The best thing I did to help my sound system was adding sound deadning to the entire vehicle. Out of all the sound "upgrades" including the amp/sub install, that helped the most.
I think it might be a good idea to use component speakers with a crossover. Seeing how the loops on the kick pannel speakers can be cut and tweeters/woofer wires can be separated. Installing a crossover would be easy. It would probably mount near the kick pannel speaker. Plus the impedance would be 4ohms and the kicker amp would be happy. I also think it would improve bass response for the kick pannel woofer since its handling the low frequencies and the tweeter is handling the highs due to the crossover. This would be a cheaper alternative than buying a DSP. I think the kicker CS component speakers have a switch to lower the tweeter volume if its too loud.
I was feeling like the mids were missing in my setup as well, after watching this I decided to pull my 300hz blockers. Sounds so much better, thanks for posting this!
My set up with kicker speakers, kicker 10” sub, kicker key and flat EQ on the head unit sounds on point with no real tweaking needed. A million times better than stock. Not even really any need for bass blockers.
I've seen other installers use the Kicker key on just the front four speakers. This will give you a really good front sound stage and give the 6.5" speakers the power they need for the mid bass. The rears can be run off of the factory head unit. The way it is currently wired, the amp doesn't know there are six speakers hooks up to four channels. This probably makes it difficult for the auto-tune to work properly on the Kicker Key.
@@RagnarKon You don't need a lot from the rears for a good sound, as it's been said a hundred times before you don't stand with your back to the band at a concert.
Probably said by someone else already - but since you used bathroom sealant, why not just fill the subwoofer box with water and pour it out into measuring jugs to find its capacity.
Just recently installed components in the kick panel and dash. I'm running Rockford Fosgate R1675X2 and they sound great. Install of the kick panel speakers was a bit of a headache because of the tight tolerances of the 6.75's. The Rockford Fosgate R165-S would prob be less headache. Loving the sound, IMO tweeters in the dash instead of two way 4" changes the soundstage quite a bit. I also used the same R1675X2's, minus the tweeters, in the rear (made some pods out of PVC to replace the factory ones). Gonna be posting the setup on 6G sometime in the next few days.
@@ccclaw13 The 4" speaker wires are left unplugged, but the kick panel speakers were wired to the factory kick panel harness using an adapter. What i ended up doing was bypassing the factory 4" wiring and wired the tweeters directly to the kick panel speakers. I just feed the wires down behind the dash and into the kick panel, from what i remember it was pretty simple to get the tweeter wires routed. I cant stress this enough though, for an easy, headache free install, get 6.5"s and not 6.75's. Good Luck!
easiest fix is taking the kickers out of the kick panel and putting the stock 6 3/4 back in. You essentially replaced a mid bass speaker with a 2 way speaker that cannot play at the low hz that your looking for. Also i think you may be wrong in the way your looking at 2 ohm vs 8ohm, all you've essentailly done is decreased the amount of power your speakers are getting. Instead of feeding 50X4 at 4ohms, it would be halved to 25x4 at 8ohms. You could wire the 3.5 dash and the 6.5 kicks separate to the amp and give them both correct 4ohm, and leave the rear speakers on head unit power as they are useless anyway.
I did briefly try putting the factory 6.5" speakers back in and honestly I didn't notice any meaningful difference. (That experiment didn't make the final video though since it was already 45 minutes long.) I don't know what the frequency response of the factory speakers are, but the 6.75" Kickers go down to 40 Hz which is definitely in the mid-bass range, so that may be why I didn't notice a difference. I'm reasonably confident that I _should_ have bought a component speaker setup with a mid-range in the kick panel, an actual tweeter in the dash, and a crossover between the two. Instead I effectively tried to force those 4" speakers to be tweeters even though they're really not tweeters. But the money was already spent on the speakers I had, so I wanted to figure out how to make the best of what I ended up with before spending even more money. --- And you are 100% correct in regards to power. Power is a function of voltage and current (P = V * I). By increasing the impedance, I am decreasing the current, which in-turn decreases the power delivery to the speakers. That is also why speakers get quieter when they are wired in series. Leaving the rear pod speakers on the factory amp in favor of putting the front speakers on individual channels is an interesting idea I didn't think of to be honest. I think you'd definitely be sacrificing the rear pod speakers and they would truly be utterly worthless in that sort of setup. But the front speakers are definitely the most impactful to the overall audio experience, so maybe that would work.
