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Kick Panel Speakers and Center Speaker

4K views 14 replies 5 participants last post by  johnv805 
#1 ·
I have kick panel speakers connected to my aftermarket radio. Is there a way to power the center dash speaker from the kick panel speakers?
 
#2 ·
Possibly.

Is the center speaker an aftermarket or original ?

If you can give us some additional info as to what radio you have and if it is just wired to the kick panel speakers and nothing else or what and then too, what the dash speaker is as far as it maybe being an original speaker or possible an aftermarket with dual voice coils and it's specifications.

What you have provided so far is kinda vague to give you a good answer.

Jim
 
#3 ·
OP

your "aftermarket radio" likely has "front/rear" speaker connections and controls so you can have one louder/lower than the other. Or you could just connect the center dash speaker(s) to the same ch as the front L&R kick panel ones. The issue with doing the later is the kick or center speakers will be one is louder and sounds different than the other

I have 2 x 4" speakers in the dash and 2 x 6/9" in the rear package tray and have them wired front/rear and can adjust the "fade" feature on the radio to set volume and tone differences (EQ) between the two
 
#6 ·
Ok, the dash speaker is aftermarket, but is it a dual speaker or a mono? If it's dual, then as suggested make sure wires for rear speakers are connected to speakers in kick panels and connect front speaker wires to dash speakers.. If the dash speaker is still mono, then it will either need to be replaced with a dual speaker replacement, or you'll have to install rear speakers.

Granted you could just connect either the front right or front left speaker wire to it if it's mono, but this won't be good for the stereo.
 
#7 ·
A little off-topic, but for you guys _with_ radios I'm curious about speaker placement and sound. So here's some questions:

1. Anyone use only a center, dash mounted coaxial speaker, and if so... how's the sound?

2. For those with a center, dash mounted coaxial speaker and rear package shelf speakers... how's that sound?

3. For those with strictly front speakers... center coaxial and kick panel speakers, how's that sound?

I am by no means an audiophile type... right now I just listen to the engine and all the sounds of the car LOL. But I've thought of possibly adding a radio because my BT portable speaker doesn't have the volume to really overcome highway noise with the windows down. I was thinking about one of those mini-receivers like someone posted a week or two ago, put it in the ashtray. Right now I have a dual USB in there replacing the cigarette lighter, great for charging my iPhone on trips.
 
#8 ·
A little off-topic, but for you guys _with_ radios I'm curious about speaker placement and sound. So here's some questions:



2. For those with a center, dash mounted coaxial speaker and rear package shelf speakers... how's that sound?


.
My car, 67, came with dual front dash speakers (2 x 4"). Kenwood. It also had rear package tray but were under the tray and no grills, just solid package tray, so those rear speakers were more muffled. The stereo was a Kenwood but no BT.

I bought a Pioneer 200 watt (4 ch x 50 watt) BT, CD, Radio with USB from Amazon for about $100 and JBL 6 x 9 I mounted from top of package tray. I cut the package tray to allow speakers and grill to be mounted from top. Since the car was already wired for these speakers it was fairly simple but I did use a sabre saw to cleanly cut out the metal under package tray so the speakers did sit flush and could be bolted in. Since I already had a single DIN mounted radio the new one was plug & play. I just cut & soldered on the new pigtail that came with the new radio as the connector was different than the old one but all wire color was the same.

The radio came with a wired mic I mounted on top of DS A pillar and ran wire under A pillar cover to under dash. Now I have hands free phone and use my SIRIUS APP to stream music. I get blistering loud sound with all windows down on Fwy. I can also hear the phone with windows down on Fwy.

These modern radios have all kinds of EQ (tone, balance, etc) settings so you can balance the fronts & rear to your liking. The front speakers being smaller work better with EQ set more in the higher range for vocals so they don't distort at real high volume but the rears are set to have more overall volume and are where the "music horsepower" come from.

I am no audiophile but do like loud R&R and my set up is as loud as it needs to be.
 
#10 ·
You can put on 50 speakers on your radio but it's knowing HOW to do it so the radio does not burn up or go into a protection mode.

