Carlitos' Birthday Stereo Upgrade Notes (Kicker Stuff in 2023 XLT Non-Sync Stereo)

[Carlitos_92]

I have a 2023 XLT with the crappy stock non-Sync stereo, and the OEM sound was serviceable - but I like music entirely too much to have settled for it medium/long-term. For my birthday in May, I bought replacement speakers for all 6 positions and a Kicker key 200.4 amp from Crutchfield, along with an amp installation kit and their free harnesses/adapters. I also bought 50mil butyl sound mat and Tesa fleece tape off Amazon in the interest of making the noise floor in the cab lower. Finally, over the last few weekends, I got around to getting it all installed. I have yapped a lot about stereo stuff in the past, so this is a summary of all my previous notes.

Executive summary
Here's my "bang for the buck" rated out of 5.0. See also "overall impressions" below:

• Dash speakers: 4.5
• Door speakers: 4.5
• Rear speakers: 3.0
• Kicker Key 200.4: 3.5
• Sound mat: 5.0

This isn't a "build" thread, because others have done it better, and I didn't take a single pic. But here are the high points, for better or worse:

FORSCAN

• I set the head unit EQ to flat, and made sure all speaker positions were set to "woofer/tweeter" so they received full-range sound.

Sound mat

• I applied sound mat to the inside of every interior trim panel I removed, and in the case of the rear speakers/rear seat area, it was a LOT. I applied it to the A-pillar trim and door cards as well. Even before I had the head unit going again, I could tell the sound mat made a huge difference. This cheap truck didn't transform into a Bentley, but it is night and day. I would argue that installing sound mat is a better upgrade to the overall truck than the speakers.
• Note that I did not lay down 100% continuous mat like I was trying to "waterproof" something. If you cover as much as you can with individual pieces and just put mat everywhere you can reasonably pressure-roll it, it is still very beneficial. The idea is to damp resonance and vibration.

Dash speakers

• The component Kicker tweeters I used fit in the dash PERFECTLY... once you permanently cut off some little tabs in the dash cavities. The dash plastic is soft enough that a small X-acto knife will work for this, even cramped up against the windshield.
• I abandoned the Ford leads to the dash speakers because I wanted to wire in Kicker's component crossovers. Running new wire down through the dash was no problem.
• I mounted the crossovers inside the back panel of the glovebox with VHB tape. There is a tweeter level switch on them that is adjustable, so I can easily access that if needed.

Door speakers

• This was the easiest task, as expected. I put sound mat on the inside of the door card, and on the door panel that was exposed, but did not remove the interior door panel/window regulator etc to get sound mat inside the metal body cavity. The doors close more solidly and transmit less noise into the cabin regardless.

Rear speakers

• You WILL break the top trim panels the rear speakers are attached to. They are repairable with JB Weld, but jeez are they stubborn. As with all interior trim projects, it's always nice to have a few of those turquoise Ford trim clips on hand in advance, too.
• I trimmed the standoffs on the rear trim panels so my new speakers would fit closer up against the back side. A Dremel and cutoff disc work great.

Amp

• This thread about amp mounting is clutch; amazing stuff. It's what forum communities are all about: I had to farm my bracket printing out (in nylon) but it's perfect.
• There is a nice ground lug up in the passenger footwell on the right. If you have an Ecoboost and are putting a key 200.4 or other equipment up behind the glovebox, don't buy 10' of grounding wire lol.
• Likewise, fuse 6 in the BCM fuse box (also in the passenger footwell) is a perfect tap for an amp remote turn-on signal - and you want to use a 12V turn-on signal as opposed to any auto turn-on function, because of this. I used one of these.
• There is a rubber grommet in the firewall above the brake pedal that is a good spot to bring fused power in from the battery. I took the battery completely out temporarily to have better access to the grommet and for power cable routing under the hood. FYI the grommet is easily removable; I just took it out and poked a hole in it before putting it back.

