If you wire the fairing and lower speakers in parallel, are you essentially splitting the wattage between them? Is the 130 watt per channel amp going to send 65 watts to each speaker then?

 

I'm working on stereo upgrade right now. Not an apple guy so my Sony head unit doesn't have the tune tray. I bought a soundstream nano 320. Is it possible it will fit inside the fairing? I was thinking I'd have to put it in the tourpak.

 

If it's a soundstream nano pn4.320d it will fit right on top of the radio if your on a bat wing fairing bike. If on a road glide it will slip under the right are left glove box.

 

That would be great, thanks for the information.

 

yes sir the pn4.320d is 2" shorter in length, same depth, same height than the pn4.520d which does fit perfectly on top of the radio so your amp will fit fine.

 

you're splitting the total wattage output of the amp to a 2 ohm load regardless of how many speakers that entails. So if you use 1 speaker @ 2ohms the amp will see a 2 ohm load, if you use 6 speakers and create a 2ohm load, the amp will still see a 2ohm load. It doesn't care how many speakers it takes to create that 2 ohm load it simply cares that it's a 2 ohm load.

 

UltraNutZ:

Do you have any thoughts as to whether Polk db651 (4 ohm speakers) would "match" the Polk MM651? Or will/does it matter sonically if you're mixing speaker brands? I am pricing/researching speakers to run in the manner you suggest (parallel the 4 ohm speakers in the batwing/lowers for a 2 ohm load on the FRONT channel, and actual 2 ohm speakers in the TP pods on the REAR channel of the SS amp), but I'm not sure if keeping everything "Polk" is actually necessary. Yes, this is mainly a cost-related question; I can use either the Infinity 6032i or JBL GTO638 (2 ohm - each about $60) in the TP pods and they are each less than half the cost of the MM651s! Truthfully, I would probably have the Tour Pak on the bike 75% of the time (or more!), but is it really worth the cost to put MM651s in the rear while running the db651s off the front channel (I realize you're a big MM651 fan...)?

Aside from pure cost, my other consideration is the weather-resistance of both the Polk MM651s versus either the Infinity 6032i or JBL GTO638...the Polks are marine-rated, while the Infinity and JBL speaker offer no such rating.

Thanks YET AGAIN for your input!!

 

The thing I would be concerned with on the DB651 speakers is the cutout diameter of 5" vs 5.25" on the MM651. Not sure how that would line up with the cutout on the rear pods. I have a suspicion the mounting holes (at least a couple of them) on the speaker rim would fall inside the actual cutout that's already there. Aside from that the specs are pretty close with the DB651s being 60 watts continuous and 180 watts peak at 92db efficiency, and the MM651s being 100 watts continuous and 200 watts peak at 94db efficiency.

Each speaker is tuned differently based on manufacture specs but they shouldn't be that far off, at least not enough to tell the difference at 70mph so mixing speaker brands should not be an issue.

The Infinity 6032i have grills the 6032cf and 6032si do not. There are not a whole lot of specific specs such as cutout diameter, have no idea what "Intermount III mounting technology" is, etc. but they do have good power ratings also at 60watts cont, and 180watts peak. I've found 2 different diameter specs stating 6.5" and 6.25" so I'm not 100% sure which is correct.

The JBL GTO638 are the same 60 and 180 watt ratings at 92db efficiency. Again, these state 6.5" yet JBL states the external diameter is 6.25" so I'm not sure what's up with that. Maybe that's the diameter of the woofer.

Bottom line is do what you can afford to do vhmike73. Anything is going to sound so much better than stock. The MM651s are the best performing speakers I've personally tried so that's why I recommend them. Certainly not saying they're the best or that better can be had for less $. Just my personal experiences.

As for the marine ratings, I wouldn't focus too much on that aspect. As long as the woofer, woofer dust cover and woofer surround are made from pretty much anything other than paper, you're ok. These speakers are exposed to the elements on a daily basis so the elements will eventually take their toll on them. The premise behind my recommendations is good quality sound at a very reasonable price compared to other setups and if the speakers last a year (my last set was almost 2 years old when I sold the bike and still in perfect condition) then you've gotten your $60 or even $139 out of them.

Let us know how it turns out. Information is king these days and I'm sure others will look to your experiences with your setup to make their own decisions.

 

Yeah, I think I understand that part. In the case of the Soundstream amp, the amp will put out 100W per channel with a 4 ohm load and 130W per channel with a 2 ohm load - regardless of whether that's a single 2 ohm speaker or two 4 ohm speakers wired in parallel. But if they are two 4 ohm speakers wired in parallel, the 130W has to drive both, so essentially each speaker is getting half the output.

I guess my question is basically whether the choice is between a single set of 2 ohm speakers in the batwing running at the full rated power of the amp or a set of 4 ohm speakers in the batwing and one in the lowers, wired in parallel, each running at half the rated power.

I've got the Soundstream amp and I'm going to run the MM651s in the Tour-Pak off the rear channels, but I'm trying to decide whether to run a single set of MM651s in the fairing or a set of 4 ohm Focals in the fairing and another in the lowers off the front channels.

Sorry to bother you with this basic stuff, but this is all new to me. Thanks again for all your help - and patience.

 

man you're not bothering me at all.

It's what's coming out of the amp that is important not what's going into each speaker.

Ok so what the amp sees is the impedance (ohm) load of the combined speakers connected to that channel regardless of the number of speakers. So if you want to look at it as taking 2 - 4 ohm speakers, wiring them in parallel, bringing the ohm load the amps sees to 2 ohms, then you'll get 130w into those 2 speakers equally. I can't really say that each speaker will see 65 watts each because theoretically that's not what the amp is looking at.

I think a better way to look at this would be as such.

if you take 2 - 4ohm speakers, wire them in parallel to a combined 2 ohms at the amp then you'll see 130 watts coming out of the amp. If one of those 2 speakers fail, then you will be seeing 100 watts coming out of the amp into a 4 ohm load provided the failed speaker is not shorted out at which point your amp will clip.



IMHO, if it were me and I had lowers on my bike, I would most certainly drop in a set of speakers there.