Extreme Audio in Midlothian and Mechanicsville offers Harley-Davidson radio flashing for 2014 and newer Boom!™ Box-equipped bikes. Extreme Audio has invested in the equipment to make these modifications. You can call it programming, reflashing, reconfiguring or electronic voodoo if you want. The radio flashing process is crucially important to the sound quality and reliable performance of an upgraded sound system on a Street Glide, Ultra Glide or Electra Glide motorcycle.
What is Factory Equalization?
Both motorcycle and vehicle manufacturers have realized that the implementation of some basic sound tuning can dramatically transform the performance of the audio system in the new cars and trucks they build. Tuning can make cheap speakers sound much better, so it is an easy decision for automakers to pursue this technology. The problem comes when we upgrade those cheap speakers to something better. The tuning that made the low-quality speakers sound adequate will often make great speakers sound mediocre. When we add an amplifier to your bike and use the factory equalization settings, the massive bass boost can overdrive the amp and damage it or your speakers.
How to Compensate for Factory Equalization
Several products on the market provide the means to equalize the signal coming out of the Harley-Davidson Boom! Box radio. These processors work well and have very few drawbacks. The problem is, most of these are moderately expensive and take time to set up.
What if there was a way to turn off or reduce this factory-programmed equalization? We work on so many Harley-Davidson motorcycles that we have chosen to invest in a TechnoResearch Vehicle Communication Module programming interface. This allows us to connect our laptop to the data communication network on your bike and change the settings in your radio.
Harley-Davidson Radio Flashing Results
We took some measurements of the frequency response of the signal coming out of the factory radio before we made any adjustments.
You can see from the image above that there is a massive peak in the bass response at 80 Hz. There is another peak around 450 Hz and a huge dip at 4 kHz. We have tuned many audio systems over the years, and can honestly say that we have never seen an equalization curve with adjustments this extreme.
When we connect to your radio, we can choose from many different factory speaker and amplifier combinations. Making your new system sound right requires that we choose the right combination of speakers and amplifiers for the radio to provide a much-smoother equalization curve.
Once we have completed the Harley-Davidson radio flashing process, the output signal will look something like this. This output is pretty flat (within 3dB) from 20 Hz all the way up to about 2 kHz, then it rolls off gradually. Knowing what the signal looks like allows us to choose an amplifier and speaker solution that will sound great on your bike.
Visit Richmond’s Mobile Audio Experts
Many audio system upgrade kits are purchased and installed at bike shows. While that is convenient, it leaves us wondering where and how you will get support for your purchase. Extreme Audio has two retail locations near Richmond, VA, that are open five days a week to serve you. If you have questions, we are here to answer them.
When you want a true mobile audio expert to work on your bike, visit Extreme Audio in Mechanicsville or Midlothian. You can contact our team by e-mail using our online contact form.
if i send you my radio , can you, will you flash to correct the EQ levels , it has been flashed to
4 speakers , no amp sounds like crap , all distorted,
2015 cvo roadglide ultra , using a rockford marine 400×4 ad amp,
don dennis jr 816 294 7794, i live n st joseph mo. so any help would be appreciated ,
THANK YOU
Hello
Thanks for your feedback ,i just installed the stage 2 but i have a problem with the sound and the bass ,the thing is the bass is fixed when i go to audio setup and check the bass it doesn’t make any difference with the +/-,i checked the amp its fine we did flash the system twice but still no bass and the sound actually not that great.
So just to check when you adjust the bass in your bike do you feel a difference and in my case do the think its the speakers problem ,i checked with the dealer and he said that there is no setting for the equalizer to be done because its fixed setup
Thanks again fro your time
I had an authorized Harley dealer flash my radio but the mgrs did not know what fattening the curve was. How do I now if it was done right.
As long as they flashed it to a BOOM Audio setting, then the curve would be relatively flat. The only way you’d know 100% would be to have an audio shop look at it. Most that do Harleys regularly would be able to tell right off if it was flashed properly.