Five Upgrades to Make Your Motorcycle’s Audio Sound Better

If you’re a fan of a little “wind therapy,” then having some great music to listen to while you you’re riding your motorcycle starts with a great audio system. Sure, BMW, Harley-Davidson, Kawasaki and Honda include radios and speakers with their touring bikes, but so do Toyota and Hyundai cars and SUVs. All of them could use an upgrade or two to put a smile on your face when a great song comes on. Let’s take a look at five great upgrade options that will make your motorcycle audio system sound better.

Upgrade 1 – Upgrade Existing Speakers

If you’re a regular reader of BestCarAudio.com, then you know how important speakers are to the performance of any audio system. Imagine a high-end home audio system with an amplifier, preamp, CD transport and stand-alone digital-to-analog converter. It isn’t hard to spend $10,000 on this equipment, and you’d be surprised how easy it is to spend more than $500,000. When it comes time to choose speakers, you need something amazing to accurately convert those electrical signals into sound.

High-quality speakers transform electrical signals into sound more accurately than poorly designed solutions. Better speakers offer a smoother frequency response so your music will sound more realistic. Finally, great speakers can handle more power and play much more loudly than an inexpensive solution. All of these criteria are important for motorcycle audio upgrade.

Another important factor in choosing new speakers for your motorcycle is whether they’re designed to be specifically suitable for the application. Prolonged exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun can damage some car audio speakers and cause the cones and surrounds to fail very quickly. Likewise, if there’s even the slimmest chance the speakers will get wet, choosing a solution with integrated weatherproofing and water-resistant materials is mandatory to ensure reliability.

Motorcycle Audio — The Moto602V2 speakers from ARC Audio feature a UV- and weather-resistant design that will ensure that they look and sound great for many years.

Upgrade 2 – Add High-Power Amplifiers

When it comes to playing music loudly, your speakers will need lots of power. Upgrading your motorcycle with a high-power, high-efficiency amplifier is the only way to make your music loud enough to drown out wind and exhaust noise.

Size is a top priority when it comes to choosing an amplifier for your motorcycle. You want something that will fit inside the front fairing or not take up too much space in a saddlebag. Many companies make compact powersports amplifiers that will fit nicely above the factory radio in a Harley.

You also want an amplifier that is efficient. Efficiency refers to how much of the power that is drawn from the battery and alternator or stator is converted into energy to drive the speakers. More efficiency means the amp will run cooler and your audio system can play louder without overloading the bike’s electrical system. The best motorcycle and powersports amplifiers on the market are over 93% efficient. That’s about 10% better than the typical car audio amplifier.

Upgrade 3 – Add More Speakers

Aside from using great speakers and providing them with lots of clean power from an amplifier, another great upgrade you can make to your motorcycle audio system is to add more speakers. Sure, the task isn’t as easy as cutting a panel in a car door, but it can be done. Many companies offer handlebar speakers, motorcycle-specific speaker pods that attach to the lower front fairing, and saddlebag lids with options for 6.5-, 8- or 6×9-inch speakers.

Upgrade 4 – Source Unit Upgrades

Every great audio system starts with a great source unit. If there’s distortion in the original audio signal, no amount of processing or tuning can remove it. Companies like Rockford Fosgate and Aquatic AV have created motorcycle-specific source units for 1998 through 2013 Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Another option is the cool Sony XAV-AX7000 multimedia receiver. Several motorcycle enthusiasts have integrated this double-DIN radio into the fairing of their bikes. The radio has a weather-resistant front panel and buttons. It’s not water-proof, but it can handle the occasional light sprinkle. If you want Apple CarPlay and Android Auto on your bike, then this radio is a perfect choice.

Upgrade 5 – Proper System Configuration

The perfect speaker, if it were to exist, would offer flat frequency response across the entire audio spectrum. The reality is, no speaker can deliver that. Likewise, where we install speakers can have a huge effect on how they sound. To get the most out of your motorcycle audio system upgrade, it needs to be configured to optimize the output of each speaker for the environment. You aren’t going to hear a bass drum or synthesizer riff at 65 mph on the interstate, so crossovers and equalization will let your speakers focus on the frequency ranges where they work best.

Just as in a car audio system, a concert venue or a theater, using an equalizer to optimize the response of a motorcycle sound system is important. Compact digital signal processors include multiband equalizers that can be configured with a calibrated microphone to deliver smooth sound, so your music sounds realistic.

