Factory Radio: WOW!

Typically when I drive to work I quietly listen to the radio. But htis morning for whatever reason I was in a loud rock music mood. So I threw in a burned CD and cranked the volume to 15. The first song was Green Day's "Holiday." Wow! I was so impressed by how it sounded. Nice crisp treble and thunderous bass. For factory radio, speakers, and amp it sounded pretty good!

Just thought I'd share my morning experience.

Yea you know some people say that the speakers really **** but I think the factory sound system sounds pretty good. The only way it sounds bad to me is if I start turning the bass way up. Then it sounds pretty muddy but otherwise its pretty clear with half-decent bass even at higher volumes.

Amazingly (and I never thought I would say this) but I almost think the radio has too much bass.... sometimes I feel like my car is one of those "Boom, da da Boom" cars you hear coming like 5 min away!!!!

If you could see the oem speakers, those things are cheezy, but they do sound good. weee

Add some bass like I did with the Basslink and you'll go WOW even more!!

Agreed. People everywhere seem to think the Accord's radio ****s. I've been very pleased with it, though. Maybe I'm easy to please. I'm glad it sounds good, though, because I love the look of the stock unit. So well integrated--plus I'm not sure how well an aftermarket radio would work out with the climate controls and whatnot.

Amazingly (and I never thought I would say this) but I almost think the radio has too much bass.... sometimes I feel like my car is one of those "Boom, da da Boom" cars you hear coming like 5 min away!!!!

Amazingly enough you hardly hear much of anything outside of the car.

The funny thing is now that I have a decent amount of bass in my car I have to go track down those rattles in the rear shelf and see if I can get them fixed.

they sound great till you change your deck and it changes how much watts to each speaker.....then it sounds kinda crapy

they sound great till you change your deck and it changes how much watts to each speaker.....then it sounds kinda crapy

The stock deck has a bass and treble calibration curve for the speakers to prevent distortion and to give out the best response at all volume levels. Obviously if you feed 25W of incorrectly tuned signal to a speaker meant to handle 3 watts...it's going to sound crappy.

Amazingly enough you hardly hear much of anything outside of the car.


That's very true. I can crank up my 12" sub to a level right before distortion and get out of the car and close the door and hardly hear it. Inside it's deafening but outside it's hardly audible. Honda did some good soundproofing on these Accords.

Jeff

Honda did some good soundproofing on these Accords.

Jeff
It's interesting you would say that because one of the flaws according to the critics is the amount of road noise the Accords have. I never thought road noise was an issue. But I can see their point.

It's interesting you would say that because one of the flaws according to the critics is the amount of road noise the Accords have. I never thought road noise was an issue. But I can see their point.


Well....road noise and outside noise are two different things. Honda did a good job of blocking outside noise but since road noise is transferred through vibrations from the tires up into the frame and then into the passenger cabin, it's harder to deaden.

It's hard to stop road noise while keeping a good road feeling for the driver. If you take out too much of the road noise, you also take out much of the "feel" and you end up driving a marshmallow and not a car. I'd rather have the road noise and have good, responsive steering and handling and a good road feel.

Jeff

Just a few minutes ago driving to the S.O.'s house I enjoyed the stereo also. Listened to Helen of Troy by Robert Plant, Don't Look Back by Boston, Welcome to the Pleasuredome, and Relax by Frankie goes to Hollywood, and White Wedding by Billy Idol. All were cranked between 20 to 28 on the volume control. It was homemade custom CD and the fidelty was really good. I also think the stock up front speakers sound real nice with the tweeters in the dash, giving good location of high frequency sounds. The door speakers also hold their own. The rear speakers sound dull due to a lack of a tweeter, and the bass is muddy(set at +1). Turning down to -1 reduces the bass too much. I plan to upgrade these soon as a birthday gift from the S.O. She doesn't know this yet. :D But overall the sound is real good. :)

Happy motoring

Dan

Yay for the stereo!

I don't know why some people insist that stock stereos are crap. I don't think you could tell any difference on the road.

But sitting in the car in the driveway with no other noise, yeah - it's amazing.

I don't think you could tell any difference on the road.

Good point!

Nothing against people who've invested in after-market car electronics, but I could never figure out why folks spend un-godly amounts of money on after market electronics for their cars when a car driving down a road is one of the worst listening environments imaginable. Put the money in a home system where the environment is more condusive to listening to fine music. But I guess to each his/her own.

The 7th gen Accord's radio is very good, but people invest in aftermarket technologies to further customize their car. Most aftermarket radios offer something that most factory radios cannot provide... more bass. The Accord's radio puts out good bass, but it gets distorted pretty quickly when you turn up the volume since the built-in amp isn't powerful enough or the OEM speakers aren't good enough. Some people spend much more time in their cars than in their homes.

Road noise does distort the music a little bit. That's why I don't mind listening to MP3's on the road. Also, pre-7th gen radios are really, really weak! For example, the factory radio in my old car hardly put out any volume and it's very hard to hear the music at highway speeds even if the radio is turned up to 70% of it's max volume. You could compare it to one of those mini boom boxes. There's no bass and no volume. Changing it to an aftermarket radio greatly improved the sound of the music and makes long drives that much more enjoyable! We're just spoiled by Honda in our Accords! :D

I don't think you could tell any difference on the road.


Well, I for one can tell the difference. I work in Pro audio installing and running sound for live events. It's part of my job to improve sound in less than optimal listening environments. If I can't hear subtle differences in quality over the sound of a few hundred (or in some cases - thousands of) screaming fans, then I can't do my job effectively.

