Has anyone put any JL Audio speakers in their 14 Ultra yet? If so what model did you use?

 

Not yet ... hopefully next week when they arrive! i will be installing some C3-650's next week with the M200x2 JL amp. Let you know how it goes.

 

Hi Monty. How did you get the 6.5's mounted in the pods? I have some JL C3-650's on order with the adapter bracket for my 2014 SG. Did you have to modify the pods?

 

After a substantial delay, I think I got my system optimized. To recap: initially, I had the Magic Box w/ Biketronics 7.1" speakers and BT2180 amp. It got loud and sounded pretty good, but still didn't sound quite right. A little distorted at higher volumes and sounded like the DSP was still controlling the sound somewhat. I thought the sound could be better. On a side note, I drove all the way to Sturgis and back (about 11 hours each way) with the system like this. It was sufficient; as mentioned previously, it was plenty loud, so I could hear the music over the wind just fine. I have noticed that Country (Red Dirt, of course) and Classic Rock sound good, but the Hard Rock/Metal doesn't sound very good with this setup.

Nevertheless, I decided to try the dealer flash. Besides being lazy and not wanting to tear into the fairing unnecessarily, I was curious to see what would happen if I left the Magic Box in-line in addition to the flash (2 speakers, 1 amp flash). BIG MISTAKE! The sound was crappy and very quiet; it was the same as stock sound, possibly worse, and this was even with an amp and 7.1" speakers. While being disappointed, I was not fretting about it too much, since Biketronics recommends the flash over the Magic Box anyway. I knew it should be a relatively easy fix - just pull the Magic Box out and replace it with the line-out converters supplied by BT. I did that and we are back in business! It sounds really good. Very loud and clear with better bass (not huge bass, but better than before), and sounds right, like the DSP has been taken out of the equation altogether. The speakers will still distort, but that's only when they're cranked to full volume being pushed by a 180 watt amp while playing hard rock. But that's going to happen no matter what speakers you have. It's a "natural" distortion. At volumes up to 1 or 2 bars of max, they sound great. VERY loud. So for anybody going with a Biketronics setup, let me summarize:

• BT Speakers + Amp + Magic Box = Good but not great, still plenty loud, but doesn't sound quite right
• BT Speakers + Amp + Magic Box + Radio Flash = Bad idea/horrible
• BT Speakers + Amp + Radio Flash (2 speakers, 1 amp) = Great sound, very loud, best combination (this is the setup recommended by Biketronics)

I'm not sure if the flash for no amp (I thought I saw something about that on a previous post) is any better than the flash I used, but this is the flash BT recommended, so I took their word for it.

 

Only thing left to try then is wrapping the 7.1s with a little poly fill like you do with the pre 14s and see if that gives a little fuller sound on the low end. Soon as the proline is ready I'll give it a shot, implanting a 4180, pro BT up front, 6.5 in read pods with vtwin adapters and in September I'll add voodoo saddlebag lids with 8in subs.

 

lcjayhawk, it is good to hear you got that cleared up.

 

2014 SGS.......Installed the PBR300/2, magic box, JL Audio C5-650X, mounted the crossovers inside the speaker pod.........To use the original speaker mounting screws you will have to drill out the JL speaker holes and buff off the small alignment tab on the pod, I also removed some of the brace material in the right pod so the crossover would lay down better (fit fine in the left pod, right pod is different because of the cig lighter). Sounds great, I have my amp gain at 10, crossver at ~100, pretty much can run at full volume with no distortion except for very few songs and I tried a lot of different genres. Now for the downside......I ordered the boom grills but have not received them yet, finished up the pods and stuck them on the bike, wanted to see how it sounds, speakers hit the stock grills, pulled those off....the woofer suspension (outer ring) is really close to the fairing, it appears to me that any type of grill (mounted in the original location) will interfere with the speaker suspension. Soooooooo, looks like I will be running without grills!!!!!! BTW those three Bit#* azz bolts on the bottom of the pod.....long arm double offset boxend wrench work's great.....I could not even come close to breaking them loose with a 1/4" drive ratchet....those puppies were tight........

 

EEZZRIDE ,,,,,,

I think that this J&M 2014 Harley ROKKER XX speaker kit will be easier to install, and perform well with grills included so that everything fits properly ,,,,, http://www.jmcorp.com/ProductDetail....CRK-6652TW-RXX ,,,,,

complete info on this video ,,,,,, ,,,,

 

Thanks for the reply John, think I will stick with what I got for now......may do something different in the future. I don't mind the "no grill" look, i will be ok as long as no one pokes there finger in there....lol. The actual problem is the design of the speaker pod and how it mates to the inner fairing holes, the center of the pod is .130" higher than the inner fairing hole, which throws the mount of this speaker off as mounted in the original mounting holes. I could remount the speaker and center it up so the boom grill would work, but i figure why bother.......always been a JL fan since I tried several other different "brands" that I won't mention in my water toy......none of the others made it over a season and the JL's have took everything I could throw at em and been there doing it for 4 yrs.

 

Hi Ez. Thanks for the update. I should have my M200x2 JL amp and C3-650s next week. Since you mounted the speakers in the pods, I am assuming that you did not use the JL speaker adapters. I would really like to keep the pods for structural support, but don't want to run open speakers. I may try to grind down the pods to create the required clearance. I have to believe that the speakers will produce a better fuller sound inside the of the pods as opposed to open.