Rear Pod Aftermarket Speakers - Little Improvement?

[swamp2]

Prior to this speaker install, the only mods to my 7 speaker base Raptor sound system have been:

Flat EQ via Forscan
Kicker Key 200.4 Amp

Being impressed and thrilled with the above, the only significant weakness I could hear in my system was the rear pods (or so I thought). Today I replaced those speakers with a pair of Kicker 46CSC44.

Unfortunately, this resulted in nowhere near the results I was expecting. After installing the new amp, the sound quality when fading to the rear was still pretty poor. This just didn't make much improvement. I did (maybe) hear some benefit after installation by fading to the rear combined with a large cut in the bass level and lots more volume. Unfortunately, I didn't do the exact same test prior to the swap...

Any tips: Bass blocker circuit, redo the Kicker amp EQ process, something else? Could the front dash and lower speakers be even a bit better than the new Kickers? Sure I know they are larger and can produce more bass, even if they are cheap factory speakers. Again, just not what I had hoped/expected.

Thanks in advance for suggestions/solutions.

Sponsored

 

[HeliPilot]

I paid an installer to upgrade my base system. They added SSV Pods, Alpine speakers, a sub and a couple amps and processor. After install and tuning, my rear pods provide a surround sound in my bronco. I can hear one vocalist in the front left, and another in stereo from the right rear. Sound is always bouncing speaker to speaker. The shi*iest stereo in all our vehicles is now the best stereo. Might be worth having an installer tune it…if it’s even possible with your setup.

 

[RagnarKon]

4-inch speakers aren't going to do much by themselves. They're really intended to fill in what's already being produced by other speakers. If you want the rear speakers to be able to stand on their own two feet (so to speak), you'll need larger speakers.

I personally kept my 4" speaker in the rear because I wanted to retain the ability to carry my doors in the rear of the Bronco. But if that's not an important feature for you (may not even be possible with the Raptor), may be worth it to upgrade to larger speakers.

One thing you can do is set the high-pass filter on the Kicker Key 200.4 to 60 Hz. That should help the 4" speakers in the rear sound a little bit better by blocking the lower frequencies that it cannot reproduce efficiently. The downside is it'll filter out those frequencies from the front as well, so if you don't have a decent subwoofer it'll probably be subpar.

 

[swamp2]

Thanks @RagnarKon. I considered upgrading the rear pods but couldn't find any decent looking and decently priced housings. I looked a lot. I guess these could move to the dash if I did upgrade the rear housings and speakers?

Sponsored