Over the winter I installed Hogtunes replacement front speakers & their tweeter pod on mu Ultra Classic. Music is still sounding a little tinny. Would an aftermarket amp improve the sound, or just the loudness, and should I have gone to better speakers. Usually listen to MP3's on CD.

 

I have the same set up as you and I think it sounds great. Yes an amp will wake it up more.

 

Absolutely I have the whole Hogtunes system all 4 speakers tweeter pod woofers in lowers, 40.4 amp drives the 4 and tweeter 70.2 amp drives the lower woofers and I love the sound clean clear and loud if you want it loud.

 

I started with stock and thought it sounded tinny. I moved to HT speakers and it sounded better. Added the HT Tweeter Pods and HT amp (old model ~35w/ch.) and that provided yet another minor step of improvement. After my HT amp died I decided to add 6½" Biketronics (Hertz) speakers and a 125w/ch. (@ 2Ω) Elf mini amp, keeping the HT Pods, and that was the biggest move toward better sound yet. It's been running now for two years and I have no interest in upgrading further.

My point here is that almost anything sounds "okay" until you upgrade, and then all of a sudden the old setup isn't okay anymore. You'll eventually hit a plateau where you will be happy. To clarify this, upgrade several tiers above stock and then go take a ride on a bike with the stock stereo. At that point you'll understand what I'm saying.

 

I have the hog tunes 160 amp. I really enjoy it and well worth the money!

 

I don't think there's any doubt that an amp will improve your sound. However, before you drop the coin on an amp, have you installed the latest firmware on the radio? If you haven't, that will help considerably. I don't have an aux. amp and I am running the stock setup with the only addition being the Tweeter Pod and when I did the firmware upgrade I was amazed at the improvement. Certainly not mind blowing but I can now enjoy the radio even at highway speeds.

 

I have an amp and Polk Audio 5 1/4 in the dash and 6.5" in the lowers and it sounds awesome! I had another pair of speakers in the dash that were 3 ways and they sounded high pitched... Polk's took care of that.

 

Check out the audio section. And Yes ya should have gone with better speakers and an amp.