Poor audio systems in honda vehicles

dinyaar

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Hi Guys,

Please suggest decent speakers for a Civic. What are the brands that are decent.Head unit cannot be changed so no option.

Is it an alpine or a clarion? Old accord system was junk and so is the civic system.

Lastly do u think changing speakers will improve sound substantially?

Have been totally out of touch with car audio so please advise.

Regards
 
dinyaar,


honda india cars normally have alpine systems.

i have a pioneer cd head unit with jbl speakers (2 rears and 2 smaller ones in dash) in my car. don't remember the precise model for speakers, however jbl brand is freely available in most decent car audio stores around india and you might want to check the region between panchratna (opera hours) and lamington road for these. i believe the jbl car speakers brand is certainly superior to the out of the box speakers that one normally gets with sony, blaupunkt, jvc, pioneer head units.

the civic would have the space for mounting a sub-woofer too and with this you might want to consider a power amp.

do check out JBL India and In-Car Entertainment - Team-BHP.

Soomoku is a home grown sub-woofer brand from pune!

--bhuvan.
 
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Thanks a ton Bhuvan. Ill explore JBL.

Wont go the power amp/sub woofer route but will just stick to installing better speakers.

I have an old honda city in which i have a Pioneer HU + Changer and Blaupunkt speakers and the sound is far far better than the factory fit system in the civic.

Regards
 
Hi Guys,

Please suggest decent speakers for a Civic. What are the brands that are decent.Head unit cannot be changed so no option.

Is it an alpine or a clarion? Old accord system was junk and so is the civic system.

Lastly do u think changing speakers will improve sound substantially?

Have been totally out of touch with car audio so please advise.

Regards

Hey! Dude how's it goin?

If your head unit is flush monted it will mostly be a panna. Changing spk will def give a you a much better sound but you'll have to add an amp as well.If you want good sound i feel an amp is a must.
Pl let me know what is the budget you are looking at? will help me in sugesting brands & models. I think you can do much better than JBL
Also are going to add a sub? & are you open to damping? as i feel your civic requires it.
All the best.
Cheers
 
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Hey! Dude how's it goin?

If your head unit is flush monted it will mostly be a panna. Changing spk will def give a you a much better sound but you'll have to add an amp as well.If you want good sound i feel an amp is a must.
Pl let me know what is the budget you are looking at? will help me in sugesting brands & models. I think you can do much better than JBL
Also are going to add a sub? & are you open to damping? as i feel your civic requires it.
All the best.
Cheers

Hi Neo,
All AOK. As ok as can be with stocks swinging the way they do.

I feel both civic and accord have very similar if not the same set up. God i didnt even know there was a brand called 'panna'. Have not really allocated a budget but i dont really spend much on car audio.
Keeping the same HU( no option ) what budget will get me decent sound. Current set up is 'tinny' and hollow sounding.
Neo i may have(read would have) spent on a cool set up a decade ago but dont know if i need an amp/sub just to enjoy better sound. I repeat am totally out of the car audio scene. I didnt even know u could do accoustic treatment in a car so never thought on those lines
Please suggest some good speakers in say 10/15K. Should i just change the rears or all four?
Thanks in advance
 
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Please suggest some good speakers in say 10/15K. Should i just change the rears or all four?
Thanks in advance

JBL are good speakers and are VFM. They will improve the sound quality over the OEM speakers. For this budget, you can also look at Illusion brand of speakers.
 
Since you don't have a choice of changing the head unit, go for a good amplifier and put component speakers both front & back.

I have a City and put JBL component speakers. Tried a sub but not much of an improvement and gave up. Since these cars are very well sound insulated so you wont get enough punch inside the car. But it rocked the street. Another option is to fix the sub in the center behind the rear seat. For that you need to make a big hole (which I didn't want to do as it will affect resale value) and look for high end flat sub's.

Regards,
John
 
Hi Dinyaar,
Pls chk the Head unit make from car service people because these car manufacturers sometimes change suppliers.
If it is reputed one like Alpine or Blaukaumpt (suprisingly some Japanese car makers use German Head units) -if you are lucky you'll get tailormade solutions - like specialsed connectors etc. Just try google.

I was in electronics in dubai in 2002-2003 and car audio was one of my portfolio.Your problem is comman - frustration from OEM car audio - in fact a lot of people find so called premium car OEM audio from bose was frustrating !(Being an audio expert you must be knowing how Bose is!)

There were specialised high end car audio installers in Dubai - and I am certain In india too there are.They always show their presence in auto shows.Just try to locate them and you may get a better ( and expensive 0 solution. This is also a enthusiastic's world and you have specialised parts like cables and capacitors and odd brands like Kicker KICKER Car Stereo - Fuel for Livin' Loud! & Rockford Fosgate Rockford Fosgate® - Home .( Both brands available in Mumbai)

Happy Hunting

Pls let us know the outcome !!
 
Hi Neo,
All AOK. As ok as can be with stocks swinging the way they do.

I feel both civic and accord have very similar if not the same set up. God i didnt even know there was a brand called 'panna'. Have not really allocated a budget but i dont really spend much on car audio.
Keeping the same HU( no option ) what budget will get me decent sound. Current set up is 'tinny' and hollow sounding.
Neo i may have(read would have) spent on a cool set up a decade ago but dont know if i need an amp/sub just to enjoy better sound. I repeat am totally out of the car audio scene. I didnt even know u could do accoustic treatment in a car so never thought on those lines
Please suggest some good speakers in say 10/15K. Should i just change the rears or all four?
Thanks in advance

Sure you do Panna = Pannasonic:D

I checked with a few installers but they could'nt confirm the head unit make.
Since you are on a limited budget You can try spk from Bull audio or Illusion electra series. They will have your type of sound rather than JBL.

