5 separates in the front, fosgate 6.5 3way's in bag lids, and kicker 8" in a box in right side bag.
Headunit is pioneer "mech-less" bluetooth mvh8300, on a db Drive 125x4 amp on 6.5's and fosgate pbr300 on the kicker.

PLENTY loud enough...sufficiently loud enough to hear in a car beside me...going 80! thats not an exageration.

the thing to keep in mind is you hear/feel ZERO bass at any speed, so mids/highs are critial. spend for the best speakers you can in the front, and get rid of the harley headunit if you have one.
I found that the separates made a huge difference in listenability & sound quality.

 

Check out my sig for what I have in my SG. I second what Powersmoke said about the bass. Mine gets plenty loud and sounds pretty good to me.

Shakey

 

Hey, I'm upgrading as we speak. I bought polk audio MM6501 component 6.5" for the fairing, MM691 3way 6x9's for the bag lids. And will be powering it with a JM 500x4 amp. I'm optimistic the bike will be rockin.

Now I read your thread and you're recommending switching out the HK head unit. What is that? Are they that bad?

I'm also toying with the idea of another amp and a sub. I might buy a quick detach tour pack for that. Glad you told me that you can't hear the sub at speed. Thanks.

 

Personally, I feel unless you have about a 60mph tailwind, any stereo you have will not sound that great at 80mph.

 

My audio setup uses an Arc Audio ampwith Hertz hsk-165 component speakers in the front and Polk audio DXi6500 speakers in the rear. Plenty loud and decent bass at any speed.

 

How did you get 6.5" in rear pods? What amp are you running to power all four speakers. I'm very interested in this setup.

 

I installed the rear speakers by setting them into the openings in the speaker pods. The mounting flange sits on top of the opening instead of on the inside which provides just enough depth to allow the speaker to fit. I then drilled some new holes and screwed them in. It was really quite simple and took about 5 min to do.

The Polk speakers are only 2 5/16" deep which is the key to making them fit. It's a tight fit. I don't think the Hertz speakers would work in the rear because they're a bit taller.

http://www.polkaudio.com/caraudio/dxi/specs.php

http://www.hertzaudiovideo.com/Doc/H...rgy_HSK165.pdf

Since the Arc amp is only 2 channel, I wired the amp in parallel to connect the rear speakers. I don't have fader control but it seems to be fine without it. Someday I may switch to a 4 channel amp but for now, I'm pleased with this setup.

Post #8 in this thread has some pictures.