Searched around and found this Pyle Marine Amp. Very small 4 channel unit. Tapped into the wiring to the speakers under the hood. All rigged to remove the amp if it fails for any reason by making it plug-n-play. Have to pick up 4 RCA connectors and a switch to finish the install. Here's a couple pics of my install.
Pyle Marine Amplifier Installed
BrucerZX14
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True....it's not waterproof so your mounting position will be a big consideration. I really like how the Pyle amp fits under the fairing. Hopefully I'll get a lot of service from it.
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That Rockford Fosgate appears to be 5 times the cost of the Pyle that you used. MF list is $250! Unless you could get it on ebay, or internet for significantly less. I doubt that it sounds 5 times better. Unless you have problems with the Pyle...I'm just sayin
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They are going for $175 on Ebay. You are right...not neccessarily worth they extra funds on our bike system. The Pyle is also waterproof and the Rockford Fosgate isn't so mounting location may have to change if you use the RF.
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OK. Amp is installed. Haven't road tested yet since it's still raining here. Hopefully tomorrow as it's gonna be 70 degrees. Sounds good in the garage. Not what I would call boomer but the amp does drive the Polk Audio DX1525s well enough to really here them. I'll let ya'll know the outcome tomorrow if the weather holds.
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Update
OK. Finally got on the road with the amped stereo. As I said earlier, it's OK but not stellar. It works. I can say that. Am I impressed...not really. It just doesn't shine.
The line level converter (or the amp) appears to combine all the channels internally. When I attempt to adjust one channel on the line level converter, it has a major effect on the other channels. It took a bit of tweeking to get all the corners to sound the same. The music is there but it just doesn't sound any louder than the stock system with the stock speakers. It does sound more clear....but that's about it. The amp has the power to drive the quality speakers where the stock system just couldn't make the power needed.
Overall, it will drive the upgraded speakers. After this run with the Pyle amp, I'm gonna get the Rockford Fosgate amp. I'm honestly believing you get what you pay for. I paid $57 for the amp. It is a $57 amp. Yes, the RF amp isn't waterproof but I will rework my install to use it and I fully believe it will give way better results.
As a side note, one of my Polk speakers quit working on the woofer portion. I thought I had another issue with the amp. Turns out, the crossover had broken loose from the speaker. A little soldering and it was repaired.
OK. Finally got on the road with the amped stereo. As I said earlier, it's OK but not stellar. It works. I can say that. Am I impressed...not really. It just doesn't shine.
The line level converter (or the amp) appears to combine all the channels internally. When I attempt to adjust one channel on the line level converter, it has a major effect on the other channels. It took a bit of tweeking to get all the corners to sound the same. The music is there but it just doesn't sound any louder than the stock system with the stock speakers. It does sound more clear....but that's about it. The amp has the power to drive the quality speakers where the stock system just couldn't make the power needed.
Overall, it will drive the upgraded speakers. After this run with the Pyle amp, I'm gonna get the Rockford Fosgate amp. I'm honestly believing you get what you pay for. I paid $57 for the amp. It is a $57 amp. Yes, the RF amp isn't waterproof but I will rework my install to use it and I fully believe it will give way better results.
As a side note, one of my Polk speakers quit working on the woofer portion. I thought I had another issue with the amp. Turns out, the crossover had broken loose from the speaker. A little soldering and it was repaired.
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Got my Pyle amp installed over the weekend. Won't be able to take it for a ride until this weekend. I bought the PAC 2 line converter and a set of Infinity 529I 165W speakers. My impressions as I was working on the settings was that it really cleaned up the sound especially at higher levels. I set the line converter at its lowest setting and the amp is running about 2/3rds of the way up. I only have 2 speakers and it would appear to me that the small speaker is limiting the sound more than the amp. Before the amp the new speakers, were clipping at higher levels. After I get a ride in I will see if it helps in hearing when I am going down the highway. I really could not listen at highway speeds before.
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You should be able to put the RF amp in the same place. Maybe some waterproofing to make sure no water enters from the windshield/fairing area. Keep us posted once you install the other amp. Thanks for the reviews, and looking forward to the review on the next "stage" of your install.
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2 items to add. One is make sure you have a good short shielded RCA cable to connect to the amp. I had alot of noise when I installed the amp using an RCA cable that was laying around. A trip to Radio Shack for a short shielded cable cleared all of the noise. The other is my son installed a stereo with a Scosche SLC4 in his car and had trouble with it. Taking it to a professional shop they determined that the Scosche was defective and replacing it with a different brand corrected the problem. I guess what I am saying is that there are a lot of pieces involved in getting a good stereo sound and if any one of the parts are defective or not of the right quality you can have problems. I believe my installation is now as good a quality as I can get using a pair of 5.25 speakers. I am getting clean sound all the way from volume level 5 to maximum and I can't listen long at maximum. I have enough reserve power in the amp that I can turn it up to where the speakers start overextending. This is just my 2 cents on what I have done.
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UPDATE - Chapmast was right. My Scosche SCL4 SUCKED!! Went to my buddies audio shop and got 2 line level converters. Got them soldered in and had to go in and back the amp down some. Sounds WAY better. This is still with the Pyle amp. I may still install the Fosgate amp when I get it but this set up does work.
Mine may be available if I decide to sell it after I get my Fosgate amp. The Polk speakers may also be available as I also found some new Kicker speakers that I may be trying.
Mine may be available if I decide to sell it after I get my Fosgate amp. The Polk speakers may also be available as I also found some new Kicker speakers that I may be trying.
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