full review, writeup, and installation steps: ctr subs, amp, center channel, and door speakers

I would stick with 4 ohms only. Anything less overdrives the stock amp and will shut it down every 15 mins.

ctrmofo said:

I would stick with 4 ohms only. Anything less overdrives the stock amp and will shut it down every 15 mins.

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Great, thanks for the advise!

Is there any shops in SoCal who can install?

whiteFK8 said:

Is there any shops in SoCal who can install?

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I’m sure plenty of shops out there who can do an install in our CTR. What are you looking to do?

Here’s a great writeup on another sub, amp, and grill kit install...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/646...41374346&notif_t=group_post_mention&ref=notif

whiteFK8 said:

Is there any shops in SoCal who can install?

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I’m sure there are plenty of quality shops. SoCal owners would be able to share.

Another write up on deeper sub install and required grill kit.

Pics are from 3 different owners who all happen to use Alpine Type R subs. There will be more owners who have chosen JL Audio W3V3 8” sub coming soon.

Good to see folks doing it right with their 8” deeper, larger magnet subs and enjoying amazing bass blending.

I've looked through just about all the posts here and haven't come across anyone upgrading the amp to the doors. Where is the stock amp located? I have been contemplating using An Audio Control LC6 to power the doors and bridge 2 of the channels to power the sub. The Audio Control is great for summing the channels and allowing flexibility for tuning, and with the onboard amp, it's really convenient. I'm thinking that if I can catch the wiring for the doors/sub after it leaves the stock amp, I'll use some 9 wire to run to the LC6 and then back out of the LC6 to where the wiring leaves the stock amp and heads to the doors. Should be easy if I can find the amp and figure out the wiring layout. Any ideas or pitfalls I'm not seeing?

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_161LC...MIg9jqnaDs3wIVDRxpCh19mwmEEAQYBSABEgKJ0PD_BwE

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-ZrITJ...X-9-Wire-Ultra-Flex-Speaker-Wire-12-feet.html

Deadgame said:

I've looked through just about all the posts here and haven't come across anyone upgrading the amp to the doors. Where is the stock amp located? I have been contemplating using An Audio Control LC6 to power the doors and bridge 2 of the channels to power the sub. The Audio Control is great for summing the channels and allowing flexibility for tuning, and with the onboard amp, it's really convenient. I'm thinking that if I can catch the wiring for the doors/sub after it leaves the stock amp, I'll use some 9 wire to run to the LC6 and then back out of the LC6 to where the wiring leaves the stock amp and heads to the doors. Should be easy if I can find the amp and figure out the wiring layout. Any ideas or pitfalls I'm not seeing?

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_161LC...MIg9jqnaDs3wIVDRxpCh19mwmEEAQYBSABEgKJ0PD_BwE

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-ZrITJ...X-9-Wire-Ultra-Flex-Speaker-Wire-12-feet.html

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That’s because most of us want to keep things simple and not go all out. Stock Pioneer 550W amp is located at front passenger footwell on right, behind panel.

Also, changing amp for all speakers impact Navi and voice instructions which are tied to stock amp. Reality is most of us see stock amp as good enough to power all speakers except the sub, even after we’ve updated the speakers.

If you go all out, would love to see it posted here and continue with more info.

I have posted the entire stock wiring diagram in the group in my signature for your reference.

I think I'll take a stab at it as I had several years as a car audio installer in my younger years. Will definitely post pics. Thank you!

I had a professional installer spend about an hour with me tonight at HiFi Buys in Nashville. This is hands down the best car audio shop in Middle Tennessee. He told me the tenth gen is his favorite of the modern Civics to work on, and they’ve done a few really high dollar builds.

That said, some of his ideas differ from the thinking in this thread. I explained this car will be tracked, and that I need everything to be secured. Also, that I don’t want to add a lot of weight, so he understands the intended direction of the project.

Their three main speaker lines are JL Audio, Focal, and Alpine.

He’s not a fan of the JL C2 speakers at all. The last Civic X build he did was an Si, and had nicer JL C5 components. Lots more than I want to spend, though.

The C3 components were a better price than the C5, still nowhere near what C2s cost, but C3s sound lots nicer than the C2s.

