Kicker Key 200.4 & 2023 7 speaker system question.

[FreddieLee]

I have the 2023 7-speaker system with the subwoofer / mono amplifier. If I added a Kicker Key 200.4, would that affect the subwoofer / mono amplifier?

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[Bronco#2]

No. The 6 speakers are separate from the sub.

 

[Bmadda]

I have the 2023 7-speaker system with the subwoofer / mono amplifier. If I added a Kicker Key 200.4, would that affect the subwoofer / mono amplifier?

The only thing u gotta do is figure out a way to disable the sub while doing the key 200.4 setup. It needs complete quiet other than the speakers it is controlling, during setup. Once you have the key 200.4 setup and dialed in, you can turn the sub back on. I would hope there is a separate fuse for the sub amp. That would be the easiest way

 

[Nynus]

pull fuse 146 under the hood to disable the subwoofer on the 7 speaker system.

 

[Theo831]

I have the 2023 7-speaker system with the subwoofer / mono amplifier. If I added a Kicker Key 200.4, would that affect the subwoofer / mono amplifier?

Did you ever complete this, and if so, how much did it improve the sound? I also have a '23 with the base 7 speaker system.

 

[Just Rob Please]

While this thread has nearly no activity, I think it is important to reply to your question and outline a few things so a future upgrader can find it easier. I spent too many hours searching this forum to find out exactly what I'm going to type here. Yes, it all has been discussed here and there, but not in a complete way that I ever found. Information gets scattered between those with sub, without, with the fake sub and amp, and the B&O. This is only my opinion.

In a short answer to @Theo831 , absolutely. At least for me. And thank you @Nynus for posting the fuse location. Read on for details that I hope will help someone find what I learned.

I'm on the bubble when it comes to being an audiophile. I have very picky ears, but am a frugal spender. I've been a lifetime audio enthusiast as a hobby and musician. I am reporting my experience as a Bronco factory 7 Speaker non B&O owner.

If you are tight on money or just want to take this one step at a time, I recommend the following. But only if you are willing to run Forscan and make 2 changes.

1. Go buy a $6 bag of polyfill at Wal-Mart. Buy some 1/4" oe 3/8" window seal in a roll. Make sure it is easily compressable. Wrap the bottom rim of each speaker with it as you mount them. This will seal up air leakage. Do this for each speaker.
If you can swing it, by some 12" x 12" Dynamat or Killmat so you can deaden some of the resonating that will happen once you start cranking up the sound.
I also recommend Cruthfield for speakers. You get free speaker adapters and amazing support if you need it.

2. Dash speakers. Kicker 46CSC44's. These will immediately deliver amazing highs and a more accurate midrange. I used a 4x4" square of Dynamat directly underneath. There were a couple of pockets where a little polyfill can be packed in there. You will probably turn your treble down a little to adjust to the new bright sound until you get a Kicker Key 200.4 installed.

3. Mabett or IAG 6.5" speaker pods with Kicker 46CSC654. I cut the largest piece of Dynamat I could and placed it behind the speaker. Packed the pod with polyfill, window seal around the speaker, and installed. It will sound worse than stock until you do the next step.

4. Buy a Forscan USB cable on Amazon. Download Forscan and make sure you are careful how you use it. You can do this and it is worth every penny you spend on the cable. Watch Ragnar.Kon's video to tweak the EQ and rear pod settings. EQ needs to be OFF, Rear pods are set to Speaker / Tweeter. See exactly how to do this here:

5. This is a good stopping point if you are on a tight budget. You can tweak some things in the Bass/Mid/Treble settings on the Bronco audio settings and you'll see a pretty good improvement at this point. For me, the rear pods suddenly sounded amazing and made a big difference in the overall sound in the cabin. I don't know why people talk about this not making a big impact for the driver. It really made a good improvement for me.