Upgrade Your Motorcycle Audio System Today

The options for making the stereo system on your motorcycle sound better are nearly endless. Drop by your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer today to find out about the audio upgrades that are available for your bike. As always, remember that proper installation and excellent craftsmanship are as important as the products you choose. Be sure to work with a retailer that has the skills to execute your upgrade reliably.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

Product Spotlight Hertz Mille Legend Speakers and Subwoofers

In 2005, Hertz introduced the world to the Mille series of car audio speakers and subwoofers. These unique drivers featured the V-cone design to deliver impressive clarity and detail. Now in their third generation, Mille Legend tweeters, midrange drivers, woofers and subwoofers combine premium materials with state-of-the-art technologies to ensure that music enthusiasts can enjoy their music at elevated volume levels in amazing clarity and detail. Let’s take a close look at the technologies Hertz has implemented in its flagship speaker products.

Hertz Mille Legend Speakers – Moving Parts Technologies

From the detailed ML 280.3 Legend tweeter to the impact of the ML 2500.3 Legend subwoofer, the Hertz Mille Legend speaker family uses modern design elements and technologies that reduce distortion and improve performance.

The deep V-cone design is evident if you look at any Mille Legend midrange drivers, woofers or subwoofers. This one-piece cone design comes to a sharp inverted point in the center. Unlike a typical dome-shaped dust cap, the V-cone design resists resonance that can add distortion to the music signal. Hertz also claims that the design helps to improve off-axis performance, making a two-way speaker set sound better in the doors or dash of your car or truck.

The Boundary Free Surround design on all the drivers helps to reduce unwanted resonance and increase the effective area of the woofer cone. These surrounds are constructed from high-purity IIR butyl rubber that resists degradation from prolonged exposure to oxygen and ozone.

The stand-alone and coaxial tweeters use a diaphragm made from Hertz’ proprietary Tetolon fiber cone material. This lightweight textile provides an amazing balance of clarity and high-frequency extension. In addition, the inherent damping characteristics resist the addition of unwanted distortion at the highest of frequencies. The midrange drivers in the Legend series use cotton-damped pressed pulp paper cones that offer a near-perfect balance of rigidity and resonance-preventing damping. The subwoofers use a mineral-injected paper cone for added strength alongside the excellent damping characteristics.

To prevent power compression, Hertz has implemented large-diameter voice coil assemblies on all the drivers. There is a massive 4-inch coil in the 10-inch ML 2500.3 Legend and 8-inch ML2000.3 Legend subwoofers. There’s also the large-for-the-driver-size 0.8-inch coil in the 3-inch ML 700.3 Legend midrange speaker. Larger voice coils offer a significant increase in surface area that helps them dissipate heat and stay cooler.

Hertz designed this series of speakers using computer-based Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to optimize the connection between the voice coil former and the cone in all the midrange, woofer and subwoofer solutions. Ensuring that this crucial connection is both mechanically secure and thermally stable is another reason why the Mille Legend speakers sound great, even at high volume levels.

Motor and Basket Performance Features

All but the two coaxial drivers in the Legend series use neodymium ring magnets at the core of their motor design. These rare earth magnets help the speakers and tweeters deliver impressive efficiency without the need for large, heavy motors. The design also helps to reduce the overall depth of the drivers. Along the same theme, the top and back plates are forged and milled from low-carbon steel, which offers excellent magnetic permeability to further increase efficiency.

All the Mille Legend drivers use copper or aluminum shorting rings to help improve high-frequency performance. These rings short unwanted magnetic fields created as the voice coil assembly moves through the magnetic gap. In the midrange drivers and woofers, upper midrange clarity is dramatically improved, thanks to this technology. In addition, midbass performance on the subwoofers and enhanced tweeter clarity at the top end of the audible spectrum are also achieved.

Hertz Mille Legend subwoofers, woofers and midrange drivers are based on cast aluminum chassis that help ensure that every component is aligned perfectly. The design also serves as a heatsink to improve power handling and to isolate the cone and motor from vehicle vibrations while driving.

