Car audio guys
 

Does anyone out there have any experience with the kicker key 180.4? I have a 17 xlt with basic 5 speaker system. The lifeless sound from the OEM stereo is a travesty. Windows down and anything over 16 is muddy and bland. I have read some reviews on the kicker key and it has sparked my interest. My days of spending thousands on car stereo equipment are done :-( i just want something with a little more power and a dsp without running a bunch of dedicated equipment.. Has anyone out there used this product, not just in a SD but any vehicle? Thanks

So you have the base sound system or the sync 3? There was a 6 speaker system and 7 not a 5 speaker system.

Just get a 2 channel amp and some good front component speakers. They will play loud and clear. Rears are for fill if anything at all, money is wasted back there. Only thing you might want to add is a sub down the road. Front components and an amp can be around $250 and will give you the biggest bang for your buck. Dont do what some guys here have done and buy 3 way 6x9's or coaxial speaker for the front. You'll ruin the soundstage more than anything else. Replace the tweeter and mid with something reputable and you'll be rocking.

The reason for the muddy sound as you turn up the stock system is because you`re driving the amp into clipping.
In my opinion, the best thing for you to do is to replace your stock speakers, get a small behind the rear seat sub, and a 5 channel amp. You don`t need a DSP for what you want.

The basic system I described will sound much, much better than the stock system and if you do the install yourself, you can achieve this for well under $500.00 dollars if you shop around.

Sync 3 has an 8" screen.

This is the pinout for Sync 3. I don't know if they use the same one for the smaller screen. At minimum you can get color codes and assuming ford is a logical company they should carry over to your system. In order to not cut factory wires I used a Parrot harness they plugs between the HU and the wires that go through the body. You can splice into this and keep you factory wires as new. I got mine on eBay for about $55.

Edit - for some reason I can't upload images (tried different formats). here is the URL of the pinout

https://www.f150forum.com/f118/so-yo...6/#post5820501

post# 151

It is a lot but it has all 5 speakers and includes duplicate rows for Sony upgrade system. If the harness / pinout doesn't match your system, you should be able to use color code to do tap (again assuming Ford keeps color codes the same on base radio for 8" and 4" screens). Also, I tried finding a switched wire for remote turn on but ended up doing a fuse tap on #23 in right footwell.

When I did it I spent 5 min making a table of pin out position/wire color (harness wire colors are different, so you have to match up with pinouts) and used a 18ga-8 wire bundle (color coded, link below - also made routing wires much easier, this is for rear amp). It was 16 lines - 8 out and 8 back in and took about 30 min to connect up going slowly.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/18-6-18-Gau...d=323187234615