Audio and Connectivity Overview for 2016 Honda Civic Sedan

lightthief

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Because they already have your money.
Would be the most cynical answer.

More realistically you have to differentiate between the posts of people who actually have the car and people who are reading from the sidelines.

The day to day experience is very poor.
Basics that worked consistently in previous iterations or other cars don't work consistently here.
It's not just that they got the new stuff wrong they got the relatively old stuff wrong because it's also unstable.

Outside of that.
For users who are familiar with development vs hardware it's very clear they didn't make even a minimum effort here. The hardware is there. There is enough memory. Enough storage. Presumably a fast enough processor.

This isn't just poor design and dev.
It's lazy design.
Last minute "the paint is still wet" design.

It may be the case that some people accept the flawed system, I'd have to assume all the people who have been using Windows their whole life, but that doesn't make it less flawed.

Which means either Honda has a long term plan to "fix it in post", of which there have been zero signs of so far, especially if you look at their "Honda link" apps.

Or they still haven't learned how important this stuff is to people under 35.

And the argument that "they made a nice car" falls apart.

I get weekly emails from them talking about how great all the tech options are and I've already bought the thing.

There is a good possibility they think this is actually fine.
It's made even more infuriating because of how good the car is otherwise.
That a boring old blah blah civic everyone has could be this nice is insane so that they dropped the ball so hard in this one area seems almost nonsensicle.
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Bworks3

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Yes I have seen "outdated." That is the nature of technology. As part of the GenY group I would say CDs are on that list of "outdated." Have you not read about Apple Car Play and the Android equivalent? This is the future of motor vehicles people. Honda is one of the first but it's coming to ALL new vehicles starting this year! You don't have to like it or buy into it. Simply buy something else that is still stuck in time. The tech industry will simply move forward without you. As a business minded individual, I think this is a smart move for Honda. They are aware that most consumers of the Civic will be the younger generations. Those of us at the beginning of our careers who embrace new tech. Not only embrace it but DEMAND it. I would never have purchased the new Civic had it not been updated with the latest Tech. Period. And I think I speak for the majority of the younger generations. Sorry if that hurts your feelers in any way. But the world will simply move forward... With or without you. It's really that simple. The same thing happened when car companies stopped installing 8 track players and cassette players. And who are you trying to kid?! Digital audio is far more convenient and gives superior audio quality. Why wouldn't you want the best that today has to offer? If I'm going to keep something for 30 years (which I would never do) I'd want the best I could get today so that it does last that long. Oh yes.... And for those of you complaining that you don't want to move you music from one device to the next as you upgrade... IT'S CALLED CLOUD STORAGE! Everything is automatically downloaded for you as soon as you sign in to the device! PLEASE do NOT gripe, complain or act like a know it all on a subject unless you are actually knowledgable and interested in learning more about that subject. *mic drop*
The problem is that regardless of whatever platform they choose it will be outdated and obsolete if they are not actively and routinely updating it. From what I've read so far, that isn't going to happen. I'm asking here, I really don't know. If that is the case then it would have been nice if they had just made the hardware easier to swap out for aftermarket products. Something akin to buying a cheap tablet modified specifically to fit your make/model/year that can be easily updated and/or replaced, but inexpensive enough to not be worth stealing. I did notice something in your post that I didn't agree with though regarding digital audio providing superior quality. It absolutely provides more convenience like you said. In fact the convenience is so much better that people use it everywhere they go despite being so compressed. If you're talking lossless audio then sure, but that tech isn't in our phones, isn't in our cars, and most certainly isn't in Pandora or Spotify..... I'm surprised at how many people will take compressed music files (that already sound subpar) and then stream them over bluetooth which compresses the quality again. There are a few exceptions, but again that tech isn't built into our phones and our factory stereos. From my phone using Pandora the sound quality when I use bluetooth is at best comparable to a strong FM signal, where as when I hard wire the connection (i.e., usb) the sound quality improves significantly, but still way below CD quality. Obviously if I download uncompressed music and play those files direct through a USB cable the sound quality improves to CD and possibly better. However, I don't think it's fair to just say digital is better than analog because only very expensive digital sound would likely fall into that category. I could be wrong, but people just don't know what they are missing anymore and convenience trumps quality. Who the hell wants to drag around actual physical copies of music anymore. Personally, I'd prefer if they just stopped putting CD players in cars altogether. Make it an optional upgrade. Ha, I called it an upgrade.
 

