I am in need of some help with my stereo set-up for my 11 Ultra.

I will give as much info as I can in hopes that someone can point me in the right direction.

Original Setup - Stock Unit (2) Boom Audio in Fairing (2) Boom Audio in Lower. Sound was OK but I use my iphone to listen to tunes and had two wires running (1) to charge and (1) to plug into front of unit that was a pain in the butt and of course I could not skip songs etc..

Ordered a Sony Head Unit with direct iphone plug in as well as Retro Kit to use handlebar controls. I later found out I could not use Boom Audio Speakers so I put a set of Alpine SPS-610 6 1/2" in fairing. Sounded great in my driveway, as soon as I got up to 40 mph I could not hear a thing and I had to crank it the stereo to 30 and it would just distort. It was like the unit had no power.

Thought there was a problem with the Sony Head Unit. Called the place where I got it and they exchanged it for a new unit.

I now have the Kenwood KDC-BT318U which has a little more power than the Sony did. Hooked it up still with Alpine Speakers and added the Boom Audios in the lowers. Sitting in my driveway it sounds AWESOME as soon as I hit the road it sounds terrible although better than the Sony did. Still I have to crank it to 28-30 just to hear it and it is all distorted and sounds terrible.

I pulled the Unit and put back in the stock unit with that speaker combo and it blows the Sony and the Kenwood away. I put it at a normal volume and it sounds good going down the road.

Now I know this should not be, I have never heard of a case where a stock unit sounds better than an aftermarket ever!

I have a Kenwood unit in my jeep powering (4) aftermarket speakers and a small stock sub with no amp and with the top and doors off it will blow you out at 24.

So.....I am at a loss as to what the heck the problem is here. I was contemplating pulling the 6X9 speakers that I put in my corvette last spring out and trying to set them in the fairing in hopes that they would sound good. But I am not sure if the speakers are the problem since using the ones I have now with the stock head unit they sound good although I know the 6X9 would give me some more bass and that would be good. Was thinking the 6X9 in the fairing and the 6 1/2 in the lowers.

OK so that is all the info I can think of. I really need help!!! I would like to use the aftermarket head unit for the ease of use with the iphone and being able to control it with the handlebar controls.

Thoughts, Advice.....help

Thanks
Joe

 

1. You will never get 6x9 speakers in a stock batwing fairing. Many have tried, all have failed.

2. I looked up your speakers, and the first spec that jumped out at me was the sensitivity. It has a very low rating, which means you will need some serious power to get decent sound out of them.

3. You need an amp. Get another set of 4 ohm 6.5" speakers for the lowers and run them in parallel with a pbr300x2. Should really wake them up.

 

And add in the fact that boom audio speakers are 2 ohm speakers; you've only set yourself for failure here

 

Had planned to change those out once I could get some advice on how to make this all work. Figured why spend money on more speakers when I could not get the 2 that I have to sound decent.

Crazy when buying the radio they never said if you want it to sound good you need an amp too... I probably would never have opened this can or worms and stuck with what I had and dealt with the extra wire hanging and not being able to skip a song......

 

ok listen I'm not going to pick apart your decisions but I will say this. When doing stuff like this, you're wanting to do this in stages, and you're wanting to do it right, the first thing to start with is the speakers. Go for the best you can afford to buy. Then build your system around those speakers.

In your case, this is what I would do sir;

And let me point out what you have working against you up front.
1. the head unit is rated at 22w RMS x 4 channels. That's not a lot of power and in fact your stock head unit is probably more.
2. those rear speakers are going to toast that head unit. It's not designed to handle 2 ohm speakers, period.


so.
1. You MUST remove the rear speakers now before you do any damage to your head unit and replace them with a good 4 ohm speaker. The Kicker CS67/CS674 is a great inexpensive option and will allow you to retain your rear stock grills.
2. you need to go back through your wiring and make sure that you have the speakers wired correctly. 1 speaker wired incorrectly will throw the entire sound experience out of whack. This is what's know as out of phase.


head unit white wire goes to the left front speaker +
head unit white/black wire goes to the left front speaker -
head unit gray wire goes to the right front speaker +
head unit gray/black wire goes to the right front speaker -
head unit green wire goes to the left rear speaker +. If you're tying into stock wiring in the fairing this is the brown wire, pin #2 on the stock harness
head unit green/black wire goes to the left rear speaker -. If you're tying into the stock wiring in the fairing this is the white/brown wire, pin #25 on the stock harness
head unit purple wire goes to the right rear speaker +. If you're tying into stock wiring in the fairing this is the green wire, pin #1 on the stock harness
head unit purple/black wire goes to the right rear speaker -. If you're tying into stock wiring in the fairing this is the green/brown wire, pin #24 on the stock harness

once your wiring is done.
take a single thin layer of polyfil and line the inside of the rear pods. just lay it in there. DO NOT wrap the speaker

in the fairing, take 3 thin layers of polyfil in a 15x15" square and wrap the left and right speakers.

here is the polyfil at Walmart
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Poly-Fil-E...-x-96/17808679

the barcode on the polyfil is 3535210023


only way I can make this easier for you is to install it myself.