Lone Wolf, I have just a few more questions if you please:
What "PACs" are you using to give you hand control function, and do you still have AVC? (I'm thinking of using Biketronics BT1005 install kit for the hand controls w/ AVC).
On your Kenwood, are you having any issues with glare on the display or the display being too dim in sunlight? I've read quite a few reviews on Crutchfield complaining about this.
Are you worried about water intrusion damage since the Kenwood is not a marine unit? Biketronics makes a splash cover that might be a good idea for washing the bike.
I think I may go with the same setup you have (Kenwood head and JL amp) with the exception of using Polk MM6501 component speakers in the upper fairing and Polk MM651 coaxials in the lowers.
Thanks a lot!
Dave
Dave,
At certain angles, the Kenwood is very hard to read because of glare, compounded by the fact that as I get older, my eyes are getting worse. I would say on a sunny day, riding all day, there would be a 3-4 hour window around noon that you cannot read the display. It is a glare issue.
As for water intrusion, which was and still is a major concern of mine -- I was looking at a few issues. Marine units, from what I read, run a little hotter because of the coating so that was a minus since I run in 100+ temps all the time. I live in California, so the weather/rain is very predictable -- ergo, I don't ever get caught in the rain in California. My real concern is on the cross country trips. With that in mind, i am having fabricated a piece of hard plastic that will cover the head unit hole entirely, and i was thinking of using some sort of temporary tape on the windshield seem if I have to run through a bad storm -- I'm not an expert, but it did not seem like there was any water intrusion inside the fairing so I rolled the dice.
Another idea I am still kicking around is to put some sort of plastic sheath over the unit to divert any water that may intrude.
Attached is a picture of the PAC used. If AVC is the thing that turns down your volume when you slow down, i did not have that installed -- so not sure if it was even an option. I never used it on the stock as I had it turned off. Basically, I have 1) volume, 2) channel/track change 3) switch to HD Radio, Aux (Garmin 665), CD and USB (32 Gig flash), and 4) switch to semi mute whereby the music is turned down about 70% (very similar to AVC).
I love having a CD/MP3 player as there is so much music available, i can keep my real favorite riding tunes very easy to access. The CD player skips more on heavy bumps than stock, but an MP3 disc does not -- i find that interesting.
I have a total of six tweeters as I am using coax speakers on both upper and lower. The lower speakers i don't really hear unless I lean way back. The back seat passenger gets all the music. IMO, it pays to have the extra tweeters if you have clean music running through them --- the Kenwood has a great equalizer and sound processor so they are tuned so that they are not screechy. Extremely clean sound comes out that does not hurt the ears.