Hearing the radio

    @UK_Paul I have 6.5 Kicker speakers installed in the headrest pods, and they make a world of difference. I also installed a
    Rockford Fosgate M400-4D Marine Amplifier from Amazon $270.00 Prime This amp was highly recommended by others in this group. I installed it under the passenger seat and raised it up about 1/2" to keep it out of the water. No problems whatever in the last year.

    Life is simple ... you're either "Qualified or you're Not'

    Quote from dangerdarrell

    Yes sir. Installing under the driver side seat. Using spacers to raise it off the floor some.


    Quote from Bubblehead

    @UK_Paul I have 6.5 Kicker speakers installed in the headrest pods, and they make a world of difference. I also installed a
    Rockford Fosgate M400-4D Marine Amplifier from Amazon $270.00 Prime This amp was highly recommended by others in this group. I installed it under the passenger seat and raised it up about 1/2" to keep it out of the water. No problems whatever in the last year.

    With UK weather & loads of water, I'm not sure that under the seat will work.
    Do you think that I will be able to get it high enough to avoid problems?

    All the best, from UK_Paul

    Quote from UK_Paul

    With UK weather & loads of water, I'm not sure that under the seat will work.
    Do you think that I will be able to get it high enough to avoid problems?

    I believe so, I went under the passenger seat due to allowing more height because you don't have the seat adjustment slide under it, and 1/2" should do it. There are holes in the floor board that should keep water low, I have never had a problem with water pooling around my feet and I have road in some nasty weather. Also installing somewhere else you might have a heat problem with the AMP not getting any cooling around it.

    Life is simple ... you're either "Qualified or you're Not'

    Quote from Bubblehead

    I believe so, I went under the passenger seat due to allowing more height because you don't have the seat adjustment slide under it, and 1/2" should do it. There are holes in the floor board that should keep water low, I have never had a problem with water pooling around my feet and I have road in some nasty weather. Also installing somewhere else you might have a heat problem with the AMP not getting any cooling around it.

    That sounds like good advice to me!!!
    So... now I'm off to pull the trigger on the Pioneer.


    All the best, from UK_Paul

    @Bubblehead is right @UK_Paul. I rode for 6 hours in a rain storm coming back from Maggie Valley and they was never a water pooling issue anywhere on the floors. I still may use the passenger side to mount it though. Will decide for sure next week when I put it in. One thing I do plan is to use rubber mounts just to absorb some vibration.

    Quote from dangerdarrell

    @Bubblehead is right @UK_Paul. I rode for 6 hours in a rain storm coming back from Maggie Valley and they was never a water pooling issue anywhere on the floors. I still may use the passenger side to mount it though. Will decide for sure next week when I put it in. One thing I do plan is to use rubber mounts just to absorb some vibration.

    @dangerdarrell will you use rubber above and below the floorpan? It seems like if you just use them above that any vibration would transfer directly through the bolt itself. What do you plan to use? This is something I will likely do this year.

    Remember folks - this isn't a rehearsal, this is The Show!8)

    Quote from SlingLow

    @dangerdarrell will you use rubber above and below the floorpan? It seems like if you just use them above that any vibration would transfer directly through the bolt itself. What do you plan to use? This is something I will likely do this year.

    Actually I plan to sandwich the tabs on the amp between two rubber spacers. The bolt itself would not touch the amp mount holes.

    We have the stock 2016 Stereo along with the SSV Works Gen 2 Speaker Pods with the SSV Speakers for them. We also have the F4+5 windshield and Baker Wings for it.




    We can hear music while traveling the highway just fine. However, after attending SSITR, we would very much like to add a couple speaker pods to improve our sound.


    This setup would allow sound to simply be easier to hear, and we could actually turn it down a smidge so we aren't running the speakers at their peak capacity during a full day of riding. This set of 6 - 6.5 Speakers with an appropriate Amp to handle the power correctly is all you would ever need. I don't need the ground to shake while I crank my tunes, but I love my Classic Rock, and want to hear it loud & clear.


    So, yeah, while we can hear the existing stock radio, we want to improve our riding experience. I mean, what is the Slingshot without a little AC/DC belting out over the speakers?

    If anyone plans on upgrading their speakers, try to get the highest Sensitivity rating you can for the price point you're willing to spend. A speaker rated at 94 dB Sensitivity will sound much louder than a similar speaker rated at 91 dB at the same amp power output.
    Here's a decent article on speaker sensitivity - What Is Speaker Sensitivity and What Does It Mean?. As the article states, a 3dB increase in volume requires twice as much power, so a speaker with a 97 dB sensitivity rating such as the Pioneer TS-G1345R will have a significant advantage over a speaker rated at 91 or 88 dB (88 dB being a typical industry average sensitivity).
    Also, try to match the sensitivity of all of your speakers as closely as possible to avoid one brand's higher sensitivity overpowering a different brand. As long as the sensitivity ratings are relatively close, you should be OK, but pairing a 97 dB sensitivity speaker with a\another speaker rated at 91 dB will probably result in the lower sensitivity speaker being drowned out by the higher rated speaker.

    Quote from BKL

    If anyone plans on upgrading their speakers, try to get the highest Sensitivity rating you can for the price point you're willing to spend. A speaker rated at 94 dB Sensitivity will sound much louder than a similar speaker rated at 91 dB at the same amp power output.
    Here's a decent article on speaker sensitivity - What Is Speaker Sensitivity and What Does It Mean?. As the article states, a 3dB increase in volume requires twice as much power, so a speaker with a 97 dB sensitivity rating such as the Pioneer TS-G1345R will have a significant advantage over a speaker rated at 91 or 88 dB (88 dB being a typical industry average sensitivity).
    Also, try to match the sensitivity of all of your speakers as closely as possible to avoid one brand's higher sensitivity overpowering a different brand. As long as the sensitivity ratings are relatively close, you should be OK, but pairing a 97 dB sensitivity speaker with a\another speaker rated at 91 dB will probably result in the lower sensitivity speaker being drowned out by the higher rated speaker.

    Hey @BKL your right on with the information above.


    In addition to your comments, note: Every 3db that you can increase will also double the power output (ie Sound).
    The other thing to remember is that the power requirement goes up by "The cube route."
    In English that is:
    At low volume you only need to a little power for any increase in volume. When running at high volumes you need shed loads more power just to increase the sound a little bit.



    The tech. bit.
    The graph shows a typical power absorption curve.
    If this is used for a speaker the line along bottom would be Watts and the line up the side would be power requirement Amps.

    All the best, from UK_Paul

    Quote from ethermion

    3db does indeed require twice the power. 3db is also the threshold of audibility. You won't hear a 2db difference. 3db will just seem a bit louder, not twice as loud.

    You have it right @ethermion. It wouldn't then be fair trying to explain about dba, as the A weigted scale taking account for human hearing, rather than straight measured noise.


    This all starts to get complicated. I was used (as an expert witnes) by a judge in Canada some years ago to explain something that whould be used against motorcycle's noise emissions. We won that one but I don''t know if the state tried again.

    All the best, from UK_Paul

    A lot of us have mounted the Amp under the driver's seat. I would reccomend this because the seat is easier to remove and install. If you desire to adjust the output of the Amp, removing the drivers seat only takes about 2 minutes versus fighting with the back right bolt on the passengers seat. There is enough clearance under the the drivers seat to raise the Amp up with spacers. I have 1 amp under each seat at the current time.