6. Replace kick panel speakers. You could go with the same Kickers as the ones installed in the Mabett / IAG pods but .... I think you just need a woofer. No one could distinguish the highs from a 2 way speaker down in the kick panel. I bought a Sound Ordnance component speaker system and kept the tweeter and crossover in my inventory of excess stereo gear. The remote tweeter would be overkill since the Kicker 2 way's in the dah as so good. I just installed the woofer and packed this area with poly and some Dynamat. The sound was improved but know that this area is filling in a warm lower midrange only. I get a significantly stronger and less-muddy bump and rumble now. Note: I would not pack it wiht poly if you are one to sink your Bronco in water up to its neck. That poly will be a mess in there.

7. Now for the Big $$$ - I bought the Kicker Key 200.4 and wiring harness from https://plugnplaykits.com. It's option 11 as mentioned all over the forums. $500 or less shipped. While you're waiting for it to arrive, watch Ragnar.Kon's video as he wrestles with the install. He has a great video - shooting as he figures it all out. You watch it first, then when you dive in, you might find it goes faster than you originally thought. I dropped all the plastic he did except for the lower console area. I also didn't disconnect anything from my button cluster - just popped it off and pulled it out some to get to the control module far right connector. I plugged in the Y harness from plugnplaykits and tucked everything in nooks and crannys. The plugnplay kit will include a power wire with fuses. I ran that through the firewall by removing the rubber firewall plug and drilling a small hole in it to run the power wire from the battery into the area under the steering wheel. The entire install was about 2 1/2 hours. Make sure your gains are dialed down to the lowest point. The amp will have plenty of signal to boost. Lifting this up from the bottom will result in distortion quickly.

8. The honest opinion at this point is that the system JAMS! Everything is much more alive. But you paid $$$ for the Kicker Key's ability to auto-tune itself. Before you do this, pull fuse 146 as seen above. I did NOT do this the first time and the sub was causing the system to be consfused with the tune. The end result was absolutely terrible. Massive high frequencies and no lower end. So finding this thread, I pulled 146, re-ran the tune, and then replaced the fuse. Toggling between the Kicker's auto-tune vs no tune at all (short press the button to toggle) revealed at first a minor change in the audio spectrum. But, as I listened to various genres of music, I picked up on how much better it was with the Kicker auto-tune. Sounds were placed more spatially among the 6 speakers. It was fantastic.

9. As alive as the system is, the next thing for me to do was to swap the stock sub with a Kicker 48CWRT674 6.75" sub. This is the 4 ohm version to be a little easier on the stock amp. Use Dynamat to line the inside behind the speaker at minimum, and pack the box with poly. Use that weather seal around the rim of the sub. Install and test for rattles. You'll have a more accurate bass output that is way more punchy if you plug up the port in the box.

10. The last thing to do - which I may do later - is replace the stock amp with a bigger sub amp. I'm on the fence about this one. I'm over 50 and love it loud, but I'm not booming rap music or really anything in the top 40 on my system. Still, I like accurate bass and I feel like I have a similar amount to what I have in my very good home theater room when listening to music. So this may be where the returns diminish, at least for me.

Hope that helps a future Bronco6G 7 speaker owner who is searching the forums to do exactly what I did. Again, there is nothing 'new' in this post, but things are arranged in the unique way that I did it after searching the forum and reading for many hours.

 

[craigjenkins265]

While this thread has nearly no activity, I think it is important to reply to your question and outline a few things so a future upgrader can find it easier. I spent too many hours searching this forum to find out exactly what I'm going to type here. Yes, it all has been discussed here and there, but not in a complete way that I ever found. Information gets scattered between those with sub, without, with the fake sub and amp, and the B&O. This is only my opinion.

In a short answer to @Theo831 , absolutely. At least for me. And thank you @Nynus for posting the fuse location. Read on for details that I hope will help someone find what I learned.

I'm on the bubble when it comes to being an audiophile. I have very picky ears, but am a frugal spender. I've been a lifetime audio enthusiast as a hobby and musician. I am reporting my experience as a Bronco factory 7 Speaker non B&O owner.

