OK, I thought I did all the research and decided on the SS PN4.1000d along with 4 infinity kappas and the stock HU on my '11 Limited. Now I'm seeing there is a radio interference problem with the amp. I live just outside Chicago so I get a strong FM signal. Is this amp going to wipe out the FM Band or is it more of a problem as the signal weakens? Is there a way to shield the HU? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

 

Get yourself a cheap mp3 player and load it up with you fav. tunes. That is a good amp and a real bang for the buck. Yea the downfall is fm reception but an mp3 player with 600+ songs will make up for that.

 

I have that amp with a kenwood deck. FM is so so, I stream my music from amazon free with prime.

 

I am in the process of adding amp and speakers myself. I have been told by many here that adding a amp affects radio reception. Wasn't a deal breaker for me cuz I use spotify 99% of the time.

 

Gotta pay to play. That's part of adding amps and speakers to your ride. Not ideal, but the payoff is worth it to have tunes you can hear down the road, IMO. I haven't heard FM on my bike in 3 years. All streaming from my phone.

 

Something I've read about but haven't tried is copper shielded tape that you use to wrap your antennae cable with, that may help. It would be worth trying. I've seen it on Amazon and it was cheap.

 

Any idea how that would be done like for a hidden antenna? Since cable is very short??

 

You could try using the tape to hold the antennae to the inside of the outer fairing, I have no idea if it would work though.

 

I'll throw out some stuff that I have tried just in case y'all want to tinker with it.

In my younger days I worked as an electronics tech with all sorts of stuff, two way radios were in the mix. A hidden antenna ain't much better than no antenna at all. There is a reason radio stations put their antennas on towers, the higher the better. The same goes for reception. The higher your antenna is the more signal it is going to gather. I have had three different lengths of antennas on my 2010 Ultra Classic. The shorty's that were on there when I bought it, the stock length fiberglass antennas I swapped them out with, and the long steel whip antennas form a 2008 UC I finally bought and installed. Each time the antennas got longer reception improved.

Basically you have to decide if you want cool looks or good FM reception. Unless you live near several high powered stations you are not going to get both unless you have an aftermarket head unit with a more sensitive tuner.

Also as some have mentioned I tried the copper tape and it helped a little bit. I put some between the amp and the head unit and wrapped the antenna cable in it.

Also I added toroid or as some call them ferrite cores around the ground and power cables feeding the amp. That also helped a tiny bit.

I had to go to these extremes because I live in a rural area and there is only one FM station within fifty miles of where I live. Bone stock my bike would only pick up about five or six stations clearly. When I added the SS PN4.1000d amp I was only able to pick up that one FM station. After doing all three of the mods I mentioned I can now pick up about four or five stations clearly. I am thinking of swapping out the amp with an Arc 600.4 because I have been told it creates less RF interference.

It all boils down to what you want and what your starting point is. Once I installed the amp I was very pleased with the sound but disappointed with the loss of FM reception. When I traveled and got near a city though I could pick up several stations, so if you live in or near a city I suspect you will still be able to pick up quite a few stations if you have a real antenna. If you have a hidden antenna you may not be able to though.

As far as the function of the SS PN4.1000d amp goes though I have been VERY pleased with it. I have run eight speakers off of it at times and it never broke a sweat. Right now I have an ARC PSM DSP feeding it for my four front speakers and it hammers them as hard as I ask it to with no complaints. I know there are better sounding, smaller, and better engineered amps out there but not for $140. The dang thing even has protection circuitry that will shut it down if you get so crazy that your speakers start distorting. I also like that there are no pigtails to use with it unless you are using the speaker level inputs. It's just a big block that you poke your wires into.

So I guess the short of it is if you are on a budget that amp is a great piece of hardware. If you want above average sound with less FM distortion you are going to have to spend more than twice what that amp costs from what I have seen.

 

I'm still shocked u guys are on a "next level" audio forum in 2019 talking about FM radio.



T