Kicker Key 200.4 Done Correctly

[AZCoyote]

I guess you just help some people.

Your biamp wiring to the dash is running two speakers in parallel, Alpine built a nice little crossover to make it one speaker on it, but at its heart it is two, 4 ohm speakers wired in parallel which at your insistence makes it two ohms and is wrong based on how electric circuits work when you factor in how speakers and crossovers actually work.

Still not what I said. You no can read good.

Why are you here again? What is your purpose?

Yes. Two 4 ohm speakers wired in parallel (without a cap) will net 2 ohms. That is unarguable fact. Thank you for proving me right. This has never been about passive crossovers on coaxials or otherwise. You win the “capacitors on coaxials” argument. Good job.

Now back to what the rest of us were talking about.

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[drewski]

So I have just the base 6 speakers. Added 6.5 pods in the back, kicker csc 4" speakers in the dash, kicker key 400.2 amp w/ plug n play harness and did forscan changes of turning off head unit amp and turn rears to "speakers." I guess I have the classic wrong way to use the kicker key. So I am interested in trying the set up you have done. I do have some questions if you don't mind. I say that because I know very little about automotive audio nowadays, so you'll have to dumb it down. If your agreeable I guess I first need to know if you modified a plug and play pigtail or did you make your own with what kicker supplied with the amp? TIA

 

[AZCoyote]

So I have just the base 6 speakers. Added 6.5 pods in the back, kicker csc 4" speakers in the dash, kicker key 400.2 amp w/ plug n play harness and did forscan changes of turning off head unit amp and turn rears to "speakers." I guess I have the classic wrong way to use the kicker key. So I am interested in trying the set up you have done. I do have some questions if you don't mind. I say that because I know very little about automotive audio nowadays, so you'll have to dumb it down. If your agreeable I guess I first need to know if you modified a plug and play pigtail or did you make your own with what kicker supplied with the amp? TIA

Very happy to help if I can. I will post my response in multiple pieces to try to explain with pictures.

Obviously, this should be done with the harness completely unplugged and the amp in hand. I did mine at my kitchen table.

I did modify my P&P harness. They are all the same in that they take the 4 channels coming from the head unit and send them into the Key then route the Key outputs to the speakers. It’s literally an “amp In the middle” situation. The Key takes the high level input and reduces it, then amplifies the signal to 50x4 and sends that out of the harness. As with all the P&P configs, the harness carries that to your rear pods and to the front stage which is wired so the dash and kick panel are combined. That creates an unsupported 2 ohm load on amp 1. Amp 2 is ok with the rear pods at 4 ohms. I know I am repeating this over and over but you never know which post a person will enter into the forum so it is for clarity. Anyway, I said all that to lay the groundwork for how to do the rest.

If you have the amp in hand or can see it, hopefully your harness is like mine. The maker used the exact same color for the wire headed into each channel and out each channel. That’s also how kicker does it with their included harness.

 

[AZCoyote]

So if you look at the T harness that you purchased, you will see that color coding should exist the same way. If it does, it will be very easy. If it doesn’t, you need to just map it channel to channel. But let’s assume that it does.

Start by carefully removing the cloth tape around all the wires. The wires are pretty easy to nick with scissors or a razor knife. Avoid this as best you can. I bought a roll of the same tape to use when I was done so that it stays neat. I recommend you do the same. Amazon is your friend for that.

For the rear input channels, you will cut the wires about 2 inches back from the end of the input plug going into the amp. You are going to tape those little stubby wires that were heading into the amp on the amp plug individually so they don’t touch anything. Part of the process of using bi-amp is flipping the switch to turn off fader. With fader off, you only need the left and right front inputs to generate all four of the output channels.

So with the example pictures I gave you, you will cut purple, purple black stripe, green, green black stripe. So now you have freed up the two channels from the head unit that we’re feeding the rear input on the key. They are now disconnected from the key.

On the amp output side of the harness, you need to free up the wires that are sending power out to your pods. Lucky for us those are color-coded identically in this example. The process is the same. Leave yourself a plenty of wire to work with so you can connect your kick panel speakers easily. I chose about 3 inches of wire. You’re cutting the exact same colors in the output side. purple, purple black stripe, green, green black stripe.

