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Kicker Key 200.4 installed. Impressions....

kcamp317

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Got around to installing the Kicker Key 200.4 and the pre made harness from plug & play kits. I will say that combined with the Morel 6.5 coax speakers I replaced the factory door speakers with is very impressive. A massive improvement over the rather weak XLT stock sound. The auto DSP setup with the mic thats included works well. I put the pink noise file on a USB stick and it does its thing within about a minute or two and is all setup. Couldn't be any easier and dummy proof which is good for me.

Install is super easy. Just pop off the panel that houses the HVAC controls and center vents and unplug the harness on the bottom right of the audio module (whatever it's called). Feed the harness through and mount the little amplifier somewhere behind the glovebox area. I'm waiting on getting one of the 3d printed mounts but for now I just used some velcro strips and put it on the top of the HVAC box. Fits pretty nicely there for now. I added some rubber stripping along the metal bracket edgeI had to run the harness around to avoid any future chafing on the wire harness. You will know what I'm talking about if you get in there and take a look.

If anyone has a better way to route that harness around or above that metal bracket I'm open to suggestions..

Also I'm going to play with the dip switch settings on the amp to see what happens. Right now it seems to have a center front stage biased sound that does sound really good but I would like a little more coming from the rear speakers just to even it out a little. Again, any suggestions are welcome.

Overall Id say the bang for the buck is a 10. I wasn't looking for big bass like with a sub just a much needed sound quality and volume improvement over the stock and this definitely delivers.

Ford Maverick Kicker Key 200.4 installed.   Impressions.... IMG_6034
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colinl

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I encourage you to not use more rear. It should be audible in the rear seat and not the front. That's such a normal thing to do that the Key DSP setup does that and you can't really tune it.

But you can, kind of.

I have this amp in another vehicle, not a Maverick. In that vehicle I have 3 rca out, 2 for the 200.4 and one for sub.

If your harness gives the amp 2 sets of input then you can use the infotainment fader somewhat normally. If it's only using the front door inputs, one set, then you would need to either set bi amp mode, even though it's not being used that way, or adjust the gain. Gain is not a volume knob but you asked, so this is an option, I guess.

If you use bi amp mode be sure to use a bass blocker on the rear speakers because it's going to use the same high pass as the front. Bi amp mode is expecting a bi-amped component crossover.
 

Darnon

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I wouldn't be surprised if setting it to bi-amp when it's driving F/R causes the auto-calibration to fail. Similarly it will fail if it detects it's hooked up to woofers/tweeters but not set to bi-amp.

You can also play around with where you have the mic placed or oriented when doing the calibration. Try having it pointing forwards on the headrest instead of straight up at the ceiling, for instance.
 
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kcamp317

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Thanks. I'll probably leave it alone as it does sound really good now for my needs. Only thing I changed from stock settings was enabled radio detect button and selected the DC auto turn on. Im not very amp savvy so excuse my ignorance. The gains are all set to low as they go.
 
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kcamp317

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Another question is do I have to worry about the stock tweeters in the dash? I didn't want to mess with them if I can help it. I don't run the volume at an excessive level ever so I would assume the extra power shouldn't hurt them. Trying to avoid messing with the tweeters and rear speakers if I can cause taking apart all the fragile plastic panels is a nerve wracking experience. Fortunately the door panels were pretty easy and nothing broke.
 

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colinl

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I wouldn't be surprised if setting it to bi-amp when it's driving F/R causes the auto-calibration to fail. Similarly it will fail if it detects it's hooked up to woofers/tweeters but not set to bi-amp.

You can also play around with where you have the mic placed or oriented when doing the calibration. Try having it pointing forwards on the headrest instead of straight up at the ceiling, for instance.
agreed on all that, and time alignment will probably suffer.

regarding dc auto turn on, it does work but I've heard people recently complaining the amp powers up frequently while parked, presumably when you hear the relays clicking. and that's causing battery drain and deep sleep.

if you have issues with deep sleep turn off the auto power detection and run a blue remote wire with an add-on fuse in bcm fuse #3
 

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Another question is do I have to worry about the stock tweeters in the dash? I didn't want to mess with them if I can help it. I don't run the volume at an excessive level ever so I would assume the extra power shouldn't hurt them. Trying to avoid messing with the tweeters and rear speakers if I can cause taking apart all the fragile plastic panels is a nerve wracking experience. Fortunately the door panels were pretty easy and nothing broke.
absolutely worth replacing the tweeters if you have components. it's not that bad with plastic trim tools.

since you have coaxial door speakerst then probably just disconnect the dash tweeters... or get a set of components.
 

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Quick question. I'm replacing all stock speakers. Component JL's for the front and tweeters with the JL crossover, and JLs for the rear. With the kicker 200.4 should I use bi-amp mode? I'm not exactly sure what it is. I will use the plugandplay kit harness.
 

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Quick question. I'm replacing all stock speakers. Component JL's for the front and tweeters with the JL crossover, and JLs for the rear. With the kicker 200.4 should I use bi-amp mode? I'm not exactly sure what it is. I will use the plugandplay kit harness.
Assuming the JL c2650, probably not. It's only rated to 60w rms and bi amped the key is doing 100.

It's not necessarily that you could damage them, it's more that it's probably going to have plenty of output with 50.
 
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colinl

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Thank you!
welcome. I would try bi-amp on a JL C3 or higher series but I think all of them are too deep to fit the door without modification. C2 is pretty efficient, should perform well with just the front channels of the Key 200.4
 

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agreed on all that, and time alignment will probably suffer.

regarding dc auto turn on, it does work but I've heard people recently complaining the amp powers up frequently while parked, presumably when you hear the relays clicking. and that's causing battery drain and deep sleep.

if you have issues with deep sleep turn off the auto power detection and run a blue remote wire with an add-on fuse in bcm fuse #3
I can confirm, using signal sense or whatever Kicker calls there technology to turn on the amp(s) will result in them staying on longer than a true key on/off 12v connection. This includes, it coming on everytime you open a door, no matter if you are getting in the truck or not. It got so annoying to me that I tapped one of the many empty but 12v key live fuses and ran that to a relay to turn on all my amps and dsp. Now they are on/off with the key.
 

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absolutely worth replacing the tweeters if you have components. it's not that bad with plastic trim tools.

since you have coaxial door speakerst then probably just disconnect the dash tweeters... or get a set of components.
I second this. With coaxials, definitely unhook the dash tweeters. They are a PITA to get to the first time (I broke tabs off the grills), but the outcome is well worth it. I have Infinity Kappa coaxials in my front doors. They sounded so much better once I got rid of the OE tweeters.
 

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I can confirm, using signal sense or whatever Kicker calls there technology to turn on the amp(s) will result in them staying on longer than a true key on/off 12v connection. This includes, it coming on everytime you open a door, no matter if you are getting in the truck or not. It got so annoying to me that I tapped one of the many empty but 12v key live fuses and ran that to a relay to turn on all my amps and dsp. Now they are on/off with the key.
where did you tap into for the remote turn on?? i currently have it sense off speaker lines and want to change to go on and off with key? Thanks..
 

All4spl

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where did you tap into for the remote turn on?? i currently have it sense off speaker lines and want to change to go on and off with key? Thanks..
Look in your manual, there is a section on fuses, you will find the section on the interior fuse panel under the passenger footwell cover, there are a few open fuse circuits that are key on power and not in use. You will need to get fuse taps to use them.
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