Ram 1500 Warlock Stock Amplifier Location

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tswannnlk

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I have heard from numerous people that upgrading the stock amplifier in our Rams can provide a huge jump in sound for the factory systems. I do not have the Alpine System and just have the 6x9 speakers in the doors and the two in the dash. Does my truck even have an amplifier or do the speakers just run off of radio power? Where would the amp be located if my truck does have an amplifier? Would it be possible to install and amp? I have been looking at the Kicker KEY200.4. I have plans to install 2 12 inch subs under my rear bench seat in the future. Would it be easier to just use that amp to give more power to my door speakers?Thanks!
 

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I do not have the Alpine System and just have the 6x9 speakers in the doors and the two in the dash. Does my truck even have an amplifier or do the speakers just run off of radio power?
Only the Alpine speaker system uses an external amplifier, the standard 6-speaker trucks are powered from the radio.
 

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I have heard from numerous people that upgrading the stock amplifier in our Rams can provide a huge jump in sound for the factory systems. I do not have the Alpine System and just have the 6x9 speakers in the doors and the two in the dash. Does my truck even have an amplifier or do the speakers just run off of radio power? Where would the amp be located if my truck does have an amplifier? Would it be possible to install and amp? I have been looking at the Kicker KEY200.4. I have plans to install 2 12 inch subs under my rear bench seat in the future. Would it be easier to just use that amp to give more power to my door speakers?Thanks!
The Kicker would be my recommendation especially if your are using the OEM speakers and want an amp.
 
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tswannnlk

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The Kicker would be my recommendation especially if your are using the OEM speakers and want an amp.
Thanks. How complicated would an install like this be? Does the amplifier just mount under the drivers seat or is there a spot in the dash that it can be mounted?
 

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Thanks. How complicated would an install like this be? Does the amplifier just mount under the drivers seat or is there a spot in the dash that it can be mounted?
Mine is a quad cab so it's under the rear passenger seat but if you have a regular cab you could install it under the driver seat (I have another kicker amplifier under my driver seat). Less power wire needed to get to the drivers seat too but it's not difficult to do even if you have never done it. Just hop on YouTube and search for the install videos ( I watched several to get a good feel for the setup)
 

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Thanks. How complicated would an install like this be? Does the amplifier just mount under the drivers seat or is there a spot in the dash that it can be mounted?

The Kicker Key amp is pretty small. Maybe 8 inches long by 4 inches wide and 3 inches high. I mounted mine to a scrap wood piece of 1x4 and used two screws through the wood platform to mount it above the parking brake bracket. The location makes the ground to the brake pedal anchor bolt a short run and easy access out the clutch block off plate for the power run directly to the battery. If you use a T-harness to avoid cutting the factory wiring it’s a short wire run to the amp and back to the harness.
 
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tswannnlk

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The Kicker Key amp is pretty small. Maybe 8 inches long by 4 inches wide and 3 inches high. I mounted mine to a scrap wood piece of 1x4 and used two screws through the wood platform to mount it above the parking brake bracket. The location makes the ground to the brake pedal anchor bolt a short run and easy access out the clutch block off plate for the power run directly to the battery. If you use a T-harness to avoid cutting the factory wiring it’s a short wire run to the amp and back to the harness.
Thanks so much. I saw a YouTube video of a guy installing this amp in an F150. He used a wiring harness from a brand called PlugnPlayKits.com to hook is up. Is this necessary in our Rams or does all of the factory wiring from the head unit hook up pretty well?
 

Atcer2018

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Thanks so much. I saw a YouTube video of a guy installing this amp in an F150. He used a wiring harness from a brand called PlugnPlayKits.com to hook is up. Is this necessary in our Rams or does all of the factory wiring from the head unit hook up pretty well?

If you don’t use something called a T-harness you will have to cut into the factory wiring going into the back of the head unit. A T-harness is a group of wires identical to the factory wiring with a OEM style male connection on one end and a female on the other. You can simply unplug the factory harness from the rear of the radio and then plug the one end of the T-harness into the radio and the other end into the factory harness. You can chop up the T-harness however you want or need without damaging the original harness. They make specific T-harnesses to accommodate LOC, trigger wires, external amps, DSP’s, etc. The specific harness you’d want will isolate the factory speaker wires so you can run them to the Key amp and then from the Key amp back to the harness. It makes for a nice clean install but you do have the option of simply cutting the factory wiring.
 
