Motorcycle Audio FAQ

Every complete package includes the speakers you select, an amplifier, and a DSP. It also includes all the installation components that go with them: wiring harnesses for each speaker location, mounts, hardware, and accessories.

It depends on how you bought it. If you originally bought a components package first, the next step is adding the equipment. Every system starts in the fairing, so the minimum equipment required is a pair of fairing speakers with the amplifier and DSP. If you already have that two-speaker setup, you can add locations from there, as long as you ran the extra speaker wire that came with your package.

If we installed your system, or you bought a complete package from us and are building it in stages, a re-tune comes with it. If you are piecing a system together on your own, the tune is yours to handle unless you would like to pay us for it.

Our foundational two-speaker package starts around $3,000, depending on the platform. From there the price goes up with speaker locations, fabrication, and installation. The prices on our website are for equipment only. If you want the equipment installed, call or message us for a custom quote.

We are not the cheapest and never will be. The price reflects the development and engineering behind these packages, the equipment we choose for them, and the troubleshooting support and warranty that come with your system.

Probably not, and we will tell you that honestly. If you enjoy the stock system and want a modest lift, Indian's Powerband upgrade is the cheaper path and we will point you toward it. Our packages are built for riders who want a real step up in output and clarity, which is a bigger jump in both sound and cost.

Installations completed by Davidson Audio, or by a Certified Davidson Audio installer, carry a three-year warranty on all equipment. Self-installed systems carry a two-year warranty. All warranties are handled by Davidson Audio or by the certified installer who completed the installation.

We build audio systems for bagger and touring motorcycles. Our most common packages cover the Indian PowerPlus Challenger and Pursuit platform from 2020 to current, the Indian PowerPlus Chieftain and Roadmaster platform from 2025 to current, the Indian Thunderstroke Chieftain and Roadmaster platform from 2017 to current, the Indian Springfield platform across all years, and the Harley-Davidson Street Glide, Road Glide, Tri-Glide, and Road King platforms from 1998 to current. We also build packages for Victory and Gold Wing motorcycles. If you do not see your motorcycle here, reach out and we will quote it.

Indian fitment is restrictive and changes more often than Harley's. Body styles, saddlebag lid styles, and wiring all differ by year, and classic and non-classic bikes use different lids. In 2025 Indian added a Chieftain and Roadmaster PowerPlus platform, which is a different model from the Challenger and Pursuit PowerPlus. They share an engine, but the fairings differ and the mounting has to be configured differently. We fork the product rather than force a near-fit.

The Springfield is the hardest platform we build for, so we bought one to develop on. With no fairing, the speaker locations come from aftermarket lowers, saddlebag lids, and the tour pack instead, and the equipment lives in the saddlebag rather than up front the way it does on the other platforms. The package uses an amplifier that is also a DSP, which saves space. You do not have to start with six speakers. Like every other platform, the Springfield can be built in stages starting with two.

Yes. Harley is the easier platform to work on: parts stay available across model years, they are highly interchangeable, and there is far more room for amplifiers. For a Street Glide or Road Glide with fairing and lid speakers, a typical installed build runs around $3,500. The main thing that changes between years is the amp plate.

We do not cut or remove your factory wiring. Our harnesses add to the bike and connect through the factory connectors, so the original wiring stays intact. Depending on the platform, there can be slight modifications to the bike itself to house larger equipment, and we will tell you exactly what those are for your build before we start.

Yes, and plenty of riders do. We quote the do-it-yourself price alongside the installed price so you can choose, and we document our installation process on YouTube so you can see what is involved before you decide.

We have Certified Installers in Florida, New Jersey, Colorado, Tennessee, and Minnesota. Each one trained hands-on with us and charges the same package price we do, though each shop sets its own labor rate. If you are too far from Panama City to ride in, that is usually the answer. See the full list of Certified Installers.

Yes. Riders send us saddlebags and lids from across the country. We do the enclosure work and ship them back, so you can get the bass build without a cross-country ride.

On these bikes, yes. The output voltage from an Indian head unit is small enough that it needs a processor to turn it into a clean, tunable signal. The DSP is also what unlocks time alignment and polarity control, which do more for how a motorcycle sounds than almost anything else in the tune.

The Arc Audio PSM Pro, at around $600. Indian's low and variable head-unit voltage rules out roughly 70% of the processors on the market. The PSM Pro handles it, comes in a weatherproof case, has time delay built in, and accepts a wide range of input power.

We measure instead of guessing. We take the cleanest, hottest signal from the source, run the amplifier at peak voltage, then set crossovers and time alignment together, which solves about three quarters of the tune on its own. After that we run an RTA and tune to a house curve. If you are here in person, we finish on your phone with your music.

If you buy a complete package from us, yes. It comes tuned so you can ride right away. If you are piecing a system together yourself, the tune is yours unless you would like to pay us for it.

Call us and tell us what the system is lacking. We schedule an appointment, remote into your laptop, and adjust the tune to what you are after. You will need a Windows laptop or computer for us to remote in.

Yes, and the whole volume scale shifts with it. Indian's factory audio effectively caps out around volume 9, and anything past that does not move on a meter. After an install, the setting that used to feel loud at 5 lands closer to 8, with real headroom left above it.

No, and we say so before you buy. Efficient speakers on more power get louder in the mids and vocals, which actually masks the factory-style midbass. Picture beating a drum, then yelling over it: you hear more of yourself and less of the drum. Real bass comes from the saddlebag work below.

By turning the bag into a proper enclosure. The base service seals and ports it. From there we can add a fiberglass wall on the outer side for rigidity, or fiberglass the entire bag until it is solid. Any flex in the bag wastes energy. The payoff is going from hearing the bass to feeling it.

A sealed bag gives tighter, more predictable bass. A properly tuned port gives more output and better low-end response from the same speaker and the same power. We run our bags sealed and ported together with Cicada CMB10s, because that combination gives us the most to work with in the tune.

Two things, and every customer hears both from us before they buy. You lose the factory auto-volume feature, the software that raises the volume as you speed up, because we leave ride-command flat so the DSP can do the work and that flat setting is what auto-volume depends on. If you have your bags sealed, you also give up some bag space.

There is no single best one. It depends on the application, your bike, and what you actually listen to. Compression horns are brighter and more sensitive, which suits vocals and instruments; coaxials are more balanced across the range. Spec sheets and real-world performance often disagree, so we recommend what we would run ourselves.