lightthief

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The problem is that regardless of whatever platform they choose it will be outdated and obsolete if they are not actively and routinely updating it. From what I've read so far, that isn't going to happen. I'm asking here, I really don't know. If that is the case then it would have been nice if they had just made the hardware easier to swap out for aftermarket products. Something akin to buying a cheap tablet modified specifically to fit your make/model/year that can be easily updated and/or replaced, but inexpensive enough to not be worth stealing. I did notice something in your post that I didn't agree with though regarding digital audio providing superior quality. It absolutely provides more convenience like you said. In fact the convenience is so much better that people use it everywhere they go despite being so compressed. If you're talking lossless audio then sure, but that tech isn't in our phones, isn't in our cars, and most certainly isn't in Pandora or Spotify..... I'm surprised at how many people will take compressed music files (that already sound subpar) and then stream them over bluetooth which compresses the quality again. There are a few exceptions, but again that tech isn't built into our phones and our factory stereos. From my phone using Pandora the sound quality when I use bluetooth is at best comparable to a strong FM signal, where as when I hard wire the connection (i.e., usb) the sound quality improves significantly, but still way below CD quality. Obviously if I download uncompressed music and play those files direct through a USB cable the sound quality improves to CD and possibly better. However, I don't think it's fair to just say digital is better than analog because only very expensive digital sound would likely fall into that category. I could be wrong, but people just don't know what they are missing anymore and convenience trumps quality. Who the hell wants to drag around actual physical copies of music anymore. Personally, I'd prefer if they just stopped putting CD players in cars altogether. Make it an optional upgrade. Ha, I called it an upgrade.
Depends on how easy you think after market should be.
Look at the Mazda units.
Hondas slabs are at least physically removable in one chunk.
 


dick w

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Hondas slabs are at least physically removable in one chunk.
The 2016 Civic Touring appears, from the parts catalog, to have four major separately replaceable components. An LVDS display, the head unit box, an amplifier, and a tuner module (SXM?).
 

lightthief

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Courtesy of the same people who love their compressed music played via bluetooth?
Fun fact.
On the whole people don't care that much about audio quality.
Cassete tapes were a massive step down in audio quality from records.
No one cared.
CDs were a huge step up, but no one actually cared about the sound fidelity.
They were just tired of turning over their tapes. And they could pick tracks.

Personally I don't see the point of arguing over if lossless digital formats stay true to the recording when it's all recorded digitally now from the get go.

Generally I think audiophiles are a lot like people with 20/15 vision.
Yup , they exsist. It's possible.
But most people just don't care and it can't be expected that literally the most purchased car in the country cater to a niche.

You can argue endlessly if that's morally a "good" or "bad" thing but expecting the people at large to share your opinion seems just a tough sell.
 

lightthief

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The 2016 Civic Touring appears, from the parts catalog, to have four major separately replaceable components. An LVDS display, the head unit box, an amplifier, and a tuner module (SXM?).
All of which are removable and not modeled directly into the console.
 

smithkcfan

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I have a 2016 Civic ES with the following audio issues:


There is no CD Player in the car, so I loaded some MP3’s onto a thumb drive and stick it into the USB port in the center arm rest. It plays the songs and allows you to navigate through folders or just play on Random. The problem I, about 1 out of every 3 songs will just stop playing. You then have to wait a second and then skip to the next song to get audio again. All my songs are the same format. I can even play the same song again and get through the whole thing this time.


Other issue, when connecting my iPhone 6 to the USB under the radio, I can use the Apple Carplay feature to play the music from my phone. When I turn on the right blinker, it kills the audio and I get a black screen on the control panel. I can get back to FM audio by using the Home button, but cannot get Carplay up again unless I reboot the audio or restart the car. I did turn of the feature that switches to the side camera everytime you turn the right blinker on, but still have the same issue.


