Kicker Key Amp 200.4 Install DIY Video - Do this first!

[pfbz]

I don't see anyone installing waterproof speakers, does everyone think that's unnecessary?

The Polk DB402's are 'marine certified' IP55, which implies at least some water resistance. I used them in my rears, not because they were marine certified, but I've been happy with Polk's in the past. I personally don't see ever getting a level of water on the speakers that would cause an issue.

Well priced as well at $55/pr on Amazon, plus a high 90 dB efficiency which is perhaps a bit less important when running the kicker amp, but very important if you're going to try and run replacement speakers off the stock head unit alone.

As for bass blockers, you are not likely to "hear" that much of a difference with them installed... 4" speakers just aren't very good at reproducing low frequency sounds, and while they might be rated to perhaps 60 hz, the db drop-off by that frequency is going to be huge. As for preventing damage, filters are really important on high frequency drivers (tweeters) to block out mid and low range frequencies to protect them from damage, but a 4" coax already has a filter for the tweeter driver, and the 4" driver portion is pretty robust. If it wasn't, the manufacturer would be installing their own inexpensive capacitor to avoid warranty claims. Knocking off the really low sub 60/80/120 hz stuff with the kicker amp function should be more than sufficient, and even that isn't really needed. My opinion of course, but it's an informed opinion.

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[BadK22]

Installing the blockers on the dash will be a big help on keeping the 4" from sounding muffled. The lower 120htz setting will work better on the larger kick panel speakers. Just my opinion. When I installed my Rockford Fosgate 4" in the dash they sure did move alot with just the factory base power. Have the 300htz blockers to install and hopefully order the double key set-up Monday when they start taking orders again.

If you run the amp in bi-amp mode it applies a 320Hz high-pass to the dash/amp 1 speakers and a 640Hz low pass to the kick speakers. Below is from the KEY white page.

"If the DSP circuit detects a speaker other than a tweeter only connected to amp 1, it will apply a 24 dB/octave high-pass crossover at 320 Hz to amp 1 and a 24 dB/octave low-pass crossover at 640 Hz to amp 2."

 

[Scotteasymoney]

If you run the amp in bi-amp mode it applies a 320Hz high-pass to the dash/amp 1 speakers and a 640Hz low pass to the kick speakers. Below is from the KEY white page.

"If the DSP circuit detects a speaker other than a tweeter only connected to amp 1, it will apply a 24 dB/octave high-pass crossover at 320 Hz to amp 1 and a 24 dB/octave low-pass crossover at 640 Hz to amp 2."

I'm running it on the back as well. Getting a custom cross bar made to run 6.5 tower speaker pods in the rear to match the kick panel.
Do you have a sub installed yet?

 

[BlueGhost]

The plan is to wait for a JL stealth box but I’m not sure I can wait that long.

My only concern with a JL stealth box, is that I don't think there is room for anything bigger than an 8. So the stealth box will likely come with a 8w3v3, which is only alliable in 4 ohms.

An 8w3 is going to sound best with 250-300 watts. You will need a fairly big amp, something that does 500-600 watts at 2 ohms, to get that much power at 4 ohm. You might be able to find a 2 channel amp that does that bridged.

 

[Bronc OH]

Just got my 6 speakers and Key200.4 installed tonight into my 2dr Basequatch. Similar experience as everyone else.. the stock system was worse than almost every Ford I've owned for the last 25+ years. All I could hear were the front 4" speakers and it sounded like an AM radio when i turned it up.

Here's what i went with:

• Kicker 47KSC6704 KS Speakers 6-3/4 (fit nicely by using the clocking ring that comes with these)
• Kicker 47KSC404 KS Speakers 4" (fit nicely in both front & rear by cutting off 2 tabs each)
• Kicker Key200.4
• Sound Ordinance BTP8 powered sub
• PNP Kit #31 w/ line-level sub harness

For starters, Joe @plugnplaykits makes an outstanding product, well worth the $$. Literally plug & play, right down to the harness in/out of the factory head unit, the kicker amp, etc. Wrapping it in Tesa tape makes it look just like something Ford would produce.

Now I can actually hear vocal from the rear speakers and can 'feel' the sound coming from the kick panels. I don't have my sub hooked up yet, nor have I performed DSP yet, will report back tomorrow.

I'm still pretty sure that Joe's harness is pulling the rear pod inputs from the factory head unit.. because I can still use the fader/balance once hooked up. Right now, I'm getting very little low frequencies from my rear pods. I can hear the vocals clearly, they are loud, but you can tell simply based on the movement of the front vs. rear speakers, they're not being driven as low. I'll report back more tomorrow once I run the DSP.. but I'm pretty sure I'll be delving into the Forscan rabbit hole tomorrow.

