I have a 2019 F 150 STX. I have the factory non-amplified radio and 8 inch screen. No B&O system; just the plain one. I have 6 speakers ( 2 pillars, 2 front doors and 2 rear doors). The confusion is how many channels does my factory stereo actually have. I would like to add an amp, but I dont know if the pillar and front door speakers are truly seperate or are they component speakers using 1 channel for each side. I dont know if I should get a 4 channel or 6 channel amp. Any ideas?

 

Each speaker from the factory gets a separate channel. You can still run a 4 channel amp if you use the crossovers that comes with most component sets for a passive system. If you want to run a fully active system using a DSP then you'll need an amp channel per speaker, tweeter, and sub.

 

when did the factory start using 6 channel amps and running active on base systems? last i read it was a traditional 4 channel setup with crossovers/caps inline for the tweeters ran off the doors.

 

Well yes they are the way you mentioned. I was referring to how they are wired. The front door speakers and tweeters are spliced signal lines so they are run in a passive config. I just meant they have separated wiring.

 

so OP, the answer you are looking for is a 4 channel amp will be just fine.