[According2Matt]

I knew before I bought it that the "premium" 360-watt 7 speaker sound system in the Accord EX-L was going to be lame, so I can't say that I'm disappointed. But honestly, I can't stand it. I was hoping it would at least be tolerable for a while. I don't even have 300 miles on the car and I'm itching to gut the audio system! Hey wait a minute, I just bought a new car, so I don't have that kind of money left!

So here's my plan: Eventually, I intend to integrate an LOC like the LC7i, add a nice 5 channel amp, and replace the sub and front speakers. Maybe replace the back speakers as well, but that is last on the list. Problem is, I can only afford to do one thing at a time, and I'm really tight on free time. So I'm wondering what I should do first that will make the most improvement, and hopefully at least make the system more tolerable.

Would I be better off replacing the front speakers with a nice component system, using the existing HU until I can add a LOC and amp, then replace the sub later?

Or should I add an LOC and Amp first, keeping the factory speakers intact for now?

Somewhere I read of an Accord user who only replaced the sub and claimed it made a tremendous improvement to the overall system.

Thoughts?
I appreciate any and all help! Thanks!

 

[primetime]

I knew before I bought it that the "premium" 360-watt 7 speaker sound system in the Accord EX-L was going to be lame, so I can't say that I'm disappointed. But honestly, I can't stand it. I was hoping it would at least be tolerable for a while. I don't even have 300 miles on the car and I'm itching to gut the audio system! Hey wait a minute, I just bought a new car, so I don't have that kind of money left!

So here's my plan: Eventually, I intend to integrate an LOC like the LC7i, add a nice 5 channel amp, and replace the sub and front speakers. Maybe replace the back speakers as well, but that is last on the list. Problem is, I can only afford to do one thing at a time, and I'm really tight on free time. So I'm wondering what I should do first that will make the most improvement, and hopefully at least make the system more tolerable.

Would I be better off replacing the front speakers with a nice component system, using the existing HU until I can add a LOC and amp, then replace the sub later?

Or should I add an LOC and Amp first, keeping the factory speakers intact for now?

Somewhere I read of an Accord user who only replaced the sub and claimed it made a tremendous improvement to the overall system.

Thoughts?
I appreciate any and all help! Thanks!

Save up for it all. Do it all at once. In the mean time, go into the system settings and set it to "flat" as described here:

http://www.driveaccord.net/forums/showthread.php?t=88418

It will sound much better.

Read the links in my thread here:

http://www.driveaccord.net/forums/showthread.php?t=172737

 

[Teasy010]

Oem System Specs for premium sound

Hi guys, I was just curious... does anyone know how many ohms of resistance are in the "premium" sound system? Any insight will be much appreciated.

 

[According2Matt]

I did the dsp settings - "FLAT ON" as recommended by primetime, and wow, the difference is amazing. This setting in the Developers Menu made a night and day difference in the performance of the stock system!

 

[Wrenchspinner]

That setting does make a difference. I agree with prime time. Do it all at the same time. Piecing it together won't do you any good

 

[pauly]

agree. do it all together. especially if you are paying the labor.
although, if you add a sub, you will find it makes a tremendous difference, but only because the system is completely lacking low frequency in your music. the mids and highs will still have that crappy "paper speaker" or "tinny" sound (that i hate), but you wont notice it as much because you will be somewhat overwhelmed from the fullness that the sub will add to your overall sound.

 

[According2Matt]

Since I will be doing the install myself, I see now reason to wait until I have enough saved to do it all. That could be as long as a year, and in the mean time I would be listening to a really crappy sound system. I started with the first phase a couple of weeks ago - sound deadening and damping, and replacing the front speaker components. I still have some tweaks to make to treating the doors for resonances, but I'm very close to finished. Already the improvement is huge. Sure it's still underpowered, but the overall sound is much better. At least it's tolerable until I can afford to buy some real power.

The taste of better sound has only made me hungry for more. Sound deadening and speaker replacement made an improvement, but after spending some time on the road with it I realize just how dull and lifeless the system still sounds. Now I'm obsessed with adding an LOC and amp, hoping they will bring the system to life.

 

[Lashlee]

If I were you I would look into a line driver and tapping onto the signal before the OEM amp as opposed to the LOC after the amp. The aftermarket 5 channel should help out with the overall dynamics, just be careful that you don't overdrive the OEM drivers.

