Sound Systems

[mack]

The pacifico fairing I have is still intact and has never been cut up for previous sound systems. Please educate me on what systems are out there that the xs charging system can handle. I'd like to modify the wiring harness and connectors while harness is off the bike so it's clean setup with a plug to plug installation fairing to bike. If anyone has personal experience I'd like your opinion on 2/4 amp systems and handle bar controls.

[fredintoon]

Hi Mack,
it's those giant speakers that gobble power, if your system uses ear buds you'll be fine.
But you should be using your ears to listen for traffic hazards, not for zoning out to Vivaldi.
On-board sound systems are a diversion and a hazard.

[CatatonicBug]

Not sure about the idea of handlebar controls. I've got an automotive HD radio with CD player mounted in my cyclesounds pod on a Vetter fairing, and it works great. It used the existing plug that connects the fairing to the bike. To adjust the radio, I have to reach up and actually touch it though.

[James England]

I think those old bike sound systems are pretty daft, to be honest. They're hardly hi-fi. They need to be at such a volume in order to be audible that the sound quality is rubbish and they irritate every person/vehicle you go blaring past (Doppler effect included with every pass-by). They eat power (as Fredintoon pointed out) and, even more importantly, as Fredintoon says, they are a distraction. Definitely on a bike, one should be listening for potential hazards. Never play anything with horns in it..... you'll hear a horn, think it's a trumpet and then find it's a car driver taking you out from the side, blaring his horn at you as you sail through a red light whilst humming away to Mozart's Horn Concerto.

These days, the roads are dangerous enough, without adding on-board distractions.

[kevxs]

keep it simple, wear ear buds with an ipod/smartphone in your pocket!

[crazy steve]

If you're out on the superslab and/or in little or no traffic, a sound system can be a nice addition to a bike. But I'll agree, in traffic I wouldn't use one; too much going on....

[mack]

I guess I'm

pretty lucky in that I live out in the country and spend my riding time on country roads. I 'm hardly ever in traffic unless tractors etc. count. I can go all day and never see another vehicle.

[James England]

I live out in the country and spend my riding time on country roads.

In which case, speakers are a MUST.... for scaring off deer, bears, wolves and mooses You do have mooses, right?

[DAVINCI]

The FM radio function in my Scala is enough on long trips, not too loud and only I can hear it. I could plug in an mp3 player to it if i had one