If you were going to buy speakers for your Woodys fairing...what would you buy?

[BF]

I'm speaker shopping.  I just installed a Rockford Fosgate PBR300X4 300 watt amp in my Woody.  This amp....

http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/products/product_details.aspx?itemid=120465

It's obvious that the 5" Marinavox VX-152BX speakers that Glenn provided with the fairing arn't going to hold up to that kind of abuse.  They're pretty darn good speakers for when just wired up to my Sony DSX-S100 head unit, but with the amp, they're gonna be toast in no time.  

I know diddly about speakers, but I was looking at the Kicker speakers and the Polk.  These are the Kicker speakers I was looking at.....

http://www.kicker.com/ps5250

and I was looking at these Polks....

http://www.polkaudio.com/products/mm521

and these Polks....

http://www.polkaudio.com/products/db521

I'm thinking I like the Polks better, at least for price, and the Kickers seem kinda impressive except for their price $$$$  .

I need some suggestions.  What would you guys go with.....or is there something else better out there?  

Besides the obvious moisture concerns, are there any drawbacks to installing a set of regular car speakers, or do I need to stick with the outdoor/marine grade speakers for the fairing?  

[Gavin_Sons]

I have that same amp in my super valk. It is running just 2 polk 501's its a great amp. Huge improvement over stock. Im still looking for a way to add 2 more speakers up front.  If I had to do it over id try to go for kicker speakers that can handle higher watts.

[BF]

I have that same amp in my super valk. It is running just 2 polk 501's its a great amp. Huge improvement over stock. Im still looking for a way to add 2 more speakers up front.  If I had to do it over id try to go for kicker speakers that can handle higher watts.

That's one of the reasons I went with the Woody.....you can put 4 speakers in it. 

Where do you have the gain set with those Polks?  With the stock Woody speakers, I had to turn it all the way down. 

[Gavin_Sons]

It is set all the way down, but I only have 2 speakers hooked to it at the moment.

[jimmytee]

Where did you end up mounting the amp? Were you able to mount it inside the fairing? If so,are you concerned about heat dissipation?

[Gavin_Sons]

Yeah, this amp is really small marbe 6" x 4". Im not worried about the heat, it gets more air in the fairing than it would in a sealed up saddlebag. Im more worried about moisture from a heavy rain. But I have rode in a couple down poors and it didnt hurt it at all.

[BF]

Where did you end up mounting the amp? Were you able to mount it inside the fairing? If so,are you concerned about heat dissipation?

I'll post a pic or two later.  I had to make a mount. 

[BF]

Where did you end up mounting the amp? Were you able to mount it inside the fairing? If so,are you concerned about heat dissipation?

Here ya go.  I got a 3 foot piece of alum. flat stock at Lowes.....1/6" thick x 1 1/4" wide.  Cut, bent and shaped it to fit.  



It's a close fit inside the Woodys fairing, but it doesn't touch anything.  

I'm not worried about heat as there's plenty of room and air all around the amp....maybe I should be, but I'm not worried.  

I'm leaning towards these Polks....

http://www.polkaudio.com/products/mm521

.....but they come with external cross-overs and I'm not sure that I have that much room to pack 4 slightly larger speakers along with 4 seperate cross-overs inside the Woody.  

[jimmytee]

Well I wouldn't have thought it would fit there. As far as the crossovers, how big are they? could they not fit between the two speakers on either side? Will you be cutting the mounting holes for the speakers a tad larger I guess.. I'm planning on adding an amp. Had just figured I'd mount one in a saddlebag. Hadn't thought whether I'd want to replace the speakers. That was an option when I ordered my Woody, probably should've .I'll be curious in your results. I know the speakers that you and I got with the fairing are supposed to be rated at 60 watts, which as you know , stock head units don't come close. They tout 50 watts per channel,but that is peak not RMS continuous. My Kenwood unit was among the highest in RMS at like 22 watts. I was thinking of adding a couple of larger drivers in the inside (tire side)of the saddlebags from a seperate amp as well.

[BF]

Well I wouldn't have thought it would fit there. As far as the crossovers, how big are they? could they not fit between the two speakers on either side? Will you be cutting the mounting holes for the speakers a tad larger I guess.. I'm planning on adding an amp. Had just figured I'd mount one in a saddlebag. Hadn't thought whether I'd want to replace the speakers. That was an option when I ordered my Woody, probably should've .I'll be curious in your results. I know the speakers that you and I got with the fairing are supposed to be rated at 60 watts, which as you know , stock head units don't come close. They tout 50 watts per channel,but that is peak not RMS continuous. My Kenwood unit was among the highest in RMS at like 22 watts. I was thinking of adding a couple of larger drivers in the inside (tire side)of the saddlebags from a seperate amp as well.

I'm not exactly sure how big the crossovers are.  Tried to find as many pics on the internet that I could, but they're not really clear enough to tell exactly.  Didn't find anything on the Polk site that gave dimensions either.  

However, I just ordered one set of the MM521's (brand new, but no box) from an ebay seller.  Time will tell.  If they'll work, I'll look for and order another set.  If not, I guess I'll rellist them on ebay and keep looking.  

Yep....gonna have to make the holes a tad bigger.  Shouldn't be too difficult.  Figure I'll round 'em out some more with a drum sander or something.  

[MarkT]

I've blown out several brands of speakers in my systems.  Have 4 speakers set up, 4", driven by a Blaupunkt 400w amp and a preamp/mixer.  I installed Bass Blockers to block low frequencies to help protect the speakers, and also set the lowpass at 100Hz for the same reason.  Blown out Honda OEM (on the wing), Blaupunkt, and Electrical Connections speakers.  Went to Alpines on both bikes and haven't blown one since.  5" on the wing, front & rear, still 4" on Deerslayer.  Great fidelity and volume, low distortion.  But I don't crank the volume any more than necessary, just because I'm tired of buying speakers.  The Alpines appear to be weatherproof, at least mine which are exposed to the rain haven't failed.  They have plastic cones.

[jimmytee]

I "personally" wouldn't worry about any speaker that has a polypropylene driver being weather proof or marine grade or not.

[BF]

Looking on the Alpine site and checking out their hi-end line of 5 1/4" speakers.  The site says that the cone is a "Multi-Layer Hybrid Fiber Cone". 

What kind of material is a multi-layer hybrid fiber supposed to be?  Think that might be weather friendly?

They have a marine line of speakers, but nothing in the size I need. 

[BF]

Mark......

Crutchfield lists several different Bass Blockers.  150 Hz cut-off all the way up to 800 Hz cut-off. 

What does that mean and how does one decide which one(s) to buy?

[jimmytee]

I wouldn't want limit the low end at 150 ,at least not without some other driver stepping in to fill the void. I personally would want to tailor where I'd roll off at. My head unit allows for more fine tuning of these areas like this. 150 is pretty high, but with a variable crossover or active electronic crossover, you would not be limited if you didn't like the sound.

[MarkT]

Mark......

Crutchfield lists several different Bass Blockers.  150 Hz cut-off all the way up to 800 Hz cut-off.  

What does that mean and how does one decide which one(s) to buy?

I bought mine years ago.  They specify 80Hz.  Also have lo-pass blocked at 100 in the amp.  So two methods to block low frequencies which with any volume, will ruin small speakers.  Bass Blockers are really just capacitors.  So if you can't find them from the BB brand, do some research to find what spec you need and buy them as capacitors from a supplier such as radioshack.com

On the Alpines - mine are plastic.  Also bought them some time ago so maybe they aren't in the line anymore.  I likely have one of the boxes, I'll check.

Found a box - turns out I also bought a pair of Kenwoods - didn't find a box for the Alpines.  The Kenwoods are 3-way 5-1/2" with poly cones.  150watts peak, 38wrms.  They claim range of 40-30kHz.  I'd take that 40 with some salt.  These have never blown out either.  Model KFC-1389ie, discontinued but no doubt they have a replacement.  They were $60 for the pair.