If you are tight on money or just want to take this one step at a time, I recommend the following. But only if you are willing to run Forscan and make 2 changes.

1. Go buy a $6 bag of polyfill at Wal-Mart. Buy some 1/4" oe 3/8" window seal in a roll. Make sure it is easily compressable. Wrap the bottom rim of each speaker with it as you mount them. This will seal up air leakage. Do this for each speaker.
If you can swing it, by some 12" x 12" Dynamat or Killmat so you can deaden some of the resonating that will happen once you start cranking up the sound.
I also recommend Cruthfield for speakers. You get free speaker adapters and amazing support if you need it.

2. Dash speakers. Kicker 46CSC44's. These will immediately deliver amazing highs and a more accurate midrange. I used a 4x4" square of Dynamat directly underneath. There were a couple of pockets where a little polyfill can be packed in there. You will probably turn your treble down a little to adjust to the new bright sound until you get a Kicker Key 200.4 installed.

3. Mabett or IAG 6.5" speaker pods with Kicker 46CSC654. I cut the largest piece of Dynamat I could and placed it behind the speaker. Packed the pod with polyfill, window seal around the speaker, and installed. It will sound worse than stock until you do the next step.

4. Buy a Forscan USB cable on Amazon. Download Forscan and make sure you are careful how you use it. You can do this and it is worth every penny you spend on the cable. Watch Ragnar.Kon's video to tweak the EQ and rear pod settings. EQ needs to be OFF, Rear pods are set to Speaker / Tweeter. See exactly how to do this here:

5. This is a good stopping point if you are on a tight budget. You can tweak some things in the Bass/Mid/Treble settings on the Bronco audio settings and you'll see a pretty good improvement at this point. For me, the rear pods suddenly sounded amazing and made a big difference in the overall sound in the cabin. I don't know why people talk about this not making a big impact for the driver. It really made a good improvement for me.

6. Replace kick panel speakers. You could go with the same Kickers as the ones installed in the Mabett / IAG pods but .... I think you just need a woofer. No one could distinguish the highs from a 2 way speaker down in the kick panel. I bought a Sound Ordnance component speaker system and kept the tweeter and crossover in my inventory of excess stereo gear. The remote tweeter would be overkill since the Kicker 2 way's in the dah as so good. I just installed the woofer and packed this area with poly and some Dynamat. The sound was improved but know that this area is filling in a warm lower midrange only. I get a significantly stronger and less-muddy bump and rumble now. Note: I would not pack it wiht poly if you are one to sink your Bronco in water up to its neck. That poly will be a mess in there.

7. Now for the Big $$$ - I bought the Kicker Key 200.4 and wiring harness from https://plugnplaykits.com. It's option 11 as mentioned all over the forums. $500 or less shipped. While you're waiting for it to arrive, watch Ragnar.Kon's video as he wrestles with the install. He has a great video - shooting as he figures it all out. You watch it first, then when you dive in, you might find it goes faster than you originally thought. I dropped all the plastic he did except for the lower console area. I also didn't disconnect anything from my button cluster - just popped it off and pulled it out some to get to the control module far right connector. I plugged in the Y harness from plugnplaykits and tucked everything in nooks and crannys. The plugnplay kit will include a power wire with fuses. I ran that through the firewall by removing the rubber firewall plug and drilling a small hole in it to run the power wire from the battery into the area under the steering wheel. The entire install was about 2 1/2 hours. Make sure your gains are dialed down to the lowest point. The amp will have plenty of signal to boost. Lifting this up from the bottom will result in distortion quickly.

8. The honest opinion at this point is that the system JAMS! Everything is much more alive. But you paid $$$ for the Kicker Key's ability to auto-tune itself. Before you do this, pull fuse 146 as seen above. I did NOT do this the first time and the sub was causing the system to be consfused with the tune. The end result was absolutely terrible. Massive high frequencies and no lower end. So finding this thread, I pulled 146, re-ran the tune, and then replaced the fuse. Toggling between the Kicker's auto-tune vs no tune at all (short press the button to toggle) revealed at first a minor change in the audio spectrum. But, as I listened to various genres of music, I picked up on how much better it was with the Kicker auto-tune. Sounds were placed more spatially among the 6 speakers. It was fantastic.