Overall impressions
The tweeters and door speakers are very worthwhile upgrades and have improved the clarity and soundstage immensely. Coincidentally, these are also the easiest to do. The OEM door speakers are toys and should go straight to the trash.
The rear speakers are a less impressive upgrade, and the biggest pain, since you literally have to take almost all of the rear interior trim out to get to them. OTOH, there are real benefits to putting sound mat inside all of that trim and as much of the metal body panels as you can reach. So, it's one of those "while you're in there, you might as well..." scenarios.
The 50w x 4 Kicker amp definitely packs a punch and will create volume. I estimate that I reach my OEM "10" volume setting on the head unit at about "6" now. Moreover, the sound now has actual dynamic range and is less fatiguing to listen to. Combined with the lower cabin noise, it's a huge improvement.
I am less convinced of Kicker's DSP. Maybe I expected miracles, but I am just not as impressed with this outcome. You are able to switch back and forth between processed and unprocessed sound - and there *is* a difference - I just wish it was MORE of a difference. My biggest disappointment is that the DSP didn't do much to protect the 4" rear speakers in terms of high-pass. Even though Kicker's DSP shifts the soundstage towards the front (as it should), the poor Kicker 4"s easily get overwhelmed by the amp's 50w, which they technically are rated for. I now have them manually faded more towards the front as well. Even with the bass tone control set to flat, "16" is about as high as I can turn the volume without the rear speakers starting to complain. Since that volume level starts to set off "loud environment" warnings on my watch, that is probably fine. I don't plan on hanging out at that volume level very often, if ever. All in all I would say how I have the front/rear faded to protect those rear speakers is probably about perfect for rear passengers, but personally I like a tiny bit more rear fill when I am driving.

Next steps
Do I need a sub?... Not really. The upgraded door speakers do a fair job of thumping as-is, and bass is adequate in all seats. I went to a lot of trouble modding the PAC and Kicker harnesses to route sound through the component crossovers (see pic below), and redoing signal paths to get to a sub would mean undoing some of that. At least getting power to an HS8/10 behind the rear seat would be a cinch. We'll live with what we have for a while and see how it goes.
I may also try playing with the FORSCAN settings regarding the rear speakers; using the head unit to send them "tweeter only" signals or some other setting may help. The only downside there is having to redo the DSP and gain setup, which will be harder with the amp mounted in its final location.

Anyway, I know 90% of the above has been documented well by others before, but I wanted to share my recent take, now that I'm finished. Cheers.

Sponsored

 

[Cancunbadlands]

#HBD Calitous

 

[Darklyter]

Noice!

 

[colinl]

good write up. a relatively quick fix and system upgrade would be to remove the kicker passive crossover and then set it for bi-amp mode and run speaker wire to the amp.

then return the rear speakers to deck power, and you use your fade knob to determine how much / how little output you want from those crappy rear pillars mounts.

the key 200.4 dsp is useful, but has very little customization. you have crossover on the mid and whether you run bi-amp or 4 channel mode, that's it.

 

[Carlitos_92]

good write up. a relatively quick fix and system upgrade would be to remove the kicker passive crossover and then set it for bi-amp mode and run speaker wire to the amp.

then return the rear speakers to deck power, and you use your fade knob to determine how much / how little output you want from those crappy rear pillars mounts.

the key 200.4 dsp is useful, but has very little customization. you have crossover on the mid and whether you run bi-amp or 4 channel mode, that's it.

Thanks. I can't say I hadn't seen the bi-amp recommendation before (from you and others) but I was probably optimistic in thinking the 200.4 DSP would sense the capabilities of the 4" drivers a little better. I also probably expected a little more from the replacement 4" speakers as well.

I'm going to try and calm the 4" speakers down via programming first, because I really do like the sound of a balanced front/rear fade. I don't want the rears quieter; I just want them not destroying themselves trying to reproduce the same bass the 6.75" doors do. If the FORSCAN settings unravel things in the rear too much, I might could also splice in some inline passive high-pass devices for the rears. If neither option works out, I will probably go with the bi-amp recommendation - I'm just not sure that's going to result in the (admittedly subjective) sound I was looking for.

Since I'm replying, I'll say I discovered yesterday that with an upgraded system, the difference in audio quality between sources is a LOT more pronounced. Streaming the SXM app via CarPlay used to be "good enough," and about the same as streaming Apple Music direct. Now I've found that my go-to SXM solution sounds like absolute mono AM ass. Oh well, the Apple Music sounds great.

 

[Darthie]

I have a 2023 XLT with the crappy stock non-Sync stereo, and the OEM sound was serviceable - but I like music entirely too much to have settled for it medium/long-term. For my birthday in May, I bought replacement speakers for all 6 positions and a Kicker key 200.4 amp from Crutchfield, along with an amp installation kit and their free harnesses/adapters. I also bought 50mil butyl sound mat and Tesa fleece tape off Amazon in the interest of making the noise floor in the cab lower. Finally, over the last few weekends, I got around to getting it all installed. I have yapped a lot about stereo stuff in the past, so this is a summary of all my previous notes.

