Kicker KS Series 1973-1979 Chevy Truck Kick Panel Complete System Upgrade Kit with A/C 6.5" 80 Watts

Our 1973-1979 Chevy Truck Kicker KS Series kick panel and speaker upgrade kit is one of, if not, our best complete system upgrades.  This kit includes both an amplifier and subwoofer along with Kicker's KS series speakers.  Adding an amplifier to your classic car stereo system is somewhat like adding a supercharger or turbo to your engine.  The amp increases the power to the speakers and in return your speakers will play louder, clearer and will just sound that much better.  The highs will be higher, the lows lower and there is less distortion.  Adding the subwoofer fills out the bottom end of your music that regular speakers just can't reproduce.  This kit includes a subwoofer, but the subwoofer is designed for high quality, balanced sound, not to shake the car three cars behind you at a stop light.  With this kit, we offer several different amplifier and subwoofer options.  You can mix, and match, and we have a chart at the bottom which goes over the different options and provides recommendations.

With this kit you will have 6.5" speakers up front, mounted in the kick panels, and 6x9 speakers in the rear.  We feel that our 1973-1979 Chevy Truck kick panel speaker upgrade kit offers better sound quality than the dash speaker option because you get 6.5" speakers up front instead of 3.5" or 4" speakers.  Also, the location of the kick panel speaker provides better acoustic sound quality than the dash speaker.  If you look at new cars today, they usually have a decent sized speaker in the door panel.  In classic cars, we can't do that due to the door panel designs and overall design of the vehicle (less plastic in classic cars).

For the kick panels in this kit, we use the Custom Autosound ABS kick panels that are slightly modified and are molded to bow out to accommodate a 6.5" speaker.  The kick panels come in a textured black finish to match the texture of most vehicle's stock kick panels and they can be painted to match your interior if you choose.  The speakers come pre-mounted in the kick panel, but if you do need to paint them, they can easily be removed by removing the 4 screws that hold them in.  The Kicker KS speakers are probably the best speakers you can find that will fit in the kick panel opening.  These KS speakers have silk dome tweeters which produce richer, warmer and smoother sounding highs than the CS series.  Also, the KS series speakers have a thicker woofer cone for better mid-bass response.  Since this kit does use an amplifier, the KS will definitely sound better as they are driven with enough power to shine.  Most 6.5" speakers are too deep and require spacer rings or custom fabrication to fit.  The problem with spacer rings is that when you use them, you are pushing the front side of the speaker out to reduce the back side depth and in doing so, it will hit the e-brake pedal of most vehicles.  It is somewhat of a catch-22 situation.  

The Kicker KS series, 2-way 6x9 speakers that are included with this kit have the same cone and tweeter material as the 6.5".  These rear 6x9s are popular because they can be either top or bottom mounted.  When the speakers are top mounted, the speaker grille is visible above the package tray as the speaker sits on top of the rear shelf.  Many classic car owners want to bottom mount their rear 6x9s so that they can keep them hidden and keep the vehicle looking as original as possible.  With bottom mounting 6x9 speakers, the speakers mount from below the rear package shelf in the trunk.  Typically, the speaker grille is not seen as the rear package tray is perforated and sits over the top of the rear shelf for an OE, original appearance.

For the subwoofer, we have three different options.  The 10" Kicker Comp C woofer comes in a low-profile sealed enclosure that is designed to be mounted in the trunk.  This enclosure is still a full sized enclosure, but it is wider and taller so that it can maintain a fairly profile.  The Kicker Comp C woofer is wired to a 2 ohm load to maximize amplifier power and can handle 250 watts of constant power.  The next upgraded option is the 10" Kicker CompRT enclosure.  The CompRT enclosure is a low-profile subwoofer that also has a passive radiator for increased bass response.  The Kicker CompRT is considered a low-profile enclosure as it is less than 7" deep at the bottom.  The CompRT woofer can handle 400 watts of constant power and is also wired to a 2 ohm load to maximize amplifier power.  We feel that the CompRT is worth the extra money versus the Comp C.  You get full sized bass in a low-profile enclosure and it is just an all-around great subwoofer.  Our last subwoofer enclosure option is the 12" Kicker Comp R.  This is a full sized, 12" woofer that comes in a ported enclosure.  The 12" cone is obviously bigger than the 10" cone, so it can produce lower frequencies, but the Comp R is also a sound quality woofer.  This woofer is specifically designed for accuracy, not necessarily just all out bass.  Of course, any of the woofers can be setup to "bump" if you want them to, but we feel that these woofers are good choices when you just want to fill out that bottom end and have your car stereo sound like a high quality home theater system.

We offer 3 different amplifier choices in this kit.  The Kicker CX series, 600 watt 5 channel amplifier is our lowest priced option, but it does provide plenty of power for the speakers and the woofer.  This amp will power your speakers with 40 watts of constant power at 4 ohms and send 300 watts to the subwoofer at 2 ohms. Your radio may say that it is putting out 50 watts of power, but that is peak power.  If you go based on peak power, this 600 watt amp would be a 1800 watt amp.  Our next option is the Kicker KX series, 800 watt 5 channel amplifier.  The KX amp has more power for the subwoofer while also providing more actual power and cleaner power to the speakers.  The KX amp comes with a Bluetooth control knob that allows you to adjust the gain, increase bass boost, change the phase of the subwoofer, and see if the signal is clipping from the driver's seat without needing to run any wires.  The last amplifier option is a 1000 watt mini 5 channel from Rockford Fosgate.  This amp puts out an astonishing 100 watts per channel to the speakers and 600 watts to the subwoofer.  This amp comes in a super small chassis for flexible mounting options and is just an overall, amazing little amplifier.  For the money, the Rockford Fosgate 1000 watt amp about as good as it gets.  

All of these amps can run off either high level or low level inputs so you can run traditional RCA cables (included with amp wiring kit) from the pre-amp outputs of your radio or you can use the speaker wire outputs and plug those into the amp, but they require separate speaker wire to RCA adapters (P/N KISL).  

Our Kicker KS series, 1973-1979 Chevy Truck complete system upgrade kit is perfect if you are looking for highest quality sound possible without spending thousands on custom fabrication and installation alone.  This amp takes your speakers to the next level in terms of sound quality and clarity.  For the money, we feel like this is the way to go.  The CS kit is a little bit lower in price, but for the couple extra dollars, upgrading to the KS is definitely worth it.