whoopidoo

I thought I'd write down my experience with the Kicker Keys, and hopefully this will be helpful to others.

2018 B&O, so I'm using the Zen A2B to manage the signal from the stock radio.
Started with
- Kicker Key 200.4 and 500.1
- Morel Maximo Components in the front, Morel Maximo Coax in the rears.
- JL 10TW1 PowerWedge. I actually found a dealer that had most of the JL wedges in stock and let me try them all in my vehicle, and given my need for max-storage under the seats, after a couple hours testing this was my best option. Not the biggest sub in the room by any means, but perfect for my specific needs.
- Dynamat Extreme on the back wall and on the outer and inner walls of all 4 doors. This was worth the trouble.
- Metra Speaker baffles
- 4Ga wire from the battery for both positive and negative to distribution blocks. Ferrules and TechFlex everywhere. PAC APH-FD02 harness to handle the signal from amps to doors, ran new wire for tweeters. All mounted to a piece of 1/4" ABS behind the rear seats.

500.1 Key setup with the Sub was easy. I won't even discuss this one.

I started out running the 200.4 Key in Passive, letting the Key drive the front Maximo Ultra components through the crossovers and the rear coax speakers directly. Set the gains...miles better than stock. Most would stop here and be very happy. But try as I might, I could never get the front staging as perfect as I expected it to be. I probably moved the microphone around 20 times, seat forward an inch, seat back an inch, just to the left, just to the right...it was never correct. It always sounded like the imaging was just around my head, and never as "forward" towards the dash as I expected it to be. I wasn't expecting miracles, but I was expecting an actual soundstage, and I never had that, even it it was faded all the way forward. I know what proper staging sounds like, and this wasn't it.

At this point I was ready to throw it all out and get a 6 channel amp and DSP, and start learning the art of tuning. Hoping it might help, I instead just took it all apart, and rewired the 200.4 Key for Active instead of Passive, removing the crossovers and not using the rears. WOW WHAT A DIFFERENCE - the staging was MUCH improved. Just a touch louder overall, not much, but a significant improvement in the soundstage and quality up front.

At this point, I had the need to replace speakers in another vehicle (long story), so I pulled the Morel Maximo Components in my F150 to use in that vehicle and upgraded the F150 to Morel Tempo Ultra components in the front, hoping it would improve clarity and midbass - and I should have done this in the beginning. I knew the Maximos were the lower rung of the Morel line, and still an incredible improvement over stock, but the Tempos *really* brought it to life. Not sure if they are worth near double the price (diminishing returns and all that), but if you have the funds they are a very worthy consideration.

So this left me with a perfect (or close enough) front soundstage, great bass, and no rear sound at all. Since I have passengers nearly all the time, and I had already invested in the speakers and the dynamat, I just added a amp at 50x2 amp to drive the rears. So now I can fade it just a little forward and keep proper staging for me, and my passengers in the back are happy.

Moral of the story inside of my truck
500.1 to JL TW1 PowerWedge
200.4 wired Active to Morel Tempo Ultra Components
Cheap amp driving Morel Maximo Coax in the rear
Dynamat
= a very happy guy

flynavy812

iTrader: (2)

How does wiring look from key to tweeters speakers and crossovers? I used a harness before but might go this route. And did you mount the key behind the dash?

whoopidoo

Remember mine has the B&O system (Lariat), so if yours is different these steps may not apply.
I removed the factory amp and sub, and then mounted everything behind the rear seats on a piece of ABS plastic. So I have 3 amps (Key 200.4, Key 500.1, 50x2 cheap JBL), the Nav A2B, and power distribution blocks all mounted on the ABS. When I started the component crossovers were on the ABS as well, which I removed after going Active.

- 500.1 speaker wire goes just to the sub.
- Tweeter wires I manually ran from the front pillars to behind the seats with the amp board, and wired directly to the 200.4.
- I utilized this harness to connect from the amps through the factory speaker wiring to the front door and rear door speakers. This harness keeps you from needing to cut/tap anything to reuse the factory speaker wiring.

flynavy812

iTrader: (2)

I have b&o on my 21 lariat… I used the for-ck harness on my 2018 which made it so easy so I’m trying to find a solution now. Maybe PAC will come out with something soon.

