$1500 budget. Need advice

Would appreciate any advice from those with a more experience. I haven't messed with car audio in 30 years so I am completely out of the loop. That gives you an idea of my age. Needless to say, I dont need something that you can hear from down the street. Even my old ears can hear that the factory audio is unlistenable. I have a 2013 double cab and. Pretty sure I have head unit and sub picked out.
Kenwood HU https://www.crutchfield.com/p_113DMX7705/Kenwood-DMX7705S.html $450
Kicker Sub https://www.crutchfield.com/p_20611HS8/Kicker-11HS8.html $300
With adapters, wiring, matting doors, I am up to $1000 already. That's leaves $500 for the rest and that is where I am stuck. There are so many options and the more I research, the more questions have. I was thinking 2 channel amp and front speakers. I think I like a little rear sound, but I can run rears off the HU and amp the fronts? Or would 4 channel amp be the way to go?

Am I up the right tree with these choices for an amp and speakers?
JBL 109GTR 2 Channel Amp 100W RMS https://www.crutchfield.com/p_109GTR102/JBL-GTR-102.html?tp=35757
Kicker KSS6704 125W RMS Front Component https://www.crutchfield.com/p_206KSS6704/Kicker-44KSS6704.html?search=44kss6704&avf=N&skipvs=T

With all the options, full range, midrange, components, tweeters 2 chan, 4 chan...I am completely overwhelmed to say the least. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

 

Put some money into sound dampening.

 

From lots of personal experience, here’s my take:

Head unit you have is great. Sub you have is great.

Kicker components you linked are what I run in my truck and I love them.

Drop the jbl amp and get the Kicker Key 180.4 ($200)

At first, set aside the included crossover for the speakers and run the amp active using 2 channels to power the woofers and 2 channels to run the tweeters. Disconnect the rear stock speakers.

Down the road, get the matching kicker coaxials for the rear doors ($100) and change the amp to run 4 channels and power them all.

 

I think you have a case of the “i need all of this” lol

I done some light car audio installation back a few years ago, and from what i can tell, the best thing is stay in the same brand. Components systes and amps all work best together when they are the same brand, they are designed that way.

As a second note, decide on your style of music, you listen to more music that needs better clarity, or more bass, or more vocals? Decide from there, just my take and there is ssooo much audio equipment available it is overwhelming and overthinkable.


Best of luck!!

 

Dampening the doors is in my budget above. Skins will be off so no reason not to. Beyond that, Im not sure. I have a hard time justifying pulling the carpet

Thanks for the advice. Im not opposed to going 4 ch right off the bat. I think I can shop the HU and Hideaway and save a little. Pretty sure I can find a 4ch amp and front components $500-$600. Maybe even have enough left over for rear coaxials, if not I could wait a little for the rears.

 

Since you’re doing a new HU, you could probably save a bit of cash and go with the alpine power pack instead of the kicker key. Same power, but no auto-eq or time alignment. Luckily, that’s wht the new radio is for! That would knock off about $50. But the kicker KS speakers are the best price I've seen them, and are the best speakers (to me) for the money.

Also, I see the Hideaway listed at $209 on Amazon right now so might be worth jumping on incase its listed as a wrong price (the one with 371 reviews)

 

Done on the hideaway. That's is a great price. Free shipping too. Question. The Kicker Key at 45W has enough to power the KS Speakers rated at 125RMS? Should that be a concern? Would I be better suited to go to a 100W RMS amp by someone other than Kicker?

 

No problems at all!

Just because a speaker CAN run at a certain wattage doesn’t mean it MUST run at that wattage.

I run my KS at 50w RMS and I cannot turn it up past about 75% volume (with all gains set using SMD-DD1 distortion detector)

In my Jeep I was running older kicker speakers at 75w RMS and I could turn it up to where with the top down and doors off, I still couldn’t hear wind noise on the highway. I’m positive I damaged my hearing in that jeep with that power

 

you mentioned you don't need or want big volume. if you're sound quality focused you can save a little and get a lot if you just do good front speakers/amp and a good rear sub setup, and totally skip the rear door speakers. remove the stockers and don't look back. if you have capable fronts with enough power and they are setup right, and also the sub is tuned right, then you'll get a much clearer sound up front with more dimension than a washed out "full" sound which is mostly a bunch of timeshifted mess.

I'm setup like this and it's an amazing SQ setup for my ears, and i prefer to keep it simple with little to no DSP, no active anything, and little to no EQ. the key for my setup is getting enough low to low-mid up front with good power (i have 600w across 2 channels up front on Focal K2P's) and the sub able to get decent clarity in the high bass. i have a 13TW5 on a 500/1 in the back. the soundstage up front is great, and the rear brings deep dimension, and there's no confusion from the rear doors bringing time shifted crap that you're paying for. it's a good SQ setup if you're not trying to entertain rear seat passengers.