Several months back I ordered a Biketronics BT480 Class D amplifier to go with the Biketronics Hertz BT445 speakers I already had. Well the amplifier came and it has sat on the bench for nearly two months now, why?, Football Season. Well today was the day that I was installing the amp. Off to the shop I went. After firing up the heat I opened the Biketronics box and laid out the included pieces. I than flipped through the directions to identify the components lying on the bench in front of me. At first glance the directions can be a little confusing or maybe I just couldn’t follow along.

I removed the fairing from the bike and roughly laid out where the amp(s) were going to go. NOTE: the ”amp” is actually two amps and a mystery box. While all relatively small I was under the assumption it would be a single box like pictured on the web site, no big deal. I cleaned the area where I was going to mount the amps with an alcohol swab (not included). I than ran the wiring harness from the two amps to the mystery box (still don’t know what it is!). With that done I had to run a ground, a hot to the battery and a powered hot. Since I’m running an aftermarket radio I was able to use a Blue powered wire from the head unit to power the amps. I ran the direct power (fused) wire under the tank directly to the battery. The next time I have the tank off I’ll fix this as it is just floating around under there right now. I attached the ground to where I have several other grounds attached, a fairing mounting bolt. At this point it was all ready to go. I connected the battery cables and turned on the ignition. My initial impression was it was ”ok”. I loaded a Godsmack CD and turned up the volume, much better. A little fine tuning of the radio EQ and we were making some noise!

At this point I was happy with the ease of the install and the sound so I installed the fairing. Lets try it again with the fairing on. I turn on the power and I have a humming, WTF? So I pull the fairing back off and started checking my wire connections, no change. I looked to make sure I didn’t pinch a wire installing the fairing (I have done that before!), nothing. I disconnected the RCA inputs from the amp to the radio and there it was. Hmm the instructions state that I can use the radio RCA outputs, guess not. Luckily the kit comes with a RCA to speaker lead conversion box. I installed it and everything worked as it was suppose to. So back on the fairing goes. Again I test everything (including my lights) and everything is perfect.

Godsmack goes back in and I twist the volume **** to almost full volume, dam it is loud. I dialed in the settings to my sound preference with a big smile on my face. I would have never thought you could get that much bass out of 5 ź” speakers. Now they are not subs by any means however they are WAY better than anything I have had in this bike so far powered off of just the head unit.

The amp and speakers carry a $700.00 retail price which makes the setup competitively priced with the other major players on the market. For me the LIFETIME warranty was a nice bonus (the others may have that also). I didn’t have to cut or splice a single wire as everything was Plug and Play. The amps boast something called StatorGuard which I have no idea what that is but it sounds impressive.

I’m off to Daytona in March and that will be the first time I get to road test the system. In the garage it sounds fantastic!

 

glad you like your setup. wish you would have hollared at firecap before your purchase. arc audio rules the amp world at half the price!

 

Tell me more about this as I am getting ready to pull the trigger on an amp.