Cheap stealth LX audio upgrade

[LXCivicX]

Hi guys and gals,

New to the forum with my first Honda and my first post at civicx.

I got some good info from this site, so I thought I'd contribute back in however small of a way with a success story of an install that gave me better sound in an LX for very little money ($400 plus some supplies I already had like amp cables).

My goals were to improve the sound on the LX radio while retaining all stock functionality. I didn't want an aftermarket head unit, and I didn't want to give up any of the extremely practical interior.

Without knowing how it would all fit together, I went with the Alpine KTP-445U Power Pack for the main amp. At $150, this offers 45Wx4. I usually only upgrade the front channel speakers with any install and run the stock rears. This was no exception. I picked up a pair the Polk DB652. At $90, they should serve as a moderate upgrade from stock. For bass, I decided on the JBL BassPro SL. It is $250, but I was able to find a refurb for about $150. This brought the total to $400. You can see the relative size of everything here:

I admit I was guessing a bit on the fit of everything, and it ended up being a tight squeeze. Fortunately, everything went in exactly as I was hoping.

The Alpine is hidden out of sight - snuggled just behind and below the head unit. I put a very thin piece of foam insulation top and bottom of the amp, and was able to just jam it in there. It is very secure behind the A/C controls. The head unit barely was able to be jammed back into place directly on top of the amp. If you decide to go this route, make sure you have enough wire between the HU and amp as well as between the amp and factory wiring or it may be impossible to place the amp and plug in the HU at the same time. I am powering the Alpine through the head unit's 12V, 15 amp power wire. This is not normal for car audio amplifiers, but the instruction manual says it is OK, and after a couple weeks of testing, I have not had any problem.

The JBL fit exactly under the driver seat without taking any foot room from the rear seat. I did dremel away about 2" of the underseat plastic A/C vent to push the sub forward and make a little extra room for rear passenger toes. I have already had several people in the back seat without any comment on the sub. The sub sits far enough under the seat that the front part of the floor mat just covers about 1/2 of the sub and protects it from any mud or anything that someone might bring on board. It fits very securely like this with only zip ties attached to the front seat rails holding it in place. Overall the amp has a nice solid feel and I don't worry about it being damaged by a rear passenger with a restless leg. The way I positioned the sub was with the connections and knobs facing the front of the vehicle. This way, I can still make adjustments by reaching under the seat from the front driver footwell. It requires a little hand dexterity, but is definitely doable. The sub is powered by a 10 gauge amplified cable with a 20W fuse from the battery through the factory grommet for the hood release cable.

I initially provided signal to the sub from the factory HU's read channels and drove the stock rear speakers off the Alpine amp. Unfortunately this didn't work very well as I had to turn up the gain and bass boost on the sub all the way to get any real output. When I did that, the sub sounded like knuckles on wood. I believe this is a flaw with the JBL, as I also read another report of this problem in a review online. In order to solve this problem, I re-wired the amp so that the Alpine now provides a boosted single to the sub, and I switched the rear speakers back to the stock rear channels of the head unit. Obviously, I lost a little power to the rears, but I don't really care personally.

Anyway, now the system works perfectly and sounds pretty good. About on par with a good factory system, which is what I wanted. The mids and highs are clean and powerful. The sub provides a nice fullness. If I could wave a magic wand, it would be deeper and louder, but that's just not in the cards for such a small box jammed under the seat. Overall I would strongly recommend this type of an install. It took me the better part of a weekend to complete, but I find myself really enjoying music of all kinds now.

Shameless pic:

 

[AlexanderBrunet]

Hi guys and gals,

New to the forum with my first Honda and my first post at civicx.

I got some good info from this site, so I thought I'd contribute back in however small of a way with a success story of an install that gave me better sound in an LX for very little money ($400 plus some supplies I already had like amp cables).

My goals were to improve the sound on the LX radio while retaining all stock functionality. I didn't want an aftermarket head unit, and I didn't want to give up any of the extremely practical interior.

