Infinity Reference and Kicker Key install 2door base audio system replacement.

[idontknow]

I will be updating this post as I slowly build out my audio system.

Audio list so far.
Dash - Infinity Reference 4”
4” pods - Infinity Reference 4”
Speaker amp - kicker 200.4 key amp

Down the road list
B&O sub enclosure
Sub (unsure at this time)
Amp for sub - Kicker 500.1 key
Acoustical treatment - resonix more than likely. But I plan to gut as much of the interior as possible before doing this and will definitely be a spring/summer project.

I have a few goals. Increase clarity, improve the bass, not lose any of the already limited space and not spend a fortune doing it.

Let’s start with the obvious, this car is not built with premium audio in mind. Even the b&o system is awful, which is super disappointing because b&o makes great headphones. I’m surprised they even want their name attached to the product. Awful marketing when you think about it. But I’m sure ford offered them a pretty penny….anywho.

I started today with just changing out the 4” dash and pod speakers. Since I have the 2 door I didn’t want to change out the rear speaker pods to the 6.5 because I’ve read of challenges with the seatbelt clearance. I may reevaluate this down the road

I picked up the speakers from crutchfield on sale. I like going through crutchfield because they toss in the vehicle specific plug for free. No soldering or crimping needed.

The kicker 200.4 key amp I got from Trail seven which comes wired up for simple plug and play. I’ll be installing that later this week.


The 4” speaker Install pods and dash.

The rear pod speakers grills came off much easier. Just be careful putting it back on that you don’t mash the tab against the tab holder. I did break one of the parts on the housing (not the grill) though I have a feeling previous owner may have “loosened” that for me as I noticed there were some markings that looked like it had been pried off before. One other thing the note I had to break the tabs off on opposite sides to not interfere with the cover going back on. This was easy enough with a pair of pliers.

So the result so far unamplified. Before installing the rears I did a quick test with the fade and man it was a night and day difference.

Thanks Brian_B for pointing out that the metra harness had the polarities reversed for the harness. Had to cut and reverse the wires to take care of the brightness. All the stuff I couldn’t hear before that I knew was missing was coming through now. I do have a very nice 5.1.4 home theater I am using as a reference point. After replacing the rears I tested again. Prior I felt like I couldn’t really hear the back speakers at all. But now it sounded more balanced between the front and rear.

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[Brian_B]

If you used the Metra harness for the 4" make sure to check your polarity. The wires are color coded wrong for Bronco setup, and if you have the polarity reversed those Infinities sound really bright and harsh.

I ended up leaving my 4" powered from the OEM amp, and powered my kick panels and rear pods from my 4 channel amp. Factory default has the dash and kick panels wired in parallel, and I tried that for about a year, but was never really happy with it (infinity reference in both locations). Once I pulled it out and ran it like a 6 channel setup (and re-tuned the amplifier to compensate) it got a lot more clarity and power to it.

I know @RagnarKon split his out and ran the speakers in series and was happy with that, I haven't tried that but tempted to just to hear the difference.

it's very key to me to have the front and rear balanced out - an easy adjustment to make, but I can definitely tell if it's off by any amount at all. One downside to having one channel driven by the Ford head unit - before I could get it set up just right on the amp and be ok and never have to fool with it again. Now that one speaker is set from the head unit, I can get it close with my amp tuning, but any time I pull the battery it resets the radio setting (for some reason), and I have to re-adjust the front/rear balance by 1 tick to get it all right with the world again.

 

[idontknow]

If you used the Metra harness for the 4" make sure to check your polarity. The wires are color coded wrong for Bronco setup, and if you have the polarity reversed those Infinities sound really bright and harsh.

Thanks for the tip on that I will have to double check that with my volt meter tomorrow. That would be less than optimal to have to cut and splice the harness to fix that…unless the lead can just pull out of the harness maybe and just be swapped.

I know @RagnarKon split his out and ran the speakers in series and was happy with that, I haven't tried that but tempted to just to hear the difference.

I have gone through his write up. I thought about going that route but really just wanted those speakers out sooner than later and this was the fastest solution lol.

 

[Brian_B]

Thanks for the tip on that I will have to double check that with my volt meter tomorrow. That would be less than optimal to have to cut and splice the harness to fix that…unless the lead can just pull out of the harness maybe and just be swapped.

I just swapped mine leads on the speaker from the harness.

 

[idontknow]

I know @RagnarKon split his out and ran the speakers in series and was happy with that, I haven't tried that but tempted to just to hear the difference.

I just swapped mine leads on the speaker from the harness.

Yep they were definitely reverse polarity. I think you just saved me a lot of headache trying to tune that brightness out. Sounds much better now. The ends on the harness were sized large and didn’t want to worry about damaging the harness so I just cut and added in a butt connector since I always have those on hand.

It got dark so I will have to test / fix the rears tomorrow.

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