Go for 6" inch components in the front & coaxial in the rear.

Get a cheap amp from kenwood like 8401 shld be arnd 5k in grey or get a cheaper blaupunkt

The set up would cost arnd 15-20k.

But if you insist on just getting spks only,then get some enrty level blaupunkt's which may sound decent without an amp.

If you go for a set up with an amp then i would suggest you damp your doors. But for your civic you can only damp the inner side of your moulded door panel. Pl avoid the damping the inside of your doors as will spoil the waterproofing.

Let me know if you need contact info of good installers.
All the best.
Cheers
 
Hi Dinyaar
Neo and others have provided you with all the information you need. You have a decent home audio setup since years.
So you know how much important the power amp would be.
So i would also suggest to go for a good power amp irrespective of any speakers you go for. Genreally head units produce 12 to 15 watts per channel and they sound bad when taken above 70 percent levels
I guess you drive your self, so initially you can go with only front components with a 4 channel amp. This gives you flexibility to add rear speakers and wont be an issue powering them since you would have a 4 channel amp.
Amp with approx 50 watts per channel would be more then enough for you assuming you dont listen very high levels.
Now which amp to go for, I guess Neo can help you better.
JBL and Kenwood have some decent amps but please stay away from any Sony Xplod range
 
Apologies for digressing a little..

Has anyone checked out the Rockford Fosgate system on the new Outlander, 650W 9 speakers, flat sub,:p

Is it worth buying the car for :D, I mean as compared to the CRV,

Best Regards,

Danccc
 
Apologies for digressing a little..

Has anyone checked out the Rockford Fosgate system on the new Outlander, 650W 9 speakers, flat sub,:p

Is it worth buying the car for :D, I mean as compared to the CRV,

Best Regards,

Danccc

Must be good comparing factory fitted systems, but you have all the brands you can name in the Indian market.
So you can custom built your car audio system the way you want.
So definately the OUTLANDER is not worth buying just for its music system. :p
 
Hi Guys,
Thanks for taking the time. Neo dumb of me to not get your lingo. Truly was wondering as i had never heard of 'panna'. Haha thanks anyway.
Rikhav i know what a power amp can do in a home set up and i guess would be great for a car too but my expectations from a car audio are different. And yes i love to drive and have never had a driver till date.
Heard the dyna system in the volvo though and its very good. Sounds more like a good audio set up as compared to a car stereo. But frankly i dont have the heart to shell out lots on car stereo as its adds to the possibility of theft on our bbay streets.(Last 2 decades i have had 3 car stereo s and 2 front panels stolen and the rascal also took my tennis kit which actually cost as much as the stereo)

rgds
 
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Hi Guys,
Thanks for taking the time. Neo dumb of me to not get your lingo. Truly was wondering as i had never heard of 'panna'. Haha thanks anyway.
Rikhav i know what a power amp can do in a home set up and i guess would be great for a car too but my expectations from a car audio are different. And yes i love to drive and have never had a driver till date.
Heard the dyna system in the volvo though and its very good. Sounds more like a good audio set up as compared to a car stereo. But frankly i dont have the heart to shell out lots on car stereo as its adds to the possibility of theft on our bbay streets.(Last 2 decades i have had 3 car stereo s and 2 front panels stolen and the rascal also took my tennis kit which actually cost as much as the stereo)

rgds


Hi Dinyaar,
Almost forgot the most important factor "THEFT" and it simply makes no sense when you know its very easy for those guys
So you have to experiment with speakers to improve the sound
I still remember during the Mumbai floods when all had left their cars on the road fearing for their life. The next day i saw many Marriot Camry's in which the middle part of the dashboard was ripped apart by car thievs as it has a flush mounted audio system
 
Hi Rikhav,
That is the prime reason to put nothing that adds to the temptation. I love my cars and would hate it broken into again. The system is not tooooooo bad. I guess one has to lower ones expectations or be prepared for the worst.
U are interested in cars/bikes too from what i remember and am sure would feel the same. Incidently i have 'downgraded'. Sold a 4 yr old accord for a civic. The accord had a clarion which was also poor and this sounds pretty similar so my guess is that Honda has a clarion as the factory fit.

Danccc the outlander(not yet driven one) will be superb 'off road' and if one is truly going for serious adventure this is one good SUV. The CRV is really only good for our streets IMO.

Anyway thank u guys. Will think a bit more about few speaker options and will revert back.
Regards
 
Hi Dinyaar
Yes, you are right. I am interested in cars and bikes as well and so i can understand you very well.
In that case I would really suggest you not to play with the music system in your Civic and just accept as it is.
Why I am saying this is that there is no 100 percent gurantee that changing speakers will improve the sound quality to a great extent.
One of my friend has a Civic which is like almost 2 years old now and I have listened to the music system in it. My thoughts are its not that bad. Yeah, its not that rich in sound but still acceptable.

So I would again suggest to keep it as it is.

Also please excuse me to go offtopic. Just wanted to know if your Civic has come factory fitted with Michelins?
 
Hi,
Sorry moderator for all this car talk.

Yes Rikhav it came with Michelin Energy 195/65 R 15 as the stock tyres which i changed the same day. Honda vehicles (civic) can come with either Michelin,bridgestone or goodyear tyres. One cant choose. All the above OE tyres are similar and mediocre.
Regards
 
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