I'm begining the process of overhauling my wife's 06 TSX - she recently upgraded her blackberry to an iphone and now enjoys jamming out to streaming radio and sync'd high quality music on her drive to work. Anyways - she's informed me the stereo needs work and wants an upgrade (how awesome is that).

So I'm looking at options and I'm going to be keeping the factory NAV and replacing the AMP and all speakers. I'd appreciate some feedback on my selection of components. The primary purpose of the system is clean high quality sound, no flash (factory location for speakers) and utilization of the trunk (no big sub boxes).

Amplifier - I'd looking at 5 channel amps (with balanced inputs) I'm looking at these 3 - I'm leaning towards the HD900/5 due to the full power across 1.5-4ohm. The components I'm leaning towards are rated for 100 Watts RMS \ 200 MAX.

JL AUDIO HD900/5
- Front/Rear 100 Watts RMS x 4 (1.5-4 ohms)
- Subwoofer 500 RMS x 1 (1.5-4 ohms)

JL Audio XD700/5
- Front/Rear 75 Watts RMS x 4 (4 ohms)
- Subwoofer 300 RMS x 1 (2 ohms)

Kicker IX1000.5
- Front/Rear 65 Watts RMS x 4 (4 ohms)
- Subwoofer 500 RMS x 1 (2 ohms)


Speakers
- Image Dynamics CTX65CS 6.5 components (Front) 100 Watts RMS \ 200 MAX.
- Image Dynamics CTX69 6x9 (Rear Deck) 100 Watts RMS \ 200 MAX.
- Image Dynamics CTX6 (Rear Door) 70 Watts RMS

Subwoofer - I'm leaning towards an Image Dynamics Sub for its SQ properties. I've used DD and RE subs in the past. DD and RE are suposed to be big SPL and SQ so I'm not sure - people rave about Image Dynamics though. My alternative would likely be a RE REX\RFX series. I want to use a small sealed box (uncald) so I wont have a lot of space/displacement available. I've also heard JL would be a good SQ sub (although overpriced). I'd like to stay around $150-200 so that will probably rule out any of the larger JL subs.

- Image Dynamics ID12d2v3 (Subwoofer)
- REAudio REX 12
- REAudio RFX 12

Thoughts?? Thanks in advance.

 

Ugh, small sealed ftl. Are you gonna be installing this?

First thought for sub was sealed ssa dcon 15 since it's highly efficient..needs like 3 cubes sealed, though lol

 

Yes - I'm planning on using the small fiberglass sealed corner boxes that ucald makes. He makes the enclosure based on sub - but its still going to be pretty small. Nothing like the ported box for my RE XXX :-)

 

Those tiny sealed boxes suck to be honest.

99% of subs don't work well in them.

Efficiency would suck

and you'll have 0 low end extension

Consider IB or possibly small ported?

I know the dayton ho 10 works in .7 ported.

 

I know the small sealed box isnt going to be comparable to a large ported box - but thats not really what I'm going for either. She uses the trunk quite a bit and i need the sub to be out of the way and take up as little space as possible. I'd be open to IB but i cant see getting one of those in the back deck without crazy amounts of work, not to mention how it would look.

 

IB on the seat back, not rear deck

IE

 

Hmm - hadn't thought about that. That does eliminate the TSX passthrough or fold down seats though. We use those quite a bit..

 

Forgot to mention - yes I'll be installing everything. I've done quite a few installs including the system in my Lexus.

 

GUess you are stuck with a corner loaded enclosure sir lol

Um, if i were stuck with that, i'd look into something with high power handling and tons of xmax

id idmax can work if u have the budget for it.

..but then that'll eliminate the 5 channel ideas.

 

I'm looking to bring the amplified speaker output up to the center console and tap into the existing factory wire that runs to the speakers. I found a post that had done this in the past but I cant seem to find it. I'm not looking for a mercman or HU output harness - this is to utilize the existing wire going from the amp location to each speaker location.

I believe this is the adapter thats needed - can anyone confirm?

