ICE for Civic

[BLASTO]

Hi Guys,

I recently upgraded to a civic (from A-Star) and found that the ICE suck big time. This is one of the only 'downgrades' in the move. Stock ICE SQ of A-star was far better.

Can anyone with Honda cars please let me know if changing the speakers alone will improve the sound or does the HU require a change too?

Given a choice, I would avoid changing the stock look of the HU and only change the speakers.

Please also suggest some good speakers with good bass and midrange. If they are extraordinary, I can go till 20k only for speakers.

I would like to avoid the sub entirely so a speaker with pronounced bass will help.

Thanks in advance.

 

[sud98]

I had posted this a few years back (when I had bought my civic) and I got some good responses. I never implemented it (far too expensive ~ 50k) and most recommended change in HU to get the best bang and adding better dampeners to manage the noise.

 

[BLASTO]

^^^ Can you point me to the thread?

Edit: Found out.
So HU is the weakest link. How stupid for 15L car.

 

[shuv]

Stock custom HU is always a compromise. Even in my Accord I have an after market HU for ICE while the stock HU screen is for CC display.

Try damping the front doors. For speakers, look at PHD from Powerzone, Chennai. HAT is also very very good.

A HU upgrade will be required as the stock has no pre outs for amplifiers.

 

[Kittu]

@Blasto ,

You may want to read this thread. Our forum member cmsajith built a HU with all options.

Interest Check : DIY Audiophile-Grade 2DIN Car Audio - Video Head Unit

 

[BLASTO]

Stock custom HU is always a compromise. Even in my Accord I have an after market HU for ICE while the stock HU screen is for CC display.

Try damping the front doors. For speakers, look at PHD from Powerzone, Chennai. HAT is also very very good.

A HU upgrade will be required as the stock has no pre outs for amplifiers.

PHD looks interesting without amps as they apparently have very low power requirements.
Thanks for the pointer, will look further in this direction.

Do you have this installed? What is your take?

 

[ishaan]

Can you guy elaborate more on dampening the doors,? There are sounds from my Honda City, with stock speakers and pioneer HU unit

 

[s_sachin]

Yay new civic in campus Congrats ... when do I get a ride ?

 

[Flash]

Blasto .. Congrats on the new car .

 

[shuv]

When did you get the car? Didn't Honda India pull the plug on the Civic in December?

 

[BLASTO]

When did you get the car? Didn't Honda India pull the plug on the Civic in December?

Its a company leased vehicle transferred to my name.
2010 facelift model came to 6.2L at the end of lease without a dent or dot (Thanks for Honda pulling the plug).

 

[shuv]

You lucky @&#^$%*

I'm not a PHD user, but have only read good things about the products. Apparently they work well with stock HUs.

If you want to retain the stock look, there are a few options from Alpine and JBL. Sound processors some with built in amplifiers. But, I think its cheaper to get a dash kit and a SQ type Single DIN HU.

A FM from Calcutta has internally modified the stock HU to take care of the pre outs issue. Thus retaining the HU, he added an amplifier and changed the speakers (to the venerable Illusion EL 6.2).

I got a dash kit and a single DIN Alpine HU.

As you can see there are quite a few options.

 

[umeshdhingra]

I am not too sure , whther I can post links from other web sites, but here is one such , which even I am getting motivated to have a serious look ( budget constrains) for my Honda Civic.....
Turning my Honda Civic into a DISCO! - Team-BHP

 

[BLASTO]

An Update:

Checked out Sajjad4Joy's MF6.2 setup with JVC player (and no amps).
Bass is great but vocals could be better. It really gave an impression of a sub woofer in the back. I think it should be still more better with amp in the picture.

Looks like for a car audio setup, I actually prefer thumping bass kind of speakers rather than midrange centric speakers like my thiels. I realized I don't even hear much of live music or orchestral types or slow music in the car but prefer adrenaline rush kind of music, trance, pop, ARR numbers to keep pushing you when you drive a car like civic.

Looks like HAT is out of the picture then?
How does Rainbow compare to both of these?

Thanks in advance,

 

[BLASTO]

One other detail I notice is, The stock system sounds much better with mp3 (!!) than original audio CDs. Presents a well balanced sound with bass and treble at 0 with mp3.

With audio CD though, the system needs bass= +4 and treble = 0/1 to sound anything close to neutral. Still not as good as same songs in mp3.

weirdness of the highest order!!

 

[shuv]

For EDM, look at Gladen RS165s. I listen to a lot of EDM in the car and I adore those bass heavy huns.