new sound system for civic

So are you wanting to use the pods to add another set of components in the front or to replace the stock placement of speakers?

 

I kinda feel like speakers that far down aren't good placement especially the tweeter because it should be near your ear. I would use sound deadener on the door and keep stock placement and run the tweeter higher up on the door. The sound deadener will get you better midbass and the speakers will be clearer since they are closer to listening level.

 

Here's a system I would recommend

Head Unit
Pioneer Premier DEH-P510UB

Front Components
CDT Audio CL-61A

Front Amp
Powerbass ASA600.2x

Rear Fill
Powerbass S-652

Sub
Image Dynamics ID12D4 V.3

Sub Amp
Powerbass ASA1000.1Dx

Total: $1014.94

I assumed you wanted a new head unit as well. Just run the rear speakers off the head unit, no reason to amp them because the real music comes from the front. I realize you said you wanted Focals in the original post but CDT is another top quality brand and they are a bit cheaper. I suppose if you have another preference in subs it probably wouldn't change much, the box the sub is in is the really important thing. The amp I chose for your sub gives you some expandability as you could add another sub like I picked and it would supply plenty of power.

 

Really rear fill is just that, it fills in the people in the back. Realistically you probably won't be able to hear them at all and so you could cheap out on them and nobody would ever know. I suppose though that if you got a nice midbass driver it might make things smoother, but I don't know if it'd be worth it, maybe someone else can chime in.

 

I have Focals and really like them. I have not heard them get harsh at all, even when cranked, very smooth and accurate. I cant say anything about CDT since I have not heard them in person. I would not hesitate to buy Focal again.

 

where have you heard that? kick panel placement has been the ideal way to get an almost even distance from both speakers to your ears for many many years. since they aim the speakers up you get a good (dash level)almost centered front stage.

i would however agree to add a mid bass to the door if the pods dont give you the mid bass you want.

i know an SQ guy and he has the Q-logic pods and he added a mid bass to his door. he deadened the pods with some dynomat to help keep them from rattling as they are kinda flimsy he said.

 

you could just keep the rear stock speakers. having a rear fill adds a sense of space to a system. kinda like a surround system does for a house, but keep the levels low on them. you dont want to drag the sound stage to the rear of the car.

you want a hint of sound coming from back there. so you dont need to spend good money on the rear fill. you also dont need a tweet back there either.

back in the day a common practice was to wire one rear speaker out of phase (swapping the pos and neg of only one speaker) what that did was to make hard to localize the rears.

when i did this in my suv it made the rear speakers sound ( closest to me) sound as if it was now coming from behind my right side instead of from directly behind my left shoulder. fading helped, but wiring out of phase made them so much better to deal with, and believe it or not helped center my front stage even more.

after a lil while tho i took the rears out of the equation. since i got my niece and she has sensitive ears i found myself fading to the front all the way when she was in the truck. after a while i didnt miss it, and from using my decks eq and time alinement feature i got a decent centered front stage.

so it can go either way i guess. either way is by no means wrong or right. its personal preference. (i utilized the amp i was using for the rear to give me more power up front).

so the money saved on not getting new rear speakers can be used to get real nice front ones. maybe a 3 way using the doors for mid bass.

i hope some of this helped.

 

no the mid bass's shouldnt over power the mids/highs unless your giving them more power.

ok. if the rear speakers are blown, then most decent coaxials should work. or even a mid range woofer. you can find some on parts express. try it without them for now. then add them later if you want.

 

I like to power all 4 speakers. ive had the EA4100 from eclipse for quite some time. i love that amp, and it's going to be a rarity soon. since eclipse aperently went down but i think sombody bought them out? I'm not sure on that. anyhoo, i'm doing a system too, and if you're going to spend 1000$ might as well get a 4 channel amp :| for around 800$ i got 2 nice sets of speakers and my 4 channel amp, and another 400$ you should be able to get a decent sub and amp, as far as a deck gos..nother 150-200$ brands id stick around
focal, infinity, JBL, rocker fosgate, JL audio, and i've heard good things about DLS, they make some nice smooth sounding speakers from what i understand, i think they are god ugly my self but meh, some people might like them

for amps, I like
alpine, kicker, jl, mtx (only there high end models i like, their mid range jack hammers, and entry level amps suck)

for sub's , well thats very opinionated, i like the kicker L7's, and the l5's, but the JL's are the subs to own, very nice subs, never heard bad thing about them. those are just some basis i'd use when starting to build a system, i just build a system for my car, or am int he middle of it really, i got some infinity kappa perfect 6.1's in the front, and some JBL's in the rare, i'md oing 2 sets of 2 way comonate systems, because i wanted some rare high fill that was clean, not just coaxel, or 2 way. for amps, i've got an alpine PDX 4.150, and the 1000 watt rms PDX alpine micro amp for my sub, whitch is very nice, i havnt gotten that yet. and i've yet to pick a sub, thinking about the L7, or a JL audio. really depends how much fudning i have left after my amps and deck.

for a deck, i went with the eclipse cd7200 mkII, whitch is pretty hard ot get under 400$ right now since they're out of business and nobodys apparently making em no mores

 

I have to agree with pedro quiroga on this one. NEVER place tweeters next to your ears. Also, speakers in the kick panel seriously improve imaging.

The only downside to aftermarket kick panels is that they are made of thin plastic. If we reinforce them a little the become ideal for speaker use.

VERY GOOD advice

 

Personally, i love focal... a lot of people use them where i'm from and i've used the focal K2P's before. I did find that the tweets were a bit harsh but i reversed the polarity and they sounded great after that.

I have nothing against kick panels but in a lot of SQ cars i have seen here, i've noticed a lot of A pillar mounting happening. It really doesn't look that nice but the sound stage was awesome. i think it all comes down to preference really.

StickeeRice, going 3 way isn't easy if you haven't dealt with tuning before. going 3 way or "active" is tough to tune. I've heard a lot of cars with great gear in them but sound like ass cuz of the tuning. On the other hand if tuned properly you'll be very happy with it..

I think this question has to be asked. Are you looking for a SQ car SPL or SQL or even something that you can open the doors up and you and your friends want to listen to outside the car? Reason why i'm asking is that with kick panels its more geared for inside car listening (SQ). if you want something that you can listen outside the car for the whole block to hear then i wouldn't suggest kick panels. I would go with door mounting all the way, even if you are going 3-way.