2005 Honda Accord low budget high SQ.

[John Doe]

Sorry to say this wont be as SQ as you think. Because no matter what gear you have, the stock head unit will be your weak spot dragging everything into the mud. Signal is pretty much the most important part in a sound quality install right next to the install techniques. The stock head unit will always be a garbage cut and built in factory EQ'd signal to hell and an audio control LOC will just amplify that garbage now you get louder garbage. You need a dsp that can flatten the factory EQ and signal sum to get a full flat starting signal to your drivers.

Also when you do components you are at the mercy of the vehicle's acoustics and the built in and unchangeable crossover point of the passive crossover. So your SQ results when going passive is literally playing the lottery which is not a sustainable business model IMO.

Also you wont have much of a soundstage due to the rear speakers or any form of time correction and independent eq and level adjustments so pretty much its gonna be a loud and clean install vs an actual SQ oriented install

In the process of getting a Dayton and everything else but I was curious and I’m sure I know what you’re gonna say but, in Hawai’i, not a lot of people even the car audio guys do SQ builds/set ups. So that said, I initially had plans of taking my Dayton in to a shop to do the tuning but I don’t know if any of the reputable shops even have a RTA mic. My question is, how essential is a RTA mic?

 

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]

It will be fine. One day later if my bank account feels more love i'll spend $430 on the dash mounting/wiring harness required to use an aftermarket HU and spend another 430$ on a double din. But for now I'm on a budget, and i dont really like the lloks of that kit, my model has wood trim that is nice looking that the kit replaces with plastic and gaps. Also not crazy about the controls on the kits for the HVAC.

I could look into a dsp, sorry i'm not familiar with the term, but a flatter eq sounds beneficial. Any budget suggestions on models?

Actually found a dashkit for $300 that says it has the module for steering and hvac controls and doesn't replace the lower wood trim. So i returned the line out converter and aux input for doing things through the factory hu. Now if that kit works i'll be using my Eclipse CD7100 head unit for the signal. Thanks for the push.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

It will be fine. One day later if my bank account feels more love i'll spend $430 on the dash mounting/wiring harness required to use an aftermarket HU and spend another 430$ on a double din. But for now I'm on a budget, and i dont really like the lloks of that kit, my model has wood trim that is nice looking that the kit replaces with plastic and gaps. Also not crazy about the controls on the kits for the HVAC.

I could look into a dsp, sorry i'm not familiar with the term, but a flatter eq sounds beneficial. Any budget suggestions on models?

I'm not telling you to swap out the head unit, there's many workarounds nowadays. Some cheap, some expensive.

Cheap way would be to leave the head unit as is as a decoration and HVAC controller, still functioning but will not be used for audio. You would give up bluetooth calling capabilities this route as well. You'll be dayton audio dsp 408 and a bluetooth dongle (will run you about 180 total for those two) and pretty much hook up power, ground remote and the dsp tucked away hidden somewhere will and will act your head unit. APTX HD is lossless bluetooth and trust me, even SQ judges couldnt tell the difference between CD and APTX HD. The signal is not only flat, its amazing off the batt due to the high quality dacs of the dsp meaning you get massive amounts of detail and clarity vs using anything connected to your stock head unit, night and day difference off the batt. The DSP has 8 channels of output, each channel has 10 bands of parametric EQ, so your tweeters get 10 bands, mids get 10 bands, midbass/rears get 10 bands, subs get 10 bands. Each channel has bandpass crossovers that you can choose any frequency and any slope you can even think of. Each channel has time correction as well which is key. This costs not much more than an LC7I but is FAR superior. If you want to keep bluetooth calling and use of the head unit as the audio source, you can just use the speaker level inputs of the dayton as well. Definitely this choice over the shitty audiocontrol dinosaur tech lmao.

the more expensive option would be a 600 dollar DSP with factory de-equalization capabilites like a jl fix and twk or an audison bit one or helix dsp, works the same way as the LOC in terms of getting signal from your speakers, it sums up the signal and then has input EQ software that flattens the incoming signal and recreates a flat signal. These have everything the dayton has audio features wise just no direct bluetooth streaming on some of them. The dayton only signal sums, but does not flatten incoming signal if using the speaker level inputs.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

In the process of getting a Dayton and everything else but I was curious and I’m sure I know what you’re gonna say but, in Hawai’i, not a lot of people even the car audio guys do SQ builds/set ups. So that said, I initially had plans of taking my Dayton in to a shop to do the tuning but I don’t know if any of the reputable shops even have a RTA mic. My question is, how essential is a RTA mic?

RTA mic is essential only if your initial tuning by ear still fails to please you and you have absolutely no idea what frequencies the peaks and dips are at. If no one in hawaii can do proper SQ, then there's a niche you can fill and make money off of if you study up and practice/learn skills. I'd definitely work on tuning the system myself if I were you. It helps to know what everything is set to imo in the long run.

 

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]

I'm not telling you to swap out the head unit, there's many workarounds nowadays. Some cheap, some expensive.

