Honda Civic EX 2002 (Question)!

[UltimateWarrior 10+ year member]

Honda Civic EX 2002 (Question!)

I visited a local audio shop (Sound Waves) today and the guy working there who seemed to have plenty of knowledge and experienced gave me some bad news. Unfortunately, my Civic has very little room in the doors for my front speakers so I can't get very large ones he said because of the lack of room. This limits my choices for front speakers, actually very few speakers will fit in this small area. (Way to go Honda!) Anyway, he pointed out some that would fit but they were pretty weak. He said if I get two sets of matching speakers, front and back, and a high quality powered HU I could get away with it. He pointed out a HU costing about $500! This HU could produce what normal HU's can't and it would make up for the lack of speaker size? He also said I could add and smaller amp and sub later down the road and still have a pretty decent system. So it seems my Civic suks and you can't put very large front speakers in. Bummer! I thought about those door kits/molds but they stick out so far my leg would always be up against a speaker! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/uhoh.gif.c07307dd22ee7e63e22fc8e9c614d1fd.gif I've seem them. Anyway, this is the HU the expert recommended:

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=11282

It's a nice HU, don't get me wrong, but do I really need this much? I think the speakers he showed me were only like $69 a pair and not very powerful. Is there that much difference in a HU were it can make up for my lack of speaker size? This just doesn't seem possible, who knows. I am not expert by all means.

Everything I have now is all factory junk and I'm getting tired of it in a hurry. Music is not even enjoyable to listen to with that setup. So, I am shopping and learning and just getting advice. I just didn't expect to pay $500 for a HU! What gives?

I think I need more opinions... (Not that he was wrong) I just want to know more.

Thanks!

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/toast.gif.bc0657bf54b9ee653b6438524461341e.gif

Click to read more...

 

[UltimateWarrior 10+ year member]

I think the speakers he showed me were like these:

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=12869

Hmmm...

 

[btnhfan 5,000+ posts]

there is definatley much better speakers than those pioneers. are you sure you cant fit comps up there? i have comps in my 99 civic ex. how different are the doors and mounting depths?

 

[UltimateWarrior 10+ year member]

I know that the body style changed from 1999 so I guess the door space was reduced. I know he said I can't fit most speakers in there because they run into that problem all the time with people coming in with the newer Civics and it really bums people out. I don't know the measurements, sorry. But he did say comps won't work. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

This is really frustrating. Why do manufacturers allow hardly any room? I think they need to take this into consideration when designing vehicles!

:readytogo

(That factory junk is totally useless)

 

[drkodin 10+ year member]

well, i have quite a bit of experience with that car and i'll tell you that the man was full of ****, and also isn't at the same time.

I got a set of Diamond Audio HEX 6.5" components in the stock locations on that exact car when all forums and installers said they couldn't fit, but it was a pain in the ass and required permanent modifacations (they can't be seen, but they are there to stay). So, the installer can do it if motivated but it is not even worth his time or trouble to get them in there.

so, your solutions are going to be a very thin speaker at the sacrifice of sound quality (in most cases) or do the install yourself and i'll help where i can. I have a sound domain page of my buddy's (it was his car) with pretty detailed pics of what we had to do, i'll try to find the link.

 

[drkodin 10+ year member]

well, that wasn't hard he was 3rd one down on the search (aparently lots of people liked my install //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif ).

http://www.sounddomain.com/member_pages/view_page.pl?page_id=369312&make_type_query=type%3DSUBWF&model_brand_query=brand%3DELD&tree=Elemental%20Designs%20Subwoofers

his car, my garage/install.

 

[UltimateWarrior 10+ year member]

Most powerful head unit on the market = Alpine V-Drive ... 4 x 26 RMS ... Most head units =
Just for the record, the Pioneer DEH-P9400MP uses the same internal amplifier that ALL but the lowest-end Pioneer head units use ... The MOSFET50 internal amp ... 4 x 18 RMS (4 x 22 watts @ 5% THD) ...

