Testing the Kicker Key, 7 Speaker XLT

[Allted]

I have read over the full "Best bang for your buck thread" several times. I messed around with car stereo systems in my younger days. Since I got this 7 speaker XLT, I have not been impressed with the sound. It is not completely horrible after adding the HS10. So I had been putting it on the back burner to go any further.

Well, I rode in a fully decked out 4 Runner and was honestly pretty floored by how much better it sounded. Right then and there, I knew I needed to fix this in my own truck. I am by no means an audio snob but my truck sounds pretty bad. The only way I can describe it is too bright or harsh.

So I bought a $20 microphone and watched some videos on how to run open sound meter. People talking about sound is pretty worthless honestly, and what we like is probably very different so I wanted numbers to work with. Numbers and graphs make things easier for me to wrap my head around.

Please keep in mind I am new to all of this but I did learn a lot along the way. This is what my 7 speaker system looks like with the forscan set to EQ#1 and the fader and tones reset (hs10 unplugged). If you are not sure what you are looking at, the red curve is the goal. Nothing is perfect but we are looking for issues, tall peaks or low valleys.
If I we to make an educated guess, I would say 10k, 1-2k is an issue, and 200-260. Anything lower than 125hz is all over the place, so ignore that.

Now here is what it looks like with the center speaker unplugged, and the kicker key 200.4 running after doing the calibration/tune.

The green line is the tuned kicker key. It does seem to have helped that 1-2k section the most. To my ears, it sounds better, but not by a lot. It is time for new speakers. The stock speakers seem to really be limited to the 500hz and up range.

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[Allted]

Just for the sake of sharing the other stuff I looked at while trying to figure this stuff out.

The treble settings look to be adjusting 3k+

The mid controls 250 to 3k

Bass 250 and lower.

I did look at a few other screens but I think most people will quickly understand magnitude. Coherence is also pretty nice to see how close you are but kind of a deeper level of paying attention there.

 

[Ricksc]

I did the kicker speakers made it sound better. I went 6x9 3 way in front doors. And 6 inch in rear. Next is the kicker amp.

 

[Allted]

Yeah, speakers are coming for Xmas provided I don't get myself on the naughty list before then. I have some 6x9 with separate tweeters and 6 3/4" picked out for the rear. I was really just dying to see how far these stock speakers could be pushed.

The HS10 is rated for 125hz and lower but it honestly seems like the stock speakers really fall off at 500 and lower so hopefully the new speakers can fill in the missing low end gap.

On another note I did check a few of the forscan crossover settings and flat does seem to be worse with the stock speakers. I tried 3 or 4 more of the crossover settings and I am pretty sure only the first three did anything on the graph, the rest must be for the other systems. I think mine came with the first crossover setting, and it does perform better on the graph, but I did not want to confuse the info I will be using after I get speakers.

Hope this helps someone, it was fun, The only thing I can say for certain now is the kicker key alone is not enough, I hoped it might be, but it is definitely not.
I will update this after I get the speakers installed, maybe a bit of sound damping/deadening as well, fingers crossed.

 

[Ricksc]

Stock speakers half a 1 inch magnet what a joke

 

[HammaMan]

That factory is oogly

The B&O in the MME sounded better than the F150's 8 channel B&O
Now the F150's blows the MME out of the water. Listening to the same playlist back to back is hilarious in just how bad the MME sounds vs the F150.

 

[Allted]

Well after seeing that center speaker in real life I could not help but think it looked like a speaker out of an old VW or something. I have only seen pictures of the door speakers, they look just about the same.

 

[Ricksc]

Pure crap. I don’t need a boom box on wheels but nice sound would be nice. Center speaker is too overpowering. Sounds like an old am radio car. I run fader to mostly rear still could not get hear rear speakers with stock.

 

[Davidwnuc]

Nice work Allted. I will be following along with your tests.

 

[Allted]

I don’t need a boom box on wheels but nice sound would be nice.

Hey, I would not mind a rolling boom box to relive the glory days! After hearing the 4 runner, it was so very obvious how much I was trying to just be happy with what I had.

I had a drive and that kicker key is pretty nuts. Fading it full front and full rear lets you hear what is going to each set. Front is highs only, rear is no highs (not sure if I want to call it bass only, if you know what I mean). As it is set it sounds a bit better, turn off the tune and you can hear the highs come back in the rears but it goes back to sounding extra bad.

I wonder if it did that because the speakers could not handle anything else, or that is just how it is "supposed" to be. My rear passengers are going to hate it if that does not expand to more frequencies with the new speakers. I should wire up the mic again and see what range each end is getting, take notes for the new speakers.

 

[Graygoose2021]

Yes the stock speakers are pretty crappy. A good set of components will really help.

 

[Allted]

I am sure they will. I just love being able to quantify how much. Especially in the audio industry, there is a lot of overhyping and snake oil. So I just needed to prove it to myself for peace of mind, and in doing, so I hope to help others to know they are not wasting money.

I hope to have a bit of time today to try another tune in a sealed garage to see if the tune gets any better, I also think I might have tried to tune it too loud. I expected some part of the tune to look better than it does. Well, all that doubt is easy enough to verify now.

 

[Allted]

I think these are what I will be going with if any of you have any input.

Front, 6x9", separates so I can wire the tweeters into the pillar, 105W RMS. I could find nothing else in the lower power range that was separate and seemed to fit. https://www.crutchfield.com/p_130TSA693C/Pioneer-TS-A693CH.html

Rear, 6.75", 100W RMS, https://www.crutchfield.com/p_20646CC674/Kicker-46CSC674.html

 

[Magician]

I tried the Key 200 with several different speakers brands and never got what I was looking for in the sound arena. Morels and Kickers and Power Bass which was huge let down. Swapped amps and tried Musway and now I’m with Alpine amp and speakers. Also set the EQ back to 1 instead of flat and this seems to be much more tunable to my ears. I also installed an LOC to duplicate the full sound output to all 4 speakers. Center is disconnected.

 

[Allted]

Also set the EQ back to 1 instead of flat

Okay so I was not imagining things. 1 did seem much better to me. I guess that is another thing I need to test today. Thanks!!!

Shoot I really hope I am happy with the key, I really do not want this rabbit hole to keep getting more expensive.

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