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tswannnlk

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If you don’t use something called a T-harness you will have to cut into the factory wiring going into the back of the head unit. A T-harness is a group of wires identical to the factory wiring with a OEM style male connection on one end and a female on the other. You can simply unplug the factory harness from the rear of the radio and then plug the one end of the T-harness into the radio and the other end into the factory harness. You can chop up the T-harness however you want or need without damaging the original harness. They make specific T-harnesses to accommodate LOC, trigger wires, external amps, DSP’s, etc. The specific harness you’d want will isolate the factory speaker wires so you can run them to the Key amp and then from the Key amp back to the harness. It makes for a nice clean install but you do have the option of simply cutting the factory wiring.
I think I would like to go the t-harness route for sure.
Would any of these be the type that I need to be looking for?
They all seem relatively expensive. I noticed that NET audio has a ton of options for these harnesses but I'm not really sure what I should be looking for if my only goal is to add a 4 channel door speaker amp. When I install subs they will get their own amp.
 

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I think I would like to go the t-harness route for sure.
Would any of these be the type that I need to be looking for?
They all seem relatively expensive. I noticed that NET audio has a ton of options for these harnesses but I'm not really sure what I should be looking for if my only goal is to add a 4 channel door speaker amp. When I install subs they will get their own amp.

The only experience I have with the harnesses you link is the NetAudio. I used their harness on my install and it was very high quality with zero issues.

Here is where some future planning and additional information is needed. Your profile says you have a 2021. Is your truck a “Classic” or a 5th gen? Mine is a 2018 so a classic would be quite similar but a true 5th gen may be different.

The easiest way to differentiate is how many lug nuts do you have on your truck wheels? Five lugs you have a Classic and six you have a 5th generation. If you have a Classic I can link here to the wiring T-harness I used from NetAudio.


It’s an $83 harness but is the very basic of what you’ll need and it may be worthwhile to invest a little more now to facilitate future upgrades. The basic harness I linked simply isolates the eight wires for the speakers, left, right, front and rear for use with a four channel amp like the Kicker Key. Since you intend to install subs at some point it may be best to add a LOC (line output converter) now to the harness to make that addition easier at a later date. I do not have subs nor do I intend to add them so the basic harness worked for me. You can still use the basic harness and add in a LOC to run the subs in the future just in case you wind up not doing that upgrade or you may choose to use a high level speaker input to power a sub amp and never need a LOC.

As far as the Key amp is concerned please note. It does not need resistors to power the speakers nor does it need a LOC to tap inputs. I ignored NetAudio’s recommendation of resistors on the advice of Kicker tech support that the Key amp has line resistance built in using the high level speaker inputs. In other words you don’t need RCA jack connections to add the Key amp. You simply run the speaker outputs from the T-harness directly to the Key amp wiring harness and it does the rest. The Key amp will show the factory radio speaker resistance without additional line resistors. You also do not need a trigger wire to turn the Key amp on. It has a built in internal sensor that powers it up as soon as you turn on the radio.

You may read online that using high level speaker inputs causes noise on the output side and that without a dedicated trigger wire you’ll get “pops” when the amp shuts off but I can honestly tell you that I experienced none of those scenarios with my Key amp. It’s one of the reasons I love that little amp, it does just about everything well and without the need for additional equipment or cost. It’s a unicorn that does just about everything without added complication and it also has a built in DSP (digital signal processor). Is it a thousand dollar amp? No, but for a couple hundred bucks you get a nice upgrade without much headache.

One last note to this already lengthy reply is the Key amp is “bi-ampable”. What that means is you can use one single speaker channel input to the amp and it will give you four channels of output. This comes in handy with the six speaker Ram audio systems as the front doors and dash speakers are wired as one. In other words your left dash and door speakers are wired together and your right dash and door speakers are wired together. If you use the Key amp in bi-amp mode you can power both door and both dash speakers individually with one speaker wire from the factory radio. You can then use the remaining three sets of speaker outputs from the factory radio to power the rear door speakers and add a LOC for subs to the oddball channel. If you go the bi-amp route you will need to run new wiring to at least the dash speakers which is pretty easy.
 
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tswannnlk

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The only experience I have with the harnesses you link is the NetAudio. I used their harness on my install and it was very high quality with zero issues.

Here is where some future planning and additional information is needed. Your profile says you have a 2021. Is your truck a “Classic” or a 5th gen? Mine is a 2018 so a classic would be quite similar but a true 5th gen may be different.

The easiest way to differentiate is how many lug nuts do you have on your truck wheels? Five lugs you have a Classic and six you have a 5th generation. If you have a Classic I can link here to the wiring T-harness I used from NetAudio.