Executive summary
Here's my "bang for the buck" rated out of 5.0. See also "overall impressions" below:

• Dash speakers: 4.5
• Door speakers: 4.5
• Rear speakers: 3.0
• Kicker Key 200.4: 3.5
• Sound mat: 5.0

This isn't a "build" thread, because others have done it better, and I didn't take a single pic. But here are the high points, for better or worse:

FORSCAN

• I set the head unit EQ to flat, and made sure all speaker positions were set to "woofer/tweeter" so they received full-range sound.

Sound mat

• I applied sound mat to the inside of every interior trim panel I removed, and in the case of the rear speakers/rear seat area, it was a LOT. I applied it to the A-pillar trim and door cards as well. Even before I had the head unit going again, I could tell the sound mat made a huge difference. This cheap truck didn't transform into a Bentley, but it is night and day. I would argue that installing sound mat is a better upgrade to the overall truck than the speakers.
• Note that I did not lay down 100% continuous mat like I was trying to "waterproof" something. If you cover as much as you can with individual pieces and just put mat everywhere you can reasonably pressure-roll it, it is still very beneficial. The idea is to damp resonance and vibration.

Dash speakers

• The component Kicker tweeters I used fit in the dash PERFECTLY... once you permanently cut off some little tabs in the dash cavities. The dash plastic is soft enough that a small X-acto knife will work for this, even cramped up against the windshield.
• I abandoned the Ford leads to the dash speakers because I wanted to wire in Kicker's component crossovers. Running new wire down through the dash was no problem.
• I mounted the crossovers inside the back panel of the glovebox with VHB tape. There is a tweeter level switch on them that is adjustable, so I can easily access that if needed.

Door speakers

• This was the easiest task, as expected. I put sound mat on the inside of the door card, and on the door panel that was exposed, but did not remove the interior door panel/window regulator etc to get sound mat inside the metal body cavity. The doors close more solidly and transmit less noise into the cabin regardless.

Rear speakers

• You WILL break the top trim panels the rear speakers are attached to. They are repairable with JB Weld, but jeez are they stubborn. As with all interior trim projects, it's always nice to have a few of those turquoise Ford trim clips on hand in advance, too.
• I trimmed the standoffs on the rear trim panels so my new speakers would fit closer up against the back side. A Dremel and cutoff disc work great.

Amp

• This thread about amp mounting is clutch; amazing stuff. It's what forum communities are all about: I had to farm my bracket printing out (in nylon) but it's perfect.
• There is a nice ground lug up in the passenger footwell on the right. If you have an Ecoboost and are putting a key 200.4 or other equipment up behind the glovebox, don't buy 10' of grounding wire lol.
• Likewise, fuse 6 in the BCM fuse box (also in the passenger footwell) is a perfect tap for an amp remote turn-on signal - and you want to use a 12V turn-on signal as opposed to any auto turn-on function, because of this. I used one of these.
• There is a rubber grommet in the firewall above the brake pedal that is a good spot to bring fused power in from the battery. I took the battery completely out temporarily to have better access to the grommet and for power cable routing under the hood. FYI the grommet is easily removable; I just took it out and poked a hole in it before putting it back.

Overall impressions
The tweeters and door speakers are very worthwhile upgrades and have improved the clarity and soundstage immensely. Coincidentally, these are also the easiest to do. The OEM door speakers are toys and should go straight to the trash.
The rear speakers are a less impressive upgrade, and the biggest pain, since you literally have to take almost all of the rear interior trim out to get to them. OTOH, there are real benefits to putting sound mat inside all of that trim and as much of the metal body panels as you can reach. So, it's one of those "while you're in there, you might as well..." scenarios.
The 50w x 4 Kicker amp definitely packs a punch and will create volume. I estimate that I reach my OEM "10" volume setting on the head unit at about "6" now. Moreover, the sound now has actual dynamic range and is less fatiguing to listen to. Combined with the lower cabin noise, it's a huge improvement.
I am less convinced of Kicker's DSP. Maybe I expected miracles, but I am just not as impressed with this outcome. You are able to switch back and forth between processed and unprocessed sound - and there *is* a difference - I just wish it was MORE of a difference. My biggest disappointment is that the DSP didn't do much to protect the 4" rear speakers in terms of high-pass. Even though Kicker's DSP shifts the soundstage towards the front (as it should), the poor Kicker 4"s easily get overwhelmed by the amp's 50w, which they technically are rated for. I now have them manually faded more towards the front as well. Even with the bass tone control set to flat, "16" is about as high as I can turn the volume without the rear speakers starting to complain. Since that volume level starts to set off "loud environment" warnings on my watch, that is probably fine. I don't plan on hanging out at that volume level very often, if ever. All in all I would say how I have the front/rear faded to protect those rear speakers is probably about perfect for rear passengers, but personally I like a tiny bit more rear fill when I am driving.
I know its a bit of a drive but its my birthday too and wondering if you can come over and do this to my twuck.
Next steps
Do I need a sub?... Not really. The upgraded door speakers do a fair job of thumping as-is, and bass is adequate in all seats. I went to a lot of trouble modding the PAC and Kicker harnesses to route sound through the component crossovers (see pic below), and redoing signal paths to get to a sub would mean undoing some of that. At least getting power to an HS8/10 behind the rear seat would be a cinch. We'll live with what we have for a while and see how it goes.
I may also try playing with the FORSCAN settings regarding the rear speakers; using the head unit to send them "tweeter only" signals or some other setting may help. The only downside there is having to redo the DSP and gain setup, which will be harder with the amp mounted in its final location.