At this point you now have nothing going into channels three and four on the amp input and nothing connected to channels three and four on the amp output. You should have color matching sets of disconnected wires on both side sides of the harness.

Now, you have an option at this point. You probably note that you have long wires on the T harness. If you don’t like that, you can always make the loop shorter.

Connect those T harness wires to each other by color using a crimp connector, then a heat gun if you have one to shrink the surround wrap. Do not tape anything up at this point.

Pull the fuse on the kicker power wire. We want the amp off while you verify sound to the rear pods from the head unit Power.

Verify all your connections look correct, plug it in and check for sound on the rear pods. If you don’t hear the pods, go back and check crimps and make sure your colors match.

If you have sound to the pods, tape up the harness so it’s clean and compact again then you are good to proceed to do the bi set up.

That part is much more involved. The left and right for amp 2 need to go to your kick panels alone and must be run with new wires. I described early in this thread that the easiest way to isolate amp 1 Power to your dash speakers is just to unplug the connector from the factory kick panel speakers and wrap that connector in foam and tape so it doesn’t rattle. The wires are already connected to the dash so nothing more is required for wiring. I used a Metra adapter and drilled a tiny pass through hole for the speaker wire then sealed it with the wire passing through.

Read my earlier post and follow the set up for bi-amp.

please let me know if any of that was unclear and I will explain further if you need

 

[AZCoyote]

I’ll try to grab a picture of this the next time I pull everything apart

 

[drewski]

I’ll try to grab a picture of this the next time I pull everything apart

Ok great! I figure it will be next week before I can pull my kicker out and start to rewire. I think I got it but I'll let you know if I need some help. Thank you again for your kind help. You are awesome!

 

[drewski]

So I had some time to review your beginning post. If I read it correctly after running the new wire to the kicks, you connect the new wire to the output side of the amp on amp 2 which would be the purple/purple blk and green/green blk wires (ch3&4) that were cut earlier?

You also had mentioned the factory wiring to the speakers isn't great. Is it the gauge of the wire or the wire itself? What gauge do you recommend using on the kicks? And you said you used a metra connector for the kicks, happen to still have the part#? And lastly with this set up should I consider changing out the kicks for a better speaker? I have read it doesn't make much of a difference however I do not believe those who have changed them out did this rewire. Thanks again for the help!

 

[AZCoyote]

So I had some time to review your beginning post. If I read it correctly after running the new wire to the kicks, you connect the new wire to the output side of the amp on amp 2 which would be the purple/purple blk and green/green blk wires (ch3&4) that were cut earlier?

You also had mentioned the factory wiring to the speakers isn't great. Is it the gauge of the wire or the wire itself? What gauge do you recommend using on the kicks? And you said you used a metra connector for the kicks, happen to still have the part#? And lastly with this set up should I consider changing out the kicks for a better speaker? I have read it doesn't make much of a difference however I do not believe those who have changed them out did this rewire. Thanks again for the help!

Correct. There will be 4 wires on plug on the output side of the amp with those colors. You will connect them to the kicks.

I used 16 gauge CCA wire because that’s what I have and the runs are short. I believe ou’ll be safe up to about 18 gauge in regular copper clad if the runs are short. If you’re using pure copper wire, you can use smaller still of course.

https://soundcertified.com/speaker-wire-gauge-chart/


my comment about the factory wiring was pretty much just observational. The OEMs Use the smallest wire they need. That head unit is probably putting out 12 to 15 W per channel on a guess. Certainly not more than 20. So the wires that are in place aren’t very thick. They aren’t running very far either so it’s just not that big of a deal. Would new thicker wires be better scientifically speaking? Of course. But at 50 watts over a 5 foot run, it might be a bit on the cork sniffing side of things.

changing out the kick panels without an amplifier probably doesn’t change anything much at all. I can say from experience that changing out the kick panels with out having them powered separate from the dash also doesn’t change stuff much. Changing them out and then giving them dedicated power absolutely does change the output a lot. The work that the DSP is doing for equalizer also makes a massive difference. I’d wager that people using the key who aren’t getting good midbass are still wired wrong. The key has 40 bands of equalization available. When it’s doing it equalized and crossed over in bi-amp mode, it comes out pretty darn good.

like many others I’m using the Memphis MJP6 component speakers. It’s just a woofer no tweeters. The combination of DSP and dedicated 50 W of power and cleaning up behind the speaker location to seal it off and deaden it has yielded very good midbass for me.

