Audio system upgrade journey

[jayson]

As the new owner of a Bronco, I have noticed that the factory audio system leaves much to be desired. Thankfully, it did come with a 6+1 sub woofer, yet no matter what adjustments I made to the equalizer or fader, it did not seem to work. All other aspects of the vehicle are amazing. I did not have the B&O option installed.

So I decided to follow others guidance here and do an upgrade to my audio, and here's my journey in hopes it may help others as well.

Final setup:
* Front dash: KICKER 46CSC44 CS-Series CSC4 4-Inch
* Front panel: Earthquake Sound SWS-6.5X 6.5-inch
* Rear pods: KICKER 46CSC44 CS-Series CSC4 4-Inch
* Rear side panel: CT Sounds TROPO-6.5-D4 400 Watts Max 6.5 Inch Car Subwoofer DVC
* High Amp: Kicker Key 200.4
* Low Amp: Rockford Fosgate R2-750X5
* Rear: JBL BassPro Go

For my setup, I had a few components from my previous truck and I was attempting to save space by using the same rear panel for the subwoofer, although I should have used an 8" instead of the 6.5" (which others here have posted about doing). This subwoofer combined with the JBL BassPro go under the back seat did a decent job at producing bass. While my previous setup with the 12" sub had more of an effect, I find that the current setup is good.

Note: A devoted fan of Rockford Fosgate, I found it challenging to get the matching speakers that I desired to fit. Therefore, I chose to follow the example of other users and went with a similar setup using Kicker speakers others have boasted about here.

Front dash setup:

• The grills were a pain to remove, those lips make it fun, but turns out there is a slot between them and if you use a credit card you can jimmy it enough to pop open (credits to others who've posted here on how to do this)
• The kicker speakers fit just fine and sound great but you do need to add bass blockers otherwise you'll get clipping when you turn up the volume. Make sure they are made for 4" or like me you'll be doing another wire splice.
  • That said, buy some posi-lock connectors they are well worth the money (if you don't buy a harness adapter).

Front panel setup:

• There are tutorials out here on how to remove these, but basically:
  • Passenger side:
    • remove the scuff plate and pull forward the trim carefully
  • Driver side:
    • Pry open the plastic panel from the foot rest, and remove two bolts. Very important as this is attached to the trim.
    • Then remove similarly to how the passenger side done
• Used the metra 72-5602 wire harness and 82-5605 bracket
• I started with re-using my rockford mids but didn't like the sound so ended up going earthquakes shallow subs (more bass in the front).
  • The trade off is you’re not getting that strong mid sound but those 46CSC44 provide enough full range for me
• The panel fits with the exception that I needed to remove the speaker grills

Rear pods setup:

• Nothing special here, panel comes off easily
• Replaced factory with 46CSC44 and no bass blockers (not needed right now as the head unit filters)

High amp setup:

• Found this tutorial on YouTube to be helpful here:
• I basically did the same. I didn’t want to mess with the default head unit wiring so I bought the harness from plugnplay described in the video.
• I actually goofed and bought the one that had the Kicker Key 200.4m amp (no wonder it was so expensive) and didn’t want to hassle with sending back so I opted to use it.
  • Side note: awesome little amp.

Rear panel setup:

• Again the YouTube video and other posts here basically describes how to pry off the panel, make sure to use plastic pry bars and carefully work. It comes off fairly easily but the panel is a bit flimsy so go slow
• The amp and sub it came with is laughable but the sub box isn’t all that bad
• I’ve seen where others were able to fit a 8” sub in the same box on this forum but my hole saw wasn’t that large so I ended up cutting it out a little bit bigger so I could put my CT Tropo 6.5” sub in there (I already had one laying around). It’s a deep sub for its size and I was pleasantly surprised that it fit in the same box.
• I reinforced the back with some deadening foam, also where I could around the outside of the box, as well as applied some wood MDF to the front and mounted the sub.
• I opted to connect it to my Rockford Fosgate R2-750X5. This amp can handle both high and low but since I was using the Kicker Key for the highs, and I already had it decided to use for the sub.
• The panel barely fits but fits nonetheless with some challenges:
  • The OEM plastic speaker grill must be cut/removed
  • By putting the amp in the side panel, can’t do any adjustments unless the panel removed (fortunately I don’t see that happening often)

Rear:

• While I’ll give credit to CT for making a pretty good sounding sub, a 6.5” in the back of a Bronco isn’t enough for me
• I wanted to do something different and others on here were talking about JBL Bass ProGO, while expensive the bonus is one can use a portable speaker so I decided to give it a go and pleasantly surprised.
• It won’t win any bass award with the 4” but provides just enough to give the Bronco full range

Conclusion:

• Very happy with the 4” kickers in the dash but you must use bass blockers and tune the kicker key amp
• The earthquakes provide a decent amount of bass and mid range not bad
• The rear pods are terrible, it’s mainly because the headunit filter. I’ve seen where others are using forscan to tweak but until I upgrade these pods to 6x9 I’m not worried about it
  • With the kicker key amp setup you can at least hear them now whereas in the factory setup you could not
• The rear sub is decent, again no awards but sounds solid and adds enough substance, especially when combined with the bass pro go
• Everything was put back okay, no bulging, only a few cosmetic scrapes, except that I had to remove the front panel and rear sub panel speaker grills and will be looking to custom ones
  • I will add back here when I do

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[LABlueBronco]

Which bass blockers did you use, 300?

 

[jayson]

Got these: PAC - BB4PR BB-4PR Pair of 4" Bass Blocker https://a.co/d/i2jykOB

 

[LABlueBronco]

Thx, i reached out to crutchfield earlier today and they recommended 150mhz for my setup.

 

[jayson]

That should work. Just don't close everything up until you've tested out different volumes/frequencies. I did have to adjust the equalizer on key amp to get it to completely stop popping, even with the bass blockers.

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