Without knowing how it would all fit together, I went with the Alpine KTP-445U Power Pack for the main amp. At $150, this offers 45Wx4. I usually only upgrade the front channel speakers with any install and run the stock rears. This was no exception. I picked up a pair the Polk DB652. At $90, they should serve as a moderate upgrade from stock. For bass, I decided on the JBL BassPro SL. It is $250, but I was able to find a refurb for about $150. This brought the total to $400. You can see the relative size of everything here:

I admit I was guessing a bit on the fit of everything, and it ended up being a tight squeeze. Fortunately, everything went in exactly as I was hoping.

The Alpine is hidden out of sight - snuggled just behind and below the head unit. I put a very thin piece of foam insulation top and bottom of the amp, and was able to just jam it in there. It is very secure behind the A/C controls. The head unit barely was able to be jammed back into place directly on top of the amp. If you decide to go this route, make sure you have enough wire between the HU and amp as well as between the amp and factory wiring or it may be impossible to place the amp and plug in the HU at the same time. I am powering the Alpine through the head unit's 12V, 15 amp power wire. This is not normal for car audio amplifiers, but the instruction manual says it is OK, and after a couple weeks of testing, I have not had any problem.

The JBL fit exactly under the driver seat without taking any foot room from the rear seat. I did dremel away about 2" of the underseat plastic A/C vent to push the sub forward and make a little extra room for rear passenger toes. I have already had several people in the back seat without any comment on the sub. The sub sits far enough under the seat that the front part of the floor mat just covers about 1/2 of the sub and protects it from any mud or anything that someone might bring on board. It fits very securely like this with only zip ties attached to the front seat rails holding it in place. Overall the amp has a nice solid feel and I don't worry about it being damaged by a rear passenger with a restless leg. The way I positioned the sub was with the connections and knobs facing the front of the vehicle. This way, I can still make adjustments by reaching under the seat from the front driver footwell. It requires a little hand dexterity, but is definitely doable. The sub is powered by a 10 gauge amplified cable with a 20W fuse from the battery through the factory grommet for the hood release cable.

I initially provided signal to the sub from the factory HU's read channels and drove the stock rear speakers off the Alpine amp. Unfortunately this didn't work very well as I had to turn up the gain and bass boost on the sub all the way to get any real output. When I did that, the sub sounded like knuckles on wood. I believe this is a flaw with the JBL, as I also read another report of this problem in a review online. In order to solve this problem, I re-wired the amp so that the Alpine now provides a boosted single to the sub, and I switched the rear speakers back to the stock rear channels of the head unit. Obviously, I lost a little power to the rears, but I don't really care personally.

Anyway, now the system works perfectly and sounds pretty good. About on par with a good factory system, which is what I wanted. The mids and highs are clean and powerful. The sub provides a nice fullness. If I could wave a magic wand, it would be deeper and louder, but that's just not in the cards for such a small box jammed under the seat. Overall I would strongly recommend this type of an install. It took me the better part of a weekend to complete, but I find myself really enjoying music of all kinds now.

Shameless pic:

This is awesome man! I just picked up my 2016 Civic LX the other day and I already had plans to redo all the audio without installing an aftermarket HU.

So how has the KTP 445u held up? I plan on replacing all 4 speaker, installing that amp behind the HU, and getting a 10" Rockford Fosgate sub for the trunk.

 

[LXCivicX]

This is awesome man! I just picked up my 2016 Civic LX the other day and I already had plans to redo all the audio without installing an aftermarket HU.

So how has the KTP 445u held up? I plan on replacing all 4 speaker, installing that amp behind the HU, and getting a 10" Rockford Fosgate sub for the trunk.

The little Alpine amp is perfectly fine. Never had any issue with it at all. It provides significantly more power than stock, so you shouldn't have any trouble keeping up with a 10" in the trunk.

You didn't ask, but I probably should mention that in the last couple weeks, I've been researching aftermarket HUs. If you're curious, my explanation is here: https://www.civicx.com/threads/speaker-upgrade.9207/page-7#4post-34502

 

[AlexanderBrunet]

The little Alpine amp is perfectly fine. Never had any issue with it at all. It provides significantly more power than stock, so you shouldn't have any trouble keeping up with a 10" in the trunk.

