looking for help/advice for audio upgrade

[Ixr]

I'm in the same boat. I haven't replaced the pods but I'm looking for more bass.
I'm looking at the subs in a separate box to mount with the amp under the rear seats.

I'd be interested if you went with a 3/400 amp on how you do yours.

one post up.

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[BAD.LANDS]

I'm in the same boat. I haven't replaced the pods but I'm looking for more bass.
I'm looking at the subs in a separate box to mount with the amp under the rear seats.

I'd be interested if you went with a 3/400 amp on how you do yours.

10” hideaway hits harder than I figured. More than adequate bass for the occupants. It’s a good choice if you’re not looking to rattle other people’s windows.

 

[mpeugeot]

Subjectively, the Kicker Key 200.4 and 46HS10 sub-woofer provide about double the power of the stock system... It gets loud enough to cause hearing damage.

Some clipping can be reduced by adjusting the gain down. I agree that the 46HS10 sub-woofer definitely hits harder than I expected for only having 200 watts.

 

[BroncoBerry]

I'm going to start with the 200.4 (going to use the plug and play kit/ dash mount from mountains2) and see what that does for the speakers that I've upgraded so far.
(Fronts and Kick Panels)

I may do the pods if that doesn't do it for me or the 46HS10

 

[91srpit]

I'm about to start installing some of the Alpine type s and type r speakers I bought for my 23' 2 door, non B/0 system. Are bass blockers necessary? I see a lot of people mentioning those.

Thank you.

 

[Ixr]

I'm about to start installing some of the Alpine type s and type r speakers I bought for my 23' 2 door, non B/0 system. Are bass blockers necessary? I see a lot of people mentioning those.

Thank you.

I put bass blockers only in the 4" dash speakers. I get bass out of the kick panels and sub.

how necessary they are I dont know tbh as the were widley recommended so i just wired them in when replacing them. The stock speaker had them as well so i dont know what it would sound like without them.

I have no shortage of bass so no complaints about them.

 

[colonelburke]

Gonna do my install in a couple of weekends. Dash, pods, fusion amp and kicker sub to start and see where we go from there. People used to suggest bass blockers but have now seem to have moved away from suggesting them so I dont know if really necessary. I bought them but still unsure. Also, did anyone find an advantage to using polyfill in the rear pods? Thanks for any insight.

 

[soupcansam]

audio project pretty much complete now. Kicker ks 4" with bass 600hz blockers in dash, kicker 6.5 ks in kick panels, kicker ks 6.75 in the mabett pods in back and the stinger tailgate sub. Museway 400 powering the speakers and kicker 500.1 powering the sub.

Took me and a buddy a entire day but we got it done. Ended up mounting the amps to the side panel so I can mess with settings instead of bhind the trim. Just need to tape up the wires a bit.

With volume at 16 we were in range of 94-127 decibles with a average of 102. To put it this setup absolutely slams. There is no rattles to chase and overall im very happy with this set up.

thanks to plugandplaykits and everyone else for the input.

I'm also considering the Musway 400 without the dsp because it seems like DSP tuning will be super hard for an audio novice like me.

I plan on doing the Musway 400 first with upgraded speakers before adding a sub later down the line.

How hard was it to get the right settings on the Musway? Were there any good Musway-specific resources that helped you during the install?

 

[soupcansam]

That's kind of a hard question to answer... because a lot of it depends on your personal tastes.

The Kicker 200.4 is underpowered for the application if I'm being honest. The reason why my (and I suspect so many other people) are selecting it is because of its small size, its relatively low cost, the availability of PnP kits, and because it's auto-setup features that handles EQ and time delay without a ton of work. I'm sure it also helps that there are so many people (myself included) have created install guides for it as well.

BUT, it's only a 200 watt amp shared across four channels and six speakers. That's not much at all. It's basically on-par with a really good factory audio system on many other vehicles. For me, that's exactly what I wanted. For you, if may not not be enough. (For some context... my Kicker Key starts clipping by the time I get the volume knob to 18/30... and its really noticeable around 22/30.)

If you really want to push the volume you really should be around 50-75 watts for smaller 4" speakers and 75-100 watts for 6.5"/6.75" speakers. Which means you are looking at a 400-600 watt amplifier... maybe 300 watts on the low-end. There are many amplifiers out there that fit the bill, and @plugnplaykits sells a handful of those options, both with and without DSPs...

• Musway M6
• AudioControl D-4.800
• Kicker CX360.4 (no DSP)
• AudioControl ACM-4.300 (no DSP)
• Musway M4+
• etc.

But, they also are generally a little bigger, harder to install, harder to configure, or there just isnt a whole lot of info/examples online of people actually using them. Doesn't make them bad amplifiers at all... having used the AudioControl D-series before I can tell you they are great... but it'll probably be a little more work to get installed and configured.

I had a quick question regarding the amps you talk about.

