Kicker Key 200.4 installed. Impressions....

[Snowbird]

Can I swap in the Powerbass drop in speakers AND tweeters that people have used on here with the kicker key and it calibrate everything no problem? I’ve never actually had tweeters lol. Wasn’t sure how they hook up or if just hooking the front speakers wires into the key was catching those tweeters too

I am glad you asked this as I was wondering the same thing!
Hope someone responds.

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[Snowbird]

Can I swap in the Powerbass drop in speakers AND tweeters that people have used on here with the kicker key and it calibrate everything no problem? I’ve never actually had tweeters lol. Wasn’t sure how they hook up or if just hooking the front speakers wires into the key was catching those tweeters too

Still hoping someone has some information on this.

 

[fishinmagician]

Can I swap in the Powerbass drop in speakers AND tweeters that people have used on here with the kicker key and it calibrate everything no problem? I’ve never actually had tweeters lol. Wasn’t sure how they hook up or if just hooking the front speakers wires into the key was catching those tweeters too

Yes, why not?

 

[jdmz]

Where did you get power for it? Did you run a new line from the battery?

 

[kcamp317]

Where did you get power for it? Did you run a new line from the battery?

No. The power from the OEM radio harness it plugs in line with is plenty for the little amp.

 

[colinl]

No. The power from the OEM radio harness it plugs in line with is plenty for the little amp.

that's... interesting.

the key 200.4 has a 20A fuse. I am fairly confident the Audio Control Module does not have 20A extra fuse or wiring capacity. I'm pretty surprised this is working properly for you.

it should be wired directly to the battery, or a larger power wire used with a distribution block if a person plans to do another amp or powered sub in the future.

 

[jdmz]

that's... interesting.

the key 200.4 has a 20A fuse. I am fairly confident the Audio Control Module does not have 20A extra fuse or wiring capacity. I'm pretty surprised this is working properly for you.

it should be wired directly to the battery, or a larger power wire used with a distribution block if a person plans to do another amp or powered sub in the future.

I am doing research and it appears a lot of broncos guys are just getting power from the ACM as well.

 

[colinl]

I am doing research and it appears a lot of broncos guys are just getting power from the ACM as well.

sync4 acim is very different from ford connected audio, and some of the bronco people probably have aux switches which pre-wires a bunch of connections.

melting your acm or wiring harness would be a really big deal, whereas taking a half hour to install an amp power wire kit through the massive grommet that ford provides is easy. that's for an ecoboost - if you have a hybrid, you don't even have to go through the firewall.

 

[jcgaskil]

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.

Glad to hear this was relatively easy. I just purchased one along with kit 11 from plug-n-play kits. I have a few questions about your install - did you end up changing any of the dip switch settings? Do you know if the plug-n-play harness leverages the 12v power on/off blue wire or did you use DC? Lastly, did you set it bi-amp mode or is the harness drawing from all 4 speakers? Thank you!

 

[kcamp317]

Glad to hear this was relatively easy. I just purchased one along with kit 11 from plug-n-play kits. I have a few questions about your install - did you end up changing any of the dip switch settings? Do you know if the plug-n-play harness leverages the 12v power on/off blue wire or did you use DC? Lastly, did you set it bi-amp mode or is the harness drawing from all 4 speakers? Thank you!

Guy from plug and play sets up the dip switches when he tests the unit. You don't need to change anything using a normal setup (like no added subwoofer or anything).

The harness just uses the power from the radio harness. There's enough power from that to power the amp and not affect anything else. I have noticed that the unit does stay powered up until the truck goes completely to sleep, maybe 5 minutes. You could run a separate key switched power source if you wanted. I just left it the way it came and haven't had any issues..

The amp does run through all 4 speakers as it comes just like a factory speaker harness would. I noticed that once you use the included mic to let it auto-eq the sound stage it really biases a lot more through the front than the back. That's likely due to the fact I upgraded the front door speakers. As you probably know the factory rear speakers are pretty lame 4.5" tiny things.

 

[kcamp317]

Glad to hear this was relatively easy. I just purchased one along with kit 11 from plug-n-play kits. I have a few questions about your install - did you end up changing any of the dip switch settings? Do you know if the plug-n-play harness leverages the 12v power on/off blue wire or did you use DC? Lastly, did you set it bi-amp mode or is the harness drawing from all 4 speakers? Thank you!

EDIT: After I just looked at the website, It appears that they now require a separate switched 12v power source. That must have changed since I bought my kit well over a year ago.

 

[colinl]

EDIT: After I just looked at the website, It appears that they now require a separate switched 12v power source. That must have changed since I bought my kit well over a year ago.

The Key 200.4's power wire and fuse are both small, but I would not trust that to pull through the ACM harness at all, let alone long-term.

It would not be very difficult to wire up your own connection. I would definitely do that if I were you. In fact I'd pull at least 8 ga from the battery into a distribution block and then run 10 ga or whatever to the Key from it. Then you have some future proofing. 4ga from the battery would honestly be a smart move but obviously the Key 200.4 won't pull near enough to need that - just future proofing.

 

[jcgaskil]

The Key 200.4's power wire and fuse are both small, but I would not trust that to pull through the ACM harness at all, let alone long-term.

It would not be very difficult to wire up your own connection. I would definitely do that if I were you. In fact I'd pull at least 8 ga from the battery into a distribution block and then run 10 ga or whatever to the Key from it. Then you have some future proofing. 4ga from the battery would honestly be a smart move but obviously the Key 200.4 won't pull near enough to need that - just future proofing.

In my kit 11, it came with a separate power wire and fuse. I am running that directly off the battery as I am for the HS10. The kit I purchased is the harness only. It did have the 12v blue wire included but connects to the head unit. it is not separate like the power and ground.

 

[jcgaskil]

EDIT: After I just looked at the website, It appears that they now require a separate switched 12v power source. That must have changed since I bought my kit well over a year ago.

Thx. Mine does have the power wire with fuse.

 

[jcgaskil]

Guy from plug and play sets up the dip switches when he tests the unit. You don't need to change anything using a normal setup (like no added subwoofer or anything).

The harness just uses the power from the radio harness. There's enough power from that to power the amp and not affect anything else. I have noticed that the unit does stay powered up until the truck goes completely to sleep, maybe 5 minutes. You could run a separate key switched power source if you wanted. I just left it the way it came and haven't had any issues..

The amp does run through all 4 speakers as it comes just like a factory speaker harness would. I noticed that once you use the included mic to let it auto-eq the sound stage it really biases a lot more through the front than the back. That's likely due to the fact I upgraded the front door speakers. As you probably know the factory rear speakers are pretty lame 4.5" tiny things.

Thank you! Can you send a pic of your dip switch settings? The kit I purchased did not include the kicker key as it was given to me separately as a gift. The kit did not come with guidance on the dip switch settings. Interesting bias change you experienced. Curious now what mine will do. I did upgrade the door speakers and the rears (w/kicker 4" coax). I assume the filter will still remain for the rears to filter out the lows but we'll see.

Thank you so much for the quick feedback. I'm excited to get this all put together.

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