2023 7 speaker subwoofer upgrade

[Karl_in_Chicago]

<snippage>

The 200.4 is a little underpowered for the speakers, particularly the kick panel wired in series with the dash speakers, so I will need to find a larger amp for them and a DSP that allows me to control output for the front versus the rear, to keep from overpowering the rear speakers at full output. It’s too bad the Key is underpowered as I was hoping to take advantage of the Auto setup.

So it's confirmed that the front dash are wired in *series* with the kicks? I thought they were parallel but have also seen a number of discussions on the subject suggesting otherwise that never finished with a definitive answer.

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[FlyTheCourse]

So it's confirmed that the front dash are wired in *series* with the kicks? I thought they were parallel but have also seen a number of discussions on the subject suggesting otherwise that never finished with a definitive answer.

Hi Karl, Thank you for pointing out my lapse in the poor choice of using the word in "series". I should have said in "parallel" and I will go back and edit that. I knew better but had a brain misfire. Good catch.
The front speakers are definitely wired in parallel. Both the wiring diagrams and the Metra wiring harness confirm that.
I think the 200.4 would be underpowered because it is a 50W/4ohm per channel amp with the 2 Kicker KSC speakers capable of 100W 6.75" & 75W 4" at 4 Ohms, this would leave each speaker only getting 25 Watts at full power with this amp. The only way to take advantage of the higher power speakers and to get 75 Watts to each is to have a 150 Watt per channel amp. There are many ways to do the architecture of designing the multi-wattage 6-speaker setup. Ideally with these speakers, a 6-ch 75-watt amp with either 1) all the speakers on their own separate channel with independent control, or 2) bridging 2 of the front channels each with the rears on separate channels, and then the subs on their own single-channel amp. If you have a high-powered 4-ch amp to power the 2 speakers in parallel then you need to have a separate volume/power control for the rear speakers so you do not blow them.

 

[jshapz]

Hi Karl, Thank you for pointing out my lapse in the poor choice of using the word in "series". I should have said in "parallel" and I will go back and edit that. I knew better but had a brain misfire. Good catch.
The front speakers are definitely wired in parallel. Both the wiring diagrams and the Metra wiring harness confirm that.
I think the 200.4 would be underpowered because it is a 50W/4ohm per channel amp with the 2 Kicker KSC speakers capable of 100W 6.75" & 75W 4" at 4 Ohms, this would leave each speaker only getting 25 Watts at full power with this amp. The only way to take advantage of the higher power speakers and to get 75 Watts to each is to have a 150 Watt per channel amp. There are many ways to do the architecture of designing the multi-wattage 6-speaker setup. Ideally with these speakers, a 6-ch 75-watt amp with either 1) all the speakers on their own separate channel with independent control, or 2) bridging 2 of the front channels each with the rears on separate channels, and then the subs on their own single-channel amp. If you have a high-powered 4-ch amp to power the 2 speakers in parallel then you need to have a separate volume/power control for the rear speakers so you do not blow them.

I think you’re going to deep, the 6 speakers don’t really need to be driven to the max when you have such a small area and you’re going to be including 2 subs that will drive all the bass. The front speakers wired in parallel drops it down to 2ohms and that kicker key is pushing out it’s max wattage to them and maybe even a little more since the amp is really only rated for 4ohms per channel. If you want good sound out of the key you really could just do a component set up front. Also in the rear pods, it doesn’t really matter how much bass they push. The backseats going to have subs underneath it. From what me and others have pointed out the rear 6.5 don’t make much of a difference. Also you mentioned having different control for the back speakers as to not blow them, most amps including the key have different gains/filter settings per channel pairs. Front speakers have separate settings from the rear.

 

[willettj]

I think you’re going to deep, the 6 speakers don’t really need to be driven to the max when you have such a small area and you’re going to be including 2 subs that will drive all the bass. The front speakers wired in parallel drops it down to 2ohms and that kicker key is pushing out it’s max wattage to them and maybe even a little more since the amp is really only rated for 4ohms per channel. If you want good sound out of the key you really could just do a component set up front. Also in the rear pods, it doesn’t really matter how much bass they push. The backseats going to have subs underneath it. From what me and others have pointed out the rear 6.5 don’t make much of a difference. Also you mentioned having different control for the back speakers as to not blow them, most amps including the key have different gains/filter settings per channel pairs. Front speakers have separate settings from the rear.

