Better Speakers
 

I got a 2016 Honda Fit EX last may. While I love the car I've never been the biggest fan of the speakers. They just don't satisfy like I want. I'm a professional musician so it might just be me being picky (most likely). Regardless I'd love to get something better.

I'm not much of a car person so I'd love some options that are better than the stock options. I'm REALLY not looking to put a auditorium in my car. I had a friend who offered to put subs in and said they'd fit in my trunk, but I use the space enough that I'm not willing to do that. I just need speakers that are better than the stock ones.

I've been searching online for a while but It's hard to tell what will fit my specific model and what's good for the price range.

Any advice would be great!

Jeff

Check out my stereo thread. Some kenwood door speakers would certainly help. The HU amplifier isnt very powerful. You will need an LOC feeding an external amp to really get better sound.

If you're not replacing the head unit, you need really high efficiency in any aftermarket speaker you install. I recommend 92db or higher, to make the most of the limited power available. You'll need speaker brackets and Honda plug wire adapters for any aftermarket speaker install, so figure that into the cost. Some companies like Crutchfield automatically include them with any speaker order, or at nominal cost.

I wound up replacing all four speakers myself, went with something fairly exotic (Hybrid Audio Imagine fronts & Mirus rear), but you don't need to go that far. The Polk db651's are highly recommended and relatively inexpensive.

Installing them yourself is not that difficult. You'll need a philips head screwdriver and a trim tool kit (I got mine for $7 at harbor freight), a drill for the speaker brackets, and some time and patience. Plenty of how-to videos here and on the web if you're interested. Saves a bunch of money over having someone else do it.

How are you liking your HAT Imagine, Mirus combo? Did you add anything other than the speakers? I have this same combo in my Ford F-150 and thinking about doing the same with my wife's Honda Fit EX-L.

If you want to keep the stock headunit, but find that it can't drive your new speakers, check out the Alpine KTP-445U mini amp. I just installed one in my fiancé's RAV4 after replacing the speakers with Polk components. It really woke them up after that! Also just installed one of those babies in my uncles Tacoma. Really easy to install. I would have gone this route in my car before installing my amp and speakers if I knew it was available :) I don't regret it though.

I'm using Hertz HSK165XL components in the front with active crossover from my 5 channel amp. Disconnected the rear speakers and never looked back :)

Whatever you do, get the speaker mounting brackets for your car, it makes it SO much easier/faster/cleaner to install. I fabricated my own speaker adapter brackets, and it was a PITA but worked out well.

Really nice sound on the HATs. The bass is surprisingly tight for the limited power in the head unit. Treble is sweet and not harsh/ringing, something I noticed in the stock speakers. It's not a subtle upgrade.

Only probably with the HATs is limited distribution. Not something you find at a big box store; there are only a few dealers nationwide. I had a pair of Imagines in my GD3 (that stayed in the car, unfortunately, after it was totaled) so I was already familiar with their sound.

I haven't replaced anything besides the speakers. I've considered an aftermarket head unit, but I'll probably hold out for now.

polkaudio speakers. dey are probably da most standard sounding good speakers.. not too bright, not too mellow.

Perfect I may be getting some imagines for the front for my wife's car. She mentioned to me that she would like new speakers and I am a huge HAT fan.

What is the difference between the front and rear door speakers?

I had one of these in my F-150 and it did deliver quite a bit of punch for the small size. What harness did you use?

In most vehicles, none.

I see. Crutchfield shows a different selection for my EX. Are both drivers full range?

For the stock speakers in the Fit, yes.


The issue is, that the physical size for aftermarket speakers are all different, so you just don't always buy 6.5" direct replacements.


For example, I got a set of 6.5 midbass speakers for the rears, but these speakers had a big basket (the metal back part in general), and either I had to cut the metal away from the door, or get something smaller. I went with a 5.25" version of the same midbass, and had to use adapters.

Those in my LX sure don't sound like, the rears sound "muddy"....although, when seated in the rear the system as a whole sounds OK because you can hear the treble coming from up front....rear speakers alone sound like mud....but, not worth it for me atm to do anything about, have been informed by "the organization" that I have until 4/15 to either find another position (for less pay) in "the organization" or find another job.....bassturds!!!

I was looking at KISS by using these speakers from Crutchfield, Kicker 43DSC6704 in both back and front doors. Any opinions out there on just a replacement? Will I hear much difference doing this?

90db sensitivity on the Kickers, which is OK but falls below my 92db recommendation for minimum sensitivity, so they don't make as much of the limited power available in your head unit.

Will you hear a difference? Probably. Will it be for the better? Maybe. Keep in mind just the name of the product - Kicker - which implies "dynamic" sound, but probably comes with a midbass hump in frequency response, which would really fatigue me after a while.

One of the problems with buying car speakers is that you can't audition them already installed in your car before purchase. You can sometimes audition them in a wall display - but that only gives you a general idea, because a wall display will sound quite different than a car installation due to the reflective surfaces and different speaker placements.

I still recommend the Polk db651's as a safe recommendation for a stock speaker upgrade, not that expensive, and better sound than stock. And at 92db sensitivity, makes the most of your head unit's limited power.

Fitment front and rear is OK with the DB651? Also I am wondering if the door speakers are not full range stock if a full range speaker like the DB651 will throw off the soundstage?

I've not installed the db651's but they are apparently a shallow mount speaker and shouldn't pose any installation problems. Certainly not like my HATs which are quite deep and require a bit of finagling to install.

Now onto soundstage. I used to sell pro audio way back when, and soundstage is as much a product of the electronics upstream as it is the speakers. (Anybody remember Carver's "Sonic Holography" technology from the 80's?)

So the question of "throwing off the soundstage" is an interesting one. But soundstage is not so much a product of whether a speaker is full-range as it is whether the signal is arriving at the correct time and the correct phase (i.e., phase-aligned and time-aligned). To my mind, there is no correlation between the frequency range of a speaker and its soundstage response, all else being equal.

My HATs do a magnificent job of soundstaging with the limited power (and time/phase alignment) in the stock head unit, so much so, in fact, that it just plain startles me sometimes. I like that. Never fails to put a smile on my face.

Would it do an ever better job with better electronics? You betcha, but the car stereo manufacturers don't put the emphasis on sound these days as they do on bells and whistles, so there's only so much one can do. Separate amplification helps, as would better speaker wire. There are things one can do to improve sound quality that are not that expensive, but take a backseat to the gee-whiz technology that is endlessly being promoted as the "best." Not in my book. Back to basics and forget about the bells and whistles.

Thank you so much. That makes sense to me. I was thinking pretty low level in that that the higher the freq the more directional. I understand how phase and time change that.

Appreciate it.

Has anyone out there installed the Polk db651 in the front doors? Any issues? Or special hardware?
thanks