Car Audio???

[jnboone]

Bought a new Honda Accord, and looking to replace all the speakers and add subs. I'm 56 and looking for incredible sound quality - not a kid looking for the loudest thump. It looks like the JL Audio Anniversary Sub is the best (I use SVS at home). Any suggestions on speakers? I haven't found a forum anywhere like this one for car audio to seek good advice :-(

 

[TLS Guy]

Bought a new Honda Accord, and looking to replace all the speakers and add subs. I'm 56 and looking for incredible sound quality - not a kid looking for the loudest thump. It looks like the JL Audio Anniversary Sub is the best (I use SVS at home). Any suggestions on speakers? I haven't found a forum anywhere like this one for car audio to seek good advice :-(

This is not a car audio forum. We do not really get into it.

However a stern caution and words of warning to you. You really can not meddle with the sound systems of modern cars. The audio is part of the deal. Vehicles have loudspeakers with very strange impedance values now

In addition cars are now awash in RF hash on the electrical bus. This is because modern cars have high frequency digital voltage regulators and not the old analog ones.

So people post here having done what you are proposing to just have a huge buzz though all their speakers.

And often getting into the audio system these days voids the car warranty.

Do not go down this rabbit hole!

 

[jnboone]

Thank you! I had no idea. Any chance of just adding a sub without getting into all that mess?

 

[TLS Guy]

Thank you! I had no idea. Any chance of just adding a sub without getting into all that mess?

Not really. This would require a powerful class D amp. I bet there is not spare power to run it. If you did hook it up you would almost certainly have more buzz than program.

Really the modern electrical systems have killed aftermarket car audio.

Car electrical systems have to be very different now. They have to be highly responsive for things like electric power steering which is now pretty much universal. You can pretty much bet that the bean counters would not leave enough power for subwoofer amps, even if you could hook them up. The other thing is that if you do start drawing down power, then the power steering can fail to respond and you end up in oncoming traffic. These incidents have occurred and been well documented. BMW have a very good white paper on the problem.

If you want good sound then you have to pony up for the top end of the model range.
That is what I did and the audio system is actually very good. Well balanced with lots of power and a good sub. Same with my wife's car.

The auto manufacturers have invested big dollar sums in these systems, especially Audi who have spent millions in R & D on in car audio. The result is much better than a round the back car audio installer could do.

I recently rented a vehicle that was a later model of mine, but not the top trim level and the sound system was poor, but it had Apple air play.

 

[TLS Guy]

I have just looked at the trim levels of the 2018 Honda Accord, and the LT has a very basic audio system and probably poor.

But the Ex and touring models have what seems like an impressive sound system, with 450 watts total power and 10 speakers.

I find you have to get above $30,000 base price to have a chance at a decent sound system.

 

[Matt34]

You can get around most of the mess that are integrated head-units with something like the JL audio Twk 88.
http://www.jlaudio.com/twk-88-car-audio-processors-system-tuning-98101

I recently had a system installed in my Tacoma and kept the factory HU. I'm very happy with the sound quality and is a huge improvement over the factory JBL system(the speakers were a joke, 6x9 with magnets the size of a quarter.) Plus it give me different presets for talk radio, music, etc.

Factory HU
Jl Audio Twk 88
Alpine PDV-x9 5 channel amp (4 channels ran to front tweeter/mids for full active system)
Audison AV 6.5 https://www.audison.eu/products/av-6-5/ in front doors/dash
Sundown Audio 10" sub behind rear seats
Nocio 80mil sound deadening in all the doors and back wall

It's a lot more involved than in years past but upgrading your car audio system is still a viable option.

 

[Matt34]

Twk88 software, amp and dsp located behind passenger rear seat.

 

[lovinthehd]

There was a small car sub-forum here at AH but little activity and now seems to have been eliminated. Surely there are good car audio forums out there?! Or see a professional installer for specific options for your vehicle...

 

[Matt34]

There was a small car sub-forum here at AH but little activity and now seems to have been eliminated. Surely there are good car audio forums out there?! Or see a professional installer for specific options for your vehicle...

.

Probably the biggest one out there.
DIYmobileaudio

 

[TLS Guy]

You can get around most of the mess that are integrated head-units with something like the JL audio Twk 88.
http://www.jlaudio.com/twk-88-car-audio-processors-system-tuning-98101

I recently had a system installed in my Tacoma and kept the factory HU. I'm very happy with the sound quality and is a huge improvement over the factory JBL system(the speakers were a joke, 6x9 with magnets the size of a quarter.) Plus it give me different presets for talk radio, music, etc.

Factory HU
Jl Audio Twk 88
Alpine PDV-x9 5 channel amp (4 channels ran to front tweeter/mids for full active system)
Audison AV 6.5 https://www.audison.eu/products/av-6-5/ in front doors/dash
Sundown Audio 10" sub behind rear seats
Nocio 80mil sound deadening in all the doors and back wall

It's a lot more involved than in years past but upgrading your car audio system is still a viable option.

I'm not so sure it is a viable option for many cars. There is a significant safety issue. Your Tacoma is a vehicle that is large enough that it almost certainly has hydraulic power steering and possibly has an analog voltage regulator.

In the cars and smaller SUVs, the steering is all electric and this requires huge intermittent current draws.

I'm sure that the digital regulators are sized to the vehicle demands. In the old days you could just fit a larger alternator and voltage regulator. For most vehicles that option is gone.

So if someone where to change the audio system in a vehicle, then that installer would really have to know what they were doing, otherwise it could turn out badly, as well as being dangerous.

My advice still stands, that if you want good audio, you need to select vehicles with the high end trim. In my experience these vehicles generally offer audio quality and performance that you could not match with an after market system.

I would say that the aftermarket business is now a terminal one. Firms like JL audio and alpine need to find another product line and market.

 

[Winkleswizard]

Suggest you check with Crutchfield on potential caveats, but otherwise have bought several newer model Japanese cars (including 2 Hondas) and they all pretty much use standard drivers. Asking about potential warranty impact seems like good advice, but if just upgrading drivers, suspect you will be fine as long as you check compatibility...

Enjoy!

Ww

 

[hemiram]

A friend of mine puts huge amounts of money into every vehicle he buys, and the results keep getting better...
And more expensive. His '17 Challenger is what I want my home system to basically sound like. There isn't anything left from stock anymore. My '10 Challenger is OK, IMHO, if it had the bass tightened up, it would be fine. The stock sub is sad. I still have the stock HU, but the dash speakers have been changed to drop in JL's, and a fair amount of sound deadening has been added. It still buzzes when it's cold inside during cold weather startups, but once it warms up, and at this time of the year, it's pretty quiet, as far as body panel buzz goes.