Advice on car stereo replacement

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I have a Honda Civic 1998 company car, which is a perfectly good car, reliable and suiting my needs and all, but it did come with the shitiest car stereo I've ever heard. It has a risbily overelaborate operating, setting and display system, but, more importantly, it sounds dire - unable to cope whatsoever with the low end (basslines sound like heavy furniture being dragged along wooden floor), while the top end is scratchy. It's hard to know what the car's manufacturerers were thinking when they passed this stereo as part of their package; it makes a honking, snorting dirge of everything, from Dusty Springfield to Depeche Mode, from George Formby to Handel. Anyway, I'm not sure whether the blame lies with the speakers or the player itself (I suspect it's both), but I have decided I want to overhaul the system completely, and was wondering if anyone here knew how I could go about this. I would welcome any advice on what sytem you think would be ideal to achieve the best sound, plus how to go about installing, or getting such a system installed for me.

― Jim Bus Stop, Sunday, 29 May 2005 10:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I should have said ex company car, got a good deal on it, and so now I am free to change the stereo.

― Jim Bust Stop, Sunday, 29 May 2005 10:31 (twenty-one years ago)

When replacing any of the speakers, make sure to cut the speaker wire at the speaker. That way when you put in the new speakers you can attach (tie or whatever) the cable of the new speaker to the cabling of the old and pull the wire through from the Head unit and all the new cabling will follow the route of the old cabling inside all the nice hidden panels and keep the wire invsible. The head unit is simple enough to replace. Get the right set of keys (ask at halfords or such) and pop the stereo out (if the keys don't work -they didn't on my Nissan Almera- the dash panel the stereo is mounted on can be removed with a couple of screws and a bit of force, then the stereo can be removed from the back of the dash panel).The actaul head unit just connects via an ISO connector, so it's just a matter of disconnecting the old and connecting the new.
After that, to fix the bass, don't be afraid to run an amp and sub into your setup either. They're not just for boy racers. It can be hard to get the power from the battery to the amp in the boot so it's best to get a pro in to do this (*about £60/70). If you get a decent enough power of head unit you will be able to run the car speaks from that and have the amp on a Low Pass Filter powering only the sub for really punchy bass.
Other than that, go for good 6"x9" for the parcel shelf/rear speakers. Anything upward of about £60per pair will be decent.

― Craig Gilchrist (Craig Gilchrist), Sunday, 29 May 2005 13:47 (twenty-one years ago)

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