Anyway, I know 90% of the above has been documented well by others before, but I wanted to share my recent take, now that I'm finished. Cheers.

 

[colinl]

Thanks. I can't say I hadn't seen the bi-amp recommendation before (from you and others) but I was probably optimistic in thinking the 200.4 DSP would sense the capabilities of the 4" drivers a little better. I also probably expected a little more from the replacement 4" speakers as well.

eh, I think you just had to experience it and see how you liked it. based on what you want now, I'd say the bi-amp probably would make you happier.

 

[Carlitos_92]

I'm going to try and calm the 4" speakers down via programming first, because I really do like the sound of a balanced front/rear fade. I don't want the rears quieter; I just want them not destroying themselves trying to reproduce the same bass the 6.75" doors do.

Tried setting the rear speakers to "Tweeter Only" in Forscan, and it did not have the desired effect, but it did sound worse.

Going to splice in 600Hz bass blockers and see what that does. I'll use bullet connectors so I can try other frequencies or remove them altogether if I resort to biamping or something else.

 

[colinl]

Going to splice in 600Hz bass blockers and see what that does. I'll use bullet connectors so I can try other frequencies or remove them altogether if I resort to biamping or something else.

both of those seem like good approaches to take.

 

[Maverick_Dad]

I appreciate this write up. I'm actually looking at buying all of the same components since they're all on sale currently. I've been trying to figure out if I was even going to use the cross overs or just wire in the Key and run them like normal. You think there is a real benefit to wiring up how you did with the crossovers or even wiring the tweeters and running in bi-amp mode? I may even forgo the rear speakers all together or at least in the meantime since it seems they are a lot of work for little benefit.

 

[Cancunbadlands]

#HBD ese

 

[Carlitos_92]

I appreciate this write up. I'm actually looking at buying all of the same components since they're all on sale currently. I've been trying to figure out if I was even going to use the cross overs or just wire in the Key and run them like normal. You think there is a real benefit to wiring up how you did with the crossovers or even wiring the tweeters and running in bi-amp mode? I may even forgo the rear speakers all together or at least in the meantime since it seems they are a lot of work for little benefit.

I'm glad you can appreciate it. Others have done a much better job taking pictures and documenting these installs, but I tend to focus on the thought process.

I am not really sold on bi-amping the front - unless you are planning to also add a sub. The reason I say this is that I just can't see that putting all 200W into the door speakers and dash tweeters will improve what I already have. After living with this for a while, I can create quite a bit of volume the way it is wired now. In fact, with the bass tone control in the head unit set to "flat," I can pretty much push the door speakers to a level where they are moving so much that sound quality starts to suffer. So even with 2 channels in the amp devoted to the rear, I do not see a shortage of juice up front. In my mind, the options are "get better speakers" or "take some of the bass load off the doors and divert it to a sub." There is a high-pass setting in the Key amp that would be useful for the latter option.

It does look like a properly set up bi-amp mode will do the crossover legwork for you between the door and dash speakers, so not too much to worry about there. I think either the component crossovers OR bi-amp mode are the way to go. I am positive that MTC members have run Key amps with the stock wiring (letting the front signal go to the doors and then to the dash), but I never entertained that.

As far as the rears... yes they are a pain. But my big epiphany was that it was worth disassembly in the back seat area because of the sound mat. Noise reduction should be the real goal, and the speakers are more of a "while you're in there you might as well" kind of thing. You could definitely defer it if you wanted.