Upgrade Your Car Audio System with Hertz Mille Legend Speakers

If you’re shopping for new or upgraded speakers for your car audio system, visit your local authorized Hertz retailer and ask for a demonstration of the Hertz Mille Legend drivers. You can learn more about the impressive products from Hertz by visiting their website, Facebook page or their YouTube channel.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

Upgrade your Golf Cart with Audio and Lighting

Whether you’re spending an afternoon on the links with a couple of friends, towing your race car back to the pits, or you just have to have the coolest Club Car or E-Z-GO on the block, your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer can help. From audio systems and lighting upgrades to heated seats and lift kits, a whole world of accessories and custom solutions make getting around more fun and entertaining.

Golf Cart Audio System

Whether you want to check the weather before you hit the back nine or blast some music in the pits while getting ready for the next race, your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer can help. In terms of source units, you’ll want to look at some of the marine solutions from companies like Sony, Kenwood, Pioneer and Clarion. Full-size radio options include sources like Bluetooth, an AM/FM tuner with Weatherband and a CD mechanism. USB ports let you connect and charge a smartphone or play digital audio files from a memory stick.

Golf Cart Upgrade — The Sony DSX-M80 Bluetooth receiver features a High Power amplifier that can crank out 45 watts to each speaker, so your music is crystal clear.

If space is limited, you may want to look at one of the compact source units from companies like Hertz, JL Audio, Fusion or Kicker. These source units are designed with a controller and a hide-away power module, or as an all-in-one solution that can be mounted in the dash or an overhead console.

If space is at a premium or you’re going for that stealth look, companies like JL Audio, Wirez and WetSounds have hide-away Bluetooth receiver options. You can pair your smartphone to the receiver and play music stored on the device or from a streaming service like Pandora, iHeartRadio or Tidal. Some Bluetooth receivers have control buttons to let you change tracks and volume without the need to grab your phone.

Golf Cart Speaker Options

This may sound like deja vu, but the speakers chosen for your audio system are the most important component in determining sound quality. A great source unit and amplifier are wasted if the speakers on the vehicle don’t deliver smooth and natural performance. Just as with the source unit, you’ll likely want to choose a marine-grade speaker for your golf cart so you won’t run into problems if they get wet. Another key feature of marine speakers is that high-quality options are designed to handle prolonged sun exposure without fading, cracking or turning yellow.

For a speaker to work properly, it needs to be mounted in a way that prevents the sound coming from the back of the woofer cone to mix with and cancel the sound coming from the front. If there’s a storage compartment in the dash of your golf cart, this might make a great enclosure. Another option is to have a fabricator create a pod that fits into the roof or behind the seats. Finally, soundbars can be installed at the front of the vehicle to deliver your music.

Speakers Need Amplifiers to Sound Great

Unless you have a genuine high-power radio, you are going to need an amplifier to make your system sound good. Many companies offer compact multi-channel amplifier solutions that would work perfectly on a golf cart. Before you rush out and buy something, keep in mind that your installer will need to find a place to mount the amp. You also have to remember that the size of the battery on the cart dictates how long the system will play. An efficient amp is a great choice for extending playtime.

Your retailer can help you choose an amp that will fit perfectly and sound great. Don’t forget to include high-quality interconnect cables and all-copper power wiring in your budget to ensure that the system functions reliably for many years.

Accent and High-Output Lighting

If you’re rolling back to the clubhouse just as the sun sets, there’s no denying that some unique accent lighting will make your cart really stand out. LED lighting strips and pods can be changed to almost any color under the rainbow. These lighting solutions combine red, green and blue elements, and you can use a wireless controller or an app on your smartphone to select the hue you want or have the light change colors through random patterns or to the beat of your music.

If you’re planning on heading out after the sun sets, dozens of high-output lighting options are available to ensure that you can see safely. An LED light bar mounted at the top of the windshield is a great option to help you see long distances or light up a large area. You can choose from spot or flood patterns to suit your application.

Seat Heaters and Golf Cart Accessories

Not every upgrade to your golf cart needs to be fancy. Your local mobile enhancement retailer can add a power port or high-current USB plug to keep a phone charged. Heated seat pads are a nice upgrade for those cool spring or fall mornings. If you use your cart to get around the neighborhood, a backup camera is a great addition to help you park and maneuver the vehicle safely.

