Ohm my goodness....
Difference between 4ohm and 2ohm speakers?
Novice
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
From: Van Buren Maine, 04785
What I would do is first check the gain settings on your amp and see where they are set. flatten all bass and treble levels on the radio, and begin the tuning process, your crossover on the amp should be around 100hz or 110 as it says on the top of the amp start off slowly with the amp gain and the volume control on your radio from past alpine radios I have tested you should get to at least 28 on the volume control level and I believe that radio shoild max out at 35 this will give you the max radio volume for the radio and where the radio still puts out a good clean signal to the amp thus no BAD signal to the amp and speakers
Road Captain
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 559
Likes: 0
From: La Vergne, TN
Not sure how sensitve the Alpines are either. If your gain is set correctly and your getting satisfying sound levels and clarity, I'm not sure what the issue is, did I miss something?
Road Warrior
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 1,993
Likes: 20
From: Southeast GA
Don't know which Arc amp you have but set your gain controls about 3/4 of the way. That'll put you in the ballpark. If you have L & R gain controls, they need to be set evenly (both at 3/4) so both speakers will play as loud. If the amp has a bass boost control, I would turn it off or maybe about 1/4 of the way up. You'll have to play around with that with the fairing on. Turn the crossover on the amp to full. Also, on your Alpine radio, I would go in and make sure the loudness is turned on. The goal to shoot for is loud clean sound at about 3/4 volume on the radio with no distortion. If your speakers are rattling and sounding like crap at 3/4 way, adjust your gains down on the amp till they sound good. Good luck.
Last edited by vickers1; Jul 14, 2010 at 08:34 PM.
Road Warrior
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 1,993
Likes: 20
From: Southeast GA
One more thing, these speakers I have are components so I have the tweeters in two of my open gauge holes ('09 EGS), would there be any way to keep them just to add more to it? I guess I could essentially just wire them to the radio instead of the amp correct? I need to take a look at the Alpine head unit manual to see if I can control the bass to just the tweeters if wired to the radio.
Road Master
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 1,116
Likes: 0
From: Bella Vista, AR
I just wanted to comment on a earlier post that creating a 8 ohm load by wiring 2 4 ohm speakers in series would give poor sound quality. That wouldn't be the case, you would have cleaner signal power to the speakers and possibly a better sound quality but you would lose some volume.
I have seen claims that the bike specific speakers are clearer than regular car audio speakers. Anyone here switch from comparable car audio to bike audio speakers that will back that claim up?
I have seen claims that the bike specific speakers are clearer than regular car audio speakers. Anyone here switch from comparable car audio to bike audio speakers that will back that claim up?
Last edited by hotrodsandharleys73; Jul 15, 2010 at 04:34 PM. Reason: crappy grammer!!
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Novice
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
From: Van Buren Maine, 04785
Yes I use car speakers for all of my audio installs on bikes that I have done including my own the factory speakers are not clear at all. as far as being 2 ohm or four ohm first you need to know that the radio or amp can handle the load that you will be putting on the amp or radio. In a ideal situation a 2 ohm speaker will play twice as loud as a four ohm speaker, but then there is a sensitivity rating also and that is how easily a speaker will produce sound from what it is driven with. the gain on the amp is used for matching the output of the radio to the input of the amp not a volume control for the system. the xover is used to make the speakers play frequences that it was designed to play if it is set too low the speakers will appear to fart or bottom out that is why Ihad said in a previous post to start at about 110 for the 5inch speakers. and all radios put out a bad signal at some point in the volume so starting at 3/4 volume may not be a good idea because if it is putting out a bad signal at that volume you just made it bigger coming out of the amp and thus into the speaker. All of my systems I design are for loudness and sound quality! if anyone needs help feel free to ask and because of this post I will be testing the factory radio to see where it clips and I will post the results
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