You didn't ask, but I probably should mention that in the last couple weeks, I've been researching aftermarket HUs. If you're curious, my explanation is here: https://www.civicx.com/threads/speaker-upgrade.9207/page-7#4post-34502

Yeah after typing that up last night I was on the fence about upgrading the HU but now I think I am officially over that fence. What are your thoughts on that awesome 9 inch Phoenix HU? I am leaning towards this one. Thanks man

 

[LXCivicX]

Yeah after typing that up last night I was on the fence about upgrading the HU but now I think I am officially over that fence. What are your thoughts on that awesome 9 inch Phoenix HU? I am leaning towards this one. Thanks man

I checked it out and it looks pretty cool, but I generally lean towards more established names. That's just me. I really like that someone is putting out HUs like this.

 

[AlexanderBrunet]

I checked it out and it looks pretty cool, but I generally lean towards more established names. That's just me. I really like that someone is putting out HUs like this.

I am the same way man. Like I was looking at the Sony XAV-100 but it had too many quirks for me to pull the trigger on it. It almost seems like I can't find a decent aftermarket HU under $500 I will probably end up sticking with the stock HU and just add the amp for the door speakers. I still have time until tax returns to decide though!

 

[LXCivicX]

Quick update to this thread since it's been a long weird journey due to various but I am finally fully happy with my stereo. I won't waste a ton of your time, just give you a quick rundown on what has worked and what has not.

Goal: Replace the horrible factory LX sound system with something tolerable and maybe even pretty fun.

What worked:

• Alpine KTP-445U - I now have it bridged for 90x2 to the front Polks. This is not really well advertised on Crutchfield or in the owners manual, but this little amp will bridge just fine for double the output if you think your main speakers are up to it. Now run off dedicated 15 watt circuit. Seems crazy, but this all Alpine calls for. Besides, the amp is always high-passed, and does not due heavy duty. This is for a little extra headroom only. (https://www.crutchfield.com/p_500KTP445U/Alpine-KTP-445U-Power-Pack.html)
• Polk DBs - Fantastic economical speakers. They sound flat and natural and just take a lot of power. One time when I was just starting to play with head unit, somehow the high pass filter got toggled off, and I really turned it up. This should have fried both speakers, but they handled full-range just fine for a minute or two before I realized what was happening. There wasn't a whiff of smoke or any damage that I can perceive. I happily paid $90. They are $60 now. (https://www.crutchfield.com/p_107DB652/Polk-Audio-DB-652.html?)
• JBL GTX-500 - You can't seem to find it anymore, but youtube the dyno tests. It does 700 watts clean for $100 from a major brand and retailer. Nothing fancy, but it's an efficient, compact powerhouse. I am starting to think JBL might be the most underrated brand overall in music.
• Crutchfield's recommended Axxess integration kits (eventually)

What didn't work:

• Alpine ILX207 - This $600 mech-less head unit was amazing and yet disappointing for a couple reasons. First of all, it really has no "frills." No CD/DVD player, no SD card slot. It's Bluetooth/Android Auto only more-or-less. Secondly I could never get the integration to work. I had no consistent steering wheel controls or backup camera. Also sometimes it recognized I had the parking brake on and sometimes it didn't. This shouldn't be a big issue, but in a lawsuit-happy world, we have to make sure people don't try to set up their parametric EQ while driving. But, how are you going to know how it sounds at 80 MPH if you tune it in a quiet, closed garage? How? ... Otherwise, this unit cranks. I don't know how Alpine does it, but I am still convinced they are the best in the mobile game for sound quality. They may have let us down in different ways, but right out of the box, this thing transformed the musicality of my system. There isn't a good way to describe the difference, but if the factory sound system was the bad place, this was the good place. I went back and forth between the factory head unit and this Alpine (retaining as much consistency as I can), just to be sure how much better it was, and I can safely say that it is just as big as the difference between rubbing sandpaper and lotion on your skin. The Honda QC guys who let this head unit through should be ashamed of themselves. And the Alpine is very good. The bass is solid, the mids softly pluck at your ears, and highs soar and are buttery smooth. It just is so much different than the gravelly, over-processed, sparkly, punchy, gritty noises the factory head unit made. Did I just get a bad one? I have a 2017 LX hatchback manual. Does anyone who wanders into this type of forum think the stock system sounds like a "musical" product. To me it sounds like they built it as a speaker-phone and nothing more. They just wanted to spend the least amount of money to say they have a bluetooth-enabled head unit and that is it. Still, it's bad. So to sum up, the Alpine made me want to listen to listen to every song I ever loved again just to see if I could find more to them. Ultimately, though, thanks to Crutchfield, I got a complete refund because of the complaints I had about it not working for the steering controls or integrating with the factory camera. I had to send it back because these issues were driving me crazy. If you are confident you can solve those issues or deal with them, then I would highly recommend this as a premium, no-frills, mechless unit. (https://www.crutchfield.com/p_500ILX207/Alpine-iLX-207.html)