 

[orion]

like many others I’m using the Memphis MJP6 component speakers. It’s just a woofer no tweeters. The combination of DSP and dedicated 50 W of power and cleaning up behind the speaker location to seal it off and deaden it has yielded very good midbass for me.

Can you elaborate on this. I too am a super noob and only want to be in there once. What materials and where. I plan on doing this, this weekend.

Thanks in advance!

 

[AZCoyote]

Can you elaborate on this. I too am a super noob and only want to be in there once. What materials and where. I plan on doing this, this weekend.

Thanks in advance!

Sure. This is covered in the forum pretty much any time the topic of the kick panels comes up so that was my starting point. I used the advice of others and can confirm it worked great.

The kick panels is made of metal and has lots of openings that let air from behind the panel interact with the front. It’s like having a leaky sub box. Also, being metal, the panel will resonate. Resonating wastes energy and interferes with clarity. By reducing that resonance your speakers will sound clearer and louder. Use something like killmat or dynamat or even the Amazon version to deaden behind the panel. Plug up holes and gaps as best you can. Some even use expanding foam. I did not.

I did use a 1” foam ring around the front on the speaker to “mate” it to the surface of the panel plastic. This helps keep the front wave of the speaker from interacting with the rear. It’s hard to squish the plastic panel back on so be patient.

little things add up and this does help with sound quality at the kick panel. The power, driver choice, and EQ will help do the rest.

 

[drewski]

Ok, this actually sounds pretty easy, just a little more time consuming. You mentioned a Metra connector and drilling a small hole for the wiring. Does that connector plug into the speaker with the new wiring to connect it, or did you use spade connectors, and the Metra connector was for something else? Thank you!

 

[AZCoyote]

Ok, this actually sounds pretty easy, just a little more time consuming. You mentioned a Metra connector and drilling a small hole for the wiring. Does that connector plug into the speaker with the new wiring to connect it, or did you use spade connectors, and the Metra connector was for something else? Thank you!

I purchased my speakers from Crutchfield so they included spade connectors for the 4”. The 6.5 have spring connectors so wire goes straight into them.

The metro adapters are actually what go between the speaker and the kick panel metal. The OEM speaker frame runs the wire right through the side. I created the same kind of pass-through on my adapter.

 

[BoverW]

I am working on the modification right now and my harness does not follows exactly the color diagram in the manual. See the purple of right rear is paired with black. That is fine. But then I have a question about which line is the positive output? Upper ones (black in this pair) or lower (purple)? My guess is purple, but. I want to confirm. Thanks.

 

[P_Baff]

So I'm a little confused. I have the 200.4 and used a harness from plugnplaykits.com

This is the way I set mine up and worked well:
1.) Bi-Amp Mode OFF
2.) Fader ON
3.) Radio Detect Button -Verify Pushed In
4.) Speed Volume on Radio Disabled
5.) Level Out EQ on Radio
6.) Turn Gains All The Way Down
7.) Run KEY DSP Setup at Vol. Level 15

I used to only be able to hit Vol. 15 before clipping. It'll go to Vol. 22-23 now no problem. Also I used dedicated power straight to the battery for the 200.4. Apparently if I'm not on Bi-Amp mode I'm losing out. So my question is, do I need to run new wires to the kicks from the 200.4 or is my harness good to go? Can I just turn Bi-Amp mode ON and redo the KEY DSP?

Any clarification would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[AZCoyote]

Regarding the kick panel foam ring, you might want to consider something similar for the dash speakers. The stock dash speakers have foam that mates to a lip on the grills, helping to keep the back waves in back. When people install aftermarket dash speakers they often lose that sealing, and so back waves can freely come up through the grills.

Haven’t done that yet on the dash! Thanks, it’s a very inexpensive upgrade that helps lots at the kicks. I did use plenty of sound deadening material inside of the cavity behind the 4 inch dash speaker. There’s not a lot to work with in that space so.

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