Cicada Audio, the new motorcycle-only audio brand by car audio veteran Larry Frederick will launch a new amplifier line called “The Big Damn Amp” series.
The company has been expanding rapidly, on the heels of growing popular interest in motorcycle audio, since its launch about six months ago.
Sales are double what Frederick anticipated and the product line has grown to 30 SKUs.
Cicada is seeking to move from its 3,500 square foot facility to a new 9,500 square foot building.
The company has attracted 200 dealer inquiries, Frederick said, however, he’s adding dealers slowly to ensure full product availability. Cicada’s current dealer count is 50.
“I almost feel like we’re back in 1992 with IASCA,” said Frederick regarding consumer demand for motorcycle audio in general. At Bike Week in Daytona in March, the company was astounded at the number of $100K plus bikes present, ripe for audio upgrades.
“Cars, as we know, are getting better and better and difficult to update. If you are going to update the car [factory audio system] it’s a serious update other than a simple powered subwoofer…Motorcycle audio is still uncharted waters. You have tons of interest,” Frederick said noting that the installs are less complex on a bike.
A new Cicada high power amp series will debut in the next couple of months called, appropriately, the “Big Damn Amp” (BDA) series. The initial model is the BDA1400.4D (shown above), which is rated at 4 X 350 WRMS @ 2 ohm/ 4 X 225 @ 4 ohms. A BDA900.4D (4 x 900 WRMS) and a BDA2200.4D (4 x 505 WRMS) plus a BDA2500.1D mono block will follow.
Cicada’s line includes DSP/amplifiers and an 8-channel DSP processor with Bluetooth tuning at $379.99 suggested retail price.
Amplifiers start with a 2-channel model at $499.99 suggested retail price. All amplifiers are water resistant. Cicada also just began shipping lid kits for Harleys.
The line’s selling points include lightweight designs that won’t weigh down the bikes. Speakers use neodymium magnets instead of the heavier ferrite magnets. Additionally, Cicada horn tweeters have replaceable components (users screw off the back).
Voice coils on the tweeters are 1.4 inches instead of the standard 1-inch said Frederick, who has designed car audio products since the aftermarket began, under brands including Altec Lansing, Alpine, AudioMobile, Phoenix Gold, Coustic and more recently Cerwin Vega and Diamond Audio.