Hey there! I really enjoy watching your videos, least u explain things and the given why to each thing u do. Ur for scan video was epic compared to couple others I watched. I was able to learn what to do instead of just do. Only 1 minor thing I saw when you changed the front component speakers to series cause they were wired in parallel????? True, I wholly agree they were wired in parallel. You have 2 speakers at 4ohms with the amp at a 4ohm impedance, correct? You only figured your speaker ohms wrong is all, u must add the ohms together which would’ve been 8ohms and not 4ohms like stated, thinking you had a 2ohm load at the amp, which in all thoughts would be bad deal for the poor 4ohm amp, correct? The factory wiring was correct to parallel both 4ohm speakers which is 8ohms total divided by the 2 speakers, at which the amp would see the correct 4ohm load. No need to wire those in series. Series wiring is adding each speaker ohms together to get total ohm load the amp will see for that channel. Parallel is adding each driver (speaker def in tech terms) ohms up and divide by the number of drivers. So 4+4=8 total ohms, 8ohms \ 2 drivers = 4 ohms which is correct ohm load seen at amp. Wiring was correct, amp wasn’t seeing 2ohm load. Im not knocking anything you have done or the way you done it, I think your doing great videos that others can learn what they are doing, heck! I learned a lot from your forscan teachings!! I think you’re doing a great job!
Great job and detail on the tuning. I have the same setup (Kicker SUB and Kicker Key 500.1). I am happy with the subwoofer setup but I am thinking of adding Poly/ and blocking the port? Have you thought about doing this? Also, do you have a snapshot of your Kicker Key 500.1? I want to see what your setting are. Thanks!
With the Kicker Key amp out of production for the next 3-4 months, you would be a great TH-camr to install a Musway DSP amp. It would be a nice compare/contrast to the Kicker Key you already installed.
Would you recommend re-wiring to series with the stock B&O amp? I replaced all of my speakers with Alpine Type S (and the sub with Kicker) and it's all running off of the stock B&O Amp. I added bass blockers in the dash and when the EQ is set to Low, Mid, and High in the center... it's insanely bright. I had to turn everything all the way down and then bring bass and mids up. Might try removing the bass blockers... but if that's not the answer, wondering if re-wiring to series would work.
It's way better than the B&O in lux package. How do I know? I have a lux package Bronco and a high package Bronco. The factory speakers with the Key 200.4 and a 46HS10 sub-woofer put the B&O system to complete shame. I am getting ready to put the Infinity Reference speakers in today, but the B&O system (even with upgraded speakers) can't compete with it just after the amp and sub-woofer install. It's not even close. Don't waste your money on the lux package to get a B&O system in the 2021-2023 Bronco. The adaptive cruise control is really the only reason to consider the lux package.
I thought the Key 200.4 has a DSP in it? I think connecting them in series seems like the right idea. What you are doing is halving the wattage to each of the speakers by wiring in series and decrease the impact of the front speakers on the sound stage.
@@RagnarKon Ya, I know that you get what you get once it autotunes... but Kicker probably did a better job than I can do, especially considering my tinnitus. I am getting ready to install the Key 200.4 and a Kicker 46HS10 sub-woofer. Hopefully it will sound decent, I have not decided on speakers yet. Any suggestions? I am using Morel Maximo Ultra Coax on my 2021 Bronco with the Lux package, but this system is for the 2023 with the sub-woofer delete. The girlfriend is less than impressed with the stock system with sub-woofer delete.
@@mpeugeot Truthfully I am happy with my Kicker KS coaxial series speakers (part numbers in the description). BUT, a big reason why I am happy with them is because I got them for a really good price during the holiday season this past year. I got the 4" speakers for $55/pair and the 6.75" speakers at $75/pair. If I paid full retail price ($100/pair and $130/pair respectively), not sure if I would have been as happy. It's pretty clear that coaxials are the best option for the rear pod speakers. My favorite 4" coaxials to-date are the Infinity Reference REF-4032cfx, although you could argue they are slightly overpriced if you buy them at their full $110 retail price. For the front speakers... if I were to do it over again, I would seriously consider using component speakers in the front rather than coaxials like I have. Something like the Infinity REF-6530cx, Polk DB-6502, or maybe the JL Audio C1-650 if I wanted something more budget-friendly. It's hard to give recommendations since I don't have an unlimited budget to try all of the speakers out. But yeah... if you ignore the holiday pricing I got on the gear, I probably would have gone with a slightly different setup.