Thanks for all the info here Jonathan, how does your end result sound in comparison to the factory B&O 10 speaker system? I'm tempted to make some kind of change to the subwoofer setup with my B&O

 

[MOBRONCO]

So it's confirmed that the front dash are wired in *series* with the kicks? I thought they were parallel but have also seen a number of discussions on the subject suggesting otherwise that never finished with a definitive answer.

They are parallel

 

[Karl_in_Chicago]

Hi Karl, Thank you for pointing out my lapse in the poor choice of using the word in "series". I should have said in "parallel" and I will go back and edit that. I knew better but had a brain misfire. Good catch.
The front speakers are definitely wired in parallel. Both the wiring diagrams and the Metra wiring harness confirm that.

Hey man, no worries, wasn't trying to call out semantics on anyone as I have had doubts from some other threads. Thanks for confirming they are parallel. I follow all of these threads to learn from all of you guys while I wait for my build. If there's a silver lining to the long wait it's the things we get to learn from everyone else that went first.

 

[jshapz]

Thanks for all the info here Jonathan, how does your end result sound in comparison to the factory B&O 10 speaker system? I'm tempted to make some kind of change to the subwoofer setup with my B&O

I haven't met anyone else with a B&O system so I can't compare sorry. I'll say that kicker speaker puts out some bass. I can't imagine its even close. If you can do the work yourself, its a fun project and its so worth it. If you had to pay $1000 to get it installed, I'd probably put it off a while and be content. I can't even remember what the base 7 speaker system sounded like at this point. I kept it maybe a week before I ripped shit apart.

 

[Destination Bigfoot Bronc]

Final update first:
TLDR: Save some money and time by not worrying about the Key 200.4. Also I would leave the stock kick panel speakers alone as well. Don't get me wrong, now that everything is done its great but the key didn't boost the system much more then the stock unit. Really all the bass is still coming from the rear 8in kicker which sounds fantastic.

My biggest concerns were the speakers clipping with the new amp and the signal going to the back 500.1 amp. The speakers did clip and hit the limiter at around 20 before running the DSP set up. I also had to set the filter on the last 2 dip switches. My 200.4 settings from left to right are: Down up up up up up down up. The last 2 set the filter and really made the difference. I can turn the volume up to 30 with no issues. I also didn't adjust the gain at all and it wasn't really needed. Once you bump the gain a little bit it would hit the limiter. Lastly I ran the inputs to the 500.1 off the kick panel speaker wire. This caused no issues with the new 200.4 installed. In fact it actually cleaned up a few songs that had a weird freq, I listen to a lot of rap.

If you're still reading, save your time and money and install 4 new 4in speakers and the kicker 8in full size sub.
Amp - $280
RF kick panel speakers - $80 * 2
Wiring harness - $175
Power wiring kit for 200.4 - $40
This was the money wasted, close to $700

Ok guys I'm going to try and keep this post kinda short because I know there's a lot of info out there for upgrading speakers and everything already. This is just to show that the new subwoofer, which I know is going to get removed in some of the new builds, is different then the B&O model from '22. I'm pretty sure its the same subwoofer as the '22 Badlands Raptor though.


This is the stock photo I took before I removed it. The box and amp have changed. You can see the 5 pin connector hanging on the left side.

The hole is probably 6in, here is a picture with a recessed can drill bit.

This is the 8in kicker sub cutout. I used a jigsaw to cut the hole wider. I wasn't very careful and that jigsaw broke some plastic off making the hole bigger then I wanted. Still worked out ok.

I wanted to mount the amp to the box because the Kicker 8 gauge wiring kit doesn't have enough slack to reach the rear pillar that other people mounted it to. I ordered a $20 piece of plastic off Amazon and put some sound deadening stuff on there. Screwed the amp to it and screwed it to the box in the next picture.

Here's a picture of it mounted in, but didn't replace the trim because it was like 1am by now. I did take it to an empty parking lot and run the Kicker key algorithm and got it tuned in. I stuffed the box with polyfill and ran the speaker wires through the little U shaped channel on the left side of the speaker. This one isn't drilled out the back like the old model.

Here's another shot in the morning light. I had to trim the plastic off because I was blocking the clips hole.

Alright so I got the trim back on and this is my biggest regret. I mounted the amp to high and there was no real reason to mount it at an angle. The amp is pressing into the trim and caused a nice little stress crack in the plastic. Truly I don't care, as long as it doesn't get worse. I'm not ripping everything apart just to move the amp down.

