did the kicker sub swap.. not worth it.

[RagnarKon]

Yeah, I generally agree.

My overall opinion of my upgrade was "better than the B&O package, for much cheaper than the B&O package" which... frankly... isn't really a high bar to reach. Gave myself a $1000 budget to do it, and while I did go over that budget slightly... it's still well under the price of the Lux package. Mission complete.

For me the priority was not losing storage space, so I didn't want to go with a box or a tailgate sub or any of the other options that would undoubtably be better. And yeah, I could have probably had better results with something like the JL Stealthbox, but the price of that alone was over my upgrade budget for the entire system. So... meh.

I left the factory enclosure ported even though it's probably objectively the wrong choice. Doesn't really matter for the music I listen to though (rock, country, etc.). If it was big into EDM, pop, or hiphop it would probably be atrocious sounding.

Sponsored

 

[ttt123]

I’m running the 8” comprt and the Mobridge dsp. I “sealed” the stock box. It’s so much better, but I had to deal with a lot of vibration, and a decent amount of tuning.

I listen to dance music, and I think I set the sub for -24 lpf, tuned around 50hz. Tuning is extremely subjective.

if you’re pulling from the stock subwoofer output from the stock amp you’re going to have problems.

I am pulling from the stock wiring.

why is this a problem ? I used a harness from a place mentioned on here if I remember correctly ... which they actually had two wires crossed and popped a fuse

 

[ttt123]

Yeah, I generally agree.

My overall opinion of my upgrade was "better than the B&O package, for much cheaper than the B&O package" which... frankly... isn't really a high bar to reach. Gave myself a $1000 budget to do it, and while I did go over that budget slightly... it's still well under the price of the Lux package. Mission complete.

For me the priority was not losing storage space, so I didn't want to go with a box or a tailgate sub or any of the other options that would undoubtably be better. And yeah, I could have probably had better results with something like the JL Stealthbox, but the price of that alone was over my upgrade budget for the entire system. So... meh.

I left the factory enclosure ported even though it's probably objectively the wrong choice. Doesn't really matter for the music I listen to though (rock, country, etc.). If it was big into EDM, pop, or hiphop it would probably be atrocious sounding.

I mainly listen to Christian rock and worship with the occasional old school stuff from my child hood.

listening to others has me racking my brain on if I'm just doing something wrong but ... I can't think of where I messed up other then maybe tune.

gonna tear into it again and see if I can improve it. if not... stand alone box as room isn't really an issue as its my daily for work and wife has her own car for stuff.

 

[hemiblas]

I did this upgrade. Keep in mind that many of us got a sub delete in our broncos. They gave us a fake amp and fake sub and took 300 off the price. For those of us in that situation it just made sense to go the kicker amp and kicker 8" route. I think it sounds good, but I have nothing to compare it against since I had zero bass.
I can totally see what you are saying though. There isnt much space back there to get good bass and that smaller factory sub probably made good use of the smaller enclosure.

 

[Area51BS]

Nothing wrong with the sub. Maybe too small for your needs and the wrong enclosure. Crappy one at that.

 

[ChrisB351]

I went a whole different route, mainly cause I already had plenty of audio equipment. I mounted a box to my tailgate with a shallow mount JL 13tw5 that I took out of the stealthbox I had in my jeep. I have a JL hd900/5 amp and an audio control LC7i. I used Fosgate 6.5 components up front and 4 in the rear. It will rattle your teeth with no problem. With the top off at 70mph and volume at 17 its just as clean and clear as low volume with the top on.

 

[Johnny Mo]

Yeah - as some of the others have said - not gonna say you are wrong, but that was not my experience at all. I am more than happy with my kicker key/CompR8 combo. Some minor tweaks like polyfill and killmat but other than that, sounds like you could have either a wiring or amp settings issue.

 

[Karl_in_Chicago]

I'd never use the brand Kicker myself, but I'm an audio snob! lol

I have a ton of base and I'm also running it with a MoBridge DSP/Amp, which outputs 500w for the sub.

Audiosnobs know all about BASE! I got that BASE, I got that BASE, . . .

 

[mpeugeot]

Not bashing kicker, it just isn't worth the money for the reward.

So I swapped out all component speakers and sub for kicker. the sub is the 8" comp that everyone is using. bought the kicker 500.1 key to power it and ... just not impressed.