@@RagnarKon Thanks, I was looking at the Infinity reference speakers pretty seriously last time, but got the Morel Maximo on sale instead... Maybe put the Morel Maximo in the GF's Bronco and then the Infinity Reference speakers in my Bronco. 😂 She won't know the difference.
@@RagnarKon I ended up ordering two Infinity Reference 6532ex and four 4032cfx. If I wire them in series, I will have 6 ohms in the front and 3 ohms in the rear. Should make for a decent sound stage in the front with a little rear bias. Using the Key 200.4 and the 46HS10 sub should give me just slightly better than stock sound. ;)
I would run the front speakers off the 4 channels of the key, so it can sort out the crossover and level for the 4 inch and then just run the rears off the factory amp/head unit
If you ran the front 2 speaker in the normal harness config im guessing its @ 2ohms correct and if so is the key even rated to run @ ohms? I ordered the plug and play kit with key and im trying to decide what to do with the front speaker setup. I have jbl gto 629 in the front and back and mb quarts in the dash ... theyre all 4ohm speakers btw.
Had a similar setup with some focal, a week later I pulled the front coaxials out of kickpanel and dash and installed component’s….. night and day better
Which components did you use?? That was another idea I came up with as I was editing this video, but trying my best not to throw more money at this sound system. One of those things where you can just keep going and continually upgrade gear, and before you know it you've spent $2,000+ on it.
Here is the issue. For some reasons n the bronco is not like a regular car or my jeep. The rear pod speakers are to far away , the front is too close. I changed my dash to the focul 100 ac which was $160 a pair. I did try the focul rcx 100 first but to much highs. The 100AC gave it depth. . The next lproblem is there is no equalizer in the radio.. u will be knocking yourself out trying to get it right good luck!!!
I haven't tried it without an amplifier, so I can't say for certain. No personal experience with it. But, if you feel like your dash speakers are annoyingly loud, it's probably worth a try.
I need an honest opinion, if I have passengers in my vehicle 80% of the time, would I really need a DSP amplifier ? I feel the DSP is really designed for time alignment and suited for the Driver. I understand there are different modes, but I want it to just flat out sound decent no matter what seat you are sitting in. I am more concerned about top on and top off.
Nah, you don't really need one. One part is the time delay/alignment settings, as you mentioned. The other other is EQ correction for the amp/speakers. Just because there is a (mostly) flat signal going into the amplifier doesn't necessarily mean there is a perfectly flat audio coming out of the amp/speakers. The Kicker KS speakers, for example, are biased a little bit towards the high-end frequencies. It's ultimately up to you if you feel that's important or not. If you are playing music primary from the radio, the EQ settings are fairly important in my opinion. If you play it from primarily your phone... doesn't matter to much. Most phones have a pretty in-depth EQ already, so you can easily make up for the lack of an EQ on the amplifier by using the adjustments on your phone.
@@RagnarKon I mostly play pandora and tidal stream from my phone through apple car play, your explanation was perfect. I think I am just going to go with a 5 channel amp and keep it simple. So I just have to decide on doing components or coaxials up front. I am going with JL Audio C2’s and a stealth box in the back.
If you wanted an accurate volume measurement, all you need is a trash bag, fill up the enclosure with water in the trash bag and measure the volume in a 5 gallon pail.
You need a loc bass restorer from audio control ,factory units are built to remove bass as you turn the stereo up so you don't blow the crappy factory speakers and if you don't pay the money for a bass restorer it will never sound right
Part of me wishes I would have gone with a component setup for the front speakers rather than a 6.5" & 4" setup. Honestly I don't know if that would have been any better, but it is something I wish I had at least tried. (And if I was willing to spend more money on it, I would have.) And of course there are a lot of minor things here and there I wish I had done differently. Running the power cable for the subwoofer is a good example. Spent hours trying to get that done, but now that I've done it once I could probably do it again in a MUCH shorter amount of time.
@@keithscratch At the price I bought everything at, yes, 100% worth it. Kicker had a really good holiday/Black Friday sale last year and I took full advantage of it. (Was actually my first time buying Kicker products.) If I had to pay full MSRP based on today's prices, I definitely would have bought different 4" speakers for the dash. The Kicker Key 200.4 is also _slightly_ underpowered at only 200 watts. It's fine 98% of the time, but once you take off the top and start blasting music it has a hard time keeping up. So I would like to say that I would get a more powerful amplifier. But, even today there isn't a whole lot of options available that has the same feature set in the same form factor that could be installed in a similar location. AudioControl 4.300 is probably the closest option, but it has no EQ or time delay capabilities. Everything else, Key 500.1, subwoofer, 6.5" speakers, 4" speakers for the rear pods, etc. were great.
