06 Civic installation revamped and much better - many pics

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Well its finally almost done and I suppose it is time to see what you all think about the revisions. I posted shots from my first installation (other than the one I did to my 1976 subaru.... installing a Craig Cassette deck with white fuzzy covered boxed speakers lol) almost a year ago now, but I didn't like it much. I used wood in a few spots - stained and suck... and it just didn't work out well. So, i started anew and this is how it turned out.



This is my baby - bought on halloween of 2005 and now sporting 57,000 miles. Given gas prices and the cars performance, I think its a great value car. In fact, my father recently passed away and in trying to seel his incredibly beautiful 20 Cadillac with only 30,000 miles and the $1k electric white paint option, I found my Civic which cost $20,000 less, was still worth a couple grand more than his caddy!

Its worth mentioning that I have tried probably 10 sets of component speakers from Focal to ADS to Rainbow, touch screen dvd/h71 processors, and a lot of other stuff and this is what I've landed on... Other than the addition of a digital media player ( & maybe some Apillar tweets to eliminate a bit of rainbow effect, I doubt I will be changing anything soon!

Step one was to gut the poor bugger and install the damping products. I used a total of three rolls of Raammat - a couple small packs of dynamat and several sheets of cascade in the butyl line, and used several yards of ensolite over the top... and then I used a couple cans of spray in the hard to reach spots of the rear side panels and topped it off with 3 0 6'x4' sheets of fiber based RV insualtion over top of the floor - firewall and in the rear side panels and a bit in the trunk.



NOTE - THE MDF BAFFLE YOU SEE IN THIS PICTURE IS NOT PART OF THE NEW POD - SEE THE PICTURES BELOW FOR THE IMPROVED SYSTEM.



The stock speaker mounts had the drivers buried several inches behind what I can only describe as a muffle, although Honda called it a baffle. The result was that the sound was reflected back behind the door panels that made a mess generally of what I was trying to acomplish. My solution was to build a pair of pods which are made of MDF and are entirely coated with fiberglass epoxy and are held in place by 6 brass bolts with rubber washers. I also used some spray foam to add strength and fill in in spots and put a layer of thin rubber between the pod and the door to form a tight seal. Adding knife screw inserts and topped off with the remains of an older leather coat, this has made a terrific improvement in my bass and midbass response... and there is no more panel vibration at all.



For drivers, I replaced my Rainbow Platinum mid base drivers with a pair of Focal Utopia 7w2's and they were a big step up... BIG! (Boy was i surprised). For tweeters, I couldn't resist trying the Hiquphons that our local reviewer found so terrific, and I agree! They didn't work too well on my apillars but when I tried them in the kicks, watchout! Geat combination and I am finally very pleased with the sound i get playing almost any kind of music!



For the source unit, I switched to the Clarion DRZ 9255... not too proud to tel you that I bought the refurb unit for $567 and it works great! To play my ipod videos and soon to provide visual control of my digital media player, I added a no name video monitor from eBay for $150. Its motorized and tucks away - I stays clean since I don't have to touch buttons on it - it has a TV tuner built thats pretty much worthless - but, its picture is as good as my Alpine W200 and it tilts enough to avoid the sun much better! The digital media player (based on a 250gb laptop hard drive) is a bit bigger than the ipod, ... I'll still be using the ipod for audio books and maybe video as well and will be trying to come up with something tricky to mount both of these on that is still in an easy to reach without looking position.





Now to the trunk, where I went from a vertical installation which was just obtrusive and hokey, to a false floor style. Low level signals are sent via either a Symbilink unit or some handmade Canare quad star cables terminated with some nice locking 81% copper Viablue RCAs. For speaker wire I am just using the streetwire blue and silver twisted 12ga and 14ga. Its prewired now so that I can add a midrange or an additional tweeter by simply changing the connections at the barrier strip for the speakers and plugging in the two additional RCA cables from the DRZ.





The false floor is divided into four sections, three that are roughly the same sized at the front and one large display section at the rear. I picked up some junk caps for $20 each so I am trying those in one secion where all the high power cables are managed, the middle section is covered by the subwoofer and houses the relay box that runs the fan, lights and the amplifier remotes. The final smaller section contains the low level signal cables running toward the middle and the 6 speaker outputs connected to a barrier terminal for easy change running down the far side.







