These came in the mail Friday.


Finished Saturday and tweaked it today on my 2012 Fit. For the C3's I installed a sound deadening and baffle kit in the door and installed the tweeter up in the stock location on the dash. I was worried that they would be too far apart since JL recommends to keep them close as possible but I think the stock location was the better choice. It comes with a pair of rather large crossover networks that has a cool look to them but in a Honda there is no where feasible to place them so I just crammed them under the dash and tucked a bit into the kick panels so that they can't fall out. They have pins that you can use to tweak the sound but I left them at reference. I may try tweaking the tweeters into a lower position as they seem a bit loud to me after I setup the DSP on the amp.

The Kicker amp was stupid easy to install and I fit it underneath the dash next to the steering column but I forgot to take any pics. I probably could have fit it inside the dash behind the stereo but figured wiring would make it too cramped so I didn't try. Numbers wise, 45 watts RMS x 4 doesn't sound impressive but it plays clean for as loud as I'll ever listen to my music and if you research about audio then you learn that you have to double the amps output power to get +3 db's more volume at full blast which is noticeable but not a lot so if you like front row Slayer concert loudness then you may want to get a 100 watt x 4 amp. Since I used the high level inputs which is 10 volts out from the HU and therefore the maximum input this amp is specified for then I turned the gains down to minimum and honestly it could probably stand to go a little lower because now my maximum volume is now near #25 before it'll clip the amp but 20 is about as loud as I can personally tolerate although this may have to do with what volume level I set when I initially ran the DSP setup program so am not sure what volume # I was supposed to set it to. I left the rear door speakers stock and they seem to be handling the power just fine with no distortion or bottoming out or anything. I then setup the amp's most notable feature, the built in DSP which will tune itself to the vehicles acoustics automatically. I mounted the microphone on the headrest and turned the volume to around 20 I think since the instructions didn't specify and inserted the USB which contained Kicker's DSP setup doohickey then stepped outside of the car until it finished. It makes a lot of horrible sounds so you don't want to be inside and when it finishes you'll hear a series of specific beeps that notify you that it's done.

The difference is night and day. You can switch between DSP on/off using a switch on the mic cord. It time aligned, it phased, it EQ'ed to create a front stage and sounds very crisp and detailed but only for the driver. I sat in the passenger seat and it certainly didn't sound bad but you can tell the difference. I like more prominent mid-bass so I turned on my HU's bass boost feature which auto levels itself depending on volume and it provided a nice kick that the C3 speakers handled very smoothly. I'm glad I heavily sound deadened the door panel because otherwise it would likely rattle like crazy. Overall the front now sounds very punchy but I think the high's could stand to be turned down some. I'll play with the EQ some other time.

The HU which has shockingly good radio reception. I can pick up 3x's as many stations over stock and any other HU I've ever had before and the scan search is near instant. No HD radio though but I only have a couple of HD stations in my area anyway. I'm using a Sandisk Micro SD usb drive 128 gb to store my music collection on and the HU supports FLAC for those that prefer it. The 6.2" touch screen is responsive and fast and comes with a microphone for accepting calls over Bluetooth. I placed the mic in the center of my steering and isn't distractive but of course it doesn't give a stock look either so in hindsight it might be better to purchase a smaller mic or something that can either sit flush in the dash or offer some other hidden mount option. Overall has just enough essentials for basic tuning. An EQ that you can customize or use presets but I left mine off. Crossover adjustments to separate the mains and the sub. I set mine to 80hz and they blend in nicely. Aside from that there isn't much to say about it.

The Pioneer sub has built in dual amplifiers so that saved me a lot of space from having to find a location to mount an amp plus it won't bog down my charging system and stock battery either. I like that the amps have a built in limiter so that they'll never clip regardless of how loud I turn it up as it will adjust it's own volume level which saves the typical headache of having to lower the input on the remote. Because it's a back loaded horn enclosure it's +7 decibels more efficient than a ported enclosure over a wider band of frequencies. It's rated at 110 db's @ 1 watt input using Dynamic mode and 104 db's @ 1 watt in "Deep" mode. That's as efficient as a dual chamber bandpass enclosure but has the benefit of amplifying a wider band of frequencies than tuned port setups. As you can see from the pics it fits perfectly in the fit and is tough enough to store whatever junk I want since that's basically what it was designed for.





And of course it comes with straps that fit perfectly in the loop holes on the back of the seats.




I'm very satisfied with the sub's performance. So far I only tested 1 song with the sub and was then too tired to do any more listening and that was Big Log by Robert Plant. It has a very powerful bass riff and for this I much preferred the "Deep" mode setting which was definitely deep. The dynamic mode is much louder but didn't work as well with this song. I have a variety of genre's to still try out from smooth Jazz, death metal and RNB but I have a feeling I'll probably just leave it in this mode. I also need to try out different EQ settings on my HU and turn off the bass boost to see how it changes this sub's performance.

 

Did you run the Kicker amp in bi-amp mode? If so, did you have to run new speaker wire?

 

Could you list the sub model please!?... thanx