Background is that I'm about to install Kicker KS 6.75 components (tweeter in dash and woofer in kicks) and Kicker KS 6.5 coax (Metra Pods on roll bar) in my 2022 with the 6 speaker base audio system. I've been going back and forth between the Kicker Key 200.4, the Audiocontrol ACM 4.300, and the Musway Four 100.

I know a more powerful amp would be better for the speakers I've bought, but I'm currently leaning towards the Kicker Key 200.4 mainly because I read on Crutchfield that if you go above 50 Watts per channel, you should start running your own speaker wire.

Is that really the case? So, if I got the Audiocontrol or Musway I would have to install new speaker wire as well?

Sorry if this is an obvious question, I just wanted to make sure before I bought anything.

Thanks in advance for all your help (and for your YouTube videos, those are really helpful)!

 

[Karl_in_Chicago]

I had a quick question regarding the amps you talk about.

Background is that I'm about to install Kicker KS 6.75 components (tweeter in dash and woofer in kicks) and Kicker KS 6.5 coax (Metra Pods on roll bar) in my 2022 with the 6 speaker base audio system. I've been going back and forth between the Kicker Key 200.4, the Audiocontrol ACM 4.300, and the Musway Four 100.

I know a more powerful amp would be better for the speakers I've bought, but I'm currently leaning towards the Kicker Key 200.4 mainly because I read on Crutchfield that if you go above 50 Watts per channel, you should start running your own speaker wire.

Is that really the case? So, if I got the Audiocontrol or Musway I would have to install new speaker wire as well?

Sorry if this is an obvious question, I just wanted to make sure before I bought anything.

Thanks in advance for all your help (and for your YouTube videos, those are really helpful)!

I'm not certain how to interpret that. Is there concern that by installing speakers and/or an amp that's "better" than the installed speaker wiring there will be "bad" sound? Speaker wire is cheap and relatively easy to install. I'd rather have THAT be the weakest link in my system than the speakers or the amps/processors. IMO the stock wiring is more than good enough to handle what you are talking about installing. If, after the fact, you feel like the wiring is limiting your system you can always choose to upgrade it then (though I suspect it will be more of a placebo at that point).

 

[RagnarKon]

I know a more powerful amp would be better for the speakers I've bought, but I'm currently leaning towards the Kicker Key 200.4 mainly because I read on Crutchfield that if you go above 50 Watts per channel, you should start running your own speaker wire.

Is that really the case? So, if I got the Audiocontrol or Musway I would have to install new speaker wire as well?

Yes and no.

The longer the cable run the more resistance a cable has. The more resistance a cable has, the more heat is generated. Heat bad, heat melts insulation and causes fires.

Basically means the farther away a speaker is, and the more current (and therefore power) that is running to the speaker, the thicker the cable the needs to be.

At the same time, buying an amp that is 100 watts/channel doesn’t mean it’s actually running 100 watts of power through each channel all the time. That’s just the maximum rated output. Most people are probably not running their radio at max volume.

I myself have a 200.4, which you could argue is slightly underpowered, and I would agree. But at the loudest volume I normally listen to music it’s probably only outputting 25-30 watts a channel. (Haven’t actually measured it though.)

 

[soupcansam]

I'm not certain how to interpret that. Is there concern that by installing speakers and/or an amp that's "better" than the installed speaker wiring there will be "bad" sound? Speaker wire is cheap and relatively easy to install. I'd rather have THAT be the weakest link in my system than the speakers or the amps/processors. IMO the stock wiring is more than good enough to handle what you are talking about installing. If, after the fact, you feel like the wiring is limiting your system you can always choose to upgrade it then (though I suspect it will be more of a placebo at that point).

To be honest, I'm not sure why Crutchfield says to upgrade the speaker wires if going above 50 watts. I'm a novice at this stuff so I just assumed it was a safety thing and not a sound quality thing.

But, what you say makes sense. Thank you for the reply!

 

[soupcansam]

Yes and no.

The longer the cable run the more resistance a cable has. The more resistance a cable has, the more heat is generated. Heat bad, heat melts insulation and causes fires.

Basically means the farther away a speaker is, and the more current (and therefore power) that is running to the speaker, the thicker the cable the needs to be.

At the same time, buying an amp that is 100 watts/channel doesn’t mean it’s actually running 100 watts of power through each channel all the time. That’s just the maximum rated output. Most people are probably not running their radio at max volume.

I myself have a 200.4, which you could argue is slightly underpowered, and I would agree. But at the loudest volume I normally listen to music it’s probably only outputting 25-30 watts a channel. (Haven’t actually measured it though.)

Thank you for the reply! That makes a lot of sense.

I definitely won't (and don't currently on the stock system) run my radio at max volume. The highest it gets for me is between 14-16 and that's only at 75+ mph which doesn't happen that often.

Now I just have to decide if I want the convenience of the auto-DSP in the Kicker versus the power in the other amplifiers.

Thanks!

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