Lastly, the main display section is ventilated via a standard 120mm computer fan - and both amps have their own fans as well. For the front stage, I am using a used McIntosh MC 440M amplifier. It is currently running in 4 channel mode providing 100 watts to each individual front stage driver - although with its headroom, it is rated to hit 144 before clipping. Anyhow, the darned thing makes my drivers sing! And, when i do play it loud, I never have terrible distortion of any kind, because the powerguard feature on the Mcamps prevents clipping - leaving only compression to trouble you at high volumes.

I also built a nice new double layer 3/4" mdf box for the ID MAX back here - and actually cut it to fit the angle of the rear seat so that I'd save as much space as possible. Now I can still use the flip downs if I want and have room to carry longer things again... and naturally, I can remove the sub and toss a blacket across the whole thing when I borrow my buddies chainsaw and lawn tools for the day or whatever.







I haven't invested in any tricky lighting, but I am broke now and I don't spend much time looking in the trunk anyhow. When I do show someone, at least now I am not embarrased with the way things are set up... I tried to use a logical layout with a lot of attention to the signal wires and routing. The completed effect doesn't grab the criminal eye, allows me to use the majority of my trunk and isn't an eyesore anyhow. I kinda like it - but what do you think????

Any ideas for dressing it up a bit more or adding some interesting element?
Thanks for your earlier advice... I took it to heart. The best part is that for now at least... I'm finally done and it sounds great! YES!

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[bikinpunk]

So, you attached the speaker to the panel, or did you just make a cut in the panel so that door speakers don't have to hide behind them?

I've been having a horrible time with these panels. I've been trying to avoid cutting them, but it's not looking pretty.


I like the trunk. Any more pictures of the overall layout?

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Hmm - no replys but from another Civic owner? Is it that bad??

Ok, the speakers aren't mounted to the metal of the door at all... the plastic inner door panel is removed totally in the bottom forward facing corner.

This picture will show you better what the pod does - creates a solid platform for the driver to angle it up and toward the passenger - replaces the plastic baffle area (which was cut out and tossed) with a solid mdf "pod" - certain areas of it are cut spedifically to hide behind what remains of the plastic door panel that now fits around and over the pod, and other areas are designed to angle the driver properly and serve as the new visible portion of the lower door corner replacing the original plastic with a very similar looking leather surface.

The Plastic inner door skin mounts over the thinner portion of this pod and is simply removed to expose the pod where it is at its thickest. This makes it blend in far more naturally... in a sense that you couldn't tell if I had cut the plastic or mouonted the driver to it, is really a pretty big compliment.

I have to confess though, to build this and fit it in place was a good 47 hours of work. I'd never have done it except I really thought it would make a huge difference in the sound and that I'd be able to make it somewhat pleasing to the eye.

The idea was to:

A. get rid of the noisey nasty baffle
B. provide a much more sturdy mount for the drivers to mount to
C. angle the midwoofers up and back so that they point approximately to a point on the opposite window 2" below my ear and 5" forward of my ear... they are close but not right on target.

I totally understand your problem - I had it too. The pods dramatically improved the sound overall from the midbass drivers... both the lower and upper end of the spectrum are better with the lower end being tighter and fuller and the upper register being more clear.

Not sure if I really understood what you were getting at - so I hope this answered it =)

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[TEGBOY]

Love the silver cable holders, where are they from??

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Ya - I liked those too. They were a recent addition replacing some that were more traditional. Picked them up from Frys Electronics and they came in a packet with roughly 8- single cable, 6 -3cable and 6 -6cable and some lame zip ties, but only $6.00.

They might have them online at www.frys.com

Good luck finding them.
Jim

[capnxtreme]

I'm also a Civic owner so, fwiw my $0.02:

1) sweet gear all around
2) sweet head unit/screen combo
3) door pods are pretty creative and cool

I'm finally done

4) but the tweeters don't really look like it
5) false floor and amp wiring is sweet
6) but I'm not feeling the sub enclosure. Just seems like a waste of space. Seems to me like even a square pre-made box off to the side would give more usable space.

