What sub amps work.

[Heath Aggen]

My son is wanting to get his non functional dummy sub going on his 23 but is on a tight budget, so kicker key is out of his price range.

What Amps have been found to work when tying in to the factory harness. I read somewhere that low level audio signal requires a very specific resistance and that not all, if very few amps actually work.

He can afford at CT audio mono amp and a 6.75" woofer to install in the factory enclosure, has anyone made that work.

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[23OBX2.7]

How much$? Check classified for loaded amplified enclosure that all handle high level signals well and sound great. Have to break in of course.

 

[Heath Aggen]

How much$? Check classified for loaded amplified enclosure that all handle high level signals well and sound great. Have to break in of course.

For $200 he can get CT sounds 500.1 mono amp and really nice 8" sub. From what I can tell the amp only has low level RCA inputs. I have seen folks wire the RCAs in to the factory harness, but not all of the amps recieve signal because of the resistance thing.

 

[23OBX2.7]

need high level capable. There is a great JL 8" loaded and amplified enclosure over at diymobilemaudio for ask $400 can probably get for $300 and will handle high level, and put out serious base in a perfectly tunespd enclosure....

 

[Brian_B]

need high level capable.

This. Either the amp has high level inputs -or- you run a LOC before the amp to convert the input.

pretty much any amp can be made to work

 

[Heath Aggen]

This. Either the amp has high level inputs -or- you run a LOC before the amp to convert the input.

pretty much any amp can be made to work

That's the direction I think I am going. The only wire out of the factory harness I will use is the turn on wire and may not even use that. Thank you

 

[Brian_B]

That's the direction I think I am going. The only wire out of the factory harness I will use is the turn on wire and may not even use that. Thank you

Be aware the Bronco turn on signal is only 5V, not 12V - some amps have issues with that, some are fine - Crutchfield has a small adapter for like $25 or something that people who were using the Ford Fusion amps sometimes needed to keep the amp from randomly shutting off. If you pull the signal from another set of speakers and not the harness, then those signals have enough voltage that a LOC or HL Input can pick them up and use "Auto" turn on

I used a Kenwood x802.5, which is a 5 channel, and works pretty well. My only regret is I didn't get a DSP amp (the Kickers Keys are, albeit limited), it may be worth the money to consider it now rather than trying to add it later. The Bronco's built in EQ profile is not very flattering once you start upgrading stuff, and without a DSP it's really hard to get it to sound right if you disable it. Just the sub - you may be ok though, as if you upgraded the front amp later you could re-run the sub input from that and get something with control back.

 

[23OBX2.7]

This. Either the amp has high level inputs -or- you run a LOC before the amp to convert the input.

pretty much any amp can be made to work

True but a decent LOC not cheap lots junk on market.

 

[Heath Aggen]

This. Either the amp has high level inputs -or- you run a LOC before the amp to convert the input.

pretty much any amp can be made to work

Thanks for your input, and if you don't mind asking a question. It seems like the most common way to tap in to a speaker wire is to tap in to the passenger foot well speaker wire. From there you would run to an LOC and the hook the RCAs to the amp. Being that it is only one pair of speaker wires, do you simply tie both positives together and both negatives together at the LOC input thus having one pair of speaker wires speaker wires connecting to the two pair of inputs at the LOC.

 

[Brian_B]

Thanks for your input, and if you don't mind asking a question. It seems like the most common way to tap in to a speaker wire is to tap in to the passenger foot well speaker wire. From there you would run to an LOC and the hook the RCAs to the amp. Being that it is only one pair of speaker wires, do you simply tie both positives together and both negatives together at the LOC input thus having one pair of speaker wires speaker wires connecting to the two pair of inputs at the LOC.

If you do that on the speaker input you will short your left and right channels together. But you should be able to do that with the outputs. Better yet would be to get a sub amp with stereo input

 

[Rydfree]

That's the direction I think I am going. The only wire out of the factory harness I will use is the turn on wire and may not even use that. Thank you

I had to use this for the turn on circuit . Using the factory 6v lead worked for 2 years then I traced an intermediate problem with no sound to the turn on circuit and resolved it by adding this relay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/262638155895

 

[Heath Aggen]

If you do that on the speaker input you will short your left and right channels together. But you should be able to do that with the outputs. Better yet would be to get a sub amp with stereo input

Thank you. My amp does have a pair of RCA ins, which I assume is a left and right channel even though it is a mono amp for a sub. I would also assume I need to get audio signal in to both input wires to have signal to each of the RCAs. I almost feel as if I should tap in to both the left and right foot well speakers.

Ragnakon on his very detailed post does show tapping in to only the one foot well speaker.

 

[Brian_B]

Thank you. My amp does have a pair of RCA ins, which I assume is a left and right channel even though it is a mono amp for a sub. I would also assume I need to get audio signal in to both input wires to have signal to each of the RCAs. I almost feel as if I should tap in to both the left and right foot well speakers.

Ragnakon on his very detailed post does show tapping in to only the one foot well speaker.

Well...

It will absolutely work if you just wire in one speaker input. Bass is normally non-directional and not mixed as stereo. You can put a subwoofer most anywhere in a room (or vehicle), and because of the low frequency it will sound like it's coming from anywhere to our ears, and the physical vibrations transmit similarly. We can't determine direction for bass like we can higher frequencies. So most music is produced with the Bass channel as mono, and usually equally mixed between left and right channels.

But...

That isn't universal. Take a track like Pink Floyd - Welcome to the Machine. The intro to that pulses from the left to right channels. If you have your subwoofer only wired to one side, you'll hear bass hits on half of that, and it'll be mostly quiet on the other half... because your sub amp isn't seeing the signal from the other channel. Some other well-produced tracks aren't quite as prominent, but you can get delay/fade across the stereo channels in the bass frequencies and such as well that you'd miss by only looking at a right (or single) channel of a stereo mix.

My recommendation would be to keep it stereo all the way until you wire it to the subwoofer itself. So yeah, I absolutely would tap both fronts, it only takes about 30 more minutes and a few feet more wire. But you don't have to to make it work, it'll still sound good for almost everything out there.

 

[Cjciam]

My son is wanting to get his non functional dummy sub going on his 23 but is on a tight budget, so kicker key is out of his price range.

What Amps have been found to work when tying in to the factory harness. I read somewhere that low level audio signal requires a very specific resistance and that not all, if very few amps actually work.

He can afford at CT audio mono amp and a 6.75" woofer to install in the factory enclosure, has anyone made that work.

I sold my bronco with sub delete in 2023 and I bought a Ford Fusion amp that I will post of market place this week [with pic and date sheet] DM me if interested or checkout market place for others

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