@@RagnarKon this makes me if I’m looking at this approach all wrong, maybe I should be looking at more replacing all the Speakers and Amplifiers that are more aimed at SPL and clarity…
@@keithscratch It depends ultimately on what you are going for. For me I had three requirements: - $1000 budget. There are many other non-audio things I want to buy for my Bronco. - I had to retain full capability of the wash-out floor. This meant I could _NOT_ install amplifiers on the floor under the seats. - It had to sound just as good or better than the B&O package. I ended up slightly over budget (just shy of $1200), but otherwise I achieved all of those items. Depending on your requirements you may end up with different gear. A lot of people, for example, like having really controlled/tight bass response in their car audio. It wasn't a priority for me, but if it was I would have added a lot of sound deadening. Blasting music with my Bronco's top off is another good example. Not a priority for me at all, but I would have selected different gear if it was.
I'm still going back and forth. I think sealing it up is objectively the right answer, but then the volume of the sub drops considerably below ~32 Hz since the resonant frequencies in the enclosure aren't there to help out. You have to push a lot more power through the amp make up what you lose. Leaving it up open works fine on the vast majority of songs, but if you get to a song that is really bass heavy it tends to turn into a sloppy mess. It doesn't sound horrible, just... doesn't sound great either. BUT, I'm probably being overly picky if I'm being honest. Regardless of which way I go, both options are still a dramatic improvement over stock.
I feel like you’re the guy to ask, I added a kicker 800.1 to my 23 badlands. Used for scan to turn on the factory sub wiring, took the audio signal wires off the fake amp and sent them to my 800.1. Everything sounds great but after you turn the vehicle, after about 3min and 6 min the sub will put out a thump even tho the amp is powered off. Any thoughts? Thanks for making these great videos!
That's the amplifier powering off. You need to connect the Remote turn-on line from the factory. Turns on the amplifier when a signal is received, and turns it off when the signal goes away. Without it the amplifier will default to DC offset, which causes the popping noise when the amplifier eventually kicks off. Ford's remote turn-on lines are a 6 volt signal, and most aftermarket amplifiers require 12 volts. So you will need to pass it through something like a PAC Audio TR-4 to boost the signal up to 12 volts. Also make sure your input level is set to Low ("Lo") rather than High ("Hi"). And if it is set to High, make sure you turn the gain all the way down before change it to low.
Hey Buddy! So I went ahead and installed the PAC4, still having that pop sound! Did some further investigation, finding that the Cxa 800.1 doesn’t have the option of selecting audio signal turn on or +12v turn on. The factory sub audio signal that I clipped off the fake amp powers off about 3 min after you close the door. There’s gotta. Br a way to eliminate, any thoughts?
@@williamskidgell8163 CX800.1 right? Not super familiar with that amp admittedly, but from reading the user manual it implied it would automatically detect and use the remote line. If you have a multimeter, I would poke around and make sure you are getting a 12 volt signal out of the PAC TR-4... and then when the vehicle turns off make sure it drops back down to 0 volts.
It's made by a company called TrailRax: www.trailrax.com Not sure if you have a Bronco Nation membership or not, but if you do you can get 10% off: gear.thebronconation.com/collections/trailrax
I do, but it's private (personal family things). Now that you mention it I should probably make one for Bronco-related stuff. Mmmm... I'll have to do that.
The best thing I did to help my sound system was adding sound deadning to the entire vehicle. Out of all the sound "upgrades" including the amp/sub install, that helped the most.
I think it might be a good idea to use component speakers with a crossover. Seeing how the loops on the kick pannel speakers can be cut and tweeters/woofer wires can be separated. Installing a crossover would be easy. It would probably mount near the kick pannel speaker. Plus the impedance would be 4ohms and the kicker amp would be happy. I also think it would improve bass response for the kick pannel woofer since its handling the low frequencies and the tweeter is handling the highs due to the crossover. This would be a cheaper alternative than buying a DSP. I think the kicker CS component speakers have a switch to lower the tweeter volume if its too loud.
Always enjoy your contributions on the 6g forum. Subscribing.
I was feeling like the mids were missing in my setup as well, after watching this I decided to pull my 300hz blockers. Sounds so much better, thanks for posting this!
My set up with kicker speakers, kicker 10” sub, kicker key and flat EQ on the head unit sounds on point with no real tweaking needed. A million times better than stock. Not even really any need for bass blockers.
