2025 options for adding component speakers

[NCXLT]

Posting as have truck apart and spent hours scouring through threads and starting a specific one.

2025 XLT Hybrid. - I purchased a usb obd for forscan. But the ACM option isn’t complete to allow adjusting without doing so manually.

Upgrading the rear speakers with kicker 4 inches.
Front are kicker 6 3/4. They have the option to add the tweeters in center of the speaker or mount remotely. Thy have crossovers. Curious as to how others have handled this.

Options I’m considering.

1. Just adding the woofers in the door directly to the wiring and adding tweeters to dash to wiring. My understanding, direct wires are sent to each location and the ACM is configured like a cross over to each location so speaker cross over isn’t needed. But will have to leave EQ as is and potentially effect rear speakers?
2. I will be adding a sub off a Kicker Key 500.1. I’m tying into to front speaker wires and not the rear ones just in case I leave the EQ at the default.
3. I did purchase a set of kicker tweeters that are supposed to fit as the ones with my 6 3/4’s may not. They have inline cross overs. SO I’ve thought about using the crossover in the door for the woofers, adding the other tweeters and use their inline crossover. Then I can set the EQ to flat if I need to.
4. Put the cross over in the dash and try to tie into the door speakers but I really don’t want to cut the wires.
5. I have thought about putting the crossover in the door, adding the tweeter to the woofers and angled up. Add the other tweeters to the dash, let the amp dsp run. Disconnect the dash tweeters if need be. Never done anything like but curious how it may sound. (Need to make sure this doesn’t effect the ohm load.)

What I don’t is the actual settings I’ll have for the ACM on the 2025 as far as EQ and speaker settings. They will be powered by the kicker Key 4 channel amp.

I’m leaning towards either leaving the settings as is and just upgrade the speakers. Or add the front door cross over to door for the door woofers and then use the in line crossover and tweeter and then set the eq to flat when I get the ability to do so.

Curious for input others who have gone this route. (Not interested in

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[colinl]

you don't need to cut factory tweeter wiring but you'll need to run new wires in order to use a component tweeter in the dash. there are threads on this and I'm confident it's the same as the 22-24 since the main dash didn't change.

you would connect the new tweeter wire to your passive crossover or amp if the amp has a suitable electronic crossover. btw you only mentioned one amp, unless you're a serious basshead I would think you'll want to amp the front components as well.

I would absolutely not use a coaxial mount because the imaging is poor in general with the tweeter far off axis and firing into the legs of anyone up front. plus the factory audio tuning is relatively good and expecting dash tweeters, so I wouldn't mount the tweeter on the door panel, either.

until proven otherwise I believe the MY25 speaker installation is the same as before.

 

[NCXLT]

you don't need to cut factory tweeter wiring but you'll need to run new wires in order to use a component tweeter in the dash. there are threads on this and I'm confident it's the same as the 22-24 since the main dash didn't change.

you would connect the new tweeter wire to your passive crossover or amp if the amp has a suitable electronic crossover. btw you only mentioned one amp, unless you're a serious basshead I would think you'll want to amp the front components as well.

I would absolutely not use a coaxial mount because the imaging is poor in general with the tweeter far off axis and firing into the legs of anyone up front. plus the factory audio tuning is relatively good and expecting dash tweeters, so I wouldn't mount the tweeter on the door panel, either.

until proven otherwise I believe the MY25 speaker installation is the same as before.

Key 500.1 amp for sub
Key 4 channel amp for the speakers.
The ask is not about cutting the tweeter wires but the woofer wires in the doors. What I could do is cut the return speaker wires from the amp, in the dash, then continue you the woofer through to the current wiring and then wire to the tweeters.

As of now I have the crossover for the components in the door and will use an inline crossover for the tweeters on the existing wiring. That seems to work.

I actually tested putting the tweeter in the speaker at the door and the factory tweeter in place and sounded ok, but not going to go that way.

SO right now, key 4 channel amp is running power to all the speaker wires, front and rear. Cross over in the door and will use an inline crossover over in the dash or try without one with the factory settings.

 

[colinl]

Key 500.1 amp for sub
Key 4 channel amp for the speakers.
The ask is not about cutting the tweeter wires but the woofer wires in the doors. What I could do is cut the return speaker wires from the amp, in the dash, then continue you the woofer through to the current wiring and then wire to the tweeters.

sorry, you did mention that second amp before, and I just missed it in my early morning pass over the thread.

I have both amps in 2 different vehicles right now. For the Key 200.4 I would actually recommend installing it bi-amped and running a line through the end of the dash* and all the way back to the amp. (*try to search, if you don't have luck, I'm sure someone here will find the best old threads for you)

I would use a t-harness and I would use a line-out converter with 2 sets of outputs. Alternatively, you can use speaker input.

If you buy a custom T harness from @HushCarAudio here or one of the various vendors online making them, you can re-use the factory door speaker wire but the factory tweeter wiring will not work for anyone who doesn't have B&O. (That's because B&O is bi-amped and has discrete wiring for the tweeters.)

You could also have the custom T harness re-use factory rear speaker wire with the Key 200.4 in 4-channel mode, but I would leave them on the sync4 internal power and bi-amp the front components instead. Bi-amped I think you'll get a much better soundstage, but it's up to you. If you installed the Key 200.4 in this way, you'll need to use the passive crossover from the Kicker 6.5 components and run the speaker wire to the tweeters from it, instead of back to the amp.