He just wants to sell you an expensive HU QUOTE]

And he ALMOST sold me. He must have talked 15 minutes on how much better that HU was compared to one for let's say, $199. All this Jazz about DSP? Equalizers, etc. I don't know... it all sounded good. He said you could hook a mic into this unit and calabrate or measure your sound to make it even better. Oh well, I couldn't spend $500 on a HU anyway so no big deal. Again, this is why I am getting more opinions!

Thanks.

 

[UltimateWarrior 10+ year member]

well, that wasn't hard he was 3rd one down on the search (aparently lots of people liked my install //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif ).
http://www.sounddomain.com/member_pages/view_page.pl?page_id=369312&make_type_query=type%3DSUBWF&model_brand_query=brand%3DELD&tree=Elemental%20Designs%20Subwoofers

his car, my garage/install.

Dude, there is NO WAY I am going to all that work. I'd wind up screwing something up and I simply don't have any experience doing this. I will have it installed and I'll gladly pay to do so. My time is too valuable to spend doing something like this and it would take me a week to do it anway because I wouldn't know what the hell I was doing. So, I'll just have to live with finding shallow speakers like the ones mentioned and just get a decent HU, not going overboard or anything. Once I get a quality amp and sub I'll be ok. I want four speakers, a nice HU, an amp, and a sub enclosure. I'll be like a kid in a candy store compared to that factory rip-off junk. (Sorry, I'm a little bitter about factory audio equipment) //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/pissed.gif.9f665f96bc89e98e708dabd4580bb591.gif

BTW, nice job on the install! I wish I had the time, energy, and knowledge but I don't. I leave that stuff up to the pros who do it all the time. There are certain things in life you just simply should have someone else do for you and this is one of them. You earn money to have other people do things you can't, or won't do. Haha...

So thanks for all the tips and advice so far. I'll look into all this further.

 

[drkodin 10+ year member]

those amps were a ***** to install vertical, i'll never do it again.

too bad my friend never let me finish it. I was going to make him a false floor to hide all the wiring and his spare, then carpet it so that it all looked stock (not hard to do really). but, like most people i have known, when the subs and amps are in and working no one cares anymore about how it looks because they don't want to spend the effort on it. it works, i guess that is all they care about.

(lol, I say that as my own box is in my truck bare as well , but that is because i just don't have the money for fiberglass and paint at the moment.)

 

[UltimateWarrior 10+ year member]

That's cool. Frankly, I don't care what my trunk looks like cause nobody would ever see in there. I want functionality. I don't care to impress anyone, I just want something that works. The only thing I do care about looking nice is my HU because that is what I will be using every day and it's visible all the time. I do want a kick-ass HU, one that I will enjoy for many years. I'd rather put my money into something I have to look at/use on a daily basis more so than a box that sits in a closed trunk.

Again, this is why I will have someone who knows what they are doing when the time comes to install my gear. I'm afraid I'd mess my dash up or something, or worse... ruin my new HU! Then I'd be //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/verymad.gif.3f39c5c2fd57527b671fad3efdfac756.gif

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/silly.gif.3549b64aaa5b6729eb8e865319a3234f.gif

 

[slick316 10+ year member]

all you need is a spacer ring, and thats it, you can get a lot of speakers to fit. i too have a 02 civic ex and i have diamond audio hex components up front (i think they are 2.8" deep or so).

depending on how deep the speaker is, you need to make a spacer for them to fit, thats all.

 

[drkodin 10+ year member]

all you need is a spacer ring, and thats it, you can get a lot of speakers to fit. i too have a 02 civic ex and i have diamond audio hex components up front (i think they are 2.8" deep or so).depending on how deep the speaker is, you need to make a spacer for them to fit, thats all.

and hammer the doors

and trim away the excess plastic behind the door panel

a spacer just didn't cut it, even at 1/2" inch.

 

[slick316 10+ year member]

and hammer the doorsand trim away the excess plastic behind the door panel

a spacer just didn't cut it, even at 1/2" inch.

i never hammered the doors or anything like that, but yes, you basically have to cut awat that round trim on the back of the door panel.

i made an MDF ring out of 3/4" MDF for my HEX's, works flawlessly.

 

[96greencivic 10+ year member]

Does everyone here have something against Kenwood eXcelon or something ?

I've got an eXcelon X459 and I'm very happy with it.