{"id":7447,"date":"2019-10-10T12:34:09","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T12:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/firstcheckpoint.com\/best-harley-speaker-upgrade\/"},"modified":"2023-05-23T12:29:10","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T10:29:10","slug":"best-harley-speaker-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firstcheckpoint.com\/best-harley-speaker-upgrade\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Speaker Upgrades for Your Harley Davidson"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the thunderous V-twin rumble and roar of a Harley Davidson motor is music enough for many motorcyclists\u2019 ears, for Harley riders with more touring-oriented models, sometimes a bit of actual music – the kind played with electric guitars, bass and drums – is just what you need on a long ride, and the Harley Davidson factory knew this well enough to fit speakers to certain models. However, while the OEM speakers are perfectly adequate for many applications, sometimes, especially if you really love your music, you might feel your bike\u2019s speakers need a bit more oomph. If you need more bass, treble and mids – more everything, really – there are plenty of aftermarket Harley speakers available to really get your music soaring above the noise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Harley Speaker Upgrade Quick Review<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Top Choice: Rockford Fosgate 6.5″ Fairing Speakers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you just want to upgrade your Street Glide\u2019s OEM speakers, these direct replacements from Rockford Fosgate will give you crystal clear audio at freeway speeds.
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Product<\/th>Best For<\/th>Our Rating<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
1. Rockford Fosgate 6.5″ Fairing Speakers<\/a><\/td>Best Speaker Upgrade For Harley Street Glide<\/td>\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/span><\/td><\/tr>
2. Hogtunes Front Speakers for Harley-Davidson FLH Touring Models)<\/a><\/td>Best Speakers For Harley Davidson Ultra Classic<\/td>\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/span><\/td><\/tr>
3. Harley Davidson Polk Audio Factory Speaker Replacement Kit<\/a><\/td>Best Harley Electra Glide Speaker Upgrade<\/td>\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/span><\/td><\/tr>
4. J&M Rokker XXR 7.25″ Front Speakers forfor H-D<\/a><\/td>Best Speakers For Harley Road Glide<\/td>\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/span><\/td><\/tr>
5. BOSS Audio Systems MC440B Bluetooth Motorcycle Speaker System<\/a><\/td>Best Bluetooth Speakers For Harley Davidson<\/td>\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/span><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Playing Music On Motorcycles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Music and motorcycles have gone together like bread and butter for decades. Even non-motorcyclists are likely to conjure an image of Harley riders thundering along a freeway when they hear the rockin\u2019 sounds of Steppenwolf\u2019s Born To Be Wild. And, of course, if you\u2019re a motorcyclist, nothing adds to a good ol\u2019 cruise down a lonely stretch of highway like your favorite tunes blasting in your ears. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While most motorcyclists are content to do this via headphones connected to their phone, or maybe through helmet speakers<\/a>, or perhaps via a bluetooth helmet<\/a> connected to your music player, others, who own Harleys with built-in speakers, prefer to listen to music on their bikes the same way they\u2019d listen to it in their living rooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Should You Upgrade Your Harley Speakers?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Why would you want to add an aftermarket air filter to your bike? Why put on a custom set of pipes? After all, Harley Davidson designed everything on your bike to function optimally, right? Well yeah, to a degree. The factory, however, also had to factor in a number of other things into their design of your ride, namely cost and government regulations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While your Harley speakers may perform perfectly adequately for the average rider, perhaps you just want more out of them. Maybe you\u2019re an audiophile who\u2019s really particular about crystal clear sound. Perhaps you\u2019re a hard rocker who needs extreme volume. Maybe you just want everyone else on the road to hear how awesome your taste in music is. Whatever your reason for wanting to upgrade, though, when you decide to do this, you\u2019ll be confronted with an array of choices of aftermarket speakers. So, which ones do you pick?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Which Aftermarket Speakers Are Right for My Harley?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First things first, you\u2019re going to have to do a little research before ripping your old speakers out and putting new ones in – and that\u2019s why we\u2019ve written this article, to help you out a little in that department. Harley speakers aren\u2019t like car speakers; you can\u2019t just walk into any auto shop and pick up some universal amp and speakers. You\u2019re going to need to make sure that you get speakers designed for motorcycles, and that you get the right speakers for your model. Motorcycle speakers are designed for the very specific purpose of working well on bikes, and are quite different to car speakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Are Motorcycle Speakers Waterproof?