DWG motorcycle speakers

[cactusjack]

I went over to my buddy's house last night to help him work on his 06 1500 Classic. I was lured by the promise of buffalo wings and beer. He is mechanically challenged and needed help installing a Emgo 12v accessory outlet/lighter and an audio system. The 12v outlet is a straighforward wiring job, nothing to write home about. I had installed the same thing on my bike a few weeks ago, so the only challenge was him deciding where he wanted it mounted on the bars.

I was keenly interested in the audio system, as I have been considering one for my bike. He had bought the DWG speakers. He had found them on sale for $99 on Memorial Day. His are the chrome model. The system appeared to be of decent quality and includes the speakers, basic mounts, a 100w amp, a wired remote control to manage power and volume, and all wiring.

The basic mounts are simply z-brackets, and we mounted them to the mirror mounts. The big problem with this system is the wiring provided is not long enough. Each speaker has a 3-foot cable with a male RCA plug. These are supposed to plug into the amp, which is fine if you can mount the amp in the forks. The amp is not weatherproof, so it needs to be buried behind a cover. The only place we could find room to hide the amp was in one of his soft saddlebags. He had to go buy a set of female RCA-male RCA 6' extension cables. The wired remote consists of a little control box, maybe 1" square and 1-1/2" long. It connects to the amp with a flat cable with RJ-11 connectors at each end, like a telephone cord. He mounted the amp with velcro to the saddlebag and we routed the cables through a hole he lunched in the back of the left side bag. The input cable was 6' with a 3.5mm male plug on each end. It barely reached from the handlebars to the saddlebag. In fact, he ended up using a 3.5mm>2 RCA plug adapter to get another 6" of length to make it reach sufficiently. The unit will accept both 3.5mm and RCA inputs.

The system sounded pretty good when he connected his ipod to it. One of my ears is still kind of plugged from my recent sinus infection/ear infection, so I couldn't hear as well as normal. The speakers sound a tad "tinny", with not much bass, but that's to be expected from small enclosed speakers.

In all, it seems like an acceptable system, but the maker really missed the mark with the cabling provided. I suppose they figure these will be used on bikes with fairings or some other way to mount the amp near the speakers.

If you buy one of these units, plan on obtaining a set of 6' or 8' RCA extension (not patch) cables, and a longer 3.5mm male-male patch cable. (Extension cables have a female jack on one end and a male plug on the other, patch cables have a male plug on each end.) I will still consider one for my bike, although since I have a CA emissions bike I would have to mount the amp in one of the saddlebags, since there is no room under the LH side cover.