 

[vsoni]

The taste of better sound has only made me hungry for more. Sound deadening and speaker replacement made an improvement, but after spending some time on the road with it I realize just how dull and lifeless the system still sounds. Now I'm obsessed with adding an LOC and amp, hoping they will bring the system to life.

i feel same after upgrading only speakers. amp and sub is must i suppose.
do let me know how it sounds after adding amp.

 

[Wrenchspinner]

Here is my recommendation. Use an LC7I after the factory amp. Run it to either a 4 channel amp plus a mono or a 5 channel. I currently left the rears on the factory amp and didn't change them at all. I installed Polk components up front with a 12" sub in the rear. I am powering it off of a 4 channel amp (1&2 to the front speakers and 3&4 bridged to the sub. It sounds great and didn't cost a ton. I was going to put a mono for the sub and replace the rears but it sounds so good now I will wait until I get really bored. Between the polks up front and the sub it really brought the sound to life. The rears are typically for fill and that's why I'm not too concerned about changing them. Also the sound is very clear. I know a lot of folks on here like to go pre amp and run it to an Audison Bit 10 or something like that. I'm sure it sounds good, but I didn't want to drop that kind of scratch. If you follow what I listed above and sound proof the heck out of the car I think you will be happy. Unless you are going for high end competition stuff the above recipe will work well.

 

[According2Matt]

Wrenchspinner - thank you for the recommendation. I am on a budget and am not looking for competition grade results, I just want clean dynamic sound quality. I've heard a lot of good talk about those Polks. I got a set of Focal components on clearance, I couldn't pass up the price, but it may not have been the wisest choice for speakers. The tweeters are smooth and the bass is much better than OEM, but the mids are dull and sound lifeless. I don't know if is because they are underpowered by the factory system, or if it is the speakers themselves, but I think the next step is to try as you suggest and get an LOC and amp. If I still don't like the sound, then the Focals my need to go.

 

[gummybear00]

I put some 70 watt rms entry level focal components in. The bass was a lot weaker than stock. The focals were rated at 60hz and above, so it doesn't even touch the lower bass areas.

With the Focals I have to turn them up 4 notches higher to get similar volume as stock. Definitely a sign that they're underpowered.

The biggest issue I have with the audio is the signal doesn't sound clean. This is due to the stock headunit's settings and active noise cancellation. Basically Honda engineered a weak stereo system that's trying to do too much, so the signal becomes crappy.

To get high quality audio, you'd need to increase the quality of the source. Probably need better headunit or amp+dsp.

 

[ousooner2]

I put some 70 watt rms entry level focal components in. The bass was a lot weaker than stock. The focals were rated at 60hz and above, so it doesn't even touch the lower bass areas.

With the Focals I have to turn them up 4 notches higher to get similar volume as stock. Definitely a sign that they're underpowered.

That's a sign they're not as efficient as the factory 6.5's

The biggest issue I have with the audio is the signal doesn't sound clean. This is due to the stock headunit's settings and active noise cancellation. Basically Honda engineered a weak stereo system that's trying to do too much, so the signal becomes crappy.

To get high quality audio, you'd need to increase the quality of the source. Probably need better headunit or amp+dsp.

The ANC shouldn't have much to do with it. The stock head unit is also fine. DSP will definitely help any situation, but the stock HU is perfectly capable of world class sound. Take the signal pre-amp into a rockford BLD/AC 2-channel line driver and then into your amp(s) or DSP.

 

[According2Matt]

The ANC shouldn't have much to do with it. The stock head unit is also fine. DSP will definitely help any situation, but the stock HU is perfectly capable of world class sound. Take the signal pre-amp into a rockford BLD/AC 2-channel line driver and then into your amp(s) or DSP.

Can anyone out there tell me how difficult it is to tap into the audio at the pre-amp stage? I know how simple it would be to run the post-amped signal into an LOC, but I haven't seen any examples on how to tap into the signal at the preamp stage. Am I correct in believing that the EX-L 360 watt premium (ha!) sound system has a separate amp after the HU up there under the dash somewhere that can be intercepted?

 

[primetime]

I'm stuck in a car all day today so forgive me for not being able to effectively research this before posting, but can anyone out there tell me how difficult it is to tap into the audio at the pre-amp stage? I know how simple it would be to run the post-amped signal into an LOC, but I haven't seen any definitive instruction on how to tap into the signal at the preamp stage. Am I correct in believing that the EX-L 360 watt premium sound system has a seperate amp after the HU up there under the dash somewhere that can be intercepted?

