Following To hear feedback.

 

I have used a kicker 10" under seat subwoofer in the past, small and packs a decent punch.

 

I'd love to do an upgrade, but my wife would likely beat me over the head with it after ripping it out of the floor lol

 

I did the Cerwin Vega spare tire sub and it was all that the car really needed. It made the stereo what Kia should have built it as. I did go above and beyond and added different speakers etc. but if I was told what I heard just by installing the sub, I would call it premium sound indeed. JBL makes one also and I have head about it being awesome too, but never heard it in person. I think either one will do justice to make it Premium Sound....

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FY9BPVR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I did the Cerwin Vega spare tire sub and it was all that the car really needed. It made the stereo what Kia should have built it as. I did go above and beyond and added different speakers etc. but if I was told what I heard just by installing the sub, I would call it premium sound indeed. JBL makes one also and I have head about it being awesome too, but never heard it in person. I think either one will do justice to make it Premium Sound.... https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FY9BPVR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

where Did you tap into for the audio signal?

 

I’m very interested in this. Any pics?

 

 

I have a 2023 Sportage hybrid LX. Non- Harman Kardon, 12.3" display.
I just changed out stock speakers for Alpine R2-S65, rear & Alpine-R2-S65C in front. I also added an KTA-30FW-Tough-Power-Pack.
Being a Hybrid amperage draw was a factor for how much wattage I should run. The amp is a 4-channel amplifier,
75 watts RMS x 4 at 2 or 4 ohms. Amp draw is ~ 6.25
I was expecting only a 10% - 20% "noticeable difference" sound quality, the upgrade far exceeded my expectations though.
I had amp mounted on top of the trans tunnel, passengers side, behind plastic cover, very clean.

 

Little late but I have an X line and upgraded all speakers to punch and it sounds so much better. Also have a Rockford Fosgate 500x1 amp and 12. Door installs are so easy! They really made it convenient to remove the door panels. I brought it to a shop to install the amp. They just tapped into the speaker for the RCAs. I was kinda pissed to find out the dash speaker was empty on the x line though so that speaker is just sitting new in the box 🙄

 

Here is some of what I used, I soldered the terminal on the end of 8 gauge power wire, but a good crimper should work well too.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09MFFC4D4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079SBBJD7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09NY79DTN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JMZZPQH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s01?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

Here is some of what I used, I soldered the terminal on the end of 8 gauge power wire, but a good crimper should work well too.

Thanks, do you have a picture of the battery post in the fuse box? I want to see what you did to get it on there. Thank you again.

 

I didn't take any pics, and I am out of town without the car. But here is a pic I found online and marked with the red/green circle showing where the nut is that I used for the + terminal. I ran the wire coming up the front, where that drop down piece of plastic already has wires coming up under it. I did have to trim the plastic a bit to get it all to clip back together properly.

 

Perfect! Thank you for your help it is very much appreciated. I already have the cerwin vega, i emailed them asking if i am able to use the dual voice coil wiring for the Left/Right high level input instead of speakers, waiting to hear back.

 

First you have to remember the Hybrid and non-hybrid are different set up for 12v. Hybrid don't have a physical 12v battery, pulling too much amperage from the Hybrid version could possibly mess things up. With that being said.

you can do all this without ever taking the dash apart as you can do it all from under the passanger seat. (except for powering the aftermarket amp) the factory gauge speaker wire is good enough for 100 watts. so if you put new door speakers with an rms less than that you are good and easy speaker replacement. The factory sub i think is a dual voice coil but have not confirmed this yet but there is wiring into the factory amp suggesting this.

You would need to add your own amp and bypass the factory amp for basically the door speaker and the sub. the front pillar and center speakers are fine. disconnect the input and output of the speakers you want from the factory amp (under the passenger seat) and put those input and outputs into your own amp. Its under the passenger seat so not that difficult.

The issue comes into the 12v system not having its own physical battery. you can hook up to it but i am trying to find out how much Amps you can pull from that 12v system safely before the car goes crazy. because aftermarket amps pull more Amps from the 12v system.

id like to add 2 amps. 1 for the speakers and 1 for the sub. but right now i am looking at amps that total a max amp pull of 140 at full volume even though i probably wouldn't go that high and would probably never pull that much amperage. but that's personal preference. you could probably find a 5 channel amp that can do the 4 door speaker and sub that draw a max amperage of say 40 and never get that high.