"good enough" is good enough. The rest is extra work for not much gain. 80/20 baby!
I've seen other installers use the Kicker key on just the front four speakers. This will give you a really good front sound stage and give the 6.5" speakers the power they need for the mid bass. The rears can be run off of the factory head unit. The way it is currently wired, the amp doesn't know there are six speakers hooks up to four channels. This probably makes it difficult for the auto-tune to work properly on the Kicker Key.
Now that's an interesting idea.
I suspect that'll just leave the rear pods super underpowered, but maybe not?? Maybe I'll try it.
@@RagnarKon You don't need a lot from the rears for a good sound, as it's been said a hundred times before you don't stand with your back to the band at a concert.
Highly recommend getting a dsp if you truly want amazing sound in the Bronco. Good video!
if you install a dsp amp do you still have to run forscan to change audio? to new speakers added?
Probably said by someone else already - but since you used bathroom sealant, why not just fill the subwoofer box with water and pour it out into measuring jugs to find its capacity.
A how-to on wiring the harnesses in series would be phenomenal.
Just recently installed components in the kick panel and dash. I'm running Rockford Fosgate R1675X2 and they sound great. Install of the kick panel speakers was a bit of a headache because of the tight tolerances of the 6.75's. The Rockford Fosgate R165-S would prob be less headache. Loving the sound, IMO tweeters in the dash instead of two way 4" changes the soundstage quite a bit. I also used the same R1675X2's, minus the tweeters, in the rear (made some pods out of PVC to replace the factory ones). Gonna be posting the setup on 6G sometime in the next few days.
How do you wire it up like this? I'm very interested in this set up. Do you just leave the 4" speaker wires unplugged? A write up would be great
@@ccclaw13 The 4" speaker wires are left unplugged, but the kick panel speakers were wired to the factory kick panel harness using an adapter. What i ended up doing was bypassing the factory 4" wiring and wired the tweeters directly to the kick panel speakers. I just feed the wires down behind the dash and into the kick panel, from what i remember it was pretty simple to get the tweeter wires routed. I cant stress this enough though, for an easy, headache free install, get 6.5"s and not 6.75's. Good Luck!
easiest fix is taking the kickers out of the kick panel and putting the stock 6 3/4 back in. You essentially replaced a mid bass speaker with a 2 way speaker that cannot play at the low hz that your looking for. Also i think you may be wrong in the way your looking at 2 ohm vs 8ohm, all you've essentailly done is decreased the amount of power your speakers are getting. Instead of feeding 50X4 at 4ohms, it would be halved to 25x4 at 8ohms. You could wire the 3.5 dash and the 6.5 kicks separate to the amp and give them both correct 4ohm, and leave the rear speakers on head unit power as they are useless anyway.
I did briefly try putting the factory 6.5" speakers back in and honestly I didn't notice any meaningful difference. (That experiment didn't make the final video though since it was already 45 minutes long.) I don't know what the frequency response of the factory speakers are, but the 6.75" Kickers go down to 40 Hz which is definitely in the mid-bass range, so that may be why I didn't notice a difference.
I'm reasonably confident that I _should_ have bought a component speaker setup with a mid-range in the kick panel, an actual tweeter in the dash, and a crossover between the two. Instead I effectively tried to force those 4" speakers to be tweeters even though they're really not tweeters. But the money was already spent on the speakers I had, so I wanted to figure out how to make the best of what I ended up with before spending even more money.
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And you are 100% correct in regards to power. Power is a function of voltage and current (P = V * I). By increasing the impedance, I am decreasing the current, which in-turn decreases the power delivery to the speakers. That is also why speakers get quieter when they are wired in series.
Leaving the rear pod speakers on the factory amp in favor of putting the front speakers on individual channels is an interesting idea I didn't think of to be honest. I think you'd definitely be sacrificing the rear pod speakers and they would truly be utterly worthless in that sort of setup. But the front speakers are definitely the most impactful to the overall audio experience, so maybe that would work.