Bonus pic, not sure why as a grown ass man I don't have a good work light still. I used my daughters vanity mirror that's USB powered hooked up to a battery pack. Also I did lay the Kilmat down all over the back area.

Overall, this thing bumps hard. It's nothing like my old 15" but it surprised the hell out of me for its size. I barely touched the gain, only moving it up a hair during the Kicker algorithm. You can barely feel anything around the 9ish range, but it bumps at 14+. Top down fully down today and around 60mph it was awesome at around 22 volume.

Side notes about all the work: I ran my own wires for the line in from the 6in kick panel speakers. I plan on getting the Kicker Key 200w amp installed soon but supposedly this is going to cause issues going to the 500w amp. Not really sure why and I'm really curious to test it out. Everyone says its because the speaker signal is amplified coming from the new amp. But the speaker signal is currently amplified from the head unit so not sure how its any different. Its probably only a 20W difference. Also I changed out the kick panel speakers with a set of Rockford Fosgate PPS4-6. These currently sound like shit with the stock head unit. I bought them because the money wasn't an issue and I didn't want to cheap out on a set and have to redo all that work. Replacing those speakers suck. So as of now they're staying in but I hope the Kicker Key 200.4 really adds some more power to them. They are 4lbs heavier then the stock speakers, so I know they have to be able to hit. Replaced the other 4 speakers with the Focal set that everyone recommends. I did 300hz blockers in the dash but I really regret not using 600hz. I may fix it one day but definitely not now.

Do you happen to have any pics of your key 500.1 settings. I just installed a rf p3 in mine.

 

[jshapz]

Do you happen to have any pics of your key 500.1 settings. I just installed a rf p3 in mine.

I didn’t get any pics but there’s a stock photo of the settings in this thread already and they were super close to that. All the way down on the high pass and like 2/3 the way on the low pass. The gains like all the way down. But I have the kicker so it could be different. You can run that kicker auto setup and set your gain. It’s ez to do.

 

[ChrisH]

Instead of using the factory ran wires to the existing amp, everyone ran entirely new wires? Am I understanding this right?

I was hoping to use the existing factory wiring to a kicker 500 amp and only have to wire the new sub to the kicker amp.

 

[jshapz]

Instead of using the factory ran wires to the existing amp, everyone ran entirely new wires? Am I understanding this right?

I was hoping to use the existing factory wiring to a kicker 500 amp and only have to wire the new sub to the kicker amp.

You can try, but I didn't want to cut that factory harness and test each wire. I wasn't even sure if it had left and right coming back there. You have to take off all the trim anyway to run a power wire and the bass knob. Plus I changed out the speakers in the kick panel.

 

[NathanML]

Are you willing to sell the stock working amp and sub speaker?

 

[jshapz]

Are you willing to sell the stock working amp and sub speaker?

Ya no problem, you can PM me. Do you have a bronco with the deleted sub? I already sent someone the amp to test and he sent it back. There's no input to the amp from the head unit. I think you can enable it through Forscan but he wasn't willing to mess with that. That being said, it aint worth the money.

 

[NathanML]

Ya no problem, you can PM me. Do you have a bronco with the deleted sub? I already sent someone the amp to test and he sent it back. There's no input to the amp from the head unit. I think you can enable it through Forscan but he wasn't willing to mess with that. That being said, it aint worth the money.

Pm sent

 

[Newdoc]

If someone can find the forscan setting to enable the harness in the sub-delete vehicles it may save some work for others. There are numerous forums online that discuss this in the F-150. I don't know if the same FORSCAN line item and code settings will apply to the Bronco.

Maybe the Ford engineers changed the parameters for the audio system when they found out the sub would get deleted and disabled the actual audio signal to the harness even though it has 12V power and 5V (signal) power as discovered by another member.

I've decided to use a line converter (PAC LPA-1.2 LocPro) since I need to run a power wire for the monoblock amp anyway to use for my sub conversion. I'm actually happy I have an OEM box to work with and I got a credit.

I will run RCA to the back from the converter and skip the harness completely. The magnet-less sub left in the OEM sub enclosure looked like it would have provided minimal base anyway. It has two sets of terminals probably for a dual voice coil which I found interesting in a small sub with a crappy cone and likely minimal power.

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