Just as the title states. I've spent a lot of time in my life with stereos so I'm pretty sure I know a thing or two. I don't want to hear anyone blabber about how, "why waste time and money on a bike stereo and look for audiophile sound." The fact is, after reading below, and getting some feedback, I believe either my stereo is defective or possibly all of these are.
I am also a laser technician, so I do have technical ability.
So, I bought a stereo for my 2010 Rt, and installed the speakers in front. Seemed just to lack volume, but also had a lot of distortion, static more or less. I later decided to buy rear speakers and went with a set of focals, and not the lower model. I played with the stereo, and it just sounded aweful, still static/distortion at higher volume. I thought it was the bad signal for the radio, but tried a high end Hifiman portable player, and still stunk. Only thing I thought was that it was just the crappy speakers up front and lack of power all the way around. I then bought an amp and a signal filter, and it played louder, but now distortion/static at a lower volume setting. I then purchased the best, an lc8i by audio control, this device converts and filters any factory stereo wires to rca, and cleans up the signal. I also ran grounds for the amp and scraped the frame clean for a good ground for the amp. I put a set of 6.5 focal 100 watt rms utopia mids and tweeters. After it's all said and done, the speakers are far cleaner sounding, but again, at higher volume, terrible distortion, static. I've set the gain on the amp to zero and the lc8i has lights that allow you to balance the power to the amp and speakers to avoid amp clipping and problem. I've tried everything and no matter what, the same poor sound quality. I pulled the 6.5 focals out of my truck, as I bought a new set, and they played very loud and clean, way louder than what I'm getting on the bike. When I tested the set up originally no wires were run near the power wires. Also, even with no engine running or anything, it's no better, so it's not engine noise or electrical.
Can those who have an RT check their bikes and see if they get distortion only at higher volume and if it just gets worse the louder you go? As in, listen at low volume and turn up slowly and see if you hear poor sound quality/distortion, and see if you notice it get progressively worse as you go up.
I truly believe either my stereo is junk, or there are far more people with bad stereos out there who think the speakers are at their limit, when the distortion is caused by the head unit.
The lc8i has an rca imput for running an ipod or whatever right through it. I'm going to see if by running my stereo that way, if I get the same noise, because it will actually bypass the RT head unit. I'll check to make sure I have 3.5mm headphone jack to RCA to test this. If that doesn't work, I'll bypass everything, including the bikes display and controls and run another regular head unit.
In the meantime, what do you guys find with your RT stereo? I read others who have this, believing it's the amp they installed, but I'll bet they had it with the stock system and thought it was the speakers.
what I find strange is that most stereos allow you to play them to 80% volume most of the time and not distort, this stereo barely allows you past 50 or 60% and I just hear crap.
Anyone have any input.
I am also a laser technician, so I do have technical ability.
So, I bought a stereo for my 2010 Rt, and installed the speakers in front. Seemed just to lack volume, but also had a lot of distortion, static more or less. I later decided to buy rear speakers and went with a set of focals, and not the lower model. I played with the stereo, and it just sounded aweful, still static/distortion at higher volume. I thought it was the bad signal for the radio, but tried a high end Hifiman portable player, and still stunk. Only thing I thought was that it was just the crappy speakers up front and lack of power all the way around. I then bought an amp and a signal filter, and it played louder, but now distortion/static at a lower volume setting. I then purchased the best, an lc8i by audio control, this device converts and filters any factory stereo wires to rca, and cleans up the signal. I also ran grounds for the amp and scraped the frame clean for a good ground for the amp. I put a set of 6.5 focal 100 watt rms utopia mids and tweeters. After it's all said and done, the speakers are far cleaner sounding, but again, at higher volume, terrible distortion, static. I've set the gain on the amp to zero and the lc8i has lights that allow you to balance the power to the amp and speakers to avoid amp clipping and problem. I've tried everything and no matter what, the same poor sound quality. I pulled the 6.5 focals out of my truck, as I bought a new set, and they played very loud and clean, way louder than what I'm getting on the bike. When I tested the set up originally no wires were run near the power wires. Also, even with no engine running or anything, it's no better, so it's not engine noise or electrical.
Can those who have an RT check their bikes and see if they get distortion only at higher volume and if it just gets worse the louder you go? As in, listen at low volume and turn up slowly and see if you hear poor sound quality/distortion, and see if you notice it get progressively worse as you go up.
I truly believe either my stereo is junk, or there are far more people with bad stereos out there who think the speakers are at their limit, when the distortion is caused by the head unit.
The lc8i has an rca imput for running an ipod or whatever right through it. I'm going to see if by running my stereo that way, if I get the same noise, because it will actually bypass the RT head unit. I'll check to make sure I have 3.5mm headphone jack to RCA to test this. If that doesn't work, I'll bypass everything, including the bikes display and controls and run another regular head unit.
In the meantime, what do you guys find with your RT stereo? I read others who have this, believing it's the amp they installed, but I'll bet they had it with the stock system and thought it was the speakers.
what I find strange is that most stereos allow you to play them to 80% volume most of the time and not distort, this stereo barely allows you past 50 or 60% and I just hear crap.
Anyone have any input.
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