Hey there! I really enjoy watching your videos, least u explain things and the given why to each thing u do. Ur for scan video was epic compared to couple others I watched. I was able to learn what to do instead of just do. Only 1 minor thing I saw when you changed the front component speakers to series cause they were wired in parallel????? True, I wholly agree they were wired in parallel. You have 2 speakers at 4ohms with the amp at a 4ohm impedance, correct? You only figured your speaker ohms wrong is all, u must add the ohms together which would’ve been 8ohms and not 4ohms like stated, thinking you had a 2ohm load at the amp, which in all thoughts would be bad deal for the poor 4ohm amp, correct? The factory wiring was correct to parallel both 4ohm speakers which is 8ohms total divided by the 2 speakers, at which the amp would see the correct 4ohm load. No need to wire those in series. Series wiring is adding each speaker ohms together to get total ohm load the amp will see for that channel. Parallel is adding each driver (speaker def in tech terms) ohms up and divide by the number of drivers. So 4+4=8 total ohms, 8ohms \ 2 drivers = 4 ohms which is correct ohm load seen at amp. Wiring was correct, amp wasn’t seeing 2ohm load. Im not knocking anything you have done or the way you done it, I think your doing great videos that others can learn what they are doing, heck! I learned a lot from your forscan teachings!! I think you’re doing a great job!
Great job and detail on the tuning. I have the same setup (Kicker SUB and Kicker Key 500.1). I am happy with the subwoofer setup but I am thinking of adding Poly/ and blocking the port? Have you thought about doing this? Also, do you have a snapshot of your Kicker Key 500.1? I want to see what your setting are. Thanks!
With the Kicker Key amp out of production for the next 3-4 months, you would be a great TH-camr to install a Musway DSP amp. It would be a nice compare/contrast to the Kicker Key you already installed.
Would you recommend re-wiring to series with the stock B&O amp?
I replaced all of my speakers with Alpine Type S (and the sub with Kicker) and it's all running off of the stock B&O Amp. I added bass blockers in the dash and when the EQ is set to Low, Mid, and High in the center... it's insanely bright. I had to turn everything all the way down and then bring bass and mids up. Might try removing the bass blockers... but if that's not the answer, wondering if re-wiring to series would work.
It's way better than the B&O in lux package. How do I know? I have a lux package Bronco and a high package Bronco. The factory speakers with the Key 200.4 and a 46HS10 sub-woofer put the B&O system to complete shame. I am getting ready to put the Infinity Reference speakers in today, but the B&O system (even with upgraded speakers) can't compete with it just after the amp and sub-woofer install.
It's not even close. Don't waste your money on the lux package to get a B&O system in the 2021-2023 Bronco. The adaptive cruise control is really the only reason to consider the lux package.
I thought the Key 200.4 has a DSP in it? I think connecting them in series seems like the right idea.
What you are doing is halving the wattage to each of the speakers by wiring in series and decrease the impact of the front speakers on the sound stage.
The Kicker Key does have some DSP functions, but you can't customize it. It sets itself up automatically, and all you can do is turn that on or off.
@@RagnarKon Ya, I know that you get what you get once it autotunes... but Kicker probably did a better job than I can do, especially considering my tinnitus.
I am getting ready to install the Key 200.4 and a Kicker 46HS10 sub-woofer. Hopefully it will sound decent, I have not decided on speakers yet. Any suggestions?
I am using Morel Maximo Ultra Coax on my 2021 Bronco with the Lux package, but this system is for the 2023 with the sub-woofer delete. The girlfriend is less than impressed with the stock system with sub-woofer delete.
@@mpeugeot Truthfully I am happy with my Kicker KS coaxial series speakers (part numbers in the description). BUT, a big reason why I am happy with them is because I got them for a really good price during the holiday season this past year. I got the 4" speakers for $55/pair and the 6.75" speakers at $75/pair. If I paid full retail price ($100/pair and $130/pair respectively), not sure if I would have been as happy.
It's pretty clear that coaxials are the best option for the rear pod speakers. My favorite 4" coaxials to-date are the Infinity Reference REF-4032cfx, although you could argue they are slightly overpriced if you buy them at their full $110 retail price.
For the front speakers... if I were to do it over again, I would seriously consider using component speakers in the front rather than coaxials like I have. Something like the Infinity REF-6530cx, Polk DB-6502, or maybe the JL Audio C1-650 if I wanted something more budget-friendly.
It's hard to give recommendations since I don't have an unlimited budget to try all of the speakers out. But yeah... if you ignore the holiday pricing I got on the gear, I probably would have gone with a slightly different setup.
@@RagnarKon Thanks, I was looking at the Infinity reference speakers pretty seriously last time, but got the Morel Maximo on sale instead...
Maybe put the Morel Maximo in the GF's Bronco and then the Infinity Reference speakers in my Bronco. 😂 She won't know the difference.
