mikeberlak
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- Thread starter
- #1
Like many other recent Honda owners, I was not enthralled with the quality of the non-Bose, 160-watt, 8-speaker sound system in my brand new Civic EX. About $350 later, I am loving it.
The headlines:
Bought TWO packs of Infinity PR6510cs speakers at $99/pack. Each box contains 2 large speakers and 2 tweeters. Also got the installation kits from Crutchfield so the total outlay with them was less than $250.
Bought one Double Rock CB08 active subwoofer...another $99 on Amazon.
Here's a comparison of the Civic's stock speakers on the right to the Infinitys on the left. Hmm, check out the size of the magnets
The Infinitys include a separate crossover for each woofer/tweeter pair, so I ran the original wire for the stock 6.5s to the crossover input...and then ran new wire from the crossover outputs to the new speakers. Here's one of the rear doors with the panel removed. You can see the crossover hot-glued into the opening behind where the large speaker will go.
The biggest challenge was learning how to remove and replace the A-pillar trim. Once I figured that out, the tweeter replacement was easy. I just wrapped a little rubber gasket material around the new tweeters and they snugged right into the original openings. A couple drops of hot glue to secure them. Running the tweeter feed wires from the crossover in the front doors up to the pillars was no fun. I ended up making a small hole in the bottom of the rubber grommet where the door hinges and running the wire mostly hidden up the trim to the pillars.
While the A-pillar trim was off, I extended the original wiring to the stock tweeters and snaked it thru the moulding to the front passenger seat location where the under-seat sub would live.
It may sound strange to feed a sub with a tweeter wire, but since the stock setup just used a capacitor on the tweeter to block bass, the feed wire actually has the full frequency spectrum and you get plenty of bottom to send to the sub.
This Double Rock unit fits very well under the seat. (A lot of the so-called “under-seat” units do not!) The above pic is with the seat full-forward. Here is a shot with the seat at a normal depth. You can just see the edge of the sub.
At no time did I have to remove or access the actual head unit. All wiring was connected to the original lines in either the doors or at the A-pillars.
____________________________________________________
So, I have some pretty good quality mp3 music files on flashdrive. When I play them on the upgraded system there is plenty of volume. Unlike the stocks, you can run these speakers full blast if you want with no distortion! Of course, do that for a while and you'll have no hearing either. I find myself cranking it up to no more than 25/40 if I'm alone (and that's pretty loud) and with someone else in the car it's 13 or 14 if we want to have any sort of conversation. The subwoofer rounds out the bottom end very nicely...much more bass available than you'll ever need.
A couple little tweaks I recommend:
The Infinity tweeters do tweet! So I found setting the bass/mid/treble as shown below tames the highs enough to sound really good. In fact, if your high-frequency hearing is still in good shape, you might want to even go a click or two lower on the treble control.
And, just a personal preference, but I like to move the sound stage a little towards the rear so music seems to come from the sides instead of from the dash.
There you go. For an old guy listening to classic rock and oldies, this system is all I'll ever need. Sure beats the stock setup. Yes, you can spend several times what I did and who knows how much better it will be.
If you want to try something like this, let me know if I can answer any questions for you.
The headlines:
- replaced all 8 speakers, (4x 6.5” & 4x tweeters)
- added a small, under-seat 8” subwoofer
- KEPT the original head unit
Bought TWO packs of Infinity PR6510cs speakers at $99/pack. Each box contains 2 large speakers and 2 tweeters. Also got the installation kits from Crutchfield so the total outlay with them was less than $250.
Bought one Double Rock CB08 active subwoofer...another $99 on Amazon.
Here's a comparison of the Civic's stock speakers on the right to the Infinitys on the left. Hmm, check out the size of the magnets
The Infinitys include a separate crossover for each woofer/tweeter pair, so I ran the original wire for the stock 6.5s to the crossover input...and then ran new wire from the crossover outputs to the new speakers. Here's one of the rear doors with the panel removed. You can see the crossover hot-glued into the opening behind where the large speaker will go.
The biggest challenge was learning how to remove and replace the A-pillar trim. Once I figured that out, the tweeter replacement was easy. I just wrapped a little rubber gasket material around the new tweeters and they snugged right into the original openings. A couple drops of hot glue to secure them. Running the tweeter feed wires from the crossover in the front doors up to the pillars was no fun. I ended up making a small hole in the bottom of the rubber grommet where the door hinges and running the wire mostly hidden up the trim to the pillars.
While the A-pillar trim was off, I extended the original wiring to the stock tweeters and snaked it thru the moulding to the front passenger seat location where the under-seat sub would live.
It may sound strange to feed a sub with a tweeter wire, but since the stock setup just used a capacitor on the tweeter to block bass, the feed wire actually has the full frequency spectrum and you get plenty of bottom to send to the sub.
This Double Rock unit fits very well under the seat. (A lot of the so-called “under-seat” units do not!) The above pic is with the seat full-forward. Here is a shot with the seat at a normal depth. You can just see the edge of the sub.
At no time did I have to remove or access the actual head unit. All wiring was connected to the original lines in either the doors or at the A-pillars.
____________________________________________________
So, I have some pretty good quality mp3 music files on flashdrive. When I play them on the upgraded system there is plenty of volume. Unlike the stocks, you can run these speakers full blast if you want with no distortion! Of course, do that for a while and you'll have no hearing either. I find myself cranking it up to no more than 25/40 if I'm alone (and that's pretty loud) and with someone else in the car it's 13 or 14 if we want to have any sort of conversation. The subwoofer rounds out the bottom end very nicely...much more bass available than you'll ever need.
A couple little tweaks I recommend:
The Infinity tweeters do tweet! So I found setting the bass/mid/treble as shown below tames the highs enough to sound really good. In fact, if your high-frequency hearing is still in good shape, you might want to even go a click or two lower on the treble control.
And, just a personal preference, but I like to move the sound stage a little towards the rear so music seems to come from the sides instead of from the dash.
There you go. For an old guy listening to classic rock and oldies, this system is all I'll ever need. Sure beats the stock setup. Yes, you can spend several times what I did and who knows how much better it will be.
If you want to try something like this, let me know if I can answer any questions for you.
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