Harmon Karmon Radio - Ear Phones

[Boe Cole]

When I was at Bike Week, HK had representatives at Destination Daytona showing off some of the neat things that they have done lately for bikes.  Several years ago, I tapped into the speaker wires on my 06 Road Glide and installed a 1/8" female plug so I could plug in my earphones for long rides.  From my home to Daytona, its a 11 hour ride - 670 miles.  Of course I have to stop every 150 miles for gas and butt breaks but that is what its like when you get old!!!!  Listening to soft music blocks out all the outside noise and reduces fatigue on long trips.

Regardless, I had heard that what I had done could cause damage to the radio (read - expensive repair....).  I asked them if what I did will cause problems down the road.  Their answer made sense - at least to me.  It was - "If you did this a little over three years ago without any problems - then it must be ok.....  If I did something really wrong - the radio would either quit working properly or not at all - immediately".

Thought I'd pass this along incase others might want to do the same thing.  Of course, maybe I just got lucky.  Can't guarantee you will have the same luck so proceed at your own risk (lawyer talk).

[Coyote]

A better way is just plug your ear buds into the headset connector.

I suspect the warning about damaging the radio has to do with making sure you don't ground either of the speaker wires or connect them together via the headset. Bridge amps don't like that.

[Boe Cole]

The plug on the front of my HK radio is an INPUT plug used to connect an IPod.  To the best of my knowledge, there are no earphone plugs on any of the HK radios.

[hotroadking]

If you have an Ultra you have a plug....

Otherwise no plug....

Been thinking of getting the Dash with the headset plug for those reasons...

[devious56]

Well, I have an Ultra (2010) and the only plug I have (or know about) is the Aux. jack in the lower righ hand corner, and it is an input.

David

[Coyote]

Yeah, I guess the connector is only on the Ultras. If you want to use the speaker outputs, the best way is to connect to the positive of each channel and then the bike ground for the other side. Don't connect across the positive and negative speaker lines unless you have an isolated, 4 wire headset.

Well, I have an Ultra (2010) and the only plug I have (or know about) is the Aux. jack in the lower righ hand corner, and it is an input.

David

It's on the center console of the tank.

[PoorUB]

Yeah, I guess the connector is only on the Ultras. If you want to use the speaker outputs, the best way is to connect to the positive of each channel and then the bike ground for the other side. Don't connect across the positive and negative speaker lines unless you have an isolated, 4 wire headset.

Well, I have an Ultra (2010) and the only plug I have (or know about) is the Aux. jack in the lower righ hand corner, and it is an input.

David

It's on the center console of the tank.

Like Coyote is trying to say you can buy an adaptor to plug you ear buds into the Ultra's headset jack. I went a step farther and added a 1/8" stereo jack on the tank console for ear buds. I just got out the wiring diagram and found the two speaker outputs and common for the factory headset and cut into those wires.
Those on you without the OEM headset connections I have heard of people tieing right into the main speaker wires but I would think the output power from the radio would be very high for ear buds. Seems to me you can buy an adaptor to tie into the OEM speaker connections theat will get you a ear bud jack at lower power, be darned if I remember where I saw it.

[Ardy]

For the Ultra owners:

http://www.spoiledbiker.com/harleyadap.html

[tech]

The risk you run tapping into the speaker lines is now you have changed the impedance of the output. Because you most likely have the headset wired in series with the speakers, you may have lowered the impedance to less than 2 ohms. Depending on what it has been changed to, the output may start to overheat. This could kill the internal amp over time due to the constant overheating. Clearly, if yours has lasted three years, you probably got lucky and hit an impedance range that's not harming the radio too much at this point.

For those of you without an Ultra, Iron Cross Audio has a switched headset system that allows the use of headsets with 3.5mm outputs. Cones with a switch for the fairing cap that will shut down the speakers and activate the radios headset circuit.

[tomcat64]

there is  a difference between ear buds and a headset, here in Mn ridding with ear buds is against the law, head sets are mounted in your helmet so therefor they are legal.

t-c

[Boe Cole]

What I did was tap into the two positive wires going directly to the speakers and one ground wire for the speakers.  The ear buds are a set of Sony's which have a noise cancellation attachment built into the wires going to the speakers and get their power from a little aaa battery.  Going this route allows me to control the volume using the handle bar volume control.  Any power to the ear buds over three bars could cause my ears to bleed - the resulting speaker volume is very low and almost impossible to hear over the engine noise.  That could be why the amp does not overheat as noted by tech.

As another poster noted, ear buds are not legal where he rides and to be very honest, they are not the safest thing to use.  I only use them on the interstates where I don't have to worry excessively about sirens or horns.  I tried the speaker in the helmet routine and found it really unsatisfactory.  Had to have the volume so loud that it was uncomfortable.

When I started the post, I probably should have stressed that this is not for riding around town and that they really do block out things a rider should be aware of in a high traffic environment - to me - this only works relatively safely and I only use them on a limited access highway and on a long ride like when I ride to Bike Week - almost 700 miles.  Using this method in a high traffic environment could be very dangerous as you need to be a little more cognizant of your surroundings than on a limited access highway.  Also its a pain when I have to stop for gas every 150 miles or so and have to remember to remove the ear buds before trying walk away from the bike!!!

[PoorUB]

there is  a difference between ear buds and a headset, here in Mn ridding with ear buds is against the law, head sets are mounted in your helmet so therefor they are legal.

t-c

I wear ear buds in MN all the time, but I also wear a helmet. They can't fine you if they don't catch you. Also, pretty sure in MN you can wear one ear bud, but not two.
I figure if I ever get caught I am going to play deaf and claim my doc told me to wear them. If I answer "huh?" often enough the popo may get the drift. I am half deaf any way so it sould not be too hard to pull it off!

[Super Dave]

I've seen that adapter, but it seems like, on an Ultra, you wouldn't be able to use the boom mic. Sound right? You must give up something going from 7 pins to 1.

[Ardy]

Dave the adaptor takes a 3.5mm or 1/8" male plug from a set of earbuds. The headset you have will boom mic and all would have to stay in the tourpak. I have a small portable XMP3 mounted in the tourpak and the volume is to low so I'm ordering a pair of the adaptors, but I have a I feel a little vulnerable when I have earbuds in.

Would an add on amp help with the volume issue I have? I've got the hogtune speakers front and rear and they make a big difference with the radio and CD's.

[tomcat64]

there is  a difference between ear buds and a headset, here in Mn ridding with ear buds is against the law, head sets are mounted in your helmet so therefor they are legal.

t-c

I wear ear buds in MN all the time, but I also wear a helmet. They can't fine you if they don't catch you. Also, pretty sure in MN you can wear one ear bud, but not two.
I figure if I ever get caught I am going to play deaf and claim my doc told me to wear them. If I answer "huh?" often enough the popo may get the drift. I am half deaf any way so it sould not be too hard to pull it off!

LOL.. that should be interesting as most of the cops are Half blind anyway!!!