If you have been to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Daytona Bike Week, the Lone Star Rally or Arizona Bike Week, then you know that Harley-Davidson® motorcycles and audio upgrades are synonymous with these events. The motorcycle audio fanatics at Rockford Fosgate are one of the biggest brands for amplifiers, speakers and subwoofer upgrades for touring bikes. Their commitment to ongoing improvements now includes a new 6×9 speaker for saddlebag applications, the TMS24-69. Let’s check it out in this detailed Test Drive Review.
Basic Features of the Rockford Fosgate TMS24-69
The new TMS24-69 is the company’s second-generation motorcycle-specific upgrade, featuring increased output capabilities and power handling over its predecessor. The speakers are rated to handle 150 watts continuously, with a peak power of 300 watts. The drivers are rated at 91.4 dB efficiency when powered at 1 watt, measured at a distance of 1 meter. They have a nominal impedance of four ohms, and their frequency response is specified as being 50 to 20,000 Hz. All specifications comply with the ANSI/CTA-2031 Loudspeaker Standard, so you know the numbers are accurate and trustworthy.
The TMS24-69 system includes a pair of 6×9-inch speakers, self-tapping screws, and metric installation hardware. In most applications, you’ll find the TMS24-69 as the speakers included in the Rockford Fosgate HD24BL69 bag lid cut-in speaker kit for 2024 and newer Road Glide FLTRX, Street Glide FLHX and Street Glide Ultra FLHXU bikes. Other fitments are available, and details are on the HD24BL69 webpage. They can also be used as an upgrade to the speakers in the classic TMS69BL9813 kits and TMS69BL14 kits not equipped with subwoofers for greater power handling and output.
Speaker Design Elements
The TMS24-69 speakers feature a coaxial design with a 10% carbon-filled curvilinear polypropylene woofer cone for tight bass and clear midrange performance. The addition of carbon to the polypropylene increases cone rigidity, durability and UV resistance. Given that these speakers will be directly exposed to the sun, UV-stable materials are paramount for their longevity. Carbon adds stiffness with less mass than glass fiber, so the cone remains lightweight while improving rigidity and midrange performance.
There are two rubber compliance components found on the TMS24-69 speakers. At the center, there’s a flexible corrugated rubber seal between the cone and the tweeter. At the outer edge is a standard half-roll Santoprene synthetic rubber surround. Rubber is nearly impervious to rot and degradation, so your speakers will last for decades. The surround features Rockford Fosgate’s Vertical Attach Surround Technique (VAST) geometry, which maximizes cone area by moving the outer edge of the woofer closer to the basket. Drivers that feature VAST have 15-25% more effective cone area than conventional woofer designs.
At the base of the woofer is a large 1.5-inch-diameter vented Kapton voice coil, which is key to the 150-watt power-handling specification. A Poly-Nomex spider is used to control cone motion and provide reliable, long-lasting performance. The braided tinsel leads are stitched to the spider to ensure they operate silently and reliably.
The woofers are based on UV-stable Domamid PA66 Nylon baskets. This engineering-grade plastic is also used for automotive engine components like valve covers, sensor bodies and intake manifolds. It exhibits excellent thermal stability while controlling mass and manufacturing cost compared to cast aluminum. A pair of Neodymium magnets serves as the heart of the speaker. Rare earth magnets like these provide strong magnetic flux while keeping the speakers’ total weight in check. The last thing you want is to add 20 or 30 pounds of speakers to your bike, as this will negatively affect handling.
A few last notes on the basket design. Electrical connections are made via corrosion-resistant tin-plated spade terminals. These fit the OE Harley-Davidson spades to keep the installation process simple. The speakers feature integrated motor covers to protect the contents of your saddlebags from heat damage. Of course, these speakers carry Rockford Fosgate’s Element Ready moniker, which means they can shrug off rain, dust, sunlight and vibration without flinching. Not all motorcycle speakers undergo this level of testing, so buyer beware.
Tweeter Design
The TMS24-69 speakers feature 1-inch low-profile ultra-efficient dome tweeters mounted at the base of the woofer. This position not only ensures there are no height issues with the grilles, but also acoustically aligns the tweeter’s output with the woofers at the crossover frequency, resulting in smoother frequency response and better sound. Speaking of crossovers, the Integrated Concealed Crossover (ICC) features -12dB/octave attenuation at four kilohertz.