Upgrade Your Golf Cart Today

Whether you want a big audio system with a subwoofer or a way to keep your smartphone charged while you whack a few golf balls, visit your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer today and find out about the ways you can upgrade your golf cart.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

What to Know About 2014 and Newer Harley-Davidson Radio Upgrades

If you own a 2014 or newer Harley-Davison touring bike, then there are a few things you need to know before you decide to upgrade your stereo system. We know that the Boom! Box radio has a reasonable set of features with navigation, an AM/FM tuner, a USB port for digital audio files, and support for phone calls with a compatible helmet headset. Where the system falls short is in the speakers they have chosen, the power of the amplifier in the radio, and the way the system is tuned. Luckily, many companies offer amazing upgrades. Let’s talk about upgrading the stereo on your Road Glide, Street Glide or Electra Glide.

Harley-Davidson Boom! Box Radio Tuning

For reasons that escape us, Harley has chosen some unique tuning parameters for the equalizer built into the radio on their cruisers. The specific tuning depends on the option level on the bike and varies depending on the number of speakers installed. While the tuning may sort of work with the factory-installed speakers and the limited power from the amplifier, once your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer starts to upgrade things, those equalization settings make your new speakers sound terrible.

Harley-Davidson Stereo — ne of the many EQ curves built into the Harley Boom! Box radio. That giant peak at 80 Hz, combined with the dip at 4 kHz, sounds terrible. Thanks to Extreme Audio in Virginia for this photograph.

If you’re going to upgrade the audio system on your Harley, your installer will need to deal with this tuning.

Add a DSP to Your Harley-Davidson

One of the best options for dealing with the tuning built into your Harley radio is to add a digital signal processor to the audio system. There are two reasons why this is the best choice if you want truly amazing sound on your bike. When used with a calibrated microphone, your installer can tune the audio system to sound great with any high-quality speaker solution. You aren’t left at the mercy of the radio and the response curve of the speakers. Second, the front and rear speakers can be tuned to deliver the same response. Ensuring that each speaker on the bike sounds the same will make your music sound more realistic.

A second and very important benefit of implementing a DSP on your bike is to enable the person tuning the system to accurately limit the bass information sent to your speakers. Face it; you aren’t going to hear the 40 Hz fundamental of a kick drum on any motorcycle audio system when you’re cruising down the freeway. Since it takes a lot of power to produce bass frequencies, a high-pass filter can go a long way toward making the rest of the system play much louder and last a lot longer.

Motorcycle Radio Reflashing

Another very common solution is to reflash the factory radio to a different, flatter equalization curve. Many shops have invested in hardware from companies like TechnoResearch to perform this task. Harley radio reflashing is a simple process that doesn’t take much time. While the output of the radio isn’t perfectly flat in terms of frequency response, it’s a lot better than leaving things untouched.

Image Caption: Radio Flashing Options.jpg

Which Upgrade is Right for You?

If you want a simple radio upgrade that offers good performance, then having the radio on your Harley reflashed in combination with the installation of new speakers and an amplifier is a great starting point. Just as with a car audio upgrade, proper tuning is crucial to delivering smooth and natural performance. The only way to achieve this is with the use of a multi-band equalizer. Concert venues, night clubs, movie theatres and even something as simple as a smart speaker include powerful digital signal processing components that, when configured properly, ensure that your music sounds as good as it can. Your motorcycle audio system should, of course, be the same.

Drop by your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer to find out about the options available to upgrade the performance of the audio system on your motorcycle.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

What Are the Advantages of a Three-Way Front Stage?

When it comes to upgrading your car audio system to deliver amazingly realistic performance, many people choose what’s known as a three-way front stage. In the simplest of terms, this refers to there being three speakers on each side of the vehicle. As we explained in our article about the need for different speaker sizes, your audio system requires woofers and tweeters to reproduce your music properly. The question is, why add dedicated midrange drivers to the mix? Read on to learn the answer.

The Source of Sound

One key advantage of using a dedicated midrange speaker with a woofer and tweeter is that the small speaker can be placed on the dash or at the top of the door. These locations can deliver the perception that the voices are coming from a point higher in the vehicle than if you were relying solely on a woofer mounted in the door. Ideally, your audio system should — when designed, installed and calibrated properly with a DSP — seem to reproduce a soundstage that spans the middle of your windshield from pillar to pillar, or beyond.

In a two-way speaker system with a woofer and a tweeter, audio frequencies below 3,500 Hz may seem to come from the doors. This causes the height of the soundstage to be stretched vertically in the vehicle, and it detracts from the sense of realism. Adding a set of midrange speakers can raise the soundstage.

