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Hey Guys,
This is my first serious install, with my previous experience being limited to swapping head units and speakers, and throwing a box in the trunk.
The car is a 2006 Civic Si with factory nav. I really wanted the factory nav for reasons of stealth/theft, and I love it. It can play 4gb CF or SD cards full of MP3's (my music collection is in MP3 format, sue me), it looks slick, and the nav is sweet.
So the theme of my install is factory integration and stealth. I wanted the interior of the car to appear 100% stock. I'm also on a tight budget, and I don't want to add a lot of weight, so the acoustic treatments are limited to where they are most important.
Lucky for me, the factory source unit outputs a flat, balanced signal out to the factory outboard amp, which performs the task of screwing up the EQ and freq response. So if I can tap into the signal before that, and run it to an amp with balanced inputs, I am golden. There is a dude (mercman) on the Honda and Acura boards that makes a harness just for this purpose.
I listen to a fairly wide variety of rock and rap, but my goal is simply good SQ. If I had a really good-sounding system I would probably listen to other kinds of music too.
I don't plan to compete, so this is just for my personal enjoyment. After fawning over all the beautiful installations on here, though, I tried to pay as much attention to detail as possible to clean wiring, proper termination, etc. So, by all means, I am open to constructive criticism. But FWIW, I'm not losing sleep if my zip ties are more than 6" apart.
Thanks to everyone!!! She wouldn't be close to what she is if it weren't for this place.
The gear:
Power wire: Kicker 4ga
Signal cable: mercman's harness
Amp: JL 500/5
Front stage: PG RSD65cs run actively off the 500/5 in tri-amp mode
Sub: my brother's old 12W0 in a pre-made box that I found in my parents' garage (temporary, but I'm diggin it right now).
and a roll of Raammat + Ensolite.
I still need to figure out how to finish off the trunk. I don't really have any woodworking or fiberglassing tools or experience.
Here she is:
And here we go. I re-used the factory firewall grommet and cut a hole for my 4-gauge Kicker power wire:
Wrapped with electrical tape so that I can pull it snug from the inside of the car:
From the engine compartment:
Where the wire enters the cabin, above the accelerator:
Running down the center console:
The factory outboard amp for the "premium sound system" is located under the center console in front of the shifter. I don't need it, so I removed it:
Output from factory source:
Here's the signal harness I bought from mercman on AcuraZine. It plugs into the factory plug above, and sends the balanced signals back to the amp. I added the Techflex.
Plugged in:
Power, signal, and speaker bundles all running down the center console. That's right, my power run is 4" away from my signal run here.
But the signal is balanced.
Running up the back seat:
And into trunk:
This is my first serious install, with my previous experience being limited to swapping head units and speakers, and throwing a box in the trunk.
The car is a 2006 Civic Si with factory nav. I really wanted the factory nav for reasons of stealth/theft, and I love it. It can play 4gb CF or SD cards full of MP3's (my music collection is in MP3 format, sue me), it looks slick, and the nav is sweet.
So the theme of my install is factory integration and stealth. I wanted the interior of the car to appear 100% stock. I'm also on a tight budget, and I don't want to add a lot of weight, so the acoustic treatments are limited to where they are most important.
Lucky for me, the factory source unit outputs a flat, balanced signal out to the factory outboard amp, which performs the task of screwing up the EQ and freq response. So if I can tap into the signal before that, and run it to an amp with balanced inputs, I am golden. There is a dude (mercman) on the Honda and Acura boards that makes a harness just for this purpose.
I listen to a fairly wide variety of rock and rap, but my goal is simply good SQ. If I had a really good-sounding system I would probably listen to other kinds of music too.
I don't plan to compete, so this is just for my personal enjoyment. After fawning over all the beautiful installations on here, though, I tried to pay as much attention to detail as possible to clean wiring, proper termination, etc. So, by all means, I am open to constructive criticism. But FWIW, I'm not losing sleep if my zip ties are more than 6" apart.
Thanks to everyone!!! She wouldn't be close to what she is if it weren't for this place.
The gear:
Power wire: Kicker 4ga
Signal cable: mercman's harness
Amp: JL 500/5
Front stage: PG RSD65cs run actively off the 500/5 in tri-amp mode
Sub: my brother's old 12W0 in a pre-made box that I found in my parents' garage (temporary, but I'm diggin it right now).
and a roll of Raammat + Ensolite.
I still need to figure out how to finish off the trunk. I don't really have any woodworking or fiberglassing tools or experience.
Here she is:

And here we go. I re-used the factory firewall grommet and cut a hole for my 4-gauge Kicker power wire:


Wrapped with electrical tape so that I can pull it snug from the inside of the car:

From the engine compartment:

Where the wire enters the cabin, above the accelerator:

Running down the center console:

The factory outboard amp for the "premium sound system" is located under the center console in front of the shifter. I don't need it, so I removed it:

Output from factory source:

Here's the signal harness I bought from mercman on AcuraZine. It plugs into the factory plug above, and sends the balanced signals back to the amp. I added the Techflex.

Plugged in:

Power, signal, and speaker bundles all running down the center console. That's right, my power run is 4" away from my signal run here.

Running up the back seat:

And into trunk:
