J&M 7.25 Speaker Review

C

cinthia.roxx

New member
Just wanted to chime in...new to the forum...I have a 2010 RG and have been searching and reading reviews trying to figure out which speakers...from biketronics, hogtunes, hawgwired, boom audio, etc.

Friday April 2, I got the oppurtunity to stop by the DR. VTWIN show in Sherman Oaks and personally hear the J&M Speakers both WITH an AMP and WITHOUT...

Keep in mind it was inside there store, however when you can feel pain in your ears from the volume you know its loud and that was for the NON-AMPED speakers...with the amp my ears heart even more, the DEMO tunes were AC DC's Thunderstruck...I can say that in the begining of the song when they are humming...it sounded like the band was standing in the room.

Sadly I cannot have the the speakers and amp till the 15th of APRIL as the RG amp has not been realeased but I am giddy with anticipation.

As far as sheer volume and clarity, both with and without amp it is fantastic, does it sound as great as your home theatre system...NO, but the point is its a motorcylce and you will (or I will) be doing 65 to 75 MPG on the SoCal freeways, so "Clarity" and "Volume" are the two items I am looking for...With the volume MAXED out on the bike there was just a HINT of distortion to my ears, but frankly I can't see the need to have it that loud unless you are playing music for a group at the back of a stadium. Bass is definately far better than stock, distortion is minimal at the highest volume, and clarity is excellent. I even would day that distortion may be non exsistent as we were inside the DRVTWIN SHOP WITH GLASS FRONT WINDOWS AND DOORS. Unless you are flat out an audio nut, can't see anyone not being happy, again, my ears litterly started to ache with the volume up on the set with the amp.

Also would like to give a HIGH recommendation for getting the J&M color trim rings for the speakers, saw them in RED and AMBER and they look great, plan on putting those on the bike too!!!

Last of all thanks to Shawn and Team and DRVTWIN for being SO HELPFUL and willing to tollerate me asking a bunch of questions, very friendly and helpful and they have great prices...THANKS MUCH!!!!
 
i installed front and back on my 07 ultra,at first i thought i was a little disappointed,but after 4 days and hundreds of miles,i would put these on in a minute!
the install was super easy also.
they really shine on the road,freeway speeds,awesome!!!
 
May have been addressed here but I'm not reading 20 pages to find out. Can I use these speakers with the hog tune amp and tweeter pod? If so, anything special I need to do?
 
No reason you can't. You didn't give a model for your setup but your amp is more than likely a 2 ohm amp so you should stick with the 2 Ohm J&M's. Hope this answers your question.
 
Installed the J&Ms on my Roadglide, Myself I cannot see the need for a amp, they sound really good. Was riding with a couple of buddys with stock setups and they about crapped when they heard the J&Ms beside theirs.
 
I have heard the J&M 7.25s and 5.25s connected to the Pioneer, Alpine, Bazooka, HawgWired, Biketronics, HogTunes, ArcAudio & J&M amps ,,,,,,,

certainly there are differences between the various amps, but the J&M speakers are THE most efficient speakers you can buy for your Harley WITH or WITHOUT an accessory amplifier ,,,,,

I have been on this forum for many years now talking about J&M speakers, but I must tell you that what J&M offers today is quite simply the very best I have ever heard ,,,,

I am very proud of what our R&D guys have accomplished in this area ,,,,,, high performance, well designed, easy to install products that are built specifically for the Harley application ,,,

does not get any better than this ,,,
 
well here's my two bits...i ordered 'em factory direct last monday (29th). four days to the border they say then how ever long the border dudes hold 'em before releasing them. i hope to see them by the end of the week...we'll see 'fingers crossed' ... c'mon John....a little push here!
 
My install thoughts on the AMP after doing it tonight...

I got my AMP from Dr. V-Twin today. I sat down with the box and a beer and played with the dogs for a bit and read the instructions. Once I read through everything, I grabbed another beer and headed out to the garage.

I figured Running the power to the battery was going to be the most difficult step so I decided to tackle that first. I could not find my Fish Tape so I substituted some CAT-5 cable that I had laying around. Cut off a section of cable and after a few tries I had it 'fished' down the right side of the frame in the cable tray under the tank. Keep in mind I was trying to avoid removing the tank. I tied and taped the power cable to my "Fish Tape" and tried pulling it through but it kept getting hung up on something.

After another beer, I tried the other side of the frame and repeated... Worked like a charm. This process was probably my first hour in the garage.

After the power cable it was time to mount the AMP. The amp comes on a mounting bracket already so all I had to do was loosen the two screws (one on the left and one on the right) that are nearest the front of the radio and then remove the other two screws to fit the AMP mounting bracket. Now I don't know who the hell designed that radio and placed those screws where they did, but I hate them. I truely hate them... both the person that designed the screw placement and the damn screws themselves. PITA this was. It Probably took me an hour turning a screw that is in a tight confined space 1/8th of a turn at a time. Two had to be loosened and two had to be completely removed. Another hour passed....... and another beer.

As mentioned, the AMP comes on it own mounting bracket but the mount holes were just short of perfect for the AMP so the Mounting bracket was sort of bowed out... not much, but it did make fitting it correctly a bit more interesting. I figured a tight fit will keep it from rattling, right?

I decided to go ahead and hook everything up at this time, just to be sure everything worked before I spent time on those damn radio screws again.

This is where problem 1 started... The wiring documentation from J&M does not match the actual wiring harness. The instructions state that the input wires from the amp are Red & Red/White and the other pair are White & White/red. Well the actual wiring harness on the AMP is Gray & Gray/Black and then White and White/Black. At least I think that what it is because the wire themselves are not marked (Note to J&M : Label the wire themselves as far and Right and left channel and which are positive). So after that guessing game I finished connecting everything and turned it on. Everything seemed OK, so I grabbed another beer and proceeded to tighten those damn radio screws and then finally the bracket that J&M included for the XM and CB Modules if you have them.

Another hour passes.... and the damn radio screws are finally back in.

Before putting the outer fairing back on, I test everything... all my gauges light up, radio turns on, XM works, Bike starts, turn signals work... time to button this sucker up.

... Or at least try to button this thing up.
(Note #2 to J&M : Include a picture of suggested cable routing) After a half dozen attempts, I finally got the fairing back on. Between the amp, XM Module, the second wiring harness.... it is damn packed inside that fairing and if I have to open that thing back up within the next year, it will be too soon.

Once I got everything finished I did a quick radio check again but couldn't turn it up too much because of the neighbors, so I went on a Honda Civic hunt. You know, the kids that have stereos that are worth more than the car itself. That was a bust so I settled for just annoying people at red lights.

Maybe when I go to work tomorrow I can find someone at a red light that is willing to do a 'stereo off'.

So thats it... in a nut shell:The AMP is a tight fit but it does fit.The screws on the side of the radio svck arse.The wiring diagram included in the kit doesnt match the actual wiring harness. (but I did find out later that it is labeled on the amp were the wires go into it)Dealing with the wiring harnesses and making everything fit again is a PITA. And the screws on the side of the radio... they svck arse!
 
Back
Top