It’s an $83 harness but is the very basic of what you’ll need and it may be worthwhile to invest a little more now to facilitate future upgrades. The basic harness I linked simply isolates the eight wires for the speakers, left, right, front and rear for use with a four channel amp like the Kicker Key. Since you intend to install subs at some point it may be best to add a LOC (line output converter) now to the harness to make that addition easier at a later date. I do not have subs nor do I intend to add them so the basic harness worked for me. You can still use the basic harness and add in a LOC to run the subs in the future just in case you wind up not doing that upgrade or you may choose to use a high level speaker input to power a sub amp and never need a LOC.

As far as the Key amp is concerned please note. It does not need resistors to power the speakers nor does it need a LOC to tap inputs. I ignored NetAudio’s recommendation of resistors on the advice of Kicker tech support that the Key amp has line resistance built in using the high level speaker inputs. In other words you don’t need RCA jack connections to add the Key amp. You simply run the speaker outputs from the T-harness directly to the Key amp wiring harness and it does the rest. The Key amp will show the factory radio speaker resistance without additional line resistors. You also do not need a trigger wire to turn the Key amp on. It has a built in internal sensor that powers it up as soon as you turn on the radio.

You may read online that using high level speaker inputs causes noise on the output side and that without a dedicated trigger wire you’ll get “pops” when the amp shuts off but I can honestly tell you that I experienced none of those scenarios with my Key amp. It’s one of the reasons I love that little amp, it does just about everything well and without the need for additional equipment or cost. It’s a unicorn that does just about everything without added complication and it also has a built in DSP (digital signal processor). Is it a thousand dollar amp? No, but for a couple hundred bucks you get a nice upgrade without much headache.

One last note to this already lengthy reply is the Key amp is “bi-ampable”. What that means is you can use one single speaker channel input to the amp and it will give you four channels of output. This comes in handy with the six speaker Ram audio systems as the front doors and dash speakers are wired as one. In other words your left dash and door speakers are wired together and your right dash and door speakers are wired together. If you use the Key amp in bi-amp mode you can power both door and both dash speakers individually with one speaker wire from the factory radio. You can then use the remaining three sets of speaker outputs from the factory radio to power the rear door speakers and add a LOC for subs to the oddball channel. If you go the bi-amp route you will need to run new wiring to at least the dash speakers which is pretty easy.
Awesome info. Thanks so much. Yes my truck is technically a 4th gen as you pointed out so that harness should be what I need. When I eventually add subs I am planning on just hooking the sub amp to the car battery so I assume I will not need a LOC. Thanks again for your responses, Ill order the harness and amp eventually and give it a try!
 

Atcer2018

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Awesome info. Thanks so much. Yes my truck is technically a 4th gen as you pointed out so that harness should be what I need. When I eventually add subs I am planning on just hooking the sub amp to the car battery so I assume I will not need a LOC. Thanks again for your responses, Ill order the harness and amp eventually and give it a try!

Anytime and good luck with your install. If you have any questions hit me up. I highly recommend the bi-amp mode. I originally wired my Key amp in non bi-amp configuration and was happy with it till I got bored and tried the bi-amp method. It’s really nice being able to have separate controls for six individual speakers. It you replace any speakers at all do the dash speakers as they make the biggest difference overall. They are 3 1/2 inch speakers and a dozen companies make them in coaxial configuration.
 
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tswannnlk

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Anytime and good luck with your install. If you have any questions hit me up. I highly recommend the bi-amp mode. I originally wired my Key amp in non bi-amp configuration and was happy with it till I got bored and tried the bi-amp method. It’s really nice being able to have separate controls for six individual speakers. It you replace any speakers at all do the dash speakers as they make the biggest difference overall. They are 3 1/2 inch speakers and a dozen companies make them in coaxial configuration.
Awesome! Thanks so much.
 

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Only the Alpine speaker system uses an external amplifier, the standard 6-speaker trucks are powered from the radio.
My 2019 Laramie has the eight speaker system that is labeled "Alpine." There is no external amplifier under the rear seat.

Regards,
Dusty
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SitKneelBend

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My 2019 Laramie has the eight speaker system that is labeled "Alpine." There is no external amplifier under the rear seat.

Regards,
Dusty
2019 Ram 1500 Billet Silver Laramie Quad Cab 2WD, 5.7 Hemi, 8HP75, 3.21 axle, 33-gallon fuel tank, 18” wheels. Build Date: 3 June 2018. Now at 123497 miles.
It's located under the dash in the driver footwell area if I'm not mistaken...
 
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