Infinity 3 ohm speakers at rear

[Royal_Purple_Oil_Filter]

Nice! Glad you found something that works for you. Remember a crossover is a slope, per octave. An octave is double. So if the crossover starts at 3khz and its -24dB per octave, that means 6khz is present just lowered 24dB. Then 12khz lowered 48dB. Pretty sure if a crossover was a straight cutoff it'd sound like shit.

I did another test side by side of all speakers and it turns out the Infinitys are equal when it comes on the loudness compared to the stock speaker, the JL C2-525 sounded at a lower volume as expected as this is rated at 89db but ended up returning both because the Inifinitys with its 3 ohm design, its making the stock amp work more but ended up going only equal to loudness of the stock speakers and the Hertz are sounding a bit louder and with its 4 ohm design, doesn't put more load to the stock amp. The basket design of the JL C2 also made it big overall for the stock brackets that even if it sounds good to me, I won't be able to install it.

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[BailOut]

My understanding is this:

The signal being sent to the rear channels is a filtered, altered, and not very desirable-to-the-ear mix of 'filler' meant to compensate for and compliment what's coming out of the front channels. And it seems set to be lower by default when the fader is set to the middle position. You can hear what it is and isn't by just setting the fader to rear speakers only.

If have since bought an '18 LX which is easier to modify. But if I had to live with the DSP; I believe I'd just wire the rear speakers to run off of the same signal as the fronts (and fade the signal to 100% front on the HU since there wouldn't be a load on the rear channels). Doing this in parallel should yield 2 Ohms. Series would yield 8 if my math is correct. But then at least the performance of the speakers themselves would be the reasons for the differences in sound and not the differences in front/rear outputs of the head unit.

shoegazer, I experienced this exactly when I went through all the expense and trouble to retrofit Infinity Reference 5032's (92db sensitivity) into the rear deck of my '18 LX-P Coupe. Testing throughout all phases of the install consistently yielded the same dumbfounding results - the speakers sounded awful, and played at about 1/3 the volume of the fronts (Infinity Reference 6530, 93db sensitivity).

So, how to fix? Two solutions: I can either spend even more money on this project by replacing the stock HU, or wire the rear speakers into the front signal line.

Could you detail how I would go about wiring them - and what drawbacks there are to it? Thanks in advance

 

[shoegazer]

So, how to fix? Two solutions: I can either spend even more money on this project by replacing the stock HU, or wire the rear speakers into the front signal line.

Does your LX-P have the Honda Sensing? If so... I believe it also has the DSP signal processing that everyone hates.

If not... I'd upgrade the head unit every single day. If yours is like mine; you only have the backup camera and the steering wheels controls to worry about. I chose to not worry about them. But there are devices that can be added to keep those functions, I believe.

There are some professional car audio folks on here who can probably help with this.

I believe that more folks would shit-can the Honda unit if it wasn't so integrated into the whole car's systems. But my 2018 LX didn't have the Sensing. So I was free to go aftermarket. My understanding is that the whole reason that folks even bother with those line output converters (LOCs) is because the factory radio doesn't allow you to properly connect an external amp (using line level, pre-amp outputs). Even then... it's probably still DSP'd.

My rant re the DSP was re: my previous 2019 Sport that had the Sensing. The bad sound (and the inability to really fix it) was, in part, why I went to a '18 LX.

 

[BailOut]

shoegazer, it does not have any of that driver assistance technology - I'm actually expected to drive (what a concept). Like you, I intentionally purchased an '18 since that's the last year they were made w/o that junk force fed to us as standard on all trims.

The reason I'm interested in the idea of hooking the rears to the front is that it's much cheaper than the nicer HU's, like that phoenix 9" the big thread is about.

 

[shoegazer]

Just to confirm that we're comparing apples to apples...

Does your radio look like this?

 

[BailOut]

Yes just like that

 

[shoegazer]

I believe that you have lots of options, then.

One of them is to go like I did and buy a single DIN (no screen) Kenwood CD/Radio. Kenwood doesn't have the most reliable Bluetooth known to man. But their stuff is powerful enough, sounds good, and is pretty reliable. Mine has a CD player; but you can buy the 'mechless' one if you don't need a CD. Of course, I gave up my backup camera and my buttons on the steering wheel do nothing. But I love the simplicity of it.

I recall that shortly after I bought the LX; I thought that I could live with the factory Honda radio. It wasn't bad, really. But it just didn't have much power or headroom. If I was just going to listen to elevator music; it'd be perfect. But I needed to be able feel the music (and cover up the road noise). So I got the Kenwood. That was great. But then the factory speakers weren't keeping up. So they got an upgrade too.

The factory LX unit, so far as I know, just has 4 channels with an internal amp. The front speakers' signal is identical to the rears'. No DSP processing based on volume that I'm aware of. So while a head unit upgrade will likely sound better; it may still be that the rear speakers disappoint as compared to the fronts. The rears are just laying in a metal cutout with trunk space underneath.

If you really want to audition your idea of splitting the fronts; just temporarily connect the rear speaker wires to the front wires alone. Then you'll get a true A/B comparison as to what the rears really sound like in that place in the car. I'm pretty sure the amp just duplicates the fronts for the rears' signal. But connecting them directly will give ya' a true example.

So... if it were me... I'd still do what I did over again. But the rear speakers will likely never be anything other than 'fill'. If the fronts sound decent and have enough power with your current setup; fade out the rears to zero and focus the EQ settings on the fronts. It's hard to find setting where both fronts and rears sound good. Fade to fronts only, adjust EQ to taste, and then mix in the rears until it sounds like something that you can live with.

 

[BailOut]

Good idea - I'll connect the rears to the front output on the stock HU and get to the bottom of it. I'll let you know the results...

 

[BailOut]

Unfortunately I was unable to test as the plugs going into the HU are differently shaped and thus non interchangeable.

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