 

I have a 2023 Sportage hybrid LX. Non- Harman Kardon, 12.3" display.
I just changed out stock speakers for Alpine R2-S65, rear & Alpine-R2-S65C in front. I also added an KTA-30FW-Tough-Power-Pack.
Being a Hybrid amperage draw was a factor for how much wattage I should run. The amp is a 4-channel amplifier,
75 watts RMS x 4 at 2 or 4 ohms. Amp draw is ~ 6.25
I was expecting only a 10% - 20% "noticeable difference" sound quality, the upgrade far exceeded my expectations though.
I had amp mounted on top of the trans tunnel, passengers side, behind plastic cover, very clean.

 

Here is a Youtube video showing how to install a combined amp/10" sub under one of the seats and get 12V power in a Tucson HEV (looks about the same for a 2023 Sportage HEV).

I think installing in a Sportage PHEV would be even easier since you can get power from the 12V battery under the cargo cover and don't have to tap power from inside the hood and go through the fire wall. You should be able to get the signal to switch the built-in amp on/off from the 12V accessory plug in the cargo area because that is switched. If you already have the Harmon Kardon subwoofer I assume you could tap the audio signal from it and I'm thinking you can keep it active so you'd have two subs.

 

PineNut - You da man (or woman?)! Nice contribution post!!

 

Thanks PineNut, that was a great explanation. While I don't have the HK or Amp in my EX Knowing the colors of the speaker wires from the document is immensely helpful. Now I'm still concerned about what this will do to the MPG and battery longevity, but since the prestige has a 400W HK system I'm assuming that we can at least go that high with the rest of the non HK trims as I think the batteries are the same in each trim.

 

The batteries are not exactly the same in the different versions of the 2023 Sportage. The gas version has a 12V battery which I assume is under the hood (I assume because I have the PHEV version) and you would need to go through the firewall to run a power wire to a new amp if you wish to install one. The HEV does not have a traditional 12V battery and instead, it has a 12V LiPo battery which is part of the high voltage lithium battery. You can still tap 12V power from a post under the hood and that location is shown on the Youtube video I posted earlier in this thread (also shown in a photo that was posted). Like in the gas version, you need to run power wire through the firewall and doing that is also shown in the video. The PHEV has a separate 12V battery but it is located under the cargo area in the back. Since the PHEV battery is inside the cabin, I assume it's the easiest to access since you won't have to go through the firewall.

As I mentioned before, if you have the HK premium audio there is an HK amp installed under the passenger seat. Can you confirm if there is an amp under the passenger seat for the standard audio? Maybe the standard audio amp is part of the infotainment system (head unit) but I'm not sure. If you have an amp under the passenger seat then you have the option of tapping speaker signals (or SPDIF) from that amp although the wires are packed very close together. Otherwise you can tap audio signals from the door speakers by removing the door panels or B pillar trim as described in the document I referenced earlier.

Another difference is that some versions of the Sportage have a spare tire while other versions do not (PHEV does not have a spare since it uses that space for a 12V battery and a power supply for charging the high voltage battery). So if you just want to add a powered sub, then if you have a spare tire you can install a sub on the spare as described in an earlier post in this topic. If no spare, then you can put a powered sub under the driver's seat or maybe under the passenger seat if you don't already have the HK amp there. Another option would be an enclosure with an amp/sub which could sit back in the cargo area (and maybe make it removeable if you sometimes need the space).

 

You really should not have to worry about the hybrid battery or MPG. Most hybrid vehicles they state you can pull 30Amps from the 12v system. Even Crutchfield will tell you they don't recommend anything over 30Amp draw. (I have seen other people take over 40Amps draw and still be ok with no issues)
Just an FYI say you add a 400watt amp that says to put a 30 or 40 A fuse for it, unless you are maxing out the volume, you will probably never pull close to that 30Amps.

 

true as even at max volume or close to it, 75% its still only around 25amps.

 

Hi, did you also install an amp? If so, did you tap the head unit harness and what were the wire colors for each speaker and tweeter? Are they the same as the crutchfield doc for the HK System? Thanks!

I sliced in at the head unit, the colors were the same as Crutchfield, but I also found them online and they were correct

 

So how did you disconnect the battery to install everything?

 

i have the 2023 Kia Sportage Hybrid EX trim and the max amp draw you can hook up into the system without worrying about the electrical system going crazy or putting a strain on the charging system itself is 30amps. I have found using the kicker key 200.4 with AI DSP 4ch amplifier is more than enough. To swap out all four door speakers and tweeters in the a pillars up front with infinity 6.5" components with their 6.5" coaxial for the rear doors to be a great system for all types of music. there are other Kicker Amps you can use as well just stay below 40amps and you will be fine. hope this helps someone as i have spent hours and hours finding pieces to make my own wiring harness to add to the factory system as i do not have the premium 8 speaker system. i found all my parts to build a solid harness that plugs into the factory hardware plugs without having to splice anything.