Civic15

About ten years ago I had a fairly significant system in a car:
Pioneer Premiere Deck, Alpine Flex 4 amp powering MB Quart speakers and crossovers, Memphis 1000w amp powering 3 JL Audio 10W3s, Lightning audio cap.. etc.

Since, only the subs (MB Quart subs now replaced the JLs) have made it to my other cars since.

I have never upgraded any other cars speakers, but still have that Alpine Flex 4 amp and have recently been thinking about putting it to use...


What brings me here is: Every Civic I've owned, a 95 EX, 04 EX and now 05 EX, I have ALWAYS noticed the speakers in the back deck REALLY seem decent!! They seem to have decent bass...

To the point that I almost think it might be 100% unnecessary to upgrade. Granted, if I install my sub box, I won't need bass from the back deck speakers, and perhaps could go with cleaner crisper higher quality speakers, but honestly... I don't know that I'd notice a difference.


What are your opinions on the stock units, and suggestions for replacements?

Thanks a lot for reading and for your opinions. Hope you're all enjoying this Holiday season!

GolNat

iTrader: (7)

The stock speakers are not bad at all, but I do prefer to have a sub for the bass. I have an 8" sub in the trunk and the only issue I have with the stock speakers is them being able to keep up with the sub when I turn the music up. The stock speakers start to crack and get drowned out by the bass. I have turned the bass down and faded the sound to the front to compensate for this but would prefer to be able to have it up a bit more. For my liking new upgraded speakers would be better.

So it is not needed depending on how you like your music. Upgrading just the head unit and not adding a sub may be enough of an upgrade to the sound.

Civic15

I have the EX Special Edition that has the in dash 6 disc changer... I couldn't bring myself to change it!

j_dock69

I've upgraded all of the speakers and it sounds waaaaay better

myVTEC

check out sonicelectronix.com they have good deals on a lot of speaker and component systems. you can get ones that would put your stock speakers to shame probably for a pretty decent price(also most stuff will ship from a dealer or distributor near you so it wont take long to get your items). the stock speakers may not be bad but any decent(alpine,pioneer,mb quart,infinity,ect) aftermarket speaker that are ran right and on an amp or a nice head unit will ALWAYS sound better than a stock speaker. Plus after market speakers will handle more watts that you would need to push to them to keep up with a sub or subs.
from personal experience any car with a subwoofer setup needs an amp for the highs as well or they will get drowned out, if you are pushing more then a couple hundred watts to a sub as its not easy to drown out 50w x 4channels which is about average for a head unit output.
i have a couple of single sub and double sub setups and i always ran an amp for the highs once the subs were in.
why go through the trouble and money of putting bass in the car for your highs to not be loud enough once it said and done? lol

last set up i had was
2 pioneer premier championship PRO subs in a 4 cubic foot box with a port
tuned to i believe it was 28htz so it dropped really low
4000w power acoustic amp ( i only pushed about 1500w to each sub as thats all they needed to slam all day and not blow)
Kinetic battery for additional power
840w jensen amp with 5 eminence 6.5"s (more then enough to keep up with the loud bass put out by the subs)
and i had an alpine head unit at the time so i was able to fine tune everything nicely with the built in EQ and settings

Kennykid2002

iTrader: (1)

Judging by your previous gear, you probably do know your way around good audio.

The stock on these Hondas are stock pioneers, so they do get pretty decent audio quality.
But you're always going to get better quality through aftermarket.

What I did was replace the headunit, replaced the front speakers with good high quality Mid/High range speakers, removed the rear deck speakers, and added a sub.
A single 12" or two 10" is definitely more than enough for these civics.

Civic15

MyVTEC, thanks, I had never heard of that website, but googled reviews and it seems to have all good ones. Definitely will check out options on there. thanks again.

Civic15

Okay.... I want to know once and for all whats up with Amps. To replace my Memphis 1000w with another Memphis will be almost $1000.

To buy a JL Audio amp could be $1200.

I can get an Alpine amp, 1100w @ 2 ohm to fit my needs, for $400...

a Kicker 1200w amp for $350...


But then there are Power Acoustik and Hifonic amps that offer that power for way less...

Even cheaper amps like Boss, etc....


Do Power Acoustik and Hifonic amps hold up?

Kennykid2002

iTrader: (1)

.......
Or maybe you just lucked out.

Memphis are competition SPL quality audio, and JL is really high end audio quality.
The other brands you mentioned are pretty inferior to these.

Hifonics makes decent amps at a decent price.

myVTEC

your welcome man
and just because something is WAY TO OVERPRICED doesn't mean its the best... personally(just out of experince from what ive owned and what friends and other people i know have owned) i think Memphis,kicker, rocksford and a few other brands are way over rated for the price, alpine is always nice but still pretty expensive as you can get more bang for your buck with other brands just dont buy the bottom of the line product they offer. power acoustic and highfonics are both very good amps for the price they are offered at (highfonics being the nicer higher quality of the two)
but there are other brands like pioneer and massive and a few others that will get the job done just as nicely or better for not a bad price either

Consider going digital with your amps too possibly. ( just as much power output, better sound quality , half the size or smaller and they take half the juice normal amps do) if price isnt an issue digital is the way to go

long story short i got two pioneer(premier championship pro) subs
a 4000w pioneer amp , an amp install kit and a kinetic battery for
just under $1000 which is what your looking at for one amp...
and i put out people with stupid systems and like 4 15s and just nonsense with that setup if you power a nice amp properly and pair it with a good head unit and sweet subs you can be pretty loud for way cheaper then you think.
there is no need to spend that money for an amp when you can get almost a new system for that price

just check out some stuff and do some research and you can find a nice set up that wont break the bank completely. i like quality but i hate getting ripped off and a lot of people do when it comes to car audio so im just tryin to help where i can

myVTEC

try stay away from boss and the other super cheap amps
dont get me wrong there is such a thing as a deal
but there is also such a thing as bull crap too lol
and bull crap is not something you want to spend
money on or waste your time on by putting it in your car lol

GolNat

iTrader: (7)

I would agree, no need for an expensive setup with 2 12" subs. It's a civic, not a very big car.

I'm partial to Infinity, and Alpine products. My single 8" infinity sub (250W) way surpassed my 2 10" pioneers I had. The pioneers were older and lower quality but twice the power. Power isn't everything, clean, controlled, precise power is.

Also matching your box volume with sub is important for quality sound. Maybe think about making a custom inclosure. I made an 8" box so that I could flush mount my sub under the truck floor.