Should not have to touch anything with forscan

No the PnP harness is pulling the signal from the front channel. You don't need to change anything. Just hook it up and secure the amp. No need for Forscan but you will need to properly adjust your gain. Adjusting gain only changes the signal coming into the amp. You turn it up until you hear distortion and then back it off. This ensures you are fully utilizing the amp's power.

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-oAM551b84uH/learn/video-setting-your-amps-gain-control.html

I’ve read some of this thread. Honestly not the entire thing. Has anyone been able to confirm if the harness takes front signal to power rears, or if it sums the channels, or if it just amplified the crappy signal from the head unit?

Now that i've got mine installed, I'm pretty sure my #31 PNP harness is using the rear factory line-level outputs to the Key200, then to rears. How else would I be able to use the factory fader/balance to direct the sound to the rears distinctly? I'm also pretty sure this is why i'm not getting lower frequencies to the rears (yet). I've messed with the gains, which made it 'louder', but not 'lower'. Stay tuned..

 

[cmcbronco]

Just got my 6 speakers and Key200.4 installed tonight into my 2dr Basequatch. Similar experience as everyone else.. the stock system was worse than almost every Ford I've owned for the last 25+ years. All I could hear were the front 4" speakers and it sounded like an AM radio when i turned it up.

Here's what i went with:

• Kicker 47KSC6704 KS Speakers 6-3/4 (fit nicely by using the clocking ring that comes with these)
• Kicker 47KSC404 KS Speakers 4" (fit nicely in both front & rear by cutting off 2 tabs each)
• Kicker Key200.4
• Sound Ordinance BTP8 powered sub
• PNP Kit #31 w/ line-level sub harness

For starters, Joe @plugnplaykits makes an outstanding product, well worth the $$. Literally plug & play, right down to the harness in/out of the factory head unit, the kicker amp, etc. Wrapping it in Tesa tape makes it look just like something Ford would produce.

Now I can actually hear vocal from the rear speakers and can 'feel' the sound coming from the kick panels. I don't have my sub hooked up yet, nor have I performed DSP yet, will report back tomorrow.

I'm still pretty sure that Joe's harness is pulling the rear pod inputs from the factory head unit.. because I can still use the fader/balance once hooked up. Right now, I'm getting very little low frequencies from my rear pods. I can hear the vocals clearly, they are loud, but you can tell simply based on the movement of the front vs. rear speakers, they're not being driven as low. I'll report back more tomorrow once I run the DSP.. but I'm pretty sure I'll be delving into the Forscan rabbit hole tomorrow.






Now that i've got mine installed, I'm pretty sure my #31 PNP harness is using the rear factory line-level outputs to the Key200, then to rears. How else would I be able to use the factory fader/balance to direct the sound to the rears distinctly? I'm also pretty sure this is why i'm not getting lower frequencies to the rears (yet). I've messed with the gains, which made it 'louder', but not 'lower'. Stay tuned..

Run the dsp. It is night and day. I thought it sounded awesome just hooking up the amp. After running the pink noise wow. Night and day. But you’re right. The rear pods still aren’t crazy. Which is ok. I turned the gain up on them slightly more than the fronts and the balance sounds great with my sub. Very happy with it.

 

[Bearcat1]

Installed the kicker key amp and harness (kit 11) and replaced all 4 speakers with Infinity REF-4032CFX speakers.
Everything sounds great except for popping noises when the car is turned off. It just randomly makes a popping noise for the first few minutes after shutting off. I didn't think much of it over the last week, but would like to figure out what is up. Makes the pop sound about every 45 seconds for a few minutes then stops. I didn't turn on "Radio Detect" button, may need to try that? Anybody else have this issue?

 

[Bearcat1]

Thx, Radio Detect worked, no more popping

 

[cmcbronco]

You have to turn on the radio detect button

Does it come with the radio detect off ?

 

[Bearcat1]

Mine came as default off. It is just a small square button you press in.

 

[cmcbronco]

Mine came as default off. It is just a small square button you press in.

Thanks I’ll try that on mine. I tapped a fuse for the remote wire because of the popping. For some reason I thought it was already on.

 

[Bronc OH]

Run the dsp. It is night and day. I thought it sounded awesome just hooking up the amp. After running the pink noise wow. Night and day. But you’re right. The rear pods still aren’t crazy. Which is ok. I turned the gain up on them slightly more than the fronts and the balance sounds great with my sub. Very happy with it.