It's easier to hear differences in music over road noise than it is over screaming people.

Just because you can't hear the difference doesn't mean everyone else can't. There are probably things that you are better at than other people. Hearing subtle changes in music apparantly isn't one of them.

Jeff

Well, I for one can tell the difference. I work in Pro audio installing and running sound for live events. It's part of my job to improve sound in less than optimal listening environments. If I can't hear subtle differences in quality over the sound of a few hundred (or in some cases - thousands of) screaming fans, then I can't do my job effectively.

It's easier to hear differences in music over road noise than it is over screaming people.

Just because you can't hear the difference doesn't mean everyone else can't. There are probably things that you are better at than other people. Hearing subtle changes in music apparantly isn't one of them.

Jeff

Amen to this way of thinking.

I think people spend ungodly amounts(or not-so-ungodly amounts) of money trying to improve their audio systems because to them, the stock system is a compromise they're not willing to accept. Obviously, the stock system is more than adequate for the majority of people. However, once you realize or can appreciate the difference, there's no going back, unfortunately.

The difference between a high-end system and no-so-high-end system exists whether you're in a car, phone booth, living room, or concert hall.

Amen to this way of thinking.

I think people spend ungodly amounts(or not-so-ungodly amounts) of money trying to improve their audio systems because to them, the stock system is a compromise they're not willing to accept. Obviously, the stock system is more than adequate for the majority of people. However, once you realize or can appreciate the difference, there's no going back, unfortunately.

The difference between a high-end system and no-so-high-end system exists whether you're in a car, phone booth, living room, or concert hall.

there is a definite difference in the sound of high end systems and all, but everyone still has to admit that for a low end, oem unit, the accord has a great sounding system!

i can tell the difference in music and the like (originally planned on becoming a music teacher in fact.) but the accord's system is plenty for me. i have never felt the need to improve it. i have been in so many cars where the stereos were complete pieces of junk, even when they are supposed UPGRADES to higher end systems! :lmao:

anywho, just wanted to chime in and say that even though you can notice the difference, it still doesn't mean that the accord has a bad system by any means. (now if i had a nissan, i'd be ready to hurt someone over the sound those systems produce. or should i say lack thereof???? :lmao: )

The only thing the Accord's system was lacking for me was BASS. I solved that by getting a Basslink.


Only problem now is that when I turn it up I lose about 0.5MPG. :naughty:

Well put, Anysia. The Accord's radio is much better than some OEM radios out there. I was disappointed in Honda radios for years because Honda's been putting low-powered radios in their cars to decrease the possibility that their cars would need to have the radio components repaired/ replaced.

jeff92k7, take dads-car's statements lightly. I don't think he's trying to say that there is no difference between a good radio and a crappy radio on the road because of the noise. He's trying to say something along the lines of "what good is a $2000 high-end sound system in a car when you always hear road noise? Most people won't hear the difference." It's like comparing a TL with a Civic... Both of them would get you from point A to point B safely, but the feel of the drive is different. :)

The Accord's system has bass.... just crappy bass... thud, thud, thud..... when you really want thump, thump, thump... ;)

Add some bass like I did with the Basslink and you'll go WOW even more!!

I want to add Basslink and Kappas to wifes Accord. The OEM speakers really do **** and the tweeter placement is way stupid. Why in the corner bouncing off the windsheild? They could have rocked them up or something.

The Accord's system has bass.... just crappy bass... thud, thud, thud..... when you really want thump, thump, thump... ;)


When you get GOOD bass, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

I did have to track down some rattles and fix them but after that it almost sounds as good as the system at home.

What I am thinking of doing is modding the the radio and adding a line out, since I'm using the universal interface at high volume it does get a bit distorted.

I'm quite surprised though that US model Hondas have had such crappy stereos. The JDM ones I've seen (Civic and prelude) have had MUCH better stereos. The speakers were crap though but once you replace them they are great.

When you get GOOD bass, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
Yep... Totally agree with you. :yes: I had a nice system in my last car... 600watt 4-channel amp powering two 12" Rockfords..... I could go as loud as I can bear it and the bass still comes in clean. :D

The Accord's system doesn't have excellent bass, but it's good enough that I'm not doing any major complaining. :D

He's trying to say something along the lines of "what good is a $2000 high-end sound system in a car when you always hear road noise? Most people won't hear the difference."


That, I will agree with. I see no point in spending ungodly amounts of money for minor improvements over a system that cost only a few hundred dollars. It's just not cost effective when those minor improvements may be drowned out by road noise.

I spent somewhere between $200 and $350 total for all my sound upgrades that, in my opinion, greatly improve the stock sound. I don't see any reason to spend 10 times that for a system that may only provide marginal improvements over what I have now.

However, sound is a very subjective thing. Some people may think that the minor improvements in high priced equipment are worth it.

Nonetheless, I did take his original post to imply that he thought the stock system was adequate and that people are wasting money to improve it.

Jeff

Best investment I ever made was upgrading my rear deck speakers and the head unit. What I had sounded very good....what I have now sounds great! Total cost...about $300.

Amazingly enough you hardly hear much of anything outside of the car.

The funny thing is now that I have a decent amount of bass in my car I have to go track down those rattles in the rear shelf and see if I can get them fixed.

Agreed on all counts - I think my rear shelf has calmed down a bit rattle-wise, but I have an annoying rattle from the plastic 'fake wood' piece on the driver's door armrest :grr: