I have a 2011 Street Glide and I want to upgrade the audio a little. I dont want to blow everyone away I just want to make my system better than factory and not spend a ton of money. I bought a set of Polk Audio DXI650 speakers and that is as far as I have gone so far. I want to use the factory head unit so I will need a 4 ohm amp to run the 4 ohm speakers but........ the speakers are 2x60 RMS at 4ohms do I have to buy a 2 channel 2x60RMS amp or will a 2x50RMS amp get me better than stock and sound good. Also wondering about wiring ? Any suggestions would be great.
Thanks
Mark

 

A good 50 watt two channel amp will certainly be better than the stock HK amplifier section. That being said, all amps do not perform the same or sound the same, even if the rated power is the same.

Be sure not to fall in the power trap that most do. Higher power does not usually damage speakers, but lower powered amps that clip early do. A 100 watt per channel amp on 50 watt rated speakers is better than the reverse.

Shakey

 

I agree with Shakey, and there are some good deals on amps that should fit your needs. Two amps that would be worth looking into would be the Elf E2125X and Arc Audio KS125.2 Mini, which are nearly identical with 75W x 2 @ 4Ω and can work with any impedance between 2-8Ω. If you decide to add speakers, find another pair of 4Ω, connect them in parallel, and run them at 2Ω for 125w x 2. The Elf is about $200 on Ebay and I've been running one at 2Ω (two 3Ω and a 6Ω Hogtunes Hog Pod in parallel), and the sound it produces is excellent considering the environment. These amps fit well on top the head unit.

The Rockford-Fosgate amps sold under that brand name and Hawg-Wired are fixed 4Ω amps, and they are a possibility too. They can't be run at any other impedance, so you'd better think in those terms before buying one, as they will limit you greatly if you decide to add speakers or change to a type with another impedance.

 

um, car audio stuff tends to be poor quality in terms of frequency response and distortion

rather than shovel money and adapters into your bike, just think about finding more efficient speakers for your bike, that fit and use the stock head unit.

to use the stock stereo, you need 2 ohm speakers.

watts or RMS rating for speakers only signify how much power they can absorb--- nothing to do with how much sound they produce.

look for senstivity rating expressed as X dB at 1 watt at 1 meter

that tells us that if 1 watt power is applied to the speaker, a measurement at 1 meter is X.

92 dB is average, 98 dB would be more than twice as loud--- at the exact same amp volume setting. ( your polk box will show this spec on it)

so look for speakers that make better use of the power your stereo puts out.

--- and for best sound at highways speeds, earbuds can be wired into the stereo system- keep the music in and the road noise out.

4 ohm speakers can't be used with your stereo with out wiring in resistors which would chew up a lot of the amp power.

BTW watt ratings on amp do mean something- it's a measurement of electrical power.

in the 70's all our living room hifi stuff had Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) levels less than 1% ( often much, much less)--- some of the stuff today is 10% distortion

yuck

mike

 

There is still good stuff being made today, it's just not the mass marketed crap. Think tube amps and turntables when thinking high fidelity.........

Shakey

 

I wanted the same thing and went with the Bazooka HD Amp and a set of Alpine speakers and it made a world of difference. Easy install too!

 

I ordered a Elf Adio E2125XN amp today ! thanks