@@RagnarKon I ended up ordering two Infinity Reference 6532ex and four 4032cfx. If I wire them in series, I will have 6 ohms in the front and 3 ohms in the rear. Should make for a decent sound stage in the front with a little rear bias. Using the Key 200.4 and the 46HS10 sub should give me just slightly better than stock sound. ;)
I would run the front speakers off the 4 channels of the key, so it can sort out the crossover and level for the 4 inch and then just run the rears off the factory amp/head unit
Thankyou Sir 👍🏼... awesome video.
Love your videos! Did you end up leaving the bass blockers for the dash speakers or take them out?
They are removed.
@@RagnarKon thanks! I am ready to install and i am debating on which way to wire them up......in series or with bass blockers
If you ran the front 2 speaker in the normal harness config im guessing its @ 2ohms correct and if so is the key even rated to run @ ohms? I ordered the plug and play kit with key and im trying to decide what to do with the front speaker setup. I have jbl gto 629 in the front and back and mb quarts in the dash ... theyre all 4ohm speakers btw.
Had a similar setup with some focal, a week later I pulled the front coaxials out of kickpanel and dash and installed component’s….. night and day better
Which components did you use??
That was another idea I came up with as I was editing this video, but trying my best not to throw more money at this sound system. One of those things where you can just keep going and continually upgrade gear, and before you know it you've spent $2,000+ on it.
Here is the issue. For some reasons n the bronco is not like a regular car or my jeep. The rear pod speakers are to far away , the front is too close. I changed my dash to the focul 100 ac which was $160 a pair. I did try the focul rcx 100 first but to much highs. The 100AC gave it depth. . The next lproblem is there is no equalizer in the radio.. u will be knocking yourself out trying to get it right good luck!!!
Is doing the kicker panel wiring mod still advisable without an amplifier? I assume so but they will not be as loud.
I haven't tried it without an amplifier, so I can't say for certain. No personal experience with it.
But, if you feel like your dash speakers are annoyingly loud, it's probably worth a try.
When setting up the 500.1, did you go low level or high level?
I need an honest opinion, if I have passengers in my vehicle 80% of the time, would I really need a DSP amplifier ? I feel the DSP is really designed for time alignment and suited for the Driver. I understand there are different modes, but I want it to just flat out sound decent no matter what seat you are sitting in. I am more concerned about top on and top off.
Nah, you don't really need one.
One part is the time delay/alignment settings, as you mentioned. The other other is EQ correction for the amp/speakers. Just because there is a (mostly) flat signal going into the amplifier doesn't necessarily mean there is a perfectly flat audio coming out of the amp/speakers. The Kicker KS speakers, for example, are biased a little bit towards the high-end frequencies. It's ultimately up to you if you feel that's important or not.
If you are playing music primary from the radio, the EQ settings are fairly important in my opinion. If you play it from primarily your phone... doesn't matter to much. Most phones have a pretty in-depth EQ already, so you can easily make up for the lack of an EQ on the amplifier by using the adjustments on your phone.
@@RagnarKon I mostly play pandora and tidal stream from my phone through apple car play, your explanation was perfect. I think I am just going to go with a 5 channel amp and keep it simple. So I just have to decide on doing components or coaxials up front. I am going with JL Audio C2’s and a stealth box in the back.
i just swapped all speakers to Alpines/ added a 12 inch sub and amp. Do i need to run forscan to change audio for better sound still?
Forscan is not required, but it definitely helps for the rear pods.
I would have bought a Match DSP5.4 instead of the Kicker amps. The key's are good but not if you want to tweek or tune.
If you wanted an accurate volume measurement, all you need is a trash bag, fill up the enclosure with water in the trash bag and measure the volume in a 5 gallon pail.
You need a loc bass restorer from audio control ,factory units are built to remove bass as you turn the stereo up so you don't blow the crappy factory speakers and if you don't pay the money for a bass restorer it will never sound right
Kicker will tell you that the Key 200.4 will do 2 ohms in a dynamic environment without any issues.
Does wiring in series create 2 additional channels, creating a need for a 6 channel amp?
Nope, it does not.
If you could redo this system over again, what would you different ?
Part of me wishes I would have gone with a component setup for the front speakers rather than a 6.5" & 4" setup. Honestly I don't know if that would have been any better, but it is something I wish I had at least tried. (And if I was willing to spend more money on it, I would have.)
And of course there are a lot of minor things here and there I wish I had done differently. Running the power cable for the subwoofer is a good example. Spent hours trying to get that done, but now that I've done it once I could probably do it again in a MUCH shorter amount of time.