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_1207017...er-reviews-tab

 

Well... not really much feedback. I'm going ahead with this build.

 

The Civic bypass harness will give you connections for the front and rear doors and dash tweeters. Obviously you don’t need sub connections and you won’t need the tweeter connections since you will use the wire that comes with the components. What I did was mount the crossovers in the cubby where the factory amp is located. This is a good location because the tweeter wires will drop right down and you can easily route them to the crossovers. Don’t forget to get the adapters for the door speakers so you don’t have to cut the factory wires, I think they are Honda 89 and up.
The tweeters pop out, just be careful not to mar up the dash. You might have to trim some of the “slag” from inside of the hole (not the part that shows), I used an xacto knife with a cut down handle.
Jeff

 

Parts are coming in and I figured I'd post some pics to keep the thread active. Everything is here except for the sound deadening and the amp - and the remote bass knob.



I've combined my audio harness and civic harness in techflex for a clean look. This should allow me to run everything from the stock amp back to my new amp (and then back up to the stock amp to the factory speaker connections near the stock amp (hopefully that makes sense).



I also put techflex on the ground and sub-wire. This is the first time I've used the techflex and I think it makes everything look pretty slick and professional. I'm taking my time and making everything nice and neat. All speakers are connected using factory harnesses for a professional finish.



I also removed the trunk carpet this weekend in prep for the sound deadening (pretty sure thats going to suck).



Thats it for now. Enjoy the pics.

 

The harness looks good. I like your attention to detail. Hopefully when it gets warm out Ill find the time to redo all the wiring in my car and make it super clean. Keep us posted

 

cleans the way to go. btw what u drinking there, incredible hulk ?

 

Haha - thanks. Yea.. thats diet Mt Dew.. wish it was vault zero.

 

Small progress this evening - I re-pinned the 20 pin connector for the speaker harness based on the diagram --> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/442428/scan0001.jpg

It was a quite a pain.. I'm going to plan on running the following up to the front and utilize the factory wiring harness. The front component crossovers will be located near the amp. The rear deck (6x9s) will be connected directly to the amp since the harness doesnt have enough cabling to run it up to the factory harness (its also going to be very close to the amp so it'll be an easy connection.

Front Tweeter
Front Door Speakers
Rear Door Speakers

I'm planning on running the rear door and rear 6x9's in parallel which will present a 2 Ohm load to the amp. The nice thing with the JL HD900\5 is that it'll push 100 Watts RMS x 4 across a 1.5-4 Ohm load. It'll pair up nicely with the front set (100 Watts at a 4 Ohm load).

Just waiting on the amp and sub box to arrive... and we'll get to installing equipment :-)

 

Not a huge update but inching forward. I put up CLD tiles for sound deadening on the trunk lid tonight. I think it came out pretty good - I'm following the 25% coverage recommendation vs 100% which a lot of people go with. Its obviously cheaper and should provide very similar results.

For those that arent up on sound deadening check out --> http://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

 

Another small update - I finished up the remote bass knob last night. This is a JL HD-RLC - which is grossly overpriced in my opinion. I actually ended up having to buy 2 of these stupid things because I couldnt get the knob cap off - it actually ripped out the spindle on the first one. I had the same problem on the 2nd one, I ended up cutting the 2nd one off (and re-used the cap from the first one) since I didnt want to screw up the 2nd one.

I mounted it in a spare console panel which is normally up front near the sunroof control. I didnt push the cap all the way on yet - pretty sure once its on its not coming back off and I want t o make sure placement will work before doing that :-)

 

Ok - I have a much greater level or respect for those silly speaker adapter/rings... these things are a serious pain.

It probably doesnt help that I'm using a pretty awful harbor freight router but it still took about 3 hours to get them all cut out and painted. I sprayed them with a rubber sealing paint I found at home depot - hopefully that'll keep the MDF from falling apart if they get wet.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and get the rear speakers in - I know thats going to be difficult since the new speaker magnets are ahem... much larger... I'm going to have to cut bigger holes. Luckily the window doesnt come close to hitting the speakers so that shouldnt be a problem.

