I want to start by admitting that I am not an audio expert nor did I use any fancy equipment to measure the audio signal. Rather this is just a description of my experience in hopes that it helps someone else.

After visiting a new Harley Dealership and experimenting with their Boom Audio State II demo board, I decided I wanted something better than the stock audio on my 2014 Ultra Limited. However I did not want to pay the $1800.00 plus installation for the Harley setup.

I did a lot of researching on web sites like this and at times was totally confused. Many said, “J&M sounds great”. Others said, “You can do better for your money than J&M”. Some claimed, “I have spend lots on J&M and am very unhappy.” Others praised Biketronics.

For better or worse I decided to go with the J&M rokker Extreme kit because I wanted a plug and play kit that I could install myself. I.E. I did not want to cut into the factory harnesses. I ordered the kit which took about 10 days to arrive.

My first impressions were that the amplifier and harness were well-made. The harnesses all had shrink tubing and the metal bracket used to mount the amplifier did not have any rough edges. However I found the installation documentation confusing. In the wiring drawing, not all of the connectors on the J&M harness were shown. Nor was the drawing noted that the input side connectors were not shown. The connectors for the fairing speakers were not marked right or left.

In addition, there was not a single set of instructions. Rather the amplifier had instructions, the fairing speakers had instructions, and the rear speakers had instructions.

I installed the amplifier first only to discover that I had to remove the amplifier to install the fairing speakers. Some of the screws are a real pain in the *** to get at so a little heads up would have been nice.

Upon testing the system, I noticed that the rear speakers were much louder than the front speakers. I had to advance the front / rear fader plus 3 to the front to make them equal in volume. I emailed John from J&M, and asked if this was normal. He said, “No it is not expected but it will go away when you re-flash you head unit.” I knew that I needed to turn off the head unit’s amplifiers, but could not understand why that would cause the balance to be off. I disconnected the amp and verified that the radio‘s balance was perfect.

The following Saturday I had the Harley radio re-flashed per the J&M instructions, but this did not correct the balance. I emailed J&M again and was told that dealer probably did not flash the radio correctly. I was very frustrated at this point. I have an electrical engineering degree and it was clear to me that something was wrong with the amplifier. The following Monday I informed the place where I purchased it that the kit was not working, that I felt like I was getting the run around from J&M, and was considering returning the kit. They suggested that I speak with Andy from J&M.

Andy convinced me that I needed to re-flash the J&M amplifier with an update that he was currently working on, but to do so I needed to purchase a dongle. I was told that the amplifier update file would be posted to the J&M website before I received the dongle.
When the dongle arrived 3 days later, I removed the fairing looking for a place to connect it to the amplifier. The connecter was obscured by a label and the instructions did not show where on the amplifier the connector was located. I found it by touch. I went to the URL provided in the dongle's instructions for the update file, but did not find any recent update for the 2014 ultra extreme kit. Once again I felt mislead. The following day, I emailed John and asked about the amplifier update. After being told several time to clear my browser cache, I learned that the URL provided in the instructions was not the correct URL. Using the correct URL provided in an email, I found and downloaded the amplifier update. That night I tried but was unable to update the amplifier using the instructions provided with the dongle.

The following day I discussed the procedure for updating the amplifier with Andy from J&M, and learned that the instructions provided with the dongle are not correct all the time. Finally on Friday night I successfully updated the amplifier, and what a difference it made.

The system finally sounded good, really good but I was just in my garage. When I went upstairs my wife said, you must have finally got it working. I felt the floor rattle when you turned up the volume”.

Now I can honestly say that I am happy with the purchase. I have no trouble hearing the radio on the highway at 80 MPH. The sound quality is great even at high speed.

I thought I would add my only regret. I wish I had not purchased the tour pac speakers since my next upgrade will be the removable tour pac kit. It would have been wiser for me to put the money I spend for the tour-pac speakers toward speakers for the saddle bags.

Finally, although John came off as arrogant at times, I do think he genuinely cares. I had been asking for help via email. Sometimes I used my home email and sometimes my work email. John always responded within a day to me. Usually the same day. One Friday morning John responded to a question I send from my work email. I did not reply back because I was at work and could not try what he suggested. However when I returned to work after the weekend, I learned that John had send a second email late on Friday inquiring if all of my issues with the kit were resolved.

 

I had them do the full installation at Americade last year. Everyone was professional and their work was great. They even went to bat for me over the phone with Harley ESP to get my broken fairing brackets paid for. Nothing is perfect at 80 mph but this is pretty close.

 

That's good to hear the system works as advertised My plan for next year is to improve the audio on my Road Glide. Like you, i'm looking for something plug & play. Despite the initial problems it seems they worked to ensure the system was correct.

 

Thanks for the honest review (both good and bad) on J&M. It goes a long way helping us to make a good decision purchase wise going forward.

 

Im happy with them. Rokkers and an RF amp, sound good and loud with a total investment of about $400. They even replaced both speakers after one went bad.

 

You had to purchase something for your amp to work? I would have returned it, that's not plug and play. You pay extra for plug and play.

 

Plug and play vs hooking up a few wires?? I wouldn't pay all that extra for an hour of convenience, it really wasn't anymore convenient for you since you had to make multiple calls and get the run around from wats his face.. I can hear my setup at 80 so if yours is just fine with all you have vs my 1 amp 2 speaker stock HU combo I'd say you could have spent alot less but hey if to your money use it when you need it lol.. Glad ya like it tho your one of the very very few

 

Screamer

Glad you are happy with your purchase. Wish you would've asked some questions in the Audio Section...we could've given you some advice and lessons learned using various better systems.

Curious: Why/how did you come to the conclusion J&M was the right choice for you, even after you read negative reviews?

 

I'm very pleased with my J&M set up. I only did fairing speakers and amp which was plug n play and required no dealer flash. I will buy from them again if needed.

 

Oh, you will.