 

[NCXLT]

I have the pac wiring harness and their extension. I’m not thrilled about the gauge of factory wiring but this amp is small and limited and with the hybrid I don’t want to push it with anything more than these two Key amps.

The setup is ok, I was mainly just curious if you hooked up the woofer in the door and tweeter in the dash without a cross over and just use what the built in EQ is doing. Seems the built in ACM is doing some type of cross over. It actually sounds ok, or at least on one side, I have the right side installed and testing.

The kickers components I have you can add the tweeter to the center of the speaker, I did that with the factory tweeter hooked up, I didn’t hate the sound but really couldn’t tell much difference with 2 tweeters on that side versus the one.

I’ve got all the amps wired up, wires ran from front to back and back to front.

At this point I’m either going to:
1 - just put the woofers in on the direct factory wiring, like the factory woofers are. Same with the tweeters.
2- Put the cross over in the door and connect the woofers. Use the kicker 3/4” tweeters I purchased separate that are supposed to be a direct fit and use the cross over. IF the signal is being separated by the ACM, should be much off. But when I figure out how to flatten the EQ with the 2024 and forscan, they’ll be in place.
3 - I may see how much of a pain it is to run tweeter wires across the dash from the passenger side to the drivers side. If I’m not tearing out much more dash, may put the cross overs in the passenger side dash, connect the input from the return wires from the amp there. Then reconnect the woofers back to the factory speaker wiring and run the tweeter wires direct. The only reason for this would be that the kicker crossover has 3 different db settings for the tweeter volume in case I needed to adjust.

With the limited power on these amps, just want something a little better than factory which doesn’t take much.

Thanks for the input. Was just looking for other ideas in case something else I may not have thought of. I appreciate it!

 

[colinl]

3 - I may see how much of a pain it is to run tweeter wires across the dash from the passenger side to the drivers side. If I’m not tearing out much more dash, may put the cross overs in the passenger side dash, connect the input from the return wires from the amp there. Then reconnect the woofers back to the factory speaker wiring and run the tweeter wires direct. The only reason for this would be that the kicker crossover has 3 different db settings for the tweeter volume in case I needed to adjust.

This is 100% what I'd do if you're using 4 channel mode. Once set up, I actually don't tweak further, but having the ability to poke at the tweeter attenuation could be valuable. I almost always attenuate aluminum or titanium dome tweeters. (If you bought the KS series, they are silk domes. I have a pair in my Bronco.)

You might already know it, but the key 200.4 auto setup in 4 channel mode has a heavy preference for front soundstage. It will set up your rear as fill, not full powered 4 channel. If you don't like the auto tune on the 200.4, there's not much you can do about it in 4 channel mode. conversely, if you leave the rear speakers on the sync4 unit, you could use the fader to tweak the soundstage.

I *like* the Key 200.4 4-channel autotune for the record. Just sharing my experiences so you make the best decision for you up front and save yourself the time of redoing wiring etc.

 

[NCXLT]

This is 100% what I'd do if you're using 4 channel mode. Once set up, I actually don't tweak further, but having the ability to poke at the tweeter attenuation could be valuable. I almost always attenuate aluminum or titanium dome tweeters. (If you bought the KS series, they are silk domes. I have a pair in my Bronco.)

You might already know it, but the key 200.4 auto setup in 4 channel mode has a heavy preference for front soundstage. It will set up your rear as fill, not full powered 4 channel. If you don't like the auto tune on the 200.4, there's not much you can do about it in 4 channel mode. conversely, if you leave the rear speakers on the sync4 unit, you could use the fader to tweak the soundstage.

I *like* the Key 200.4 4-channel autotune for the record. Just sharing my experiences so you make the best decision for you up front and save yourself the time of redoing wiring etc.

Interesting, I haven’t messed with the auto tune, but the amp does have a gain adjustment for amp 1 (Front in my case) and amp 2 rear. My plan was to set the proper voltage at the speakers or use the gain and the clip led on the amp. Seems to get the proper amount of sound out of what the speakers are capable of in the rear. I’ll try both ways. Quite frankly just replacing the speakers and putting a little power is a big improvement.

I purchased the KSS670’s, but also the CS 20 tweeters as online it indicated the tweeters with the 670’s may not fit. I’m in the process of trying to get through the dash on the drivers side. Quite the pain. My biggest fear is all this cheap plastic is breaking a panel piece, scratching etc. Using masking tape.

Thanks for the input, trying to get my truck back together today anyway. Tryin got document everything in video and the nuances that aren’t covered in other videos.

 

[colinl]

I haven’t messed with the auto tune, but the amp does have a gain adjustment for amp 1 (Front in my case) and amp 2 rear. My plan was to set the proper voltage at the speakers or use the gain and the clip led on the amp. Seems to get the proper amount of sound out of what the speakers are capable of in the rear. I’ll try both ways.

you could definitely try it both ways by temporarily using speaker wire just loose in the cabin. it would not be that fun to wire for bi-amp then also wire for using the passive crossover.

regarding gain... I think Kicker put those gain knobs there for fine tuning but the usual setup procedure is to turn them both all the way down and then run the sweep tone. you're not the only one with the idea to use the gain for sort of a fader.

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