I have no doubt that the 4" Kickers I put in are miles better than the 4" Ford junkers I pulled out, but 50W is their max, and they do not like anything resembling bass when the front/rear fader is centered. As I said in a previous post, no one ever rides in my truck, and I prefer that fill from the rear - I just need to help those baby drivers out with some bass blockers of their own. I have those but just have not installed yet.

 

[Darthie]

Can some come to Florida and install one of these in my maverick

 

[Carlitos_92]

Next steps
Do I need a sub?... Not really. The upgraded door speakers do a fair job of thumping as-is, and bass is adequate in all seats. I went to a lot of trouble modding the PAC and Kicker harnesses to route sound through the component crossovers (see pic below), and redoing signal paths to get to a sub would mean undoing some of that. At least getting power to an HS8/10 behind the rear seat would be a cinch. We'll live with what we have for a while and see how it goes.
I may also try playing with the FORSCAN settings regarding the rear speakers; using the head unit to send them "tweeter only" signals or some other setting may help. The only downside there is having to redo the DSP and gain setup, which will be harder with the amp mounted in its final location.

I lied. I did, in fact, need a sub.

I lived with the setup as originally posted, but was not satisfied with the bass response at low-medium volumes. At high volumes the bass was better, and the system produced SPLs that set off hearing damage warnings on my smartwatch - but that level just isn't sustainable for the obvious reasons.

So, I have added an HS10 to my system using the same PAC harness kit. It works exactly like I thought it would. There are no LOCs or other devices needed.

The original four channels are still going via the PAC to a Key 200.4 behind the glovebox. I did enable the 200.4's built-in selectable high-pass crossover.

The addition was the PAC "Sub-T" harness. With that, I was able to split off the rear signals before they get to the 200.4. I ran those speaker-level inputs in shielded 4-conductor cable back to the HS10.

The rear speakers are fine after the new signal path, though I can still overdrive them if I push the volume too far. I may end up adjusting the Key's high-pass even higher, but I like what the door speakers are doing for now.

Depending on what that Sub-T harness is doing to the load, I could probably revisit the rear gain on the 200.4 as well. At the moment I have things faded dead center and it is just about perfect.

Finally, this system is good enough that it bumps when it needs to, AND I can hear details in the music I had missed before. Final bill is somewhere between $1,000 and $1,200, but that is including sound mat, wiring, wire loom, Tesa tape, and a few dozen crimp connectors etc.

 

[Carlitos_92]

Epilogue...

I have had my HS10 in for over a month and have been experimenting with various settings on the Key 200.4 and the HS10, as well as the usual head unit tone controls. I think I finally have it dialed in.

The Key 200.4 is still serving both front and rear channels.
I turned OFF the high-pass crossover on the Key.
I added 600Hz bass blockers on the rear channel outputs.
The HS10 low-pass crossover is roughly 80-100Hz.
Ford audio settings are treble +3, midrange -3, and bass flat. Fader is balanced front/rear.
Gain on the Key is set per the instructions; gain on the HS10 is set to "where it sounds balanced."
The Forscan changes I originally made are still in place.

So what did this get me?

With the Key high-pass crossover set, the bass was far more directional than I thought it would be, even set at 60Hz. The door speakers can produce a lot of bass, and I never had any issue with them. Shutting them out with the Key crossover seemed to send all the bass to the sub, which was so obviously coming from the back, it was distracting. Turning the crossover OFF helped my setup immensely. Takeaway: even with the sub, the upgraded door speakers do a fair bit of lifting with respect to bass frequencies.

As I have said before elsewhere, the small KSC40 rear speakers cannot take 50W each of full-range signal. They just do not have the range of motion, even if they could reproduce the lower frequencies. The answer in my case was the bass blockers. Yes, I may have exacerbated the issue by setting the rear speakers to "full range" in Forscan, but at least with the bass blockers, there are many available frequency ranges to choose from, and thus you can make adjustments - unlike the on/off nature of the Forscan setting.

This is nearly 400 watts of total power. The OEM volume setting of 8 (out of 30 I believe) is good. 10 is "enthusiastic." 12 is jammin. 14 gets attention. I had it at 16 for maybe 30 seconds to listen for distortion, and now my ears are ringing. According to my smartwatch, we hit 98 dB at some point. Test music was NIN "Pretty Hate Machine," B-52s "Cosmic Thing," Fleetwood Mac "Rumours," Def Leppard “Hysteria,” and GIFT "Illuminator."

I was pleased before, but now it is properly set up, and I am duly impressed. Not bad for an old dude doing this in his driveway with mail-order stuff.

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