[frankmehta]

Hola! A few days ago, I procured a used Honda Civic Automatic, which has been successfully converted to run on CNG now. I intend to use this car extensively (the earlier car, Ford Fiesta ran only 20k km in 3 years) and that means it should have the best in car entertainment system that I can afford. I had a lot of equipment in the Fiesta which I removed when the car was sold. The equipment is as follows:
1. Eclipse CD7100 head unit
2. Illusion CH-1 Compression drivers and horns
3. Hybrid Audio Legatia Series L6
4. Morel Tempo coaxials run off the head unit
5. Adire Koda 10" subwoofers X 2
6. DLS Ultimate A3 amp for the mids
7. DLS Ultimate A2 amp for the horns
8. Clarion DPX11551 mono for the 2 subs
9. Monster XLN401 RCA cables
10. Heavy Duty Polycab 0 gauge Home Wiring for powering the amplifiers
11. Noisekill Damping in all doors and boot

That was one HUGE amount of equipment dismantled from the car in one day!!!!!!


Anyway, most of this equipment was stored for less than a month, after which it was taken out yesterday and piled into one huge heap and carted off to Ajay (Bass&Trouble) for installation in the Civic.

The changes in equipment:
1. The Eclipse is the BEST sounding head unit I have ever owned (I have owned 2 Eclipses) but I needed something that was more versatile over USB and also did Bluetooth since I will be travelling over long stretches of traffic and I have a tendency to pick up calls while driving.
So the most logical jump from the CD7100 was the next best head unit, the Pioneer DEH-80PRS with WAV over USB and Bluetooth built in. I am not a fan of the looks of the head unit and the build quality is nowhere near the Eclipse but I guess that trade-off for more practicality made more sense.

2. The second thing I changed was the damping. I always read that cars with the best of ICE had Dynamat Extreme damping in their doors and hence decided to go in for the same for the front doors. The damping has made the doors heavier and I hope noise insulation from the road and outside traffic is improved. The boot will be damped with the regular Noisekill.

3. The Civic comes with a (very luxurious feature) remote in the rear armrest, for the stock audio system. I had requested Ajay to try to keep these controls functional even for the Pioneer and he has obliged. An interface adaptor with an IR receiver pointing to the head unit has been installed.

4. The subwoofers were earlier in 2 identical 1 cu ft enclosures in the boot. The enclosures were convenient, as they could be removed when we needed boot space in the Fiesta, but this time around there IS no boot space left after the CNG tank installation. Ajay decided to fabricate 2 fiber glass enclosures in the corners of the boot where the 2 subs would be mounted. This would free up some space and also prevent the enclosures from hitting the amps which will be mounted in a rack in front of the tank. I know, I know, it's going to be very tight and I am not going to have much luggage space, but a guy's gotta make space for his ICE. I am very passionate about my ICE and I don't want to make any compromises here.

The boot will be damped with Noisekill and the stock head unit of the Civic has already been removed...

The install is in progress. I keep forgetting to take a camera with me all the time, but tomorrow the install is being wrapped up, which means I have only one chance to take photos of WIP, if any.

I have some photos. Just putting them up. They have been taken from my Nokia Asha 302 ::ashamed

[greenhorn]

doc, is dynamat re usable?

[nitinralli]

Congrats on your new Civic and Old ICE

Keep us updated.

[negativeH]

All the best for the install Frank.
Really looking forward to the Subs in the CNG filled boot part. Keep us posted.

[procircuit_234]

watch out for ELD issues you have got power hungry amps...

[frankmehta]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

doc, is dynamat re usable?

I doubt it. The adhesive is quite strong and becomes stronger over a point of time.

Originally Posted by procircuit_234

watch out for ELD issues you have got power hungry amps...

Tell you what?? I hadn't thought of this issue till you brought it up. Anyway, fingers crossed for tomorrow ya. Let's hope this issue does not occur with my car. In fact, the DLS Ultimate AND the Clarion (Class G) are VERY efficient amps and they didn't ever give any trouble in the Fiesta, which, I am guessing has a slightly lower powered battery and a less powerful alternator.
Wish it sails smoothly tomorrow.....

[low_bass_makker]

If possible get a volt meter fixed to keep the check on the voltage. It will be very helpful in diagnosing the fault if the ELD issues comes up !!