Cheap way would be to leave the head unit as is as a decoration and HVAC controller, still functioning but will not be used for audio. You would give up bluetooth calling capabilities this route as well. You'll be dayton audio dsp 408 and a bluetooth dongle (will run you about 180 total for those two) and pretty much hook up power, ground remote and the dsp tucked away hidden somewhere will and will act your head unit. APTX HD is lossless bluetooth and trust me, even SQ judges couldnt tell the difference between CD and APTX HD. The signal is not only flat, its amazing off the batt due to the high quality dacs of the dsp meaning you get massive amounts of detail and clarity vs using anything connected to your stock head unit, night and day difference off the batt. The DSP has 8 channels of output, each channel has 10 bands of parametric EQ, so your tweeters get 10 bands, mids get 10 bands, midbass/rears get 10 bands, subs get 10 bands. Each channel has bandpass crossovers that you can choose any frequency and any slope you can even think of. Each channel has time correction as well which is key. This costs not much more than an LC7I but is FAR superior. If you want to keep bluetooth calling and use of the head unit as the audio source, you can just use the speaker level inputs of the dayton as well. Definitely this choice over the shitty audiocontrol dinosaur tech lmao.

the more expensive option would be a 600 dollar DSP with factory de-equalization capabilites like a jl fix and twk or an audison bit one or helix dsp, works the same way as the LOC in terms of getting signal from your speakers, it sums up the signal and then has input EQ software that flattens the incoming signal and recreates a flat signal. These have everything the dayton has audio features wise just no direct bluetooth streaming on some of them. The dayton only signal sums, but does not flatten incoming signal if using the speaker level inputs.

Thanks for the great tips and information, but I think you were right the first time. I'll wait to get a double Din later but have an Eclipse CD7100 radio and found a dash kit with steering control integration and HVAC for $300 so assuming that works out I'll be running my eclipse head unit.

 

[John Doe]

RTA mic is essential only if your initial tuning by ear still fails to please you and you have absolutely no idea what frequencies the peaks and dips are at. If no one in hawaii can do proper SQ, then there's a niche you can fill and make money off of if you study up and practice/learn skills. I'd definitely work on tuning the system myself if I were you. It helps to know what everything is set to imo in the long run.

Thanks for the help as always. Guys know car audio down here many for some reason just don’t dabble into SQ. Pretty much everything down here is SPL. But yeah I’m learning a lot from this forum as well as YouTube for other stuff. I definitely want to see more guys down here run SQ builds.
Hell a shop that sells and tunes DSPs down here asked me what a “2 way Active set up” was when I asked if they could do that for me LOL I hung up right after.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Thanks for the great tips and information, but I think you were right the first time. I'll wait to get a double Din later but have an Eclipse CD7100 radio and found a dash kit with steering control integration and HVAC for $300 so assuming that works out I'll be running my eclipse head unit.

head unit is always top notch choice, you just improved your initial setup 10 fold lol.

Thanks for the help as always. Guys know car audio down here many for some reason just don’t dabble into SQ. Pretty much everything down here is SPL. But yeah I’m learning a lot from this forum as well as YouTube for other stuff. I definitely want to see more guys down here run SQ builds.
Hell a shop that sells and tunes DSPs down here asked me what a “2 way Active set up” was when I asked if they could do that for me LOL I hung up right after.

diyma forums has much more advanced SQ talk, this forum is a collection bag of everything. Over there you'll get the rich snobs that know their **** lecture you about every angle of reflection you will deal with in your car down to your interior seat shape and material causing dips in the frequency response.

 

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]

Waiting patiently (yeah right) for everything to be shipped. Sorry guys All I got for you today is before pictures.

 

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Clean

 

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]

Materials, equipment and tools ordered.
Mlv, ccf, ccf weather stripping, compressed fiberglass, denim insulation, adhesive spray, deadener, aluminum tape, green glue, roller, 1mil plastic dropcloth, packing tape, 3/4 mdf, door and rear deck components, dash kit, hu, ho alternator, and plenty of 1/0 and 4 guage cables and connectors, remote wire, dielectric grease, rcas, speaker wire, solder&iron, shrink wrap, conduit, mono and 4 channel amplifiers, subs, enclosure. Anything i'm missing?

 

[2RZ-FE 10+ year member]

Wire ferrules, tesa tape, zipties

Beer?

 

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]

Wire ferrules, tesa tape, zipties

Beer?

Thx i haven't used ferrules before, but i think i'll do that this time.Yeah all the little things too, electrical tape, spade connectors, wire brush, cardboard, zip ties, cutting tool, utility knife, wrenches, screwdrivers, prybars, jig saw, circular saw, wood glue, clamps, wire strippers, butt connectors, crimping tool, hammer, screws, drill it seems the list goes on, i'll def need a few 6 packs for this build.

 

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]

I got everything except the ho alternator seems to be taking a while. Now I just gotta find time to get r done. I got new smoked headlight assemblies and led bulbs. Put it in today looks 100 better I'll post pics.

 

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]