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yet another reason to not use generic car speakers on your bike is that they\u2019re not waterproof. Using any speakers other than motorcycle specific speakers on your bike will likely result not only in poor audio performance, but also broken speakers, eventually, as rain and condensation from being outdoors will get into them, damage the electronic components, and eventually break them beyond repair. Motorcycle speakers are designed to be waterproof, and to be able to handle a downpour and still work perfectly well. The best motorcycle speakers will be able to withstand all manner of adverse weather conditions, from scorching hot days to torrential downpours to blizzards (not that you should be riding in blizzards, though), and, if they\u2019re really well-made, will keep functioning at optimal levels for many years and over many thousands of miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is the Best Amp for A Motorcycle?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Again, while any auto parts store is likely to have a wide range of generic car audio amps, many of which will provide awesome sound in a car, most of these won\u2019t work very well on your bike. You have to remember that the sound space inside a car is very different to that of a motorcycle; a car is insulated against both the sound of the motor and the sounds of outside traffic and the rushing wind. As such, many sound frequencies – especially bass frequencies – which will come through loud and clear inside a car will simply be lost while using that same sound system on a moving motorcycle. You can generally count on a motorcycle-specific amp and speakers to have been designed to allow you to hear the various frequencies of your music over the roar of your engine, the hum of traffic, and the rush of the wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another reason to use a motorcycle specific amp and speakers on your bike is that they\u2019ve been designed to work within the limits of your motorcycle\u2019s charging system. While motorcycle and car charging systems operate on similar principles, something that works fine on a car charging system may well be too much for a motorcycle\u2019s smaller charging system, and the overload will destroy it over time. To be on the safe side, check out these recommended Harley batteries<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How Many Watts Are Motorcycle Speakers?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Motorcycle speakers need to be fairly powerful, since they have to compete with the howl of the wind at freeway speeds, as well as the roar of the motor and the sound of traffic. When talking about speaker wattage, it\u2019s important to remember that there\u2019s a difference between PMPO wattage and RMS wattage. While you can go into quite a lot of very technical details about the difference between the<\/a>, basically, what really counts in terms of real world performance is your speakers\u2019 RMS output. Manufacturers, particularly of cheaper speakers, will put their PMPO figures in big, bold displays on their packaging, and usually these numbers will be very high – but if you check the small print for the RMS output, you\u2019ll see that it\u2019s generally a lot lower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For motorcycle speakers, make sure you look at the RMS figure, not the PMPO figure, for really good clarity of sound and decent volume at freeway speeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Best Harley Speaker Upgrade Review<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Take note of the best stereo upgrades for Harley-Davidson motorcycles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\t\tBest Speaker for Harley Street Glide\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"Rockford\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRockford Fosgate TMS6SG Full Range Fairing Speakers\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/H3>\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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If you just want to upgrade your Street Glide\u2019s OEM speakers, these direct replacements from Rockford Fosgate will give you crystal clear audio at freeway speeds.<\/p>

If you don\u2019t want to rip up your Street Glide\u2019s entire sound system, and all you want to do is upgrade the speakers themselves, then these 6.5\u2033 Full Range Fairing Speakers (TMS6SG) from Rockford Fosgate are likely just what you need. All you\u2019ll have to do to complete the upgrade is remove your old speakers and slip these in; they\u2019re designed to be installed with your original fittings, so no modification or extra speaker adapters are necessary. At 75W RMS they provide enough power to get your music\u2019s low, mid and high range frequencies through to you with crystal clarity at freeway speeds. They\u2019re not badly priced either.<\/p>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\tPros:<\/strong>\n\t\t