9. As alive as the system is, the next thing for me to do was to swap the stock sub with a Kicker 48CWRT674 6.75" sub. This is the 4 ohm version to be a little easier on the stock amp. Use Dynamat to line the inside behind the speaker at minimum, and pack the box with poly. Use that weather seal around the rim of the sub. Install and test for rattles. You'll have a more accurate bass output that is way more punchy if you plug up the port in the box.

10. The last thing to do - which I may do later - is replace the stock amp with a bigger sub amp. I'm on the fence about this one. I'm over 50 and love it loud, but I'm not booming rap music or really anything in the top 40 on my system. Still, I like accurate bass and I feel like I have a similar amount to what I have in my very good home theater room when listening to music. So this may be where the returns diminish, at least for me.

Hope that helps a future Bronco6G 7 speaker owner who is searching the forums to do exactly what I did. Again, there is nothing 'new' in this post, but things are arranged in the unique way that I did it after searching the forum and reading for many hours.

This is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thank you for typing this up! Just to confirm, you did NOT have to use bass blockers for any of the speakers? Just the adaptor from Crutchfield?

 

[Brian_B]

Thank you for typing this up! Just to confirm, you did NOT have to use bass blockers for any of the speakers? Just the adaptor from Crutchfield?

I used Infinity Reference speakers when I did mine and I haven’t felt the need to use any bass blockers. YMMV though

 

[Just Rob Please]

This is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thank you for typing this up! Just to confirm, you did NOT have to use bass blockers for any of the speakers? Just the adaptor from Crutchfield?

Crap - I knew I forgot something!
I bought both 150 and 300Hz blockers. There are no 4" speakers in the world I know of that could reproduce 300Hz with any power at all. To reduce potential distortion and overworking the driver, I did install the 300s on the dash. But that was it. I decided against the 150s on the kick panels and the rear pods. I also soldered in wires from my speakers to the wiring adapters. Any splices were soldered and heat shrinked. I'm an EET professor and hobbyist. I got this stuff everywhere.

 

[BadazzBronco]

While this thread has nearly no activity, I think it is important to reply to your question and outline a few things so a future upgrader can find it easier. I spent too many hours searching this forum to find out exactly what I'm going to type here. Yes, it all has been discussed here and there, but not in a complete way that I ever found. Information gets scattered between those with sub, without, with the fake sub and amp, and the B&O. This is only my opinion.

In a short answer to @Theo831 , absolutely. At least for me. And thank you @Nynus for posting the fuse location. Read on for details that I hope will help someone find what I learned.

I'm on the bubble when it comes to being an audiophile. I have very picky ears, but am a frugal spender. I've been a lifetime audio enthusiast as a hobby and musician. I am reporting my experience as a Bronco factory 7 Speaker non B&O owner.

If you are tight on money or just want to take this one step at a time, I recommend the following. But only if you are willing to run Forscan and make 2 changes.

1. Go buy a $6 bag of polyfill at Wal-Mart. Buy some 1/4" oe 3/8" window seal in a roll. Make sure it is easily compressable. Wrap the bottom rim of each speaker with it as you mount them. This will seal up air leakage. Do this for each speaker.
If you can swing it, by some 12" x 12" Dynamat or Killmat so you can deaden some of the resonating that will happen once you start cranking up the sound.
I also recommend Cruthfield for speakers. You get free speaker adapters and amazing support if you need it.

2. Dash speakers. Kicker 46CSC44's. These will immediately deliver amazing highs and a more accurate midrange. I used a 4x4" square of Dynamat directly underneath. There were a couple of pockets where a little polyfill can be packed in there. You will probably turn your treble down a little to adjust to the new bright sound until you get a Kicker Key 200.4 installed.

