Civic SI amp and speaker questions

[RastaD]

Howdy,

I have read through several posts about swapping out the amps on a premium civic audio system (I have an FG2 non-nav) and I am left with several questions assuming I want to keep the OEM head unit.

First of all, how many channels does the OEM amp have? Are the tweeters powered directly from the amp or do they come off the front door speaker wiring?

If I were to swap the OEM amp with a differential balanced amp and keep the factory wiring as mercman recommends, would I need a 4 or 6 channel amp or what if I want to power everything including the oem sub?

I am not looking for a killer system by any means. I just want a nice clean sound. I am tempted to just buy some decent $100 -$250 front speakers and see how they do after seeing the tiny magnets on the stock speakers. Would a sensitive 2 way speaker work or is the oem signal filtered (post crossover?) by the time it reaches the door? If I went this way and got components, should I use the stock wiring and not use the included aftermarket crossovers?


Sorry for all the questions but I don't have a very good grasp on how it all fits together.


Thanks in advance

[mercman]

The OEM amp actually has eight channels but only seven are used in the Si. The HU provides Front and Rear Stereo signals (4 channels) and the amp splits the rear for the sub and rear doors and the fronts for the front door speakers and dash tweeters. Each speaker or driver in the system gets its own amp, small as it is.

You have a lot of choices as to what you want to amp. Assuming you want a sub you can just run a three-channel or four-channel (with the rears bridged for the sub) and just a front sound stage. You can run the fronts and rear doors and a sub with a four-channel and a separate sub amp, or a big five-channel amp.

You should of course start with upgrading the speakers. This will have the biggest bang for the buck. A new set of front components will go a long way to improving the sound with a new amp.

jeff

[kc_James]

if your going to keep the stock headunit, i highly recommend using a product like JL's clean sweep, in all the systems I have installed with the factory blose system the sound quality is never even close to what the aftermarket components are a capable of.

Just my opinion, but I always recommend ditching the stock headunit, it is the weakest link in sound quality, with no upgrade-ability, no 24bit dac, no hi-volt preouts, and very little tune-ability, your best bang for the buck would be a good headunit. Music starts at the head unit, and everything builds from there. you need a good base, it's not gonna sound good at the speakers if it sounds like crap coming off the CD....

my recommended budget starter system...
- alpine x001 - 230 (ebay/new)
- focal polyglass components - 90 (ebay/new)

then down the line you can add whatever to likes.......

[mercman]

Originally Posted by kc_James

if your going to keep the stock headunit, i highly recommend using a product like JL's clean sweep, in all the systems I have installed with the factory blose system the sound quality is never even close to what the aftermarket components are a capable of.

Just my opinion, but I always recommend ditching the stock headunit, it is the weakest link in sound quality, with no upgrade-ability, no 24bit dac, no hi-volt preouts, and very little tune-ability, your best bang for the buck would be a good headunit. Music starts at the head unit, and everything builds from there. you need a good base, it's not gonna sound good at the speakers if it sounds like crap coming off the CD....

my recommended budget starter system...
- alpine x001 - 230 (ebay/new)
- focal polyglass components - 90 (ebay/new)

then down the line you can add whatever to likes.......

The factory HU in the Si is an Alpine with an external pioneer amp. The premium sound HU has balanced differential line level pre amp outputs that when used with the correct amp offers over 90 dB of noise rejection, far better then can be achieved by jacking the voltage up on an unbalanced line. The HU requires no re-equalization since all the EQ takes place in the factory amp. I have helped about 50 people upgrade their premium systems with new amps and speakers and all have been satisfied with the HU sound quality. Granted with audio there is always room to move up as long as the budget holds out. Two of my customers were actually running clean sweeps or 3sixties and pulled them out when they listened the system properly upgraded without them.
A lot of people are under the misconception that this system is the same as the Honda/Bose system, it is not, it is a completely different system.

I would recommend putting your money into a good set of components; a good balanced input audio amp and forgetting the fancy Eqs for now.

jeff

[RastaD]

Thanks for the replys guys. That info helps a lot.

Assuming I start with front components (the Jan 08 Car Audio mag p.90 actually recommends starting with Focal speakers for the Civic) what would be the better way for me to wire them up?