Where did I end up:

• I liked the Alpine amp and JBL amp powering my JL audio 10W6 (sealed for now). I did not like that I couldn't get my backup camera or steering wheel controls running with the Crutchfield-recommended Axxess integration harnesses and chips. In case you don't know, cars no longer have 12 volt signals for things like whether the parking brake or headlights are on. It is all ones and zeros. When you roll up your window, that is not a switch directly completing a circuit with the window motor. It is a digital signal to a computer that talks to another circuit to energize some relay to turn on the window motor. This is good because you don't need as much wiring inside the car and can therefore save a few ounces of overall weight, thus giving the car 0.001% better fuel efficiency, saving the world once and for all. It's bad because you're stuck with a horrible-sounding head unit and no way to integrate an aftermarket unit while retaining the factory features.
• So things lagged a bit. I tried to find a car audio installer in San Diego who wanted money, but it's tough out there. I don't think these guys are making any profits, and I think they're jaded. I don't get the feeling I did when I used to go listen to tons of head units, different amps, speakers, subs all in selectable soundboards. Can you imagine how much time and concentration it took to set those things up? I am sure someone will think that is really easy, but those are still pretty impressive to make sure all the different combinations work. I don't know. If it's easy, send me a link or video or something. I'd be super-interested. I also contacted a few mobile installers from Craigslist. Big surprise - not all Craigslist advertisers are professional and scrupulous. Lots of no-shows when I scheduled something, and just weird attitudes that I do not understand. One guy replied to my intro email saying that my amp is no better the built-in head unit amplifier, but he'll do it if that's what I wanted. Yeah buddy, 90x2 is the same 15x4 watts RMS. Anyway, I searched forums and googled for products that might make aftermarket integration easier. Ultimately, I did find a really cool craigslist installer who was professional, returned my calls and emails immediately, showed up on time and was ready to go. At this point, I have a factory head unit, but everything else is aftermarket. The RCAs are wired to both aftermarket amps, the factory door speakers are replaced, and I have a JL 10W6 in their HO box in the hatch. The only thing I need this guy to do is install the pioneer avh-w4400nex I ordered in the recent deal/refund, plug it in, and make sure the steering wheel controls and backup camera worked. Well I didn't see exactly everything this guy did, but he put in an honest 4 hours of work, and was about to give up with working steering wheel controls. But I wanted my steering wheel controls, and he wanted to get paid, so he tried again and again, consulting his phone for research rather than a tablet or laptop. Eventually I came down after 5 hours total and this guy had a smile on his face. He got it working. He had to power on the whole system then unplug and plug the steering wheel minijack plug into the Pioneer head init five time to make it work. I checked a few things and paid the man before the sprinted off to his next job. I have no idea if he was telling them the truth or not, but I will say that I couldn't get the steering wheel controls to work by following the directions on Axxess's website or by calling into Crutchfield a couple times. Now the controls work perfectly, the backup camera works mostly perfectly, and car knows exactly when I am stopped. Well worth the money. I just wish it had not taken me months to find a reasonable installer. So I now have a Pioneer head unit. Sound quality is not as much of a focus as with the Alpine and you feel it in the details of any genre of music. There may be some people who don't care, but I do. I wish the Pioneer sounded as good as Alpine. Otherwise this 4400NEX seems good. I like that for less money I get really important things like a CD/DVD player and SD card input. The Alpine is just better for SQ and has a lot better sound-shaping options which are good to have built-in. I don't want to run an additional DSP and the Alpine suited me. The Pioneer has a graphical EQ rather than the Alpines pretty-good parametric EQ. They both have time-alignment and really good crossovers options. I like the time-alignment better on the Alpine and crossovers better on the Pioneer. It's a draw in many ways, but they have golden ears at Alpine and it shows.

I just though I would give my experience. Here's Kalifia riding a griffin.

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