3. Mabett or IAG 6.5" speaker pods with Kicker 46CSC654. I cut the largest piece of Dynamat I could and placed it behind the speaker. Packed the pod with polyfill, window seal around the speaker, and installed. It will sound worse than stock until you do the next step.

4. Buy a Forscan USB cable on Amazon. Download Forscan and make sure you are careful how you use it. You can do this and it is worth every penny you spend on the cable. Watch Ragnar.Kon's video to tweak the EQ and rear pod settings. EQ needs to be OFF, Rear pods are set to Speaker / Tweeter. See exactly how to do this here:

5. This is a good stopping point if you are on a tight budget. You can tweak some things in the Bass/Mid/Treble settings on the Bronco audio settings and you'll see a pretty good improvement at this point. For me, the rear pods suddenly sounded amazing and made a big difference in the overall sound in the cabin. I don't know why people talk about this not making a big impact for the driver. It really made a good improvement for me.

6. Replace kick panel speakers. You could go with the same Kickers as the ones installed in the Mabett / IAG pods but .... I think you just need a woofer. No one could distinguish the highs from a 2 way speaker down in the kick panel. I bought a Sound Ordnance component speaker system and kept the tweeter and crossover in my inventory of excess stereo gear. The remote tweeter would be overkill since the Kicker 2 way's in the dah as so good. I just installed the woofer and packed this area with poly and some Dynamat. The sound was improved but know that this area is filling in a warm lower midrange only. I get a significantly stronger and less-muddy bump and rumble now. Note: I would not pack it wiht poly if you are one to sink your Bronco in water up to its neck. That poly will be a mess in there.

7. Now for the Big $$$ - I bought the Kicker Key 200.4 and wiring harness from https://plugnplaykits.com. It's option 11 as mentioned all over the forums. $500 or less shipped. While you're waiting for it to arrive, watch Ragnar.Kon's video as he wrestles with the install. He has a great video - shooting as he figures it all out. You watch it first, then when you dive in, you might find it goes faster than you originally thought. I dropped all the plastic he did except for the lower console area. I also didn't disconnect anything from my button cluster - just popped it off and pulled it out some to get to the control module far right connector. I plugged in the Y harness from plugnplaykits and tucked everything in nooks and crannys. The plugnplay kit will include a power wire with fuses. I ran that through the firewall by removing the rubber firewall plug and drilling a small hole in it to run the power wire from the battery into the area under the steering wheel. The entire install was about 2 1/2 hours. Make sure your gains are dialed down to the lowest point. The amp will have plenty of signal to boost. Lifting this up from the bottom will result in distortion quickly.

8. The honest opinion at this point is that the system JAMS! Everything is much more alive. But you paid $$$ for the Kicker Key's ability to auto-tune itself. Before you do this, pull fuse 146 as seen above. I did NOT do this the first time and the sub was causing the system to be consfused with the tune. The end result was absolutely terrible. Massive high frequencies and no lower end. So finding this thread, I pulled 146, re-ran the tune, and then replaced the fuse. Toggling between the Kicker's auto-tune vs no tune at all (short press the button to toggle) revealed at first a minor change in the audio spectrum. But, as I listened to various genres of music, I picked up on how much better it was with the Kicker auto-tune. Sounds were placed more spatially among the 6 speakers. It was fantastic.

9. As alive as the system is, the next thing for me to do was to swap the stock sub with a Kicker 48CWRT674 6.75" sub. This is the 4 ohm version to be a little easier on the stock amp. Use Dynamat to line the inside behind the speaker at minimum, and pack the box with poly. Use that weather seal around the rim of the sub. Install and test for rattles. You'll have a more accurate bass output that is way more punchy if you plug up the port in the box.

10. The last thing to do - which I may do later - is replace the stock amp with a bigger sub amp. I'm on the fence about this one. I'm over 50 and love it loud, but I'm not booming rap music or really anything in the top 40 on my system. Still, I like accurate bass and I feel like I have a similar amount to what I have in my very good home theater room when listening to music. So this may be where the returns diminish, at least for me.