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Originally Posted by capnxtreme

I'm also a Civic owner so, fwiw my $0.02:

1) sweet gear all around
2) sweet head unit/screen combo
3) door pods are pretty creative and cool

4) but the tweeters don't really look like it
5) false floor and amp wiring is sweet
6) but I'm not feeling the sub enclosure. Just seems like a waste of space. Seems to me like even a square pre-made box off to the side would give more usable space.

Ok ok - you got me on at least one here =P

First, thanks on the compliments... the McAmp was something I had just always wanted... bought it and still swear by them... its just a dream at 14 years old!

Tinkered with a Alpine headunit/processor combo but ultimately I dropped that for the Clarion for imho a little better sq... picked up the eBay monitor for video and I tell you, its far better than the W200 - same quality of picture, but there is no reason to touch it - ever! It hides away nicely and adjusts in directions the alpine didn't so I don't get near the glare I once did... in short, I can see the screen any time of day and close it when not watching.

Speakers took the longest and I went through a lot of installed testing and selling and buying used, rinse and repeat including Rainbow plats and Focal K2P upgradeds. This combo is buy far the best!

I'm seriously busted on the tweeters - I cut the kick panel out a bit, slapped a screen over the driver and put some industrial velcro on the back and they stay in place perfectly... but I am tired and broke and really wanted to say I was done lol... lo such luck though. UIltimately, I'll be glassing up some new kicks and I have the rings for them installed arleady, so it won't really be much work... time is tight though and so is cash, so it may be a while.

Another thing I am definitly doing is building a mount for both my ipod and my digital media player in the console and over the main storage compartment. I'll be putting an extension LED off te PowerGuard LED on the amp in between the two so that whenever I am clipping, I will at least be able to tell. I also have three sets of VU meters that I am playing with - and I may run a line of 4 VU meters with a nice blue backlighted effect across the dash between the abovfe mentioned mount and below the A/C controls... I am just concerned about making it too blatant... since right now, other than the speaker pads sticking out, its really farily stealth looking if looking through the windws.

Lastly, I still need to install some apillar tweeters since I had a pair of Zapco competitions up there for a while and they added very nicely to the stage/image and really brought you into the music.

Oh, the sub is sitting right under the sub hole in the rear deck of the honda, and it can easily be removed or moved to the side for more room if needed. It isn't my favorite part and I amy someday glass one into each corner of the trunk on angles to the middle hole again... that would look nice!

So,NO! DAMMIG... I'm not done... quit rubbing it in tho... ok? Please???

Haha,

Thanks for the input.

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[captainobvious]

Originally Posted by less

This is the only part of the install I dont understand. Why did you decide to terminate the speaker wires to that block, only to terminate them again 12" further at the amp? Were they pre existing runs that just werent long enough or something?

Other than that, it looks very good! I like the Zapco and McIntosh amps too, very niiiice.

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Ahh, thats a simple one that you might not think of unless you had this specific arrangement and my particular personality!

First, if I want to remove the entire trunk mounted section, which is all one piece totally connected. I can just pop the power connections and the speaker wires from the term strips and presto... out it comes with a little less work due later when I put it back in.

Second, the McIntosh speaker wire connections are hard to get to - as well as partially wallowed out the screwdriver holes making it very difficult to t work with. Someone didn't really treat it with the respect that a nice amp deserves. The current set up allows me to make one good connection at those points, and any future changes can be made at a much easier to access bvarrier strip. Lastly, I doubt the barrier strip causes any noticable degradation to the sound.

Oh, and I also have played with the addition of a midrange to my system at several times and have not eliminated it as a future option (something like a nice DLS dome or possible a quality Revelator 4" in a sealed kick). I already have low level signal wires assembled and attached to the headunit - and coiled near the McIntosh amp should I decide to do that. The speaker wires are run for the mids too - and they are wrapped under the rear seat awaiting possible future use. With this set up - I just pull them up a bit and hookem up... off I go. No messing with having to cover it all up with techflex and such - since little of it will show and it won't look bad.

