Premium Audio Upgrade for less than $250

This thread is going to be the death of me. I was trying to hold out as long as I could, but Crutchfield had a sale on the speakers. I pulled the trigger on the Subaru tweeters from Amazon, 6x9 kickers, and the 6.5 kickers from Crutchfield. Went ahead and ordered the sound deadening mats as well since I'll have the panels off anyways. Total came out to $300 altogether now the waiting game begins. Damnit...

 

I spent my Saturday doing the front speakers and extensive sound deadening of each door. I ended up pulling the Kicker speakers out and putting the factory speakers back in. To me, these sound horrible without an amp. I did one side at at time and tested the setup with high quality test frequency tones through a USB connection (not bluetooth) and bouncing back and forth between the factory 6x9 and the Kicker 6x9 really demonstrated the coarseness and distortion of the non-amped Kickers. Now I just have to decide what I want to do. Either 1) get the Kicker Key amp and give the speakers the power they need to sound decent, 2) keep the factory speakers and just live with what I get from the updated tweeters and sound deadening, or 3) go whole-hog and get the OEM Audio Plus system.

I was, however, shocked at how much better the stock speaker mid-bass and bass sound with a ton of Noico on the inside. And somewhat disappointed when I opened my passenger door and found that the vapor barrier wasn't actually connected to or sealing the inside like designed.

 

@destin_meeks thanks brotha.. how hard is this to install?

 

Really depends on your comfort level with wiring and taking off a few panels. Creating a T-harness using the two Metra pieces pretty much takes care of the hard part. Then lengthening those wires to where you choose to put the amp. You can get power/ground/rem.turn-on from this t-harness as the Key doesn’t pull enough power to need a dedicated wire run to the battery.

 

Less road noise + better sound is def worth it. Don’t be surprised if you end up adding an amp..

 

Maybe, my hearing is still quite good. lol The sound deadening will help for sure. I ordered a prinsu rack last week, and I've seen the rants about wind noise so when I sound deadening the roof I'll have minimum noise along with the new speakers should drown it out altogether.

 

Amps can make speakers sound better, not just louder. But that sound deadening on the roof will help for sure.

 

For the people who have installed the Kicker Key (or alpine power pack) and have done so without a dedicated power wire, have you had any issues? Crutchfield support highly recommends a dedicated power line. If I will need to run a power line, I might as well get a more powerful amp for the speakers and do a sub at the same time.

 

^ - i ran a dedicated line - but for me, with the upgraded speakers, i honestly dont feel like i need a sub and havent installed it (have a hideaway sitting on my parts shelves)... i also love that the key is so small i can hide it nearly anywhere - mine is under the passenger seat and no one knows its there - positioned it so it cant be seen with the seat all the way back or forward... but i understand what youre getting at, just know you might not need the sub... i am no longer in my 20s and now with a little one and prefer retaining the storage space over extra bump

 

Ive been doing power packs with no dedicated wire for years, in all makes and models. (This is normally how most of the installers in my company do it, and I haven’t seen any issues reported yet. +\- 1500 stores that do installs)

And I have done a dozen or so Key’s the same way. No issues so far.

 

If you can solder, not hard at all! Like @destin_meeks says, creating that t-harness is key. I found running the actual wires to be the biggest pain in theass. Try to break it up into chunks. Measure your wires for the T-harness, and get that all set up one day with soldering and heat shrinking, etc, then set aside a good 6 hours and take your time running the wires from the batt to the amp, the t harness from the head unit to the amp and back again. Here's my T:

 

Thanks for all the help, guys. I've ordered the metra harnesses and I'll also be setting up an LOC for a sub at the same time. I'll pull that signal pre-amp and hopefully have one hell of a sound system eventually.

 

Yeah I want to pull the trigger on the kicker key amp next.. I just want to make sure I know what I’m doing when I’m installing it.. Nothing like step-by-step instructions on how to install it or YouTube video

 

I’m tinkering with the idea of building some ready-to-install T-harnesses for adding the Key or a power pack. Nothing crazy, but would help those who A) don’t have the tools to properly solder or crimp their wiring, and B) don’t quite trust themselves to build one in general.

Would there be any interest in this?

I’m not out to make any money off of it, so just the cost of parts plus a few dollars for the time to build it.

Let me know if this is something you think would be worth it to do. I might make a few just to have laying around to ship out if needed.

 

I actually have found soldering to be fun lately. I've also made it my goal to clean up my install and bought some stuff to help that along. Car Audio Fabrication YouTube channel and web page is pretty awesome for pro tips with soldering/wiring/shrink tubing, etc, and they post links for everything.

And it's a great idea.

 

@destin_meeks i would be totally down for that.. I’m not to savy on the whole audio stuff, but with the right guidance and tools and especially the T-harness I could accomplish it.. all the help you can give me brotha would be much appreciated and I will compensate you accordingly.. thanks

 

I'm in. I'd like to add a Key, and I could do it myself if I could find my soldering stuff, but I wouldn't turn down one that is already put together.

 

Hi All,

I did the 6 speaker Kicker upgrade in my 2018 TRD Sport. Speakers sound great, but I'm getting an annoying rattle in the driver door during medium to heavy bass. I've poked around a bit and tried to listen around with the door panel still on, but I haven't been able to pinpoint where the rattle is coming from. I don't mind taking the door panel off and trying to fix it. I have plenty of sound deadener left to play around a bit, but I'd rather not waste an entire afternoon doing trial and error with taking the panel off and back on only to fail. Those plastic clips can only take so much abuse.

Has anyone had this same issue and had success finding the rattle and stopping it? Any advice would be helpful.

 

Tesa tape all the body connectors (the part that slides into the door nooks) - and then while the doors are off, you may as well install some fast rings to help make sure the speaker is being pushed away form the door and funnel the speaker sound into the cab. Then my window switch plastic panels rattled a little so I tesa-taped the bottom side where the plastic meets other plastic parts. Further - not sure what your doors look like under the skin, but make sure all the wires looms are taped up close to the metal skin (mine are 'taped' down with sound deadener scraps every few inches to make sure they dont touch the outer door skin).

 

I wrapped wires and connectors in thin foam/tape. Pinpointing rattles/buzzes is hard. I had something similar in my 2012 that I never figured out, but I never changed speakers in that truck. I also put foam between the speaker adapters and the door panel -- that could be a possible "buzz" location.