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Originally Posted by RZNT4R
I don't consider myself anywhere near audiophile, but I like to think that even if I it's something small, I like it done well. "Excellent" is good, but I set my bar at "well", which is still a higher standard than a lot of people's!
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Only YOU can determine what's the best setup for you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RZNT4R
Well from your description I'm not sure those things could work, Ideally there would be a small DSP for EQ/DTA sitting between the HU and the rest of the stock system, nothing mind blowing needed, just getting what's best out of what's already there, Or could it? like disable amp, disable dash tweeters, setup the DTA on the Key amp with the 4 x 4 inch speakers then reconnect everything?
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Those amps MIGHT work with a bit of extra labor and parts but I would contact Kicker to run this by them first. Here's what I would do if those are the amps that you choose and want to have all eight of the stock drivers operational:
Referencing the owners' manual for the Kicker KEY 180.4 here,
https://www.kicker.com/app/manuals/a...18_KEY_Amp.pdf
Feed the front speaker-level signals of the head unit to all four inputs of one amplifier, and power all four dash drivers, tweeters on the front channels and mid-range drivers on the rear channels with the Bi-Amp switch ON, the Fader switch set to OFF, the Hi-Pass set to 120Hz, the Time-Delay set to ON, and Kicker EQ set to ON. (You will probably have to bypass the capacitors on each midrange driver and each tweeter or you might get an error when you run the KEY AUTO SETUP.....I would......in fact I DID, on my factory tweeters for a while before I installed my new Kicker tweeters.) And also remember that you will want to run two new sets of speaker wires to the dash speakers due to them being paralleled together and tapped-off of for the signal to the factory amplifier. It's best to just NOT USE the factory dash wires when you're upgrading the twins' sound systems with aftermarket amplifiers. It gets a bit confusing if you're not familiar with how the stock wiring is, so it's just best not to use them.
Now here's where it will get a little tricky.....
Feed the FRONT signals again from the head unit to the REAR inputs of a second four channel amp, and power the DOOR speakers off of those two amp outputs. Feed the REAR signals from the head unit to the FRONT inputs of this second amp, and power the REAR speakers off of those two channels with the Bi-Amp switch to ON, the Fader switch to ON, the Hi-Pass switch set to where your door speakers don't distort too much (you'll need to experiment here but I suspect you will be able to play frequencies all the way down to the lowest available setpoint of 60Hz), the Time-Delay switch set to ON, and finally the Kicker EQ set to ON. Also, remember that you will have to add a 2-ohm ceramic resistor in series with each door speaker. I found that the load resistors that are needed in certain vehicles when swapping incandescent turn signal bulbs for LED bulbs will work in a series/parallel configuration, and work quite well. Just make sure the final measurement of the total speaker circuit is at least 4 ohms. Hint: the four wires for the door speakers can be accessed right at the 10-pin plug at the factory amplifier in the trunk.
The Compression switches and Auto Turn-On switches will be up to you to determine how you want them set. (If it were me, I would set the Compression switch to OFF and the Auto Turn-On switch to 12V and turn each amplifier on via the amplifier turn-on output or the antenna turn-on output from the head unit)
Run each amplifiers' KEY AUTO SETUP separately with the other amp shut off. Once both amps are automatically and successfully tuned by the KEY program, then adjust your gain settings like you normally would. Your head units' fader control should work as it did before.
Again, you should probably consult with Kicker technical support to make sure you can use fader control on the door speaker/rear speaker amp while it's in Bi-Amp mode, but if you can, you'll probably be pretty happy with the results.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RZNT4R
But don't may me too much attention, it's all ifs and buts for eventually with no established time frame lol
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I hear you on that. It took me a long time researching equipment, figuring out how the stock system is set up, selecting equipment that will do the job I need it to do, and even since then, I've made some major changes. But I'm still having fun doing it!