Anyone separated the dash and kick panel speaker channels?

[mvilla]

I recently ordered a musway six100 from plugnplay, planning on using all six channels to control the dash, kick panel, and rear speaker pods.

Has anyone successfully separated the kick panel and dash speakers channels? Please provide instructions if you’ve found them, I tried searching but couldn’t find anything.

TIA!

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[Area51BS]

If you are running such a nice amp please run new wires from amp to the speakers. I do believe the dash and kick panel speakers are paralleled at the kick panel speaker. When you pull out the kick panel speaker you will see 4 wires. You could run new wires just to the dash speakers and tie up the factory wire behind new speaker if you only want to rewire 1 set.

 

[mvilla]

If you are running such a nice amp please run new wires from amp to the speakers. I do believe the dash and kick panel speakers are paralleled at the kick panel speaker. When you pull out the kick panel speaker you will see 4 wires. You could run new wires just to the dash speakers and tie up the factory wire behind new speaker if you only want to rewire 1 set.

Thanks for your response, but I am confused. Is that not the only way to separate the kick and dash panel speakers? The plug n play wire harness has the speaker outputs pre-wired, I assumed I would have to cut/splice something to go from 4 channel to 6 channel, just unsure of the proper way to do that.

 

[Oldhippie]

Don’t know about your 6 channel amp, I used separate amp for kicks…should be the same wiring I would think..

 

[Brian_B]

Just run new wires to both - it's all easy to get at under the dash, and you have to get at that to get at the factory wiring harness anyway. That way your factory wiring stays intact, just un-used. And you have a second wire going to each speaker location that has the speakers split out from each other for your new amp.

That said, @Area51BS is right - the factory speaker wiring is parallel, so you could use the factory wiring for one speaker, and run a new wire for the other, and it would functionally be the same.

You are going to have to run a new speaker wire either way you go, there's no good way to "split out" the factory harness. But it's all short, easy under-the-dash stuff.

I'd also say you are going to have a similar situation figuring out the 6-channel inputs unless your PnP harness has that already sorted out and pre-configured for 6-channel output... and if it does, then you just follow the instructions for the PnP 6-channel harness (which will almost certainly entail "run a new wire" somewhere)

 

[Karl_in_Chicago]

I recently ordered a musway six100 from plugnplay, planning on using all six channels to control the dash, kick panel, and rear speaker pods.

Has anyone successfully separated the kick panel and dash speakers channels? Please provide instructions if you’ve found them, I tried searching but couldn’t find anything.

TIA!

I don't know exactly what that harness looks like but the non-B&O head unit outputs 4 channels. With stock speakers and wiring channels 1/2 go to the kick panel speakers and from there to the dash speakers; channels 3/4 go to the back pod speakers. While the amp you have selected supports 6 channels in you will only have 4 - but you can still have 6 out - presumably 1/2 and 3/4 to the dash and kicks, respectively, with 5/6 to the rear pods for example. It's pretty clearly laid out in the manual - run the (high level) speaker inputs to 1-4 and engage the Input Mode switch selector to the matching position.

N.B. - if you do wish to exploit the 6 channel out for discrete connections to each speaker you will need to do wiring changes so that the kicks and dash have their own runs (not a big deal, just something to make sure you plan).

Edit to add snapshot from manual:

 

[mvilla]

I don't know exactly what that harness looks like but the non-B&O head unit outputs 4 channels. With stock speakers and wiring channels 1/2 go to the kick panel speakers and from there to the dash speakers; channels 3/4 go to the back pod speakers. While the amp you have selected supports 6 channels in you will only have 4 - but you can still have 6 out - presumably 1/2 and 3/4 to the dash and kicks, respectively, with 5/6 to the rear pods for example. It's pretty clearly laid out in the manual - run the (high level) speaker inputs to 1-4 and engage the Input Mode switch selector to the matching position.