Minor issue, after pairing my phone with the car, using Bluetooth, they do not autoconnect the next time I get in the car. I have to manually connect everytime I get in the car.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 

ICanLiftACivicUp

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I have a 2016 Civic ES with the following audio issues:


There is no CD Player in the car, so I loaded some MP3’s onto a thumb drive and stick it into the USB port in the center arm rest. It plays the songs and allows you to navigate through folders or just play on Random. The problem I, about 1 out of every 3 songs will just stop playing. You then have to wait a second and then skip to the next song to get audio again. All my songs are the same format. I can even play the same song again and get through the whole thing this time.


Other issue, when connecting my iPhone 6 to the USB under the radio, I can use the Apple Carplay feature to play the music from my phone. When I turn on the right blinker, it kills the audio and I get a black screen on the control panel. I can get back to FM audio by using the Home button, but cannot get Carplay up again unless I reboot the audio or restart the car. I did turn of the feature that switches to the side camera everytime you turn the right blinker on, but still have the same issue.


Minor issue, after pairing my phone with the car, using Bluetooth, they do not autoconnect the next time I get in the car. I have to manually connect everytime I get in the car.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The first problem is kinda common on android systems. The audio format used by those songs may not be compatible (yes yes, they're mpeg3 or something but still don't work.... I'm not a mobile developer so I don't know why). There are tools you can run to convert the audio files correctly.

As for your other problems I'm not much of a help. The last one with bluetooth not autoconnecting could be a setting in your phone not allowing it not to be discoverable by the car.

I know nothing about why it would fail when you use the blinker, but it might be related to your bluetooth problem.
 


meritsh

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In LX how to display song title when using bluetooth or usb. Also radio is not showing song title when switching station. Do guys faced same issue??
 

JohnsCivic

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New to the forum...I have been a die-hard Honda owner since the 80's (Civic's, Accords, Odyssey, Ridgeline, Pilot) currently driving 08 Civic with 182k miles.
I took the 2016 Civic Touring for a test drive and was totally blown away by everything about this new offering!!
I will own one before the year is over.

Question 1, regarding audio that (though I dug through this loooong string) I didn't see addressed here...
Can you use the usb port in the center console (compartment under the armrest) to plug in a thumb drive full of mp3's to be recognized by the system for playback?
Or does it have to be plugged into the port normally reserved for your smartphone for audio playback?

Question 2, with an android phone can you hold a text conversation hands-free using voice to text/text to voice while driving?
The way the first post reads, it almost sounds like you can't respond via txt while driving using voice to text to dictate response but have to use canned responses.
Can you please elaborate based on your experience?

Thanks in advance!
--John
 

dick w

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Question 1, regarding audio that (though I dug through this loooong string) I didn't see addressed here...
Can you use the usb port in the center console (compartment under the armrest) to plug in a thumb drive full of mp3's to be recognized by the system for playback?
Or does it have to be plugged into the port normally reserved for your smartphone for audio playback?
Answer 1: I have a 128 GB flash drive plugged in the console port. Works fine. But Display Audio is very limited in the playback options for USB drives. Had to organize all the files in ...\<genre>\<artist><album><track> folders to play random track within a given genre, my preferred use case. This makes finding/playing a given album almost impossible.
 

PaulRAnderson

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About the lack of CD player and the appearance that anyone who wants one is an "old-timer":

I am not a luddite. And I don't leave my turn signal on for miles at a time, nor do I drive the speed limit in the left lane.

I love new technology. I switched to CDs from LPs in 1986 because they sounded better and were more convenient. I subscribed to XM Radio years ago and still enjoy it. I've got an iPhone 6S and love it. The audio system in the new Civic looks awesome, but a CD player in there would have cost not many dollars, and not much space either.

Now having many albums of music on my phone or other device would be convenient, too, in a way. I know I don't need perfect sound in my car, but I also don't want to have to rip a thousand CDs to my phone just to get the convenience of a CD player.

A third-party CD add-on could be available in the future, but how well would it integrate with the built-in system? And would you have to put the player in the glove compartment? Sure don't want wires hanging out and have a cheesy player sitting on the floor.

Well, I'm waiting for the manual transmission coming on the 2017 model anyway, so I have time to work this all out.
 

Slickone

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I really want a CD player too. At least a CD player would be more likely to work as expected. They could have done away with some of the headunit nonsense that is giving so many people problems and that no one but the tech savy can figure out, and just added a freakin CD player that more people would actually use.
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