B&O sound system complete upgrade - Done ✅

[22Badskwatch]

well, so far - mostly so good - I got the dash speakers replaced as well as the rear roll bar speakers - and huge difference so far! Tonight I started on the kick panels - the driver side is NOT easy - first off, there's a hidden mount under the dead pedal, and you have to remove a couple bolts. And aside from that, it took a TON for force to pull the panel off - it ended up cracking in one spot and one of the mount tabs ended up breaking too .. so be forewarned

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[Edsasso]

What did you do with the two additional wires in the speaker harness? I see some people doing different things. Did you just eliminate them?

 

[Ksjrb03]

What did you do with the two additional wires in the speaker harness? I see some people doing different things. Did you just eliminate them?

What additional wires? There are two wires to each speaker in the B&O

 

[Edsasso]

Never mind

 

[Edsasso]

I got thrown off. I have all the harnesses you called out. But I figured the harness for the kick panel speakers were the same. They do not look the same and the pics I find online have additional wires.

 

[Ksjrb03]

I got thrown off. I have all the harnesses you called out. But I figured the harness for the kick panel speakers were the same. They do not look the same and the pics I find online have additional wires.

The base system uses the same channel for kicks and dash speakers. The additional wires go up to the dash speakers.

 

[FellowM3]

This is a great write-up on the B&O upgrade. I just completed my own version of the upgrade and thought it might be useful for anyone who might be at the point of obsessing about speaker choices, etc.

I set out to get the OP's results without having to mess around with the subwoofer (I very much appreciate the trial and error OP did) and still achieve the 15/10 result. I am incredibly pleased with the outcome. I'm able to turn the bass down on the factory EQ to a point where the obnoxious buzzing went away, but the replacement speakers have such great bass response and clarity that the bass is still very present. You can still hear/feel the sub, but it's not necessary because of the fantastic lows from the kickpanel and corner speakers.

For the front dash corners and rear pods, I used Hertz DCX 100.3 4" speakers. You can find them here. If you buy from Crutchfield, you can decline the installation parts (unless you don't mind cutting and splicing the factory wires).

For the center channel, I used a Focal PC 165 4" speaker I had leftover from a previous project. It's brighter than the Hertz speakers I used in the corners and seems to work well for the center channel. You can find them here. Fun fact - this Focal will NOT fit in the rear pods or the dash corners. It's a couple of mm too tall. But it fits perfectly in the center channel and I was able to avoid the problem of using only one speaker from a pair.

Instead of cutting and splicing, I bought these on eBay for the 4" speakers as recommended by lots of people in this forum. I wound up needing to replace the negative female spade connector on each harness because the Hertz speakers use the same size (large) male end for the + and - terminals. Still better than cutting the OEM wiring.

For the kick panel speakers, I spent a lot of time looking for something that would potentially obviate the factory sub. I wound up with Morel Tempo Ultra Integra 602 6.5" speakers. Here. Definitely buy the Crutchfield recommended installation goodies. The bracket/adapter and the wiring harnesses work perfectly.

I ordered a box of Kilmat but wound up not using it. I'm sure the results would be that much better with the sound deadening, but I got lazy and it was cold out and I was doing this all in my driveway.

Thanks again to the OP for laying out the process and making me realize that I didn't want to mess with the factory sub if I didn't have to. Not yet, at least.

PS - I have 3 more of the Focal PC 165 speakers in my garage. Each one has a tab cut off from the previous project, but all are brand new and a pretty good choice for the center channel. If you're interested, please let me know.

Dude this is GOLD!

I have the B&O system, and a this time I don't want to mess with the sub, and adding an amp. I may in the future however.

I am going to PM you about the focal speaker!

 

[Edsasso]

I have almost completed the system. Basically I have all the same gear as the op with a few modifications. I purchased some speaker rings for the front kicks from sounds good Sterio and I purchased their amp harness. I have not gotten to the amp and sub portion due to time. But so far, it is a huge upgrade. Sounds great, much better. Also the op must have received a deal from crutchfield for the kick speaker harnesses. If you do the kicks, you will need them and they are different. Also I have an additional JL speaker for the dash with a harness soldered on with two tabs cut off if anyone needs it, pm me.

 

[Edsasso]

I finished the project over the weekend. Thank you very much. It was a great success. Tuning in the Key amp was interesting, but all in all, this turned out great for me. Thank you very much for putting all of this together and thank you for your time. BTW, did you wire your sub up in parallel or series? I wired mine in parallel...

 

[Ksjrb03]

I finished the project over the weekend. Thank you very much. It was a great success. Tuning in the Key amp was interesting, but all in all, this turned out great for me. Thank you very much for putting all of this together and thank you for your time. BTW, did you wire your sub up in parallel or series? I wired mine in parallel...

"I ended up going with a Kicker Comp R 4 ohm DVC sub and Kicker key 500.1 amp. I wired the sub parallel to get 2 ohm at the amp. "

Glad it all worked out for you! Do you happen to have pics of your amp wiring and/or settings. I get questions all the time about these and unfortunately I don't have better pics than what I posted.

 

[Edsasso]

Thank you. I see where you wrote that in your original post. I will take some and post some pictures. The wiring for the high level inputs was a little different than yours. I didnt cut any of the factory wiring. I used a harness from sounds good stereo which plugged into the OEM sub wires, I soldered their plug into the kicker high level plug after I cut off the RCA's. I ran speaker wire into the enclosure and plugged the hole with epoxy..... Im still not 100% sure I did the key amp setup correctly as far as controlling the gain and sweep tones, but it sounds good. One of the things I screwed up on was not having the remote base control plugged in and set to max before I did the gain control. The kicker instructions lacked a little information. I will call them today to get more information and follow up.

 

[Ksjrb03]

Thank you. I see where you wrote that in your original post. I will take some and post some pictures. The wiring for the high level inputs was a little different than yours. I didnt cut any of the factory wiring. I used a harness from sounds good stereo which plugged into the OEM sub wires, I soldered their plug into the kicker high level plug after I cut off the RCA's. I ran speaker wire into the enclosure and plugged the hole with epoxy..... Im still not 100% sure I did the key amp setup correctly as far as controlling the gain and sweep tones, but it sounds good. One of the things I screwed up on was not having the remote base control plugged in and set to max before I did the gain control. The kicker instructions lacked a little information. I will call them today to get more information and follow up.

Ha I just quoted my original post so I could make sure I had the right info. Its been a while! Thats interesting on the harness you found. Maybe you can post that info too, most of the questions and issues I get about this setup are around the input wiring.

 

[Edsasso]

I spoke to Kicker - They told me to set the high pass to 25 or 30 and the low pass to 100 or more. I think these settings are best tuned by your ear…..

Here is a link to the sub harness select round sub and speaker wires.
https://soundsgoodstereo.com/produc...r-amplifier-to-factory?variant=42875319714004

here are some pics of my sub

 

[Ksjrb03]

I spoke to Kicker - They told me to set the high pass to 25 or 30 and the low pass to 100 or more. I think these settings are best tuned by your ear…..

Here is a link to the sub harness select round sub and speaker wires.
https://soundsgoodstereo.com/produc...r-amplifier-to-factory?variant=42875319714004

here are some pics of my sub

Perfect! Thanks for contributing the pics and info. Your gain matches mine perfect. I will have to play with your high and low pass, mine are pretty different, but I played by ear too.

 

[Ksjrb03]

I have added a modified wiring diagram to the first post. The fact that the sub wires change color at the green connector on top of enclosure confuses most people when they go to tie those wires into to high level inputs. I have modified the drawing to show the green connector, and the wire color change.

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