J&M's acoustic foam pads available separately at http://www.jmcorp.com/ProductDetail....ctID=FSAP-HDCL ,,,,

 

John, I'm a fan of J&M, and I have the Rokker system on my Streetglide. But, c'mon... do you really think that piece of foam is worth $45?

 

well let's see ,,,,,

most of you are in business right ? ,,, and we DO appreciate all of our good customers ,,,,

back to the foam ,,, we have to buy and entire BIG BRICK of that fire-resistant charcoal gray foam each time ,,, I think it is around $2,500 per brick/bun ,,,,

then the guy down the street has to cut it in layers with a special knife, then run it thru the die-cut machine for each piece, then apply the cool pre-gummed foam backing ((or is it the other way around?)) ,,,,,

then take the install instructions we give him, and bag each set up properly and not mix any up ,,,,,

then it is delivered to J&M ,,, I have to pay someone to stock it in our warehouse and then bring it over here to be combined with the speaker kits, or sold separately by itself ,,,,

THEN if I want distributors like Drag Specialties to stock and distribute it, and dealers like your local Harley dealer to buy it and sell it to YOU, I have to give them each their required profit margin ,,,,

and HOPEFULLY J&M can take home 2-6$ profit from each kit when all is said & done, to help pay for the lights, the dirt we sit on, and some advertising occasionally, no less the approximate $1,000.00 per month it costs to be a sponsor on this web forum alone ,,,,

all I can say is that we do the very best that we can ,,,,,

 

My comments were certainly not meant to take away from any of the products John or anyone else sells so I'm going to chime back in here and provide my .02 worth.

1. Polyfill is not the same as acoustic foam in any way. They have extremely different properties/characteristics and act totally different in all audio applications.


2. Polyfill is not fire-resistant in any way so it is NOT to be used in areas where physical contact with a speaker housing/frame/electronics/electrical will take place. Grab a fistful of Polyfill, set it on the ground and spark a cigarette lighter next to it, you’ll see what I’m talking about. It will go up just as fast as a cotton ball will.

3. Acoustic Foam has properties in addition to being fire-resistant than that of Polyfill. The main difference being acoustic foam is designed to be a high-absorption, low mass surface to absorb sound energy not just slow it down as Polyfill does by sound dampening. In layman terms; this results in your fairing not vibrating to no end when you crank up the volume on those 7.25" rokkers and sounding like they're in a round metal tub.

4. Polyfill has a purpose in audio applications and that is simply to fool the speaker (by sound dampening) into thinking it's in a larger enclosure than it really is, THAT'S IT. Any speaker that is capable of producing a frequency lower than 120hz and is in an enclosure that's too small and sealed (somewhat) will benefit from a polyfill or acoustic foam application with the decision being made based on the determining factors.

Is the foam worth $45? well that's all relevant to whether or not you want to be cruising down the road, tunes cranked up, and your fairing vibrating the way license plates do on the back of cars not to mention the “hollow” sound you’ll experience if you do nothing at all. That's annoying if you ask me and you're over-working your speakers. Just about anyone that's going to spend the $ for a good set of speakers to put in a fairing, regardless of brand, won't balk at spending an additional $45 for the pads when there is a "real" purpose and benefit to doing so. The pads are designed not only for the fitment of the fairing but for acoustical properties as well.

UltraNutZ

 

The HD Bass Booster is not a "tuned port" as you mention above since it isn't vented to the atmosphere - it vents to a larger sealed enclosure. I did the poly-fill in the pods initially and it helped, but removing the fill and installing the BB kit made a dramatic difference. Well worth the money for my install.

Adding poly to the lowers is beneficial as well for those that have speakers installed in that location.

I'm driving a set of CDT Audio 6.5" components in the rear pods with a JL Audio XD-200/2 amp mounted in the detachable TP and the bass is pretty damned impressive. It will vibrate the handlebars just from the pod speakers ... fade control is important as I imagine it would get annoying being a passenger

 

*edited for re-wording*

The Bass Booster is in fact a "tuning" mechanism that utlizes the air-space of a larger sealed enclosure; the trunk. Keep in mind the key words I used in the previous post (and other posts) are "sound dampening" pertaining to polyfil and not tuning. You can't properly tune any enclosure with Polyfil, you can only get close to tuning by fooling the speaker into thinking its mounted in a larger enclosure than it is. HD has gone through rigorous testing (whether done in-house or an outside source) with this bass booster product because it is in fact a tuning device. I can assure you the diameter and length of that bass port is 100% directly proportionate to the size of the sealed trunk and the amount of air-flow that is required by your speaker to operate at peak efficiency with minimal distortion.

 

Here you posted that poly has the same result as the BB kit and if that is true - then by definition you are tuning with poly. I was just pointing out that my results were dramatically different. The BB kit wins hands down. I would recommend it for any speakers that are jiuced with a good amp.

Since I have 6.5" drivers in the pods not I'm not sure if the BB kit would have the same impact when using 5.25" drivers, but I would not call it a waste of money. I'm very happy with it.

 

you are absolutely correct that the results will be completely different. I was simply pointing out a $5 and 10 minute alternative to the $80 and 1 hour HD kit is all.

save your $$ and waste of money are two totally different variations of words altogether.

Regardless, my point was; if you want an inexpensive way to achieve good results, go with polyfil; if you want the best way to do it, then by all means a properly tuned enclosure is the way to go.

With 6.5" speakers in the pods the results will be dramatically different from 5.25" mainly because of the surface size of the cone itself.

Love these debates! LOL

 

Yep me too. Of course everything I heard about the initial J&M's was good at the time to.

..

 

Let me clarify... As I said, I'm certainly happy with my J&M Rokkers. I spent quite a bit of time researching what I thought might be the best system for my tastes. When I bought my system, the foam was included i nthe kit, so I was unaware of the specific cost of just the foam. Never said I thought it should be free, or that J&M was getting rich off of it. I merely questioned it's worth. It just seems to me, at initial thought, it could be manufactured for less. Regardless of the steps in the process, $45 for two small pieces of foam, is a lot of money. In all honesty, I was unaware it was even offered as a seoperate item. I just assumed it was only available as a part of the kit.

Didn't mean to **** in anyone's Wheaties. Unlike J&M, I don't pay a $1000 a month to post here, but I did spend a fair amount of that much on your products. Of which I said earlier and I'll stand behind, are very good products that I am happy with. I just thought it was ok to speak my opinion, and ask a simple, innocent question.