[ghodlur]

The ICEman is back. Frank - had been following your ICE thread for the Fiesta and will be closely this one too. Hope to see more of the mods in pics.

Congrats on the Civic. Have a blast with it (I mean with the sound)

[sukiwa]

Looking forward to entire install & feedback.

Originally Posted by frankmehta

The second thing I changed was the damping.

Was Dynamat extreme applied only on visible layer of door or was it applied on inside of the door as well?
What's cost difference between Dynamat & Noisekill?

[frankmehta]

Originally Posted by sukiwa

Looking forward to entire install & feedback.

Was Dynamat extreme applied only on visible layer of door or was it applied on inside of the door as well?
What's cost difference between Dynamat & Noisekill?

Dynamat has been applied to all the layers of the door. The inside of the door is the main part of the speaker 'housing' and needs to be damped. The trade off for this is also the fact that the door becomes stiff and shuts with a 'thunk' one doesn't generally associate with Jap cars.
As for the cost, God knows. I generally just drop the car off to Bass&trouble. He gives me a bill at the end of the installation. I think many people who get their work done at Ajay's place don't even inquire what he is doing to the car. They just say, "do what you can to make her sound good." And he obliges.

[StreetAddict]

Doc, No love for a CarPC ?

[frankmehta]

No. lost respect for it after installing my Eclipse CD7100 which blew it away in terms of audio processing. Maybe I could have perfected the processing of the 'puter by trying harder but then my touchscreen broke and I didn't want to go through the same ordeal putting together components for a 'puter again.

[frankmehta]

And she's back after a wait of 3 long days! And it was worth the wait! Bass&Trouble has really taken Trouble this time and done a very neat and detailed job. The system, though almost completely a carry-over from the Fiesta, sounds totally different. It has it's strengths but also a few weaknesses.
The doors are not as sturdy as the Fiesta and the doorpads buzz (resonate) when the mids are playing extremely low. This isn't intrusive but irritates since I am comparing a 16 lac rupee car to an 8 lac rupee car and the cheaper car still trumps it in terms of build quality. The quantity of bass is still not very convincing and there are SO many tweaks in the head unit that I will actually take a few weeks before I arrive at the sweet spot.
The things which haven't changed (and that's a good thing) are the detail from the horns, the kick from the mids and the fabulous soundstage that convincingly 'originates' from the windshield. Time alignment also helps to achieve this.
The subs are in fibre glass enclosures and they are playing quite well. Didn't have much bassy music in the car today and will transfer some to USB drive tomorrow and test it out.
The head unit is a superstar. It plays WAV off USB. This head unit has so many features, settings and some really versatile and convenient features (like 2 USB ports and 2 AUX ports) that I being the complete technophile, STILL couldn't try out many of it's features and convoluted menus. Overall, it's a stellar performer with FAST usb and cd read times and very clean signal to the amps. Auto EQ and Auto Time alignment is something I haven't tried in a car ever, but considering the positive results at home (Audyssey Auto EQ) with my Denon receiver, I am sure to experiment with it sooner than I think.

The day was long. The minute I got the car, I drove off with it and covered 120 kms in a few hours. There was no ELD issue and the car was idle at the signal many times. Music was playing at high volumes and there was no dipping or drop of voltage even with the headlights on (my DEH-80PRS head unit has a built in voltage indicator )

This was an honest review and there will be lots of feedback coming soon. Remember, this is my Practical Workhorse and I shall be covering a lot of kms. in this car (much more than the Fiesta) so I shall be using the audio system a lot. Hence, more tweaks and maybe, just maybe, I might achieve what I had set out to achieve, the sweet spot. Difficult, I confess but I am pretty close to it!!
Pictures to whet your appetites. Lots of them. With special attention to the dashkit and the horn installation and moreso, the boot to show you the boot space remaining after the CNG tank and audio equipment.

[frankmehta]

More pictures... Very tired so pardon the quality.

[sumeethaldankar]

A neat install.The boot space has decreased considerably.With the added weight of the tank and audio equipment doesn't the rear sag down a bit.Maybe you could get a Autorunner modification for the rear springs which would prevent the rear from sagging too much when there are passengers on board at the rear.

Also how much did you pay for the dash trim.Quite frankly i would prefer the stock look of the dash and double din would have been the way to go.But as long as you are happy...I think the night view looks cool.