Would using the stock wiring for both the doors and tweeters be a good option? Or should I tie the component crossover into the door wiring and then run new wire to the door speaker and tweeter? I am curious since using the new component crossovers would effectivly bypass two of the amp channels and maybe some signal if the door isn't getting a full range.

I can see how running your own wire from an amp would bypass a lot of these problems and would probably be the way to go when its upgraded.

Thanks again.

Edit: I found this issue discussed here. Crossovers...

[bsbabcock]

Originally Posted by mercman

The factory HU in the Si is an Alpine with an external pioneer amp. The premium sound HU has balanced differential line level pre amp outputs that when used with the correct amp offers over 90 dB of noise rejection, far better then can be achieved by jacking the voltage up on an unbalanced line. The HU requires no re-equalization since all the EQ takes place in the factory amp. I have helped about 50 people upgrade their premium systems with new amps and speakers and all have been satisfied with the HU sound quality. Granted with audio there is always room to move up as long as the budget holds out. Two of my customers were actually running clean sweeps or 3sixties and pulled them out when they listened the system properly upgraded without them.
A lot of people are under the misconception that this system is the same as the Honda/Bose system, it is not, it is a completely different system.

I would recommend putting your money into a good set of components; a good balanced input audio amp and forgetting the fancy Eqs for now.

jeff

Brand new newbie here.. Yes I know it's an older thread but many questions answered here so free bump back to the living.

Looks like a fabulous system retaining the oem head unit would be active aftermarket comps (of any flavor.. Maybe even diy drivers like scan-speak, Seas, Vifa, etc) up-front from a JL 4-channel with crossovers that can split tweets and mids, then maybe another JL 4-ch running better rears (maybe some nice coax's and sub in deck or trunk. Might even be overkill to even bother with the rears though.

Granted, no uber-fancy time-alignment processing but certainly sounds like it would be clean.

[dj_buddah]

sorry to ask this so late, but this one is for the guys that know

I am keeping the stock head unit

i am getting 4x polk audio mmc6500
1x polk momo 8" sub
1x memphis equalizer

i have an 08 si sedan , i am very confussed as to what amp to get, i know you guys mention 4 and 5 channel amps

my question is this , if i buy a 5 channel amp, lets say 100 watts a channel, will that be sufficient to replace the stock one? is it a direct plug and play , example: i find the stock amp, unplug it, replace it with the new one

or

can i "add" to whats there , and just install the aftermarket one?

i am confussed , can anyone make a brand and model suggestion on the amp that would replace the stock one directly?

anyway looking to replace stock speakers all around, 100 watts a channel (including sub) then equalize externally

[happytorito]

I am adding infinity components, infinity rears, Pioneer 8" sub (so it fits in factory location) and 2 amps with stock head unit...

[toxin]

buddah,

There's not going to be a "direct" drop-in replacement for the factory amp because, first of all, no aftermarket amp is going to fit where the factory one is. And second, aftermarket amps don't have proprietary Honda harness connections on them. You need to convert the factory harness into RCA's to feed into your aftermarket amp (hit up Mercman)--you'll also need an amp w/ balanced inputs. Then the easiest way to connect your amp outputs to the speakers is just "amp bypass" harness from Crutchfield.

It's probably overwhelming right now. Just take your time and read read read and search search search on the Internet. Mercman's harness is great though, and he's very helpful in getting people headed in the right direction.

[dj_buddah]

Originally Posted by toxin

buddah,

There's not going to be a "direct" drop-in replacement for the factory amp because, first of all, no aftermarket amp is going to fit where the factory one is. And second, aftermarket amps don't have proprietary Honda harness connections on them. You need to convert the factory harness into RCA's to feed into your aftermarket amp (hit up Mercman)--you'll also need an amp w/ balanced inputs. Then the easiest way to connect your amp outputs to the speakers is just "amp bypass" harness from Crutchfield.

It's probably overwhelming right now. Just take your time and read read read and search search search on the Internet. Mercman's harness is great though, and he's very helpful in getting people headed in the right direction.

AWSOME !! THANK YOU SO MUCH !!