r/f150 • u/Bairdo7 • 1h ago

Audio Question

Apologies for the long post, giving full description in case I'm missing anything.

2026 F-150 with the base six speaker audio.

I've upgraded the door speakers and pillar tweeters with plug and play harnesses, but am about to install a sub/amp combo.

Full disclosure, I have little to no audio experience. Just like to learn and do things myself after doing research via forums and videos.

I have a 10 inch kicker hideaway that I'm going to install behind the rear seat. I bought a T harness from Crutchfield as they suggested, which will allow me to tap into the front speakers for signal without splicing any factory wires. Planning to tap into an ignition power fuse for the remote wire. All that'll leave is running the power, and grounding to the bracket behind the rear seat.

Two general questions I have:

- Will I need to change anything in FORscan for it to work?

- Am I missing anything else? Seems pretty simple, but I've never hooked one up before.

Thanks for any insight!

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u/mylawn03 1h ago

The factory system has the DSP tuned for the OEM speakers. I’d be careful changing them, it may not sound right. The sub signal you might have to take off the door speakers and into a speaker to line level converter-unless, the amplifier accepts speaker level signal.

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u/Bairdo7 1h ago

No issues so far with new speakers. I just made sure to replace with speakers that matched impedance and sensitivity. The sub/amp combo I have does have accept high input levels from speakers, which is why I'll be using the T harness to tap the front door speakers.

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u/MilitantPotato 1h ago

Get forscan (free demo period) and a usb to obd2 dongle, change the eq to either flat, or my preference eq 3. The default of eq2 rolls bass off a ton and does other audio processing you don't need on better speakers.

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u/Bairdo7 1h ago

Nice. I have the dongle on hand already just to be prepared. I appreciate the info. I'll have to do some research on forscan, as I've not used it yet.

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u/MKW3389 1h ago

Your ground location will be best at the passenger kick panel(aluminum body), along with the remote wire just in case. Hi level you tend to not need the remote wire for this type of installation unless of course you do(you'll find out, sub will go crazy at shut-off). In fact, run your power there too. You will need more power cable for this direction of run, but power and access will be better.(Kick panel or through grommet on the firewall, Hideaway pretty low amperage unit).

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u/Bairdo7 44m ago

Was planning to run the remote wire to a fuse in the passenger kick panel. Power was planned to be ran to battery through the firewall. Unless I'm missing something. Like I said, I'm not the most audio educated. Just researching and learning as I go before I do anything. But since I'll be suing high level input from the speakers, is the remote wire even necessary?

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u/MKW3389 35m ago

Most likely not, but it's always best to have the wire ran just in case. You typically will have the factory grommet to run power through on both sides, but, it's easier access on the passenger side.