Hope that helps a future Bronco6G 7 speaker owner who is searching the forums to do exactly what I did. Again, there is nothing 'new' in this post, but things are arranged in the unique way that I did it after searching the forum and reading for many hours.

Thank you for this, it is exactly what I was looking for in a post! Every time I dive deep into the downward spiral of B6 audio threads that I have revisited...ad nauseam, my eyes glaze over and my head starts to spin. Audio is for the most part subjective and can spiral into the thousands of dollar range for those with disposable incomes(not me), it's easy to see why this topic seems to be never-ending.

I am certain I am doing things a bit backward, but this is my first time working on a vehicle and I am enjoying the few mods I have done as my confidence levels increase. ... So far, I have changed the 3 dash and pod speakers with kicker 46CSC44's (not ready for the 6.5 pods) and my kick panels with Memphis audio MOJO Pro Series 6-1/2" 4-ohm component woofers, I've also put dynamat and polyfill in every nook and cranny.

Here is where I am kind of stuck and would love a bit of input... I too am in my 50's but I primarily listen to" booming rap". I am not going full audiophile on my Bronco, but I am at the point where I need to change the sub I def do not want a swing gate sub as I like the OEM location. I have read a lot of people on this page use the Kicker 48CWR84 sub, but I am open to suggestions considering the music I listen to... I plan on adding the kicker key and plug-and-play... but, do I get the kicker 200.4 or the 5001 500W? I am sure I will need to replace the oem amp, but that part scares me still. BTW... I have the B&O system.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

 

[Just Rob Please]

Let me start by saying I know very little about the B&O system. BUT - you end up with audio going to speakers - just the same. Did you do the Forscan tweak for the rear pods? Not sure if that is required for B&O, but I would check and do it anyway.
Disable EQ and turn them from tweeter to speaker & tweeter? That would be my #1.
#2 - If money is tight and you have a lack of confidence in getting in too deep - then you could go old school with a sub. Using a wire tap, you could get to the passenger kick panel tap that high level speaker signal to a simple sub amp. Now that amp would need to have high level inputs (very common) and even better would be a remote power on detection based upon the high level input (not all have this). You will still need to run a power cable (fused) from the battery to your amp. And, ground that amp to the body of the Bronco. At this point you would have sub power. You just need to run speaker wires to a sub - whether tucked inside the back passenger expanse, or a box in the back, or on the back door - whatever you want. In this case, I would see out a 8 - 12" dual coil sub - again thinking about the bass being a priority. It will probably not sound as nice as a Key 500.1 DSP configured setup, but it will give you the boom you want. And be cheaper. Again - my opinion only on going supa-cheap on the booms.

 

[Brian_B]

but, do I get the kicker 200.4 or the 5001 500W?

Those serve two different purposes.

The 200.4 will augment (not replace) the main head unit amp for your pods and kick panels. It will do nothing for your subwoofer.

The 500.1 will replace the factory sub amp, it won’t do anything for the dash, pods or kick panels.

It’s common for people to install both, but you can do one without the other

 

[BadazzBronco]

Let me start by saying I know very little about the B&O system. BUT - you end up with audio going to speakers - just the same. Did you do the Forscan tweak for the rear pods? Not sure if that is required for B&O, but I would check and do it anyway.
Disable EQ and turn them from tweeter to speaker & tweeter? That would be my #1.
#2 - If money is tight and you have a lack of confidence in getting in too deep - then you could go old school with a sub. Using a wire tap, you could get to the passenger kick panel tap that high level speaker signal to a simple sub amp. Now that amp would need to have high level inputs (very common) and even better would be a remote power on detection based upon the high level input (not all have this). You will still need to run a power cable (fused) from the battery to your amp. And, ground that amp to the body of the Bronco. At this point you would have sub power. You just need to run speaker wires to a sub - whether tucked inside the back passenger expanse, or a box in the back, or on the back door - whatever you want. In this case, I would see out a 8 - 12" dual coil sub - again thinking about the bass being a priority. It will probably not sound as nice as a Key 500.1 DSP configured setup, but it will give you the boom you want. And be cheaper. Again - my opinion only on going supa-cheap on the booms.

