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[Dawolf]

I have the J&M 500 Watt amp coming in tomorrow, and wanted to know if anyone has installed this amp in place of the Boom Audio one under the tour pack. I am going to be installing the J&M inside the fairing, but wanted to know specifically how to bypass the rear amp and go direct to the rear speakers with existing wiring up in the Batwing area.

So basically where do I connect the rear speaker outputs from the amp, without running new Speaker wires direct to the speakers. And then more importantly, where do I get that output back at the rear speaker pods.

Hoping to hear from Jim on this. Are there specific wiring instructions for 500 watt amp on the CVOs?

Installed the 7.25 Rokkers tonight, waitin on Fedex tomorrow for the amp and I'm ready for the weekend!

Ray

[JMJOHN]

Ray ,,,,,,,

BEFORE you open up the box on that beautiful 500w J&M amp let's talk about this a bit ,,,,,,

Your CVO has a pretty decent Harley 4-channel amp under the tail trunk already, and I am never in favor of ripping wiring harnesses out of the CVO models, as this can impact the resale value and the integrity overall of your bikes wiring ,,,,,,,

we have installed the J&M ROKKER series speakers and amps in hundreds of Harleys already, just this year at the various shows ((Bike-week, Laughlin etc)) and many of them were CVO's ,,,,,

I feel it works best if you FIRST replace the stock speakers on your CVO Ultra, both front and rear, with the J&M ROKKER series,,,,,, you will be very impressed with the difference in audio performance with just this speaker change ,,,,,

THEN if you also want to install the J&M LOWER 7.25” speakers (((http://www.jmcorp.com/ProductDetail.asp?ProductID=HLRK-7252GTM-T&PF=45 ))) you would connect the FRONT channels of the rear mounted Harley CVO amplifier to the J&M LOWER fairing speakers (instead of the UPPER fairing speakers) ,,,,, add the J&M 250w 2-channel amp into the fairing, ((http://www.jmcorp.com/ProductDetail.asp?ProductID=JAMP-250HC06&PF=45 )) to power the J&M 7.25” UPPER fairing speakers ,,,,,,

Inside the fairing, the Harley amplifier wiring harness connects to the radio’s front channel output wires, with the normal sized in-line spade connectors that normally connect to the speakers ,,, so you would splice into these radio signal wires right at this point, to parallel the inputs to the Harley amp AND J&M fairing mounted 250w two channel amp, with the two front channels from the Harley HK radio ,,,,,,

And last ,,,, since the signal inputs for the front channels on BOTH amplifiers, are in parallel with the front channel output s from the HK radio, you will need to adjust the gain levels on the J&M 250w amp, up about 20%, to have the same volume to the fairing speakers, as the Harley amp will have to the rear speakers and LOWER fairing speakers ,,,,,,

We have done quite a few of these Harley CVOs this way and a CVO set up in this 6-speaker configuration will just absolutely jump up and down when the music is cranked up ,,,,,,

[Dawolf]

Apologies John if you did not get the full story, I assumed since you were on a few of the threads I was getting info from...
My journey started with a blown Harmon Kardon, and after I looked into getting it repaired, I found it was probably better to just go Aftermarket....(I'm starting to think I made the wrong decision).
So I bought aftermarket kit, and radio, and 4 speakers (J&M Rokkers for the front and Polk 5.25 for the rear) and installed it with the notion that my amplifier would work (I was actually told that by one of the vendors)....well after I install everything, I find out that the Amplifier on my bike will not work with anything but the Harmon Kardon factory Radio....Well now I need an Amp!....

Which leads me to where I am right now. I realize that the J&M Amp on it's own is not going to be a drastic improvement and maybe even not a wise upgrade for someone who has a factory setup, but I have gone 100% aftermarket now.

Have you or your guys done anything like this before? What I am trying to do is if possible avoid running wires from front to back for speakers. I have the pin info on the rear speaker run from the 35 pin to the rear amp, now just wanted to know where I can pick that up in the back to connect to the rear speakers. I want to bypass the rear audio signal amp input and go directly from J&M amp to rear speaker pods.

Hope that clears it up a little.

[JMJOHN]

dawolf ,,,,,,

no ,,, you will not be able to avoid running the new speaker wires to the rear ,,,,

not a big deal though, you need to pull the seat and fuel tank to install the J&M 500w amp anyway, so it is not a challenge at that point to run new wires under the tank and seat, into the rear speaker pods ,,,,,,

I assume then that you will use RCA cables from your new aftermarket radio to the J&M 500w 4-channel amplifier ? ,,,,,, if so, I will need to help you make significant changes to the factory gain settings on the J&M amp ,,,,,,

what is the EXACT part number of the 500w J&M amp you have purchased ? ,,,,,

[Dawolf]

JAMP-500HC06-UL

[Dawolf]

Hey John, can you advise on the gain settings...my amp arrived with a plastid piece covering the fan and the gain and other settings. What is the purpose of this? Why would you want to restrict the airflow of the fan? Or are you just trying to hide the gain settings so people can't tweak?
I noticed that the system was set for high level inputs, and I am using the Radio RCAs.

Ray

[Harleypingman]

Ray,

John will probably get back to you faster if you use his email address in his signature.

Also, pending John's reply regarding gain settings, here is a good primer on setting gain controls:

http://www.bcae1.com/gaincon2.htm

Good luck with your installation.

Carl

[JMJOHN]

dawolf ,,,,,,

I am sorry to be so slow getting back ,,,

if we did NOT hide the gain controls on the J&M amplifiers, you just cannot imagine the problems we would have ,,,,,,

the J&M amps are THE most powerful amplifiers available for your Harley ,,,, but let things run wild and, well, you know how us Harley riders are right ?!?!? ,,,,, More's Law ?? ,,,,,,, """"some is good, more is better""" ,,,,,,,,,,,,would certainly apply here to the gain controls ,,,,,,

when using the RCA outs of your aftermarket radio (((OR Harley HK radio with RCA outs from Iron Cross Audio))) ,,,, with the J&M 500w 4-channel amplifier, rotate the left & right gain controls from the factory set 1:00 o'clock position, to the 6:00 o'clock position ,,,,, leave all other settings as they are ,,,,

please let me know how that works for you ,,,,

[Dawolf]

So should not change the input setting from high to low?......I dod not check but is there an arrow that points to a 1 o'clock or is the "clock" hand starting from 0.

[JMJOHN]

the little plastic gain control, both left and right, have a small indexing arrow on them ,,, use a magnifying glass if you need to ,,,,

these are set at the factroy to what I call the 1:00 o'clock position ,,,,,,

the high/low switch can be moved to low if it sounds better ,,,,,