Harley sound applications

ckzopfi

Hi all. An old cuss here, but new to this site. Wanted to know if any of you could help me with best application on installing a cats meow sound system on my 03 Heritage Softail? I want to keep everything as clean and compact as possible. I now have a MP3 player mounted on the handlebar which is wired directly to two 4" amplified speakers I purchased from RH Instruments. Their called Rumbbleroads. Their mounted in a typical 4" chrome passing lamp housing. My problem is I don't get a good quality sound out of these. (Kind of tinny sounding). The small amps are attached to the magnets on each speaker and inserted in the chrome housings. I want to install a larger amp in my saddlebags and do away with the amplified speakers. I want to continue using my MP3 player as my sound source. I don't want a big bulky radio up on my handlebars. Is their amplifiers out there that can be hooked up directly to an MP3 or XM audio jack? I want to run four quality speakers, say 4" round in the front and maybe 5" round fabrcated in the back. (OK, the most important question! How large of a watt amp can I run these four speakers with and not be changing my battery out once a week?) Anybody now of a good application? I can figure out the mounting application. Just not sure how much power my electrical system can take. Looking forward to any replies or emails.

Thanks,
ckzopfi

PolkThug

Welcome to the site! It will be tough getting good sound out of a small area. I've posted a few links to give you some options. Something else to think about, is what quality of MP3's are you using? (ie 128/192/256/320)

Fostex 4" full range:
http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?cart_id=9959727.27649&pid=320

Peerless 4" woofer:
http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?cart_id=9959727.27649&pid=1947

Vifa 4.5":
http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?cart_id=9959727.27649&pid=1383

Fostex Sigma full range 4"
http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?cart_id=9959727.27649&pid=322

ckzopfi

Thanks for the links! I was reading my MP3 manual and it says ( Encode Mode: Stereo/Bitrate: 128kbit/s for MP3 CD Qualty and 64kbit/s for WMA CD quality). I'm not sure if this means my MP3 player is a high or low quality player? Whats better, 128/192/256 or 320?
Any idea how many amps I will draw from a motorcycle battery with a paticular amplifier to run foru good speakers? I will for the most part be listening to tunes while the bike is running. Anybody put their own sound system on a motorcycle?
Thanks,
ckzopfi

Skynut

I wanted to but did not want a windshield.
I was thinknig that if you have the leg faring on each side you could put some 6x9 speakers there and possibly add an amp but I haven't bothered to really look into it. It would be alot of work for my 80 shovel.

PolkThug

ckzopfi wrote:

Thanks for the links! I was reading my MP3 manual and it says ( Encode Mode: Stereo/Bitrate: 128kbit/s for MP3 CD Qualty and 64kbit/s for WMA CD quality). I'm not sure if this means my MP3 player is a high or low quality player? Whats better, 128/192/256 or 320?
Any idea how many amps I will draw from a motorcycle battery with a paticular amplifier to run foru good speakers? I will for the most part be listening to tunes while the bike is running. Anybody put their own sound system on a motorcycle?
Thanks,
ckzopfi

128 is the lowest quality. I think you really only need 25-50 real watts per speaker for a 4". While the bike is running, I would think an amp of that size would be fine. However, I have never hooked up an audio system to a motorcycle.

ckzopfi

Yep! I mounted my amplified speakers on my Lindby highway bars. Their a little to low to hear them well. most of these type speakers were designed to mount up on the handlebars. I just didn't want them that high up and stick out like a sore thumb. I keep digging and research to see what others might have done. Only thing I'm worried about is how much my battery will take. I want to install at least 50W RMS speakers and and amp that will drive that much.

brettw22

ckzopfi wrote:

Thanks for the links! I was reading my MP3 manual and it says ( Encode Mode: Stereo/Bitrate: 128kbit/s for MP3 CD Qualty and 64kbit/s for WMA CD quality). I'm not sure if this means my MP3 player is a high or low quality player? Whats better, 128/192/256 or 320?

To clarify your above statement, your player will play whatever bitrate your songs are in. It's the number of songs that you can load onto it that will changed based on the bitrate used (i.e. 5000 songs @ 128, vs 2500 songs @ 256). Your particular player will have limitations based on hard drive or flash memory space inside, so don't think that you can put 5000 songs on the thing if it's a 1gb card type of player.