Awful Sound System On My New Civic

Tubabill

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I love my new 2019 Sport Touring hatch that I bought last week. But, the sound system is pretty awful. Honda boasts of its 540 premium system with 12 speakers. My 2006 Accord Coupe that i just sold had a fantastic sound system. I think it was only 120 watts and 6 speakers. So, wazzup with that? Has anyone felt the sound system is awful - very tinny and thin sounding and it distorts easily at louder volumes.
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hicompb18c1

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I'm in a 2019 Si Sedan with the 10-speaker system and it's also terrible. I think the main issue is our head units are absolute garbage.

Honestly I'm really sad about it. That said, there seem to be a lot of people who have had good results by installing aftermarket speakers & components.
 

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I love my new 2019 Sport Touring hatch that I bought last week. But, the sound system is pretty awful. Honda boasts of its 540 premium system with 12 speakers. My 2006 Accord Coupe that i just sold had a fantastic sound system. I think it was only 120 watts and 6 speakers. So, wazzup with that? Has anyone felt the sound system is awful - very tinny and thin sounding and it distorts easily at louder volumes.

I feel exactly the same way. My 2019 CTR has an awful sound system - it's the only thing I can't stand about the car. I swapped out the center channel speaker with a JL-Audio speaker and it helped a little but overall the system is bad compared to my 2006 Si. Bass is non existent for the most part. If you run a speaker test through the "hidden" menu, the subwoofer sounds AMAZING with the test signal but in everyday usage you can't hear it.
 

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the biggest problem is the headunit and its equalizer & equalizer-curves.
it sends a shitty signal with zero low-bass and weak highs to the speakers.
playing around with the build-in EQ is nearly useless, since it only boosts upper bass and mid-high frequencies.

to fix that whole mess: viper4android (better equalizer, hondahack needed), which does wonders.
i boosted the frequencies around 30-50hz with it and high frequencies at 16k (viper clarity setting helps also alot).

the speakers itself arent THAT bad. they get just the worst signal possible, which is a fcked up EQ curve by honda.

iam running the viper4android setup together with a subwoofer+amp (tapped into the front signal). i didnt swap the stock speakers.
and it sounds FIRE now.

i was using viper without subwoofer aswell for a while and it gave me plenty bass aswell with it. you are just limited in volume levels since the stock-speakers cant handle so much bass at a very high volume.
 

hicompb18c1

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the biggest problem is the headunit and its equalizer & equalizer-curves.
it sends a shitty signal with zero low-bass and weak highs to the speakers.
playing around with the build-in EQ is nearly useless, since it only boosts upper bass and mid-high frequencies.

to fix that whole mess: viper4android (better equalizer, hondahack needed), which does wonders.
i boosted the frequencies around 30-50hz with it and high frequencies at 16k (viper clarity setting helps also alot).

the speakers itself arent THAT bad. they get just the worst signal possible, which is a fcked up EQ curve by honda.

iam running the viper4android setup together with a subwoofer+amp (tapped into the front signal). i didnt swap the stock speakers.
and it sounds FIRE now.

i was using viper without subwoofer aswell for a while and it gave me plenty bass aswell with it. you are just limited in volume levels since the stock-speakers cant handle so much bass at a very high volume.
How easy was the HondaHack and Viper install? Any crazy slowness or head unit issues so far?
 


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The head unit is perfectly fine and capable. The EQ curve that Honda applied to make the factory speakers sound "premium" is what's garbage. I've installed a DSP in line to my amplifier to correct the EQ to make it as flat as possible and it does the job.
 

kperalta

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Yeah, the headunit is fine. It's got perfect inputs but like they said the non bypassable eq curve sucks. That being said, I still can't wait to take my HU out and put in a nice shiny wireless android auto one with a clean non eq'd output and bypass the amp lol
 

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You won't even believe it is the same stereo, once you get viper4android installed and running!
 

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I love my new 2019 Sport Touring hatch that I bought last week. But, the sound system is pretty awful. Honda boasts of its 540 premium system with 12 speakers. My 2006 Accord Coupe that i just sold had a fantastic sound system. I think it was only 120 watts and 6 speakers. So, wazzup with that? Has anyone felt the sound system is awful - very tinny and thin sounding and it distorts easily at louder volumes.
Read the ten billion other posts about the same issue..
 

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I believe the subwoofer is crossed over way too low, had the same issue on an Accord coupe. No kick from the sub at all.

I don't think the people who designed the audio system really know what they're doing. It's like nobody listens to it after they design it on paper.
 


MrWaYne

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How easy was the HondaHack and Viper install? Any crazy slowness or head unit issues so far?
hondahack went without issues via browser install (7-10mins).
after that you have to install supersu, busybox and viper app.
was actually no big deal.

those were the steps i did:
https://www.civicx.com/threads/2018-premium-audio-system.33835/page-12#post-595907

the headunit performs exactly the same way like before, no slowness or other problems.
some people were reporting issues once they installed playstore/google-apps, performance will degrade massively.

I believe the subwoofer is crossed over way too low, had the same issue on an Accord coupe. No kick from the sub at all.
for that matter, i would add another sub which uses the signal of the front-speakers.
all EU civics are missing the factory subwoofer even. maybe they realized its useless lol.
 

hicompb18c1

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The head unit is perfectly fine and capable. The EQ curve that Honda applied to make the factory speakers sound "premium" is what's garbage. I've installed a DSP in line to my amplifier to correct the EQ to make it as flat as possible and it does the job.
Can I ask what DSP and how/where you connected it? And do you control settings from your phone or the unit itself? Thanks
 
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Tubabill

Tubabill

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Thanks for the info, everyone. Yeah, the sound drives me nuts. Plus, I'm a musician and I listen to all kinds of music. It's all bad. I don't understand much of what everyone wrote here and I don't want to take apart door panels and do other major mods, and possibly void the warranty. I guess 'm screwed. Otherwise, the car is great !!
 

rplush

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Can I ask what DSP and how/where you connected it? And do you control settings from your phone or the unit itself? Thanks
It's an AX-DSP. It's small enough that it will fit behind the head unit. It will also be your LOC to your Amps. The HON2 t-harness is a perfect plug and play too, no splicing needed. DSP is controlled via app over BT
 

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Thanks for the info, everyone. Yeah, the sound drives me nuts. Plus, I'm a musician and I listen to all kinds of music. It's all bad. I don't understand much of what everyone wrote here and I don't want to take apart door panels and do other major mods, and possibly void the warranty.
I hear ya'. I'm a recording engineer and it drove me insane. The basic version is that Honda applied a signal processing program to try to make all music sound good at all volume levels. The EQ settings change based on the computer's analysis of the music being played and how loud it is being played. It, to my ear, doesn't do any of this very well. If we all listed to Phil Collins, Kenny G, and Enya at relatively low volumes; it's be perfect. It's kind of like a MUZAK sound system, IMO.
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