Well LUISC202 removed the stock radio plug, and made a custom harness to use in between the radio and factory wiring to get RCA's.

He used:

1 of these:


2 of these:

 

[ousooner2]

Can anyone out there tell me how difficult it is to tap into the audio at the pre-amp stage? I know how simple it would be to run the post-amped signal into an LOC, but I haven't seen any examples on how to tap into the signal at the preamp stage. Am I correct in believing that the EX-L 360 watt premium (ha!) sound system has a separate amp after the HU up there under the dash somewhere that can be intercepted?

Yes the EX and up have an amp that's behind the glove box. If you tap into the FRONT LEFT and FRONT RIGHT wires BEFORE the factory amp (pre-amp) then you'll have a very flat, noise free signal without any junk done to it by the factory amp. It helps to have a line driver to take it back to an amp(s) or DSP.

 

[According2Matt]

Ah yes! I found the amp, up behind the glove box just as ousooner2 said it would be!
Can anyone help me decipher which wires are which? There are two plugs attached to the bottom side of the amp. I am assuming that one is audio in, the other audio out. One is wrapped in white tape, the other in black tape. Comparing the wire colors to a schematic that I found on the forum, it looks like the white-taped wires match up to what is indicated as speaker-out from the amp. This means the black-taped wires should be preamp in, right? These are the wires I want to tap into. However, I can't find any color codes that identify these wires, nor can I find a wiring harness that seems to match up to these plugs. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Can anyone recommend a safe way to test the wiring or to determine which wires to use?

 

[primetime]

However, I can't find any color codes that identify these wires, nor can I find a wiring harness that seems to match up to these plugs. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Can anyone recommend a safe way to test the wiring or to determine which wires to use?

Have you been clicking on the links in my sig?! They are there for a reason lol

Third link down, wiring diagram.

http://www.driveaccord.net/forums/showthread.php?t=173170

Also mentioned in my post #4 here:

http://www.driveaccord.net/forums/showthread.php?t=172706

 

[According2Matt]

Primetime - I did look at your links and wiring diagrams, but only saw the color codes for the speaker wires leaving the amp (the white-taped group). After looking again, I just realized the pdf titled "13accpin56.pdf " shows the pin diagram for the connector I need, since I'm intending to tap into the preamp level wires that are feeding into the amp (the black-taped group). Thank you so much.

Here's my next set of questions -

In the pdf, wires are indicated as FR_PRE- (Front Right Preamp -), FR_PRE+, FL_PRE-, etc. Pretty straight forward. But there are also Grey wires marked as SH_FR_PRE, SH_FL_PRE, and so on. Can anyone tell me what the "SH" stands for or what these grey wires are for? Also, I see ANC wires that run into the amp on this schematic. Can the ANC be disabled here by disconnecting these wires? And finally, does anyone know of a source for a wiring harness that will fit into a 24pin connector like this (see attached image)? I would love to be able to modify a harness for the RCA conversion as opposed to cutting into the factory wiring.

I really appreciate everyone's help here. I have found so much information that I never would have been able to uncover without the help of this forum and it's members.

 

[cc290]

Here is my recommendation. Use an LC7I after the factory amp. Run it to either a 4 channel amp plus a mono or a 5 channel. I currently left the rears on the factory amp and didn't change them at all. I installed Polk components up front with a 12" sub in the rear. I am powering it off of a 4 channel amp (1&2 to the front speakers and 3&4 bridged to the sub. It sounds great and didn't cost a ton. I was going to put a mono for the sub and replace the rears but it sounds so good now I will wait until I get really bored. Between the polks up front and the sub it really brought the sound to life. The rears are typically for fill and that's why I'm not too concerned about changing them. Also the sound is very clear. I know a lot of folks on here like to go pre amp and run it to an Audison Bit 10 or something like that. I'm sure it sounds good, but I didn't want to drop that kind of scratch. If you follow what I listed above and sound proof the heck out of the car I think you will be happy. Unless you are going for high end competition stuff the above recipe will work well.

Wrenchspinner, how does your enclosure for the sub look like? I'm fairly new with car audio upgrades, but I'm interested adding at least an LOC, amp and sub to my '14 Sport. Trying to gather ideas on what I would want to do...