Consistent Frequency Response

Every speaker in the world, from every manufacturer, experiences a phenomenon called directivity. Directivity refers to the shape of the sound being created by the speaker with respect to the frequency of the sound. Take, for example, a 6.5-inch woofer. At low frequencies, the sound created by a speaker emanates in a spherical pattern that would, if possible, extend behind the speaker itself. This characteristic is part of why the shape of the mounting surface for a speaker is so crucial to its performance.

As the output frequency increases, the shape of the sphere moves from being equal in a 360-degree circle around the speaker to a ball in front of the speaker. The sound created outside this ball doesn’t cease to exist, but it is definitely attenuated (quieter).

A further increase in frequency results in the ball narrowing to what would be perceived as a spotlight shape. Unless you are in front of the speaker, these audio frequencies will be quieter.

Directivity is an issue because, in almost every vehicle, the speakers aren’t aimed on-axis with the listener. For a door-mounted woofer, we may be at as much as a 70-degree angle. If this speaker is operated with a tweeter and filtered at 4,000 Hz, we may be sitting in a position where there is very little output.

The chart below shows, in general terms, the maximum frequency you want to use for a given size of speaker in order to maintain smooth frequency response throughout the listening environment.

Increased Low-Frequency Output

For the product specialist designing your audio system, selecting a woofer, midrange and tweeter for a three-way front stage may, depending on the brand being used, allow for a slight improvement in bass performance from the woofers. Since there’s no need for the 6.5- to 8-inch woofers to produce midrange frequencies much above 400 Hz, the cones can be a little heavier, so they play deeper than a similarly sized speaker that needs to play to 4,000 Hz.

Some companies switch from using a phase plug on their midrange drivers that play higher frequencies to adding a dust cap. The dust cap adds mass to lower the resonant frequency of the driver.

Another advantage, especially for those audio systems without a subwoofer: Your installer can turn up the output of the woofer relative to the midrange to increase bass output.

Though the image below doesn’t exactly follow the laws of physics, it shows how the output of a three-way speaker system delivers even sound distribution at the listening position.

The image below shows, in the same artistic fashion, how upper-midrange audio information from a door-mounted woofer may not be clearly audible at the listening position.

Three-Way Front Stage System Design

Many companies offer three-way speaker sets that include passive crossover. Passive crossovers allow all three speakers on each side of the vehicle to be powered by a single amplifier channel. In most cases, the crossover points are fixed with passive networks, though some do include options for midrange and tweeter output levels.

To optimize the performance of a three-way front speaker set, it’s best to use a six-channel amplifier along with a digital signal processor. The features of the processor allow your installer to fine-tune the output of each speaker to deliver accurate and natural frequency response at the listening position.

Upgrade Your Car Audio System Today!

If you’re after the most realistic, detailed and accurate car audio system performance available, drop by your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer and ask about upgrading your vehicle with a three-way speaker set. Once it’s installed and calibrated, the results will be amazing!

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

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Five Upgrades to Make Your Motorcycle’s Audio Sound Better

Upgrade 1 – Upgrade Existing Speakers

Upgrade 2 – Add High-Power Amplifiers

Upgrade 3 – Add More Speakers

Upgrade 4 – Source Unit Upgrades

Upgrade 5 – Proper System Configuration

Upgrade Your Motorcycle Audio System Today

Product Spotlight Hertz Mille Legend Speakers and Subwoofers

Hertz Mille Legend Speakers – Moving Parts Technologies

Motor and Basket Performance Features

Upgrade Your Car Audio System with Hertz Mille Legend Speakers

Upgrade your Golf Cart with Audio and Lighting

Golf Cart Audio System

Golf Cart Speaker Options

Speakers Need Amplifiers to Sound Great

Accent and High-Output Lighting

Seat Heaters and Golf Cart Accessories

Upgrade Your Golf Cart Today

What to Know About 2014 and Newer Harley-Davidson Radio Upgrades

Harley-Davidson Boom! Box Radio Tuning

Add a DSP to Your Harley-Davidson

Motorcycle Radio Reflashing

Which Upgrade is Right for You?

What Are the Advantages of a Three-Way Front Stage?

The Source of Sound

Consistent Frequency Response

Increased Low-Frequency Output

Three-Way Front Stage System Design

Upgrade Your Car Audio System Today!

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