Plug and play makes 21 harnesses but says non b&o, I need to ask if it will work when using nav tv.

whoopidoo

Dunno about the 2021's, but this is the video where I first saw the APH-FD02 utilized with the NAVTV. Start at 4:30 and just watch for a couple of minutes. For mine this was the only harness needed.

Especial86

iTrader: (1)

Very good review! Thank you!

Did you play around with the wiring on the crossovers at all before throwing in the towel? Or is it a set wiring schedule on both the maximos and tempos?

I’m pretty much leaning the same way for the fronts. Kicker key 200/4 but was considering just using crossovers in the doors and going passive. I don’t have any Sony or BO amp out back to bring all the wiring into that spot easily with some bypass harnesses, so I’m stuck wiring behind the dash for the door speakers for all my connections to at least be easy.
I’ve already pretty much bailed on the idea of running new speaker wires to the doors from cab wall mounted amps.

So did you just restore the factory tweeter wires after removing any resistor that may have been soldered in-line from your passive setup? Then just make new terminal connections to the tweeter?

What’s your take on the Morel Maximos vs Tempos in full active? Is the upgrade really worthy, or should I be looking at something like a JL C2 with a lower power handling if I plan on staying passive? The reason why I ask is I’m wondering if the morels in passive just didn’t get enough power from the kicker key which may have left the performance you craved to be a bit harder to get.

whoopidoo

In the B&O system, from the factory all 4 doors are originally run from the amp behind the rear seats, and the tweeters are run from the headunit. So in my case, I connected to the doors using the harness mentioned above from the NavTV and Key amp to the factory door speaker wires, and ran fresh wires for the tweeters.

The Morel Maximo crossovers are pretty basic - signal in from the amp, then 1 signal out to mids and 1 to tweeters. The Tempos have a bit more selection, as you can do +2 or -2db on the tweeter based on which screw you pick. I never used the Tempos in Passive though - once I went Active I never looked back. My issue was never with volume or power or crossover points - it was strictly an issue of staging when I flipped to Active. In my opinion it greatly improved the ability of the Key to move the stage forward and up once it's automagic formulas were strictly focused on the front 4.

As for "worth the upgrade" - if I was starting fresh I'd buy the Tempos. I was in a bit of a unique situation to be able to try them both, and I believe they are a better speaker. But if your choice is factory or Maximos - do it. They still sound fantastic.

HushCarAudio

The funny thing is that the Tempos are still considered to be the budget/entry line for Morel. The midgrade and higher speakers are even more impressive but that does come with a price tag.

nukeman

Can you elaborate some more on the specific model of JL box you chose? And, is it located under the rear seat or behind? I'm in the middle of trying to make a decision on my sub (going with the Key 500.1 too). I see the following options on JL's site:

• CS110LG-TW1-2 - Single 10TW1 PowerWedge, Sealed, 2 Ω
• CP110LG-TW1-2 - Single 10TW1 MicroSub, Ported, 2 Ω

I'm assuming since you said PowerWedge you went with the CS110LG-TW1-2? You said you got to demo more boxes? Did the ported MicroSub box fit? Their site says it's 6.375" tall, seems too tall for under our rear seats? Did any other of JL's other single sub boxes fit?

I'm also considering the Kicker 48TRTP102 for $100 less. It looks like it will fit, but no doubt JL is better quality.

whoopidoo

Truth. I'd love to hear some of their other pieces - noone here stocks them. I think at that point a different amp and level of expertise might be in order. Someday...

Yes this is the one I picked. I additionally tried the 8" ported which I didn't like (I prefer sealed), and a couple of the 10" TW3's in different style boxes. I had a one of these little , and kept switching back and forth from one to another with different music. At some point I narrowed it down to a pair, and then realized I was getting the TW3 and TW1 mixed up in my head and wasn't able to really choose a clear favorite...and thus bought the smaller one since under seat space was important to me. If you have the space...I'd figure out how to make a 12" fit.

Edit since it wasn't completely clear: I put my sub under the passenger seat. I have a DuHa under-seat storage system as well, and I trimmed and reworked the passenger side just enough for the sub to fit.