Anyway, its fairly functional and I don't think it hurts anything, but I do understand the question if you don't have that background.

Thanks for the compliments... still welcome any ideas on how to make it look better. I've decided the next little project will be a mount for my Ipod and digital media player that looks nice and allows an easy reach adjustement. I'm thinking of coating it with black leather and including some sort of stealth coverings for the various cables that will have to connect to it so they won't be seen at all.

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[txbonds]

Looks very nice so far.

Quick question. Is the tweeter simply laying on the kick/floor, or is it actually mounted into it, and how are you protecting it from feet?

[suka4thong]

wow! details~

[Toxis]

on the speaker wire block, 4 speaker wire in but 6 out? What's going on there?

[Nitr0racing21]

very nice work

[semipimpedauto]

also confused w/ speaker wire terminal

[Fran82]

Originally Posted by Toxis

on the speaker wire block, 4 speaker wire in but 6 out? What's going on there?

Probably bridged

[capnxtreme]

Or it's the extra midbass wiring he was talking about.

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Hello again -

Wow - some comments! Thanks for taking the time to write... I really love the feedback.

Now, the wiring confusion is actually already covered since you mentioned bridging and the extra mids. Currently, I am running a two way + sub setup. As such, I bridged the 6 channel McIntosh into a channel w/ each running 100wrms into 4 ohms. Note though that my Hiquphon tweeters are actually 8 ohm drivers... Although the McIntosh has a regulated power supply that has the same output regardless of the load below 4ohms, I suspect it only puts out 50wrms into an 8 ohm load. Regardless though, 50 McWatts into a tweeter is plenty of power.

The other two outputs are there and simply waiting for me to get the money and make up my mind if I am going to go to a three way front stage (+sub) or add a pair of tweeters on the pillars to gain a better stage/image combination. Right now, I am heavily leaning toward the tweeter option because I had a pair of Zapco tweeters hooked up to this system for a while on the pillars and they really sounded very nice making the whole system just a hair more complete. Anyhow, once that decision is made, I simply flip the amp switch back to 6 channel, connect the wires that are already buried under the carpet to the barrier strip, and make connections up front... and presto!

As to the tweeters... yes - I am busted! I so much wanted to be able to feel like I was done for a while, that I just sort of called them done... when they aren't! Right now, the are positioned in a cut out portion of the plastic stock kick panel (which I covered with felt after I cut a different hole in them that didn't work out). They are held in place by industrial velcro and don't move, plus they are covered by a layer of screening to protect them from anything large.

I went ahead and bought some of the stuff to get working on official kick panel installations for them yesterday, but I am job shopping and planning to move too, so there is only so much time.... The whole tweeter installation thing has troubled me from word go and I've held off on doing anything permanent since so far I have probably tried 10 pairs of tweeters haha. I can't see changing the Hiquphons out unless I go crazy and try some scanspeaks or something... and from what I hear, the Hiquphons are not dramativally different from those anyhow. Now that I am pretty sure I;ve found keepers and that I am actually going to use a kick panel installation (something I NEVER thought I would do - but it sounds good so...), I may as well finish these ones up. After all - I'll still be picking up some more work for the apillars before too long anyhow hahaha.

I also have decided to go ahead and buy some String Light - which is a blue thin wire like aparatus that lights along its entire edge and is 10' long. I'll wrap that around the windows in the trunk for a little extra glow. Also, I finally decided to go ahead and run a jumper from my Power Guard LED on the McIntosh into a spot on my dash so I can cut back when I clip it. No point in having all those meters and lights if you can't even see them is there?

Honestly, I almost installed a pair of the BIG blue meters up front and powered them from the amp, but they are sooooo big and I really don't want my car to look hokey. I've got another project on the books like that too - using four smaller circular VU meters in a smaller case that lights up beautifully - and I'm trying to find a way to make it look less brash... maybe put a flip top panel over it and only use it at times...

Anyhow, thanks again for the comments and input. Yes - the tweeters will be done better. If someone has example shots of a pair of tweeters installed in the kicks that looks very good - please send me a copy of the picture so I can try and steal it. It'll be my first fiberglass job, so that should be fun!!!!! Gooo BONDO!

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