Listening Test
After breaking in the speakers for 8 hours on our test bench using low-frequency warble tones, we loaded the drivers into our 2.65-cubic-foot sealed-tower test speaker enclosures. We powered the speakers with a high-bias audiophile-grade Class-AB amplifier and a Topping DAC connected to our lab PC. The enclosure volume is sufficiently large relative to the speakers’ compliance to simulate an effectively infinite-baffle application. This represents about twice the volume of the typical Harley-Davidson saddlebag, so the bass will be a bit more extended and tighter, but perhaps not as full.
The first track we played was “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC from their 1990 album The Razors Edge. The track begins with the famous Angus Young guitar riff, followed by Chris Slade’s tight closed hi-hat groove. This detail was clear and precise through the TMS24-69s. At about 27 seconds into the track, the kick drum becomes more prominent as the full drum groove develops. Brian Johnson’s powerful vocal enters shortly afterward with the famous “Thunder!” chants. His voice contains significant high-frequency energy, which was presented clearly and forward in the mix. The texture and overtones of the percussion were also easy to discern; however, the low-frequency weight and impact of the kick drum were somewhat restrained.
Up next was “The Race” by Yello from their 1988 album Flag. The presentation on this track was similar; upper midrange frequencies are forward and pronounced with impressive efficiency. I decided to move off-axis to the speaker by about 45 degrees to mimic how they’d be heard on a bike. This significantly enriched Dieter Meier’s deep baritone voice.
The last track we auditioned was “Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel from his 1986 studio album So. Gabriel’s voice is also a baritone, but on this track, he sings more in the upper registers. The TMS24-69 emphasizes these upper midrange and higher frequencies.
Motorcycle speakers are a unique breed. They are not designed for critical listening in a lab or living room. They are impressively efficient, and that always comes at a trade-off in bass output. The engineers at Rockford Fosgate have invested a great deal of time focusing on making the TMS24-69 sound good on a motorcycle while you are on the road or freeway. Cutting through wind noise is no easy challenge, and these can do it with ease. Trying to reproduce bass information is exceptionally difficult, so most systems forego it altogether as it takes significant power and speaker cone area. If you like your music to sound crisp and clear, the Rockford Fosgate TMS24-69 is an amazing choice.
Lab Testing
With the audition complete, we fired up the test equipment to make some measurements. First, we used our Clio Pocket system to measure the speaker’s frequency response. We calibrated the output to 2.0 volts, which corresponds to 1 watt into a four-ohm load. We measured the speaker’s third-octave frequency response with the microphone exactly 1 meter from the mounting surface of the test enclosure.
Rockford Fosgate rates the efficiency of the TMS24-69 as being 91.4 dB SPL. Above 2 kHz, that number is closer to 95 dB. As you can see from the measurements, there’s a high-frequency shelf above 2.5 kHz. This is what delivered the emphasis we heard in the listening room. With that said, it also cuts through the wind and exhaust noise, as well as any attenuation offered by the rider’s helmet.
Next, it was time for some lab bench measurements. We connected one of the speakers to our Woofer Tester to measure the impedance and phase response. The graph below shows a pronounced peak near the woofer’s resonant frequency of 68 Hz. The minimum impedance is just under three ohms from 200 to 500 Hz and two ohms around 10 kHz. Clearly, the driver is optimized to maximize the power provided by modern amplifiers with its lower-than-four-ohm impedance. Nothing wrong with that. With that said, you wouldn’t want to wire two of them in parallel on a single amplifier channel.
Conclusions on the Rockford Fosgate TMS24-69
This second-generation motorcycle and powersports 6×9-inch speaker from Rockford Fosgate represents a significant leap forward in performance. The driver can handle significantly more power than its predecessor. Even during our long break-in period, the speaker didn’t get warm, and we were driving it with about 20 watts of power.
Sound-wise, these speakers are designed for music enthusiasts who enjoy music while riding. With the bike off, you would find them somewhat forward. Once rolling, that efficiency helps the music cut through the background noise. Hats off to the engineering team at Rockford Fosgate for knowing what their clients want.
When it’s time to upgrade the audio system on your motorcycle, drop into an authorized Rockford Fosgate retailer and ask them about the latest generation of motorcycle and powersports speakers. You can find an authorized dealer using the locator tool on the Rockford Fosgate website. Be sure to follow Rockford Fosgate on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to stay up-to-date with all the latest product releases and amazing event coverage from our friends in Tempe, Arizona.