N.B. - if you do wish to exploit the 6 channel out for discrete connections to each speaker you will need to do wiring changes so that the kicks and dash have their own runs (not a big deal, just something to make sure you plan).

Edit to add snapshot from manual:

Thanks for this. I have taken a look at the manual and I believe I would need to use the input circled in red. Can you confirm that?

So at a minimum I need to run new wires to the dash speakers and disconnect them from where they join up with the kick panels.

Is there a benefit to also running wires to the kick panels, and even the rear pods, when the harness already goes to them? Would that bypass something in the head unit?

 

[mvilla]

The harness has 4 outputs that I believe run back into the head unit.

 

[Brian_B]

Is there a benefit to also running wires to the kick panels, and even the rear pods, when the harness already goes to them? Would that bypass something in the head unit?

Factory wiring is pretty small gage - so you can get more power/cleaner sound to speakers if you run larger wire.

No change to head unit though - that’s all on the inputs to your amp. As far as your head unit is concerned, it thinks the amp inputs are the speakers.

 

[Brian_B]

So at a minimum I need to run new wires to the dash speakers and disconnect them from where they join up with the kick panels.

You don't have to disconnect anything from the kick panels - the dash speakers will be disconnected already just by virtue of you not using the factory wiring to hook them up, and since they are wired in parallel it will just sit there and be happy and not affect anything.

 

[The Compensator]

Are you replacing the kick panel and/or dash speakers using a metra wiring harness?

If so, no need to run new wires all the way to the speakers.

Just splice the wires into the speaker adapter using the attached directions.

I bought a similar setup from plug and play kits, and that's how I was able to separate them.

Also, even if you're able to get it all wired properly, it'll still sound like hot garbage until you do a myriad of forscan changes. But atleast it'll be louder hot garbage, especially any/all vehicle chimes and warnings.

 

[Brian_B]

To better explain it:

There is wiring from the head unit to the speakers (I know that's obvious, bear with me).

When you install the PnP harness- that intercepts that wiring - since it nicely occurs at a harness, it's easy to make a new harness that can "cut" the wire and split it out. The head unit then goes to the amp inputs. And the amp outputs then go to the speakers.

So once you install the PnP harness, with no amp installed, the head unit and speakers won't be hooked up to anything - the harness splits that out to send to the amp.

There are separate speaker adapters - that connect the speakers to the factory wiring (the "metra" adapters). Those just allow you to hook the speakers (with generic speaker terminals) into the factory wiring without having to cut the OEM connectors off.

 

[mvilla]

Are you replacing the kick panel and/or dash speakers using a metra wiring harness?

If so, no need to run new wires all the way to the speakers.

Just splice the wires into the speaker adapter using the attached directions.

I bought a similar setup from plug and play kits, and that's how I was able to separate them.

Also, even if you're able to get it all wired properly, it'll still sound like hot garbage until you do a myriad of forscan changes. But atleast it'll be louder hot garbage, especially any/all vehicle chimes and warnings.

I’m coming from a kicker key 200.4 so I think all of the necessary forscan changes have been made, at least the ones mentioned in Ragnarkons threads.

I can’t remember if I wired the speakers using metra but that does look familiar. The directions aren’t very clear, so you just just cut the two loops and wire the dash output to those wires?

 

[mvilla]

Factory wiring is pretty small gage - so you can get more power/cleaner sound to speakers if you run larger wire.

No change to head unit though - that’s all on the inputs to your amp. As far as your head unit is concerned, it thinks the amp inputs are the speakers.

I was going to order a wiring kit on Amazon that has 16 awg wire. Is that sufficient? Also, will buying better speaker wire actually make a difference? There’s a ton of kits around the $20-50 dollar range, although that seems like it would work I really want to do this right one more time. I wasn’t very happy with the kicker key 200.4 so here we are lol

 

[Area51BS]

Do not buy any wire that is not OFC. Stay away from CCA

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