@@RagnarKon so I’m guessing you would have still picked the kicker amps and speakers?
@@keithscratch At the price I bought everything at, yes, 100% worth it. Kicker had a really good holiday/Black Friday sale last year and I took full advantage of it. (Was actually my first time buying Kicker products.)
If I had to pay full MSRP based on today's prices, I definitely would have bought different 4" speakers for the dash.
The Kicker Key 200.4 is also _slightly_ underpowered at only 200 watts. It's fine 98% of the time, but once you take off the top and start blasting music it has a hard time keeping up. So I would like to say that I would get a more powerful amplifier. But, even today there isn't a whole lot of options available that has the same feature set in the same form factor that could be installed in a similar location. AudioControl 4.300 is probably the closest option, but it has no EQ or time delay capabilities.
Everything else, Key 500.1, subwoofer, 6.5" speakers, 4" speakers for the rear pods, etc. were great.
@@RagnarKon this makes me if I’m looking at this approach all wrong, maybe I should be looking at more replacing all the Speakers and Amplifiers that are more aimed at SPL and clarity…
@@keithscratch It depends ultimately on what you are going for.
For me I had three requirements:
- $1000 budget. There are many other non-audio things I want to buy for my Bronco.
- I had to retain full capability of the wash-out floor. This meant I could _NOT_ install amplifiers on the floor under the seats.
- It had to sound just as good or better than the B&O package.
I ended up slightly over budget (just shy of $1200), but otherwise I achieved all of those items.
Depending on your requirements you may end up with different gear. A lot of people, for example, like having really controlled/tight bass response in their car audio. It wasn't a priority for me, but if it was I would have added a lot of sound deadening. Blasting music with my Bronco's top off is another good example. Not a priority for me at all, but I would have selected different gear if it was.
Did you end up closing up the port on the sub enclosure?
I'm still going back and forth.
I think sealing it up is objectively the right answer, but then the volume of the sub drops considerably below ~32 Hz since the resonant frequencies in the enclosure aren't there to help out. You have to push a lot more power through the amp make up what you lose.
Leaving it up open works fine on the vast majority of songs, but if you get to a song that is really bass heavy it tends to turn into a sloppy mess. It doesn't sound horrible, just... doesn't sound great either.
BUT, I'm probably being overly picky if I'm being honest. Regardless of which way I go, both options are still a dramatic improvement over stock.
I feel like you’re the guy to ask,
I added a kicker 800.1 to my 23 badlands. Used for scan to turn on the factory sub wiring, took the audio signal wires off the fake amp and sent them to my 800.1. Everything sounds great but after you turn the vehicle, after about 3min and 6 min the sub will put out a thump even tho the amp is powered off. Any thoughts?
Thanks for making these great videos!
That's the amplifier powering off.
You need to connect the Remote turn-on line from the factory. Turns on the amplifier when a signal is received, and turns it off when the signal goes away. Without it the amplifier will default to DC offset, which causes the popping noise when the amplifier eventually kicks off.
Ford's remote turn-on lines are a 6 volt signal, and most aftermarket amplifiers require 12 volts. So you will need to pass it through something like a PAC Audio TR-4 to boost the signal up to 12 volts.
Also make sure your input level is set to Low ("Lo") rather than High ("Hi"). And if it is set to High, make sure you turn the gain all the way down before change it to low.
Hey Buddy!
So I went ahead and installed the PAC4, still having that pop sound! Did some further investigation, finding that the Cxa 800.1 doesn’t have the option of selecting audio signal turn on or +12v turn on. The factory sub audio signal that I clipped off the fake amp powers off about 3 min after you close the door. There’s gotta. Br a way to eliminate, any thoughts?
@@williamskidgell8163 CX800.1 right?
Not super familiar with that amp admittedly, but from reading the user manual it implied it would automatically detect and use the remote line.
If you have a multimeter, I would poke around and make sure you are getting a 12 volt signal out of the PAC TR-4... and then when the vehicle turns off make sure it drops back down to 0 volts.
What kinda rack is that on the top and sides.
It's made by a company called TrailRax: www.trailrax.com
Not sure if you have a Bronco Nation membership or not, but if you do you can get 10% off:
gear.thebronconation.com/collections/trailrax
Love your videos! Can I find you on IG?
I do, but it's private (personal family things).
Now that you mention it I should probably make one for Bronco-related stuff. Mmmm... I'll have to do that.