#1... that is wayyy to much amp for the little 8". My amp is up maybe 1/3 of the way and it just bounces that speaker like a fart in loose silk undies I have to turn my bass all the way down to get clean sounding bass out of it. watching it thump .... its just to much.

#2 the bass I'm getting is not much more then the factory sub. in some ways the factory sub covered more range and felt better tuned for the system. could this one be chalked up to my tuning of the sub.. maybe a little bit but not to the extent of what I'm hearing. Not to mention.. I blew the 1st sub on start up bad wire harness that I paid good money for which was another issue

#3... this mod was not cheap !!!!! lol I'm just peeved I went down this rabbit hole for such minimal results. my system sounds fine and i love everything about it but the sub part.. it just wasn't worth it and that's my main beef.

That little kicker key 500.1 is quite powerful so I'm going to put a single 12" box I have on my shelf in the back and just use that. Just going to divert the speaker wire from the 8" to the 12".. or 10" I have a few nice speakers laying around. I don't like that I will be taking up room in the back but I want some bass that is worth it and that 8" just isn't cutting it.

oh and I did try the factory sub housing as ported and non ported. both ways... disappointing.

Just my opinion.. do it right the first time and think before you spend the money. I brought this bronco home about 3 months ago brand new from the dealer and sank about $7k into mods and out of all of them.. this sub is the only one I'm complaining about.

Just thought I'd share.

Is it out of phase?

 

[Johnsolo_02]

I used that kicker key 500.1 with a tailgate box. It booms, but not enough to wake the neighbors. I’m plenty happy, and relatively small footprint into the rear cargo area.

 

[brkdncr]

I am pulling from the stock wiring.

why is this a problem ? I used a harness from a place mentioned on here if I remember correctly ... which they actually had two wires crossed and popped a fuse

stock sub wiring has its own tuning applied. You want full range to the amp and then apply your be own tuning. I think full range is available from the woofers and your wiring harness might be using that.

 

[swamp2]

Same experience as @Johnny Mo above. 8" Comp and KK 500.1. Massive improvement over base (non B&O) 7 speaker system. I sealed the enclosure (really sealed it, see my post) and stuffed the inside. Plenty of good crisp bass for rock, metal, punk, pop, electronic, whatever.

You might try:

• Flatten the EQ with FORScan
• Fully seal the port. I found the enclosure plastic to be utterly incompatible with epoxy (i.e. JB Weld and similar). I posted my sealing procedure.
• Stuff interior with polyfill
• Check wiring of speaker
• Ditch the programmed, vehicle specific EQ (it absolutely would not work for me and made the sound abaolutely horrible)
• Did you set the level according to instructions? I found some of them correct and others incorrect (also noted in my writeup here)

I think most of this was mentioned above except the first and fifth items.

Best of luck.

 

[ttt123]

I did this upgrade. Keep in mind that many of us got a sub delete in our broncos. They gave us a fake amp and fake sub and took 300 off the price. For those of us in that situation it just made sense to go the kicker amp and kicker 8" route. I think it sounds good, but I have nothing to compare it against since I had zero bass.
I can totally see what you are saying though. There isnt much space back there to get good bass and that smaller factory sub probably made good use of the smaller enclosure.

ya i dont doubt that its better then nothing. for me .. i think my expectations were just higher then they should have been. plus ... maybe i need to tune it better.

 

[ttt123]

I went a whole different route, mainly cause I already had plenty of audio equipment. I mounted a box to my tailgate with a shallow mount JL 13tw5 that I took out of the stealthbox I had in my jeep. I have a JL hd900/5 amp and an audio control LC7i. I used Fosgate 6.5 components up front and 4 in the rear. It will rattle your teeth with no problem. With the top off at 70mph and volume at 17 its just as clean and clear as low volume with the top on.

I thought about that as well but i have that camping rack mounted on the tail gate.

 

[ttt123]

Yeah - as some of the others have said - not gonna say you are wrong, but that was not my experience at all. I am more than happy with my kicker key/CompR8 combo. Some minor tweaks like polyfill and killmat but other than that, sounds like you could have either a wiring or amp settings issue.

Ya i'm going to look into this and see if something just isn't done right. i'm game for being wrong and not having to use a box and take up space

Sponsored