So i've run the DSP. The sound is pretty good.. here are my observations so far:

• I can't turn the gains up on the Key200 w/out hitting the protection (amber lights and slight clipping) on songs w/ low bass. Not Dr. Dre style bass songs, but songs that hit low. I'm good keeping the gains at min for now.
• The DSP didn't seem to make as much difference as I expected. But the leap from stock speakers to the amplified Kicker KS's was huge!
• I'm convinced the rear speakers will not receive the full range unless you do the Forscan unlock. Currently, I'm not getting any low frequencies or movement vs. the same very front speakers on the same songs. I'm going to dabble w/ Forscan next. Not a big deal though w/ a sub installed.
• I'm having troubles keeping my sub (Crutchfield house brand: Sound Ordinance B-8PTD) getting a signal. I'm using the line level harness from PNP. The sub has an option to auto-detect signals and it turns on, but doesn't always get sound. I've called crutchfield twice, swapped it out w/ the same sub from another vehicle, etc. It's sporadic and frustrating. I'm debating adding in a LOC w/ an adjustable gain to somehow ensure the sub gets a consistent signal. Ie, when I turn the sound down, sometimes the sub stops receiving a signal. Joe @ PNP says line-level is a better quality for subs, and crutchfield says I shouldn't need a LOC to convert to RCA's.. but something isn't communicating 100%. I also wired up the remote wire from the PNP harness and still not consistently getting a signal.

 

[cmcbronco]

So i've run the DSP. The sound is pretty good.. here are my observations so far:

• I can't turn the gains up on the Key200 w/out hitting the protection (amber lights and slight clipping) on songs w/ low bass. Not Dr. Dre style bass songs, but songs that hit low. I'm good keeping the gains at min for now.
• The DSP didn't seem to make as much difference as I expected. But the leap from stock speakers to the amplified Kicker KS's was huge!
• I'm convinced the rear speakers will not receive the full range unless you do the Forscan unlock. Currently, I'm not getting any low frequencies or movement vs. the same very front speakers on the same songs. I'm going to dabble w/ Forscan next. Not a big deal though w/ a sub installed.
• I'm having troubles keeping my sub (Crutchfield house brand: Sound Ordinance B-8PTD) getting a signal. I'm using the line level harness from PNP. The sub has an option to auto-detect signals and it turns on, but doesn't always get sound. I've called crutchfield twice, swapped it out w/ the same sub from another vehicle, etc. It's sporadic and frustrating. I'm debating adding in a LOC w/ an adjustable gain to somehow ensure the sub gets a consistent signal. Ie, when I turn the sound down, sometimes the sub stops receiving a signal. Joe @ PNP says line-level is a better quality for subs, and crutchfield says I shouldn't need a LOC to convert to RCA's.. but something isn't communicating 100%. I also wired up the remote wire from the PNP harness and still not consistently getting a signal.

Did you hit the key button on the microphone to compare the before and after? I did it a few times and I was amazed how it centered the sound stage.
i have my front gain at almost zero and rear I did turn up a bit to get a little more sound. I feel like the sound is perfect now. I have the kicker ks for all my 4” and they sound crisp and clear but not too bright like some other speakers I’ve used. I used Memphis audio mjp6 for my kick panels and am really impressed with them as well.
i definitely think the rear pods are still limited but with the front stage sounding so good and my sub everything sounds balanced to me.
i also had some issues with my sub but I had installed it prior to the kicker 200.4 so being tapped into the kick panel wires caused issues when the high level inputs were amplified. I tapped into the wires before the 200.4 and added a resistor per recommendation from PNP and it sounded better than before.
im not sure what’s going on with your sub. Maybe try a different brand? I can’t really speak forcrutchfield brand stuff but it’s probably inexpensive for a reason. Just a thought.

 

[Bronc OH]

i also had some issues with my sub but I had installed it prior to the kicker 200.4 so being tapped into the kick panel wires caused issues when the high level inputs were amplified. I tapped into the wires before the 200.4 and added a resistor per recommendation from PNP and it sounded better than before.
im not sure what’s going on with your sub. Maybe try a different brand? I can’t really speak forcrutchfield brand stuff but it’s probably inexpensive for a reason. Just a thought.

Thanks for the ideas. I think I'm having the same issue. Just chatted with Joe @ PNP (outstanding service once again!) and he recommended adding a 'load resistor' to tell the sub that there is a constant load. As he explained it, it's similar to the load button on the Key200. I'm going to have him ship one to me and see if it makes a difference. thx!

 

[cmcbronco]

Thanks for the ideas. I think I'm having the same issue. Just chatted with Joe @ PNP (outstanding service once again!) and he recommended adding a 'load resistor' to tell the sub that there is a constant load. As he explained it, it's similar to the load button on the Key200. I'm going to have him ship one to me and see if it makes a difference. thx!

Good deal hope it works for ya!

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