Then we A-B tested the C3s against the Focal Access 165AS, and the Focals just sound so much better to my ears (his as well). Install on them is going to be a bit more challenging with the tweeters, but not too bad. He came out to the car with a trim tool and had one of the tweeters out in about ten seconds. He explained how we could make the Focal tweeters look great in the stock location without any trouble.

Focal doesn’t make a 3-1/2 inch coax, so having a voice matched Access center channel might be out.

And that was our first point of contention. He has absolutely no love for the center channel. His recommendation would be to disconnect it entirely. Although I don’t use factory navigation, I do use Waze navigation through my iPhone, and all the directional voice is routed through it. So I need something there for sure.

Some of you guys are using coax speakers in the front doors, a coax speaker center channel, and tweeters in stock location at the top of the front door.

I agree with him that would be too many tweeters, and I don’t want five of them on my front stage at all. So I’m going to buy those Focal Access components and run them in stock location at -3db and figure out a one way Focal center speaker that will work for filler.

The next thing he is super against is using that stock plastic subwoofer enclosure. He’s also pro 10” sub over 8”, which is cool since I have one already, but I don’t really want the weight and am concerned about space. So we’re going to table the sub upgrade discussion for a couple weeks.

Next issue where we really agreed was that the factory amp leaves a lot to be desired. He opened my passenger door and had the amp exposed within two minutes with his trim tool. This is where he recommended I tap the JL Fix86. I’m not committed yet, but since I have that five channel Alpine, I’m considering running the center and rear speakers off of the factory amplifier, and purchasing the Fix86 and using existing Alpine amp to run the front stage and sub. I can always add rear speakers to the five channel at a later time.

Where do the extra 2 speakers go, in a 12 way Honda setup, as opposed to a 10 way setup, and what are those two extra speakers, and where are they placed ?

I am not a Audio expert by any means, so I am assuming that the basic source for all music in the Honda, is a 2 channel Stereo source , plus a few MONO sources like Beeps, and navigation audio.

The Head Unit then decides on how to distribute those 2 sources between the ?, 10 or 12 channels,( based on controls within the head unit) and then either sends that Digital data to the 10/12 channel amp, or uses its own internal lower power amps, to directly drive a number of speakers.

There are then a few options

(a) Just add 1 bass channel AMP and speaker for the BASS , using whatever (analogue) Bass Speaker output is available as the source.
(b) Add multiple Channel amps(s) to drive the speakers, using the existing speaker outputs as sources for this amps.
(c) Strip out the head Unit, (and external amp is fitted),, and add a whole new Infotainment system, AMPs & Speakers.

So, a couple of Questions.

(1) Apart form the BUDGET speakers in the Honda, where is the next significant loss of Sound Quality coming from. ? The head unit or the AMP.
(2) Has anyone yet figured out how to connect an After Market AMP to the Digital Output of the 10/12 speaker Head Unit.
(3) I hear talk of an undesirable Honda Processing of the Bass amplification vs Car Speed... where is that taking place in an OEM Honda Head Unit + Honda Amp setup ?

Just Curious .. Hopefully some forum members out there may know ?

BTW: I took a spare SI AMP apart a few days ago, and was not impressed with the AMP chips.
3 Tiny little thing, clinging to a one BIG External heatsink (for their lives)
I assume each chip is 4 channel, making a possible 12 channels.
Thats potentially 200W (peak) per chip !! They had better be very efficient, or they will just MELT !!

A few Pics, for those who have not seen the AMP, or inside it.

My idea is to catch the processed signals as they leave the stock amp and send them to an aftermarket amp with onboard dsp features. This will correct the stock system's wonky EQ and I can tune before signal gets to the speakers.

Deadgame said:

My idea is to catch the processed signals as they leave the stock amp and send them to an aftermarket amp with onboard dsp features. This will correct the stock system's wonky EQ and I can tune before signal gets to the speakers.

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Ref: The Stock system's wonky EQ.

If that in the head unit, or the actual AMP (whether it be Head unit amp or external Amp)

I had read of someone having a script that could run on the head unit, to stop some of this "Honda Equalization"
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Just the bass channel, or all channels.
Also, if the bass channels is being per-processed as a function of speed, how can you restore it, (without knowing the speed etc etc) gets very complex