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[Sea Biscuit]

I am currently researching audio upgrade options for my 2010 CVO Street Glide.

Found 2 new options:

1) Hawg Wired: This is an email I received from them yesterday:

"We debut a few new products just over the weekend at the Cincinnati V-Twin Expo. Two of the products on display were our new 6.5” ZX654-100 speakers and our new RS amplifier line. Both of these products are still in the stages of being released with tentative ship dates in March. I would keep your eyes on the website as we should be posting up banners and product pages for the new 2011 goods."

Rumor is that the amp is 200 watts.

2)Arc: Recently released a new amp: KS 125.2 BX Mini

"The KS125.2BX Mini exclusively incorporates ARC Audio’s BX2 Low frequency enhancement technology. The BX2 technology gives you big bass and improved low frequency response without the additional physical demand on your speakers."

I contacted them as well and they sent me the following email:

"The KS 125.2BX has a new Digital bass processor installed. It adds significantly to the bass output of the Harleys."

Looks like the "stereo wars" are heating up!

Thought you guys might want to know.

[bribe36]

Thanks for that update. perfect timing for me, I'm shopping around now and hoping to place an order in the next few days. Iv'e been leaning toward the hawg wired stuff but you're the second person to mention the Arc amps, guess i'll check them out.

[ruiner73]

I just finished changing the amp & speakers in my 2011 SESG, I used the new ARC 125.2 BX mini amp & put 6.5" Alpine coaxials in my lowers & Alpine 6.5" components in the fairing & I think it sounds pretty good. I had everything torn apart before I decided to upgrade so I don't have a good comparison from stock. Living in Iowa I can't take it out for a road test either, not quite yet. But when you are tuning that ARC amp, when you switch that BX bass switch on & tune it you can tell a difference, also this new model has a fan for cooling which should help things out under there...now just can't wait for the snow to disappear...

[mlangfelder]

I just finished changing the amp & speakers in my 2011 SESG, I used the new ARC 125.2 BX mini amp & put 6.5" Alpine coaxials in my lowers & Alpine 6.5" components in the fairing & I think it sounds pretty good. I had everything torn apart before I decided to upgrade so I don't have a good comparison from stock. Living in Iowa I can't take it out for a road test either, not quite yet. But when you are tuning that ARC amp, when you switch that BX bass switch on & tune it you can tell a difference, also this new model has a fan for cooling which should help things out under there...now just can't wait for the snow to disappear...

I have read several post similar to this and no one mentions what they do with the HK Amp that is installed in the back. Do you leave it there? Any chance you have a drawing of how you wired things?

[bribe36]

I just finished changing the amp & speakers in my 2011 SESG, I used the new ARC 125.2 BX mini amp & put 6.5" Alpine coaxials in my lowers & Alpine 6.5" components in the fairing & I think it sounds pretty good. I had everything torn apart before I decided to upgrade so I don't have a good comparison from stock. Living in Iowa I can't take it out for a road test either, not quite yet. But when you are tuning that ARC amp, when you switch that BX bass switch on & tune it you can tell a difference, also this new model has a fan for cooling which should help things out under there...now just can't wait for the snow to disappear...

Why wouldn't you use the 125.4? It offers 70w x 4, that's better than the 125.2, Right?

[Harleypingman]

Why wouldn't you use the 125.4? It offers 70w x 4, that's better than the 125.2, Right?

If you call ARC and ask, they will tell you the 125.4 won't fit inside the fairing of an EG/SG.  Some one here installed the 125.4 on their '09 SERG, but not on top of the HK radio.

Carl

Edit:  The "some one" posted below.  Thanks, Gordy. 

[gordy]

I snuck a 125.4 into the 09 SERG-mounted a plate on the lower left side and hung it there.  "The impossible takes 5 minutes longer"

[ruiner73]

I have read several post similar to this and no one mentions what they do with the HK Amp that is installed in the back. Do you leave it there? Any chance you have a drawing of how you wired things?

In my case I purchased a J&M amp kit, used the mounting brackets from that kit to move the I Pod module underneath the radio & mounted the ARC to the top plate instead of the J&M, plan to put the J&M in my brothers street glide since he has nothing on top his factory radio, will just use velcro to mount his. As far as the factory amp it's sitting on the shelf in the shop. As far as wiring, bought the manual, tapped onto the right & left speaker outputs a few inches out the back of the radio & connected to the ARC, also tapped into the turn on lead for the factory amp for the ARC. Ran new speaker wires to the fairing speaker crossovers & ran new wire for the lowers down to just before they go out the bottom of the fairing & tapped into the wires going down to the lowers.

[ruiner73]

Why wouldn't you use the 125.4? It offers 70w x 4, that's better than the 125.2, Right?

OK, might get into some trouble trying to explain here, but you have to trust someone & I put my trust in my local car stereo installer, been buying stuff from him for over a decade. You don't need the 4 channel amp unless you want to fade front to back, I thought the same thing since I had 4 speakers (well actually 6 if you count the tweeters in the fairing separate), I don't care about fading since everything is up front, so just have to worry about 2 channels of sound, left & right. From the ARC page the 125.2 has 2x70 watts 4 ohm & 2x125 watts 2 ohm - hook up the 2 pair of 4 ohm Alpines in parallel & get a 2 ohm load, so everything will be fine. My car guy did a lot of explaining about power & amps & assured me this would be plenty of power...
I'm sure someone else that is more technically inclined will chime in or have their own thoughts, but if I've got to trust someone I'm going with the guy who has never steered me wrong.
The other amps, Hawg-Wired and so on, are maybe just as good, I don't know, never tried them...did a lot of reading on the forums & went with the ARC/J&M amp because I needed the kit to move the I Pod module...was actually going to go with the Wetsounds mini amp (same as ARC/J&M but with a little more weatherproofing), but went with the ARC for the new bass boost technology & the cooling fan.
Just my experience....not disappointed at all...will have to compare to another SESG in town with the factory set up when the weather get warmer...

[Envithyx]

For the curios, it takes 10x more power in watts to double the sound volume.  So you'll go from 10 watts to 100 real quick.  Amps with more power are still beneficial, in that it provides more headroom to prevent clipping; however, a 200 watt amp won't be much louder than a 100 watt amp.  This of course not taking into consideration quality of the electrical componets and design of course.

Then there is the whole marketing issue of adding watts per speaker and calling it so misleading customers on how much power really is there.  Anyhow, I digress.

Just something to chime in with.  Apologies to those who already know this and probably even more than I can offer.   

[Harleypingman]

According to this post on hdforums.com, HW will be releasing both a 200W two-channel amp, and a 400W four-channel amp shortly:

I saw a catalog yesterday from Hawg-Wired, that was passed out at the V-Twin Expo in Cincy last wkd.
New Pkge.,...
"SIXPACK SYSTEM"
Its a 2-channel amp 200 watt RMS (100x2) PSC2002-RS
ZX654-100 6.5" Component Speakers (pair)
Clonical 6.5"speaker adapter rings (pair)
Class-D Digital Design
2Year Warranty (amplifier Complete Install Kit

Available March 2011

$849.95
I also talked to Justin today, from Hawg-Wired
they will have a 4-Channel Amp 400 watt being released as soon as they get the grills for the speaker pods ironed out. This will b done in a couple weeks!
The 6.5" speakers ZX series offer a 160% larger woofer cone, an audiophile grade 12db per octave xover network and Hawg-Wireds sig. bridge mounted component tweeter.