Thanks so much for your input! Unless someone has figured out the B&O system recently, I don't think Forscan will help much.

Those serve two different purposes.

The 200.4 will augment (not replace) the main head unit amp for your pods and kick panels. It will do nothing for your subwoofer.

The 500.1 will replace the factory sub amp, it won’t do anything for the dash, pods or kick panels.

It’s common for people to install both, but you can do one without the other

Thank you! I want

Those serve two different purposes.

The 200.4 will augment (not replace) the main head unit amp for your pods and kick panels. It will do nothing for your subwoofer.

The 500.1 will replace the factory sub amp, it won’t do anything for the dash, pods or kick panels.

It’s common for people to install both, but you can do one without the other

I kind of thought that, but obviously wasn't 100% certain. Thank you so much for responding, that clears a lot up for me.

Let me start by saying I know very little about the B&O system. BUT - you end up with audio going to speakers - just the same. Did you do the Forscan tweak for the rear pods? Not sure if that is required for B&O, but I would check and do it anyway.
Disable EQ and turn them from tweeter to speaker & tweeter? That would be my #1.
#2 - If money is tight and you have a lack of confidence in getting in too deep - then you could go old school with a sub. Using a wire tap, you could get to the passenger kick panel tap that high level speaker signal to a simple sub amp. Now that amp would need to have high level inputs (very common) and even better would be a remote power on detection based upon the high level input (not all have this). You will still need to run a power cable (fused) from the battery to your amp. And, ground that amp to the body of the Bronco. At this point you would have sub power. You just need to run speaker wires to a sub - whether tucked inside the back passenger expanse, or a box in the back, or on the back door - whatever you want. In this case, I would see out a 8 - 12" dual coil sub - again thinking about the bass being a priority. It will probably not sound as nice as a Key 500.1 DSP configured setup, but it will give you the boom you want. And be cheaper. Again - my opinion only on going supa-cheap on the booms.

Thank you so much for the response! I kinda figured I needed to install both. I think it might be best if I left those install's to a professional since there is a lot of wiring that I don't trust myself with. I am just happy with the few mods I have done on my own thus far and will continue with small things as time progresses!

 

[BadazzBronco]

Those serve two different purposes.

The 200.4 will augment (not replace) the main head unit amp for your pods and kick panels. It will do nothing for your subwoofer.

The 500.1 will replace the factory sub amp, it won’t do anything for the dash, pods or kick panels.

It’s common for people to install both, but you can do one without the other

Thank you! I definitely want both instaled then. I guess I will be picking up a few extra shifts at work so I can get a professional to do othse installs for me!

 

[Just Rob Please]

I do want to update something I stated earlier in this thread. This is in regards to someone upgrading their sub speaker but using a stock Ford sub amp.

After some hours listening to music in my ride, I am certain that the 2 ohm dual coil kicker sub (6.75") would have been a smarter buy than the 4 ohm Kicker I bought. Why? The low end in the mix is much quieter and you can't adjust this on the screen. I knew this would be the case. I am a college electronics professor. So I feel like an idiot. Until I amp the crap out of it, I'll take apart the back of my Bronco and return the stock sub in the stock box. It was pretty decent in the mix. Not as powerful as I wanted, but did a much better job of filling in the bass tones than this one. It is NOT the fault of the Kicker speaker at all. It's just starved for power badly.

I'm going to upgrade my sub amp in a few months and very likely to NOT go with a Key 500.1. I'm not sure the bang for the buck is there for a DSP solution on the sub. You could save $100 and run Kicker's 46CXA4001 directly from the stock amp's input lines. (Still need power from the battery of course). And I may just go for the tailgate speaker box at that point and keep the factory sub where it sits. I have a love/hate relationship with stereo upgrades. It's hard to know when to STOP!

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