Tpp4's No Nonsense Guide to Kicker Key T-Harness (16-19)

Set it to resistance (ohms) And meter the positive and negative of each set of wires going to the speakers. Ideally you want to be in the four ohm range, and anything below three or above five could be causing issues

 

Compression is off. I used the ground bolt underneath the passenger seat, but made sure I sanded down to bare metal.

 

It's up and running and gains are set. Compression is off, DC power, 80hz, eq time delay and fader are on. I gave up on soldering and reconnected everything behind the radio including power and ground. Amp still gets hot (it's 102 today).

Everything power wise was off in the truck (lights, ac, ect) and factory eq's were set flat during setup. I played around with the factory head unit settings and the key settings after the initial tune and was disappointed no matter what I tried.

I think the CDT's are a bit much for it, but the sound quality of the focal rcx165's in the rear doors was much better prior to the key even with 2-6watts of factory rms power.

I'm tempted to try the focal rse-165's in the front doors instead of the CDT's, but I don't think I'll be happy with it. I think I want more power and I know I can tune better myself. I don't think I'll bother installing the 500.1 with a sub. The key is not for me.

 

Made the harness, and installed last night... Amazing difference! Thanks for the write up!

 

The CDT 6x9's are fluctuating between 2.6 and 3.4, but are hanging around 3 ohms. Guess I'm going amp shopping if the RSE-165 replacements are a let down.

 

Kicker amp is now discontinued. What compact amp are people running these days and is the wiring similiar?

 

When I went to upgrade my wife's Silverado I bought a harness and Alpine Power Pack

$214 KTA-450 4-Channel Power Pack Amplifier with Dynamic Peak Power 45W RMS x 4, at 2 Or 4 Ohms

KTA-450. It is virtually same size as the Kicker Key that I put behind the head unit in my Tacoma.

 

FWIW - On July 11th, a rep from Kicker said, via email, that the Key 200.4 was just out of stock and to check back "next month".

I reached out because the messaging on the Kicker website page sure looked like it could have been discontinued. I'm sure they're having supply chain issues like everyone else.

 

Does anyone know what happens if you run the front inputs as well as rear inputs in biamp mode?
I just realized you are only supposed to use the front inputs.
Fader is off as recommended.
It did the auto tune perfectly and this thing is loud and sounds great. Running Tweeters on the dash and components on front doors.

 

It took me a couple of read-throughs to understand what the harness is routing and where, but I got it now. Thanks for the write-up.

For those that are running the under-seat sub or hideaway, what hi-pass filter are you running? If your door woofers have an effective low end of 30Hz and the sub has an adjustable LPF anywhere between 80-150, how much overlap do you want?

 

This harness felt like meditation to build. I went thorough and clean with sealing and soldering to have a very factory looking harness. I feel like we should pay you for this guide!

I installed my kicker key amp. Had a mini heart attack when I had no audio, but then I realized I needed to adjust the Key side settings of "Auto Turn on" to DC.

My current setup are joying HU, subaru tweeters, kicker DS front and rear. Any tips on what settings I need to change on the Key?
I'm getting the limiter lights at very early gains and I ended up lowering the gain a lot. Should I be adjusting Gain on Amp1 or 2? Hi-pass filter options?

Could use your expertise guys.

 

If you have an aftermarket HU, you want to use RCA’s and not the speaker outputs. You’ve probably already cut them off unfortunately

 

I have cut them off indeed unfortunately. I wish I knew beforehand.

I could potentially still buy the harness side that comes with the RCA ports. But will they make that much of a difference?

 

It will send a cleaner signal into the amp, which helps a good amount.

Just look up ‘male RCA pigtail’ on Amazon. A little splicing and you’re all wired up.

 

Will do! Will that sort out the clipping you think? Or should I upgrade speakers?

 

Speakers won’t help clipping, as it is something the amp does, not the speaker.

Getting a cleaner signal could possibly help with that issue. If the radio is sending a clipped signal via the speaker outputs, the amp is going to clip very soon as well because the signal it’s receiving is clipped. That’s why you want to feed the amp the cleanest signal possible via the RCA’s

 

Probably a stupid question, but I can’t find the 180.4 anywhere. Everything redirects me to the 200.4 is that the same or a new model and does this harness work with that?

 

Same unit. The 200.4 is the newer version. I believe harness and wiring is the same as described in this thread.

 

Harness is the same.

 

Thanks, I just wanted to make sure before I purchased things.