Most aftermarket radio's are setup to run four 4 ohm speakers. If you run a single 4 ohm on just one output, it will work. If you run a second 4 ohm speaker onto a second output of the radio, it will work also. Continuing on if you run a 3rd or 4th speaker onto a third and fourth output of a radio, it will work.

Now if one wanted to put in four 4 ohm speakers (2 in the rear deck and 2 in the kick panels) then the radio if it has 4 outputs should be fine working with that setup.

Now with you wanting to add a center speaker BUT it is a dual speaker means basically you are wanting to have 6 speakers hooked up to 4 outputs on the radio. Depending on the design of the radio and how these additional 2 speakers get wired, the radio may or may not like things so one either needs to find out if the radio can handle a 2 ohm load on a pair of the radio's outputs or wire these additional speakers to where what the radio see's is a higher resistance than 4 ohms which will not hurt the radio.

IF the radio's front outputs can handle a 2 ohm load then the center speakers can be wired in parallel to the kick panel speakers BUT if the radio cannot handle a 4 ohm load, then the kick panel speakers and the center dash speakers need to be wired in series to where if they are 4 ohms each, then in series, the radio would not be seeing an 8 ohm load and be fine that way.

If needed I can sketch out a diagram but you need to supply some specifications on the radio you have as to what kind of speaker loads it is designed for.

Jim
 
#11 ·
Retrosound Motor 2 Specifications
FM

Tuning Range (USA, EUR, AUS, JAP, RUS tuning capable) with RDS
87.5-107.9MHz
Antenna Terminal
External Antenna Connector
Usable Sensitivity
12.5 dBf
Selectivity
75 dB @ 400kHz
Signal to Noise Ratio
62 dB (Stereo), 67 dB (mono)
Harmonic Distortion @ 1 kHz
0.8% (stereo), 0.5% (mono)
Separation
32 dB @ 1kHz
Frequency Response
30-16,000 Hz
AM (EU and US Tuning Capable)

Tuning Range (USA, EUR, AUS, JAP, RUS tuning capable)
530-1710 kHz
Antenna Terminal
External Antenna Connector
General

Dimensions (radio body)
3.96”W x 1.98”H x 4.30”D
Power Requirements
10.5-14.4 volts
Current Consumption (during operation)
Max. 15A
Current Consumption (car off)
<3.5 mA
Output Power (@ 14.4 volts @ 4 ohm @ 1% THD)
25x4 watts RMS 45x4 watts Max Power
Output Impedance
4-8ohm
Low Level Output (4 channels)
2.85 volts
EROM
Non-Volatile Memory
AUX 1 Input (aux cable length, 8”)
>300 mV / 6 kΩ
AUX 2 Input (aux cable length, 8”)
>300 mV / 6 kΩ
USB Input (USB cable length, 40”)
5V (USB female input)
 
#12 ·
Retrosound Motor 2 Specifications

Output Power (@ 14.4 volts @ 4 ohm @ 1% THD)
25x4 watts RMS 45x4 watts Max Power
Output Impedance 4-8ohm
The above information is only going down to a 4 ohm speaker setup BUT you may get by with having the front outputs being a 2 ohm per channel with no issues. It's one of those things you could try but who's to say how well the protection circuit and the design of the radio is to where if you do have a 2 ohm load on the front outputs and it goes into protection mode you should have all of the wires there at the radio opening to reconfigure things.

So, with that said, here's how you would run things with then having the front radio outputs connected to a 2 ohm load.



And then a way to wire it so the front kick panel speakers and the dash speakers are wired in series so then the radio would see an 8 ohm load on those two channels.



Hopefully this will help.


What concerns me a little is this info you provided:

"Current Consumption (car off) <3.5 mA"

That seems fairly high unless it is actually 1 or 2 mA. Normally the aftermarket Pioneer and Kenwood radio's are only needing 0.1A (1 mA) or less to retain things like presets and stuff and I've not had problems with a car with those types of radio's sitting for extended periods of time with this very small draw BUT when I see yours "might" draw up to 3.4 mA, then you might want to measure things so that if the car sits for long times you are not coming out to a dead battery.

Jim
 
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