Hi all,
I've been putting together a system for my Honda Insight over the last few weeks. The equipment is being taken from my MR2 (which I am selling), but I am willing to spend a little extra to upgrade a few things. Honestly, simplicity is probably my top concern - I don't think I have the ear for high quality sound, but I can definitely tell that the stock Insight speakers were a joke. My cell phone has better sound quality.
Anyway, if anyone has any comments/suggestions/etc I'd love to hear em.
My speakers are MB Quart QSD 216. These BARELY fit in the door panels, but I got it to work with the stock speaker grills after some heavy trimming. Still trying to decide where to put the tweeters. My dad says they should go as close as possible to the woofers. My knee blocks the area directly above the woofers, so I'm thinking about putting them next to the door lock switch (about where they're hanging in the picture).
The tweeters could go in the side mirror triangles, but they're actually angled in the wrong direction (towards the windshield) and I think the door panel itself sounds better as well.
The speakers sound OK powered off the deck, but is it better if I run them off an amplifier? They certainly get loud enough with just the stock Honda stereo (actually louder than the two Kenwood decks I tried in the MR2). I kind of want to keep the stock deck, but on the other hand an EQ would be nice because I feel like I need to turn up the mids a lot on the MB Quarts. Of course, RCA out would be a plus as well.
I'm also transferring over my Sundown Audio SA-8 D4 subwoofer from the MR2, but this time I'm getting a custom box made instead of using my dad's old 80's Bazooka tube.
The MR2 came with a Pioneer PRS-D4100F, which is a little too big for the stock CD changer location in the Insight. It fits in the corner pretty well like this, but I lose the supports for the hatch "floor" because it's so big.
What I'd like to do is sell this one and get a mini amplifier. I like what I'm seeing in this thread, especially the Precision Power P900.4, but I'm worried about pulling too much current from the car.
Instead of an alternator, the Honda Insight has a 75A DC-DC Converter, which converts 144V power from the high voltage battery (or motor, if decelerating) to 12V for the rest of the car. Supposedly, the car itself uses 40 amps, leaving 35A = 420W to play with. I don't really blast my stereo, but does it seem dangerous to use the 900W Precision Power amp? I'd really like to give the SA-8 a little more power than it's getting from the Pioneer right now.
Currently, I have the Pioneer amp wired directly to the DC-DC output (which itself is wired directly to the battery). The power wire is only like 1.5 ft, so I followed the Crutchfield cable gauge chart and used some 10ga Monster power cable I found lying around. The Precision Power amp says it requires 4ga wire, which to me is a little bigger than I'd like. I hate running giant wads of wire around the car.
I'll be transferring the Optima Yellowtop from the MR2 to the Insight, but I don't know if that's enough of an upgrade to help any. I've heard people say to use two batteries, but I don't really like that idea much either (goes against my goal of simplicity).
The sub box should be arriving next week, so I'll post some pics as soon as it comes in.
(to be continued...)
I've been putting together a system for my Honda Insight over the last few weeks. The equipment is being taken from my MR2 (which I am selling), but I am willing to spend a little extra to upgrade a few things. Honestly, simplicity is probably my top concern - I don't think I have the ear for high quality sound, but I can definitely tell that the stock Insight speakers were a joke. My cell phone has better sound quality.
Anyway, if anyone has any comments/suggestions/etc I'd love to hear em.
My speakers are MB Quart QSD 216. These BARELY fit in the door panels, but I got it to work with the stock speaker grills after some heavy trimming. Still trying to decide where to put the tweeters. My dad says they should go as close as possible to the woofers. My knee blocks the area directly above the woofers, so I'm thinking about putting them next to the door lock switch (about where they're hanging in the picture).
The tweeters could go in the side mirror triangles, but they're actually angled in the wrong direction (towards the windshield) and I think the door panel itself sounds better as well.
The speakers sound OK powered off the deck, but is it better if I run them off an amplifier? They certainly get loud enough with just the stock Honda stereo (actually louder than the two Kenwood decks I tried in the MR2). I kind of want to keep the stock deck, but on the other hand an EQ would be nice because I feel like I need to turn up the mids a lot on the MB Quarts. Of course, RCA out would be a plus as well.
I'm also transferring over my Sundown Audio SA-8 D4 subwoofer from the MR2, but this time I'm getting a custom box made instead of using my dad's old 80's Bazooka tube.
The MR2 came with a Pioneer PRS-D4100F, which is a little too big for the stock CD changer location in the Insight. It fits in the corner pretty well like this, but I lose the supports for the hatch "floor" because it's so big.
What I'd like to do is sell this one and get a mini amplifier. I like what I'm seeing in this thread, especially the Precision Power P900.4, but I'm worried about pulling too much current from the car.
Instead of an alternator, the Honda Insight has a 75A DC-DC Converter, which converts 144V power from the high voltage battery (or motor, if decelerating) to 12V for the rest of the car. Supposedly, the car itself uses 40 amps, leaving 35A = 420W to play with. I don't really blast my stereo, but does it seem dangerous to use the 900W Precision Power amp? I'd really like to give the SA-8 a little more power than it's getting from the Pioneer right now.
Currently, I have the Pioneer amp wired directly to the DC-DC output (which itself is wired directly to the battery). The power wire is only like 1.5 ft, so I followed the Crutchfield cable gauge chart and used some 10ga Monster power cable I found lying around. The Precision Power amp says it requires 4ga wire, which to me is a little bigger than I'd like. I hate running giant wads of wire around the car.
I'll be transferring the Optima Yellowtop from the MR2 to the Insight, but I don't know if that's enough of an upgrade to help any. I've heard people say to use two batteries, but I don't really like that idea much either (goes against my goal of simplicity).
The sub box should be arriving next week, so I'll post some pics as soon as it comes in.
(to be continued...)