 

WOO HOO AMP is here - and of course I had to get it installed :-)

Since i was taking the back deck apart i decided to get the 6x9 rears in as well. I'm pretty happy with the outcome of both. The amp mount might look a little 'off' but its just the camera angle - its dead level and is completely solid. I didn't get pics of it but I put CLD tiles on the back deck and rear tail light (common rattle point).

 

YEEEAAAAHHHHHH

 

^ i like the fact that this was your first post.

Any who, hows it sound?

 

That amp is awesome,but pricey.What brand did you use for replacement speakers and what made you choose those.Can you give me a parts and price breakdown on this project,because i'm about to go down the same road.Thanks

 

Not sure - all i accomplished last night was mounting the amp I'm hoping to get power and cabling run to it this evening. It was a beast getting the rear deck all taken apart... but very worth it seeing how the speakers and amp turned out.

 

The speakers are listed below -->

Speakers
- Image Dynamics CTX65CS 6.5 components (Front) 100 Watts RMS \ 200 MAX.
- Image Dynamics CTX69 6x9 (Rear Deck) 100 Watts RMS \ 200 MAX.
- Image Dynamics CTX6 (Rear Door) 70 Watts RMS

the rest of the parts are up above in the post as well. You could go with the cheaper JL amp if you dont need 100 RMS and 500 to the sub.

The budget also is around 1800 total for everything I put in. You could probably go cheaper - especially if you didnt do the rear doors and 6x9s - alot of people just do the front stage.

I'll be sure to continue posting so check out the thread for updates.

 

Alright - 2 late nights and its done

I ran the power wire, installed the remote sub control (more on that later), connected the crossovers and connected the harness, mounted the sub box & installed the sub. Powered it up and wow... love the stereo. it gets loud, clear, and great bass. The bass isnt earth shattering but its punchy and strong, its exactly what I was hoping for.

Funny story - my wife got in the car and she said "wow.. thats awesome!" I responded... "the sub isn't on yet"

Anyways - I put everything back together and now its time to enjoy it. I'm very happy with all components - it took a lot longer than I expected but the end result is awesome. I forget how much I used to love the stereo scene.

Oh - on the sub control... about 3AM I finished putting in the sub.. turned it on.. and no sub. Checked the gain, checked the input, filters etc. I pulled out the sub (make sure the cable hadn't popped out, nope - still connected. 20 minutes later it dawned on me that the sub control was probably off (it was). Guess thats what I get for trying to think at 3am :-)

Anyways - enjoy the pics.

 

Looks awesome.

 

Really nice build. Real clean, I bet it sounds perfect.

 

Have you had any issues with the amp getting hot being mounted up there?Also where did you get the fiberglass box from?

 

No - AMP has been running great - it does get warn to the touch but I dont have any concerns about it (its not mounted upside down btw).

The box was built by Travis Leonard at http://www.gigharborautoworks.com/Site/Home/Home.html

Quite a few guys on the forum use his boxes - He makes them for the corner cubby on the TSX (either side). that box and a JLW3 was more than enough.

 

So all you used to bypass the amp is a crutchfield honda integration harness?

 

Deffinitely a job well done sir. You couldn't have paid someone to do it better. The only thing I could see as even a remote problem would be the power of the amp. You have alot of draw for a 900/5 amp.

 

also wondering how you wired up the amp bypass harness..

 

I know this is an older thread, but I was wondering if you could expand on your install of the amp up there. Did you need to drill new holes in your deck or did you use existing holes?

I have nearly the same set up. I have an 08 TSX, also white. I used the same enclosure from Travis, but mine is a 10". I'm only running fronts components and nothing in the rear. I considered mouting my amp up there, but never got around to it because I didn't want to take the rear shelf panel out. Seeing yours makes me want to do it now.

 

I am also interested in this. I am about to tackle this and im not too positive on if i should use LOCs or what in order to get everything to the new 6channel amp.

anyone mind chiming in?

 

image dynamics sub over a FI?

 

nice, great progress