hi guys,
can you give suggestions on a good audio setup? i would greatly appreciate it if you could give specs (good brand for HU, cables, speakers,etc.), placement of speakers, etc...Pictures would also be nice...

Thanks very much in advance!

 

www.ariesmotor.com
feel free to contact me after browsing, and don't forget to check the review in the internet.

 

there's nothing much on the site...

 

Get the best set of components / splits you can afford. Instead of spending on front a rear speakers just get a set for the front. A pair of top notch speakers sounds better than 2 pairs of mediocre speakers.

Components require more power to drive them so require an amplifier for best results. A 2 channel amp will do the trick but if you want a sub then you can either get a 4 channel and bridge the rear channels to power the sub or preferably get a seperate monoblock amp for the sub.

As soon as you go 2 or more amps you need to upgrade the cars electrical system or you will kill the factory battery. ie. better battery.

Head units you can't go wrong with Alpine, Clarion or Pioneer.

Cabling - Stinger, QED or Audison.

Sound proofing - Dynamat, Stinger or G-Spot.

Speakers - listen to as many different speakers as possible to decide what type of sound you like. Some people prefer soft rather than hard tweeters. Other people like very bassey sound. Yet other like the very natural sounds that Rainbow and Focal provide. Other brands to look at include Eton, Boston, Crossfire, Digital Designs, Hertz, Image Dynamics, Phoenix Gold, Morel, Vibe, DynAudio and Phass.

Amps - Audison, Crossfire, Phoneix Gold, Digital Designs, Treo, Tru-Tech, Vibe and Zapco.

Battery - Optima or Stinger.

Due to the small interior of the Fit the optimal sized sub is 10" or less. As with most hatches best if firing rearward. I can go into more detail about subs but then this post will get too long.

Positioning of the front speakers in the Fit is relatively easy. The factory mounts in the doors are ideal for the mid base and the tweeters sound best in the kick panels ie. at floor level. You'll see alot of setups with the tweets up on the A pillars or top of the doors. The distance between the tweets and your ears and the mid bass and your ears then becomes disproportional on each side and between the left and right sides. Equi distance and hence the best sound is best achieved in the postions I suggested.

The wiring of my system is posted in the picture section.
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-photos-videos/3147-sound-system-wiring.html

 

hey vividjazz, you upgraded most of your speakers?

Just wondering what aftermarket speaker bracket can be used in accordance with the jazz doors, since I don't really want to rip the ones off the stock ones (if that is possible) and I don't think I'd want to make my own either.

 

You need speakers that aren't too deep as you still want to be able to open and close the windows and get the door trim back on.

I've only done the front speaker as your ears point forward so don't get alot of benefit from rear speakers (they really only benefit the rear passengers).

You just need spacers to mount the speakers far enough out of the factory holes so the magnet of the aftermarket speaker will fit. Most auto shops sell pre-done ones if your not handy with a jigsaw. You'll see the spacers in the picture I posted with the front door soundproofing in the pic thread.

You can't reuse the stock mounts.

 

thanks man... your posts are really great... great pics too!

 

With respect to a sub a lot of guys in Singapore go for a bass tubes like the SAS Bazooka. If you still want to be able to still use your boot this is a good idea or a small sealed box which can be removed.

Deep bass is not directional so mixes nicely with the front stage even though the sub is in the boot.

Multiple subs are more for show and will be quite boomy in the small interior. Likewise with large subs - 12" & 15". Ported boxes don't offer as tight a sound, take up more space but can be tuned to a particular frequency.

Sub brands to look at include Diamond, Digital Designs, Crossfire, Hertz, Focal, Image Dynamics, Boston, Phoenix Gold, Vibe, Treo, Lotus & JL.

You don't want the sub to overpower everything else unless all you want is pure SPL in which case buy something like a 15" Crossfire XT15F and power it with a VR4000D 2,000W RMS @ 4OHM amp and you'll be good for well over 150db (also deaf and violently ill if in the car at the time). Remember a 747 taking off or landing is less than 100db. I find SPL pretty silly.

I was thinking about getting a box moulded out of fibreglass to fit on one side of the boot but such a custom shaped box would be quite expensive to fabricate and I already had a good box and 8" sub just laying around.

 

Kendris these are the spaces for the speakers I was talking about.

Installed in door. The diffuser behind where the mid range speaker goes is also visible. This eliminates backwave distortion when in tandem with the outer and inner soundproofing on the doors.

Midrange speaker installed.

 

Factory 6" paper cup speaker in factory clip mounting next to the aftermarket 6.5" polymica speakers with butyl rubber surrounds. Note the factory speakers are not even coaxials.

 

oh wow....

hmm, so if you're using spaces to fit the speakers into the door, did you remove the mesh on the door that covered the stock speakers or have you kept it on?

I also can see there's some sort of silicon glue stuff where the spacer joins the door, is that how you fitted them on?

 

The speaker grills are integrated into the door trim. I replaced the factory door trim to return the fully stock standard look.

The silicon acts just as a sealant. The spacers are screwed on. Don't want any air to escape.

 

Vividjazz, can you tell me what is the mounting depth of your speaker? From you picture, it looks a lot taller than the factory speaker. Thanks.

 

2.75" or 70mm. This is pretty much the absolute limit of what can fit if you want to be able to get the factory door trim back on.

The mounting diameter is 5.63" or 140mm. If the rear magnet is much wider than this then it won't clear the metal hole and will not allow for the above mounting depth.

 

hi frenchelle i would suggest u go to subzstation at 99 ma clara st banawe look 4 allan or itoy theygood price and good quality of sounds system

 

Hey, thanks for the advice. I will be coming back to the P.I. in November and will be buying a new Jazz. I would like some references for installation of a nice audio system. I was thinking of buying the components here in the states and bringing them with me and having them installed in Manila, but my friend in Manila said to buy them there for warranty protection,etc. What do you think? Do you have any pics that show a nice system installed? Thanks.

 

hi fit,
just read your reply..thanks for the info..by the way, is this based from your experience? can you give more details about your setup? thanks very much!

 

Vivid, did you have to make any mods to fit the Optima battery on the bay? I need to replace mine (OEM gives only 28 A/h!) but am not sure if I can find a battery that fits such small space...

 

Optima D51 series fits perfectly as they do on most model Hondas. 500 Cold Cranking Amps at zero F and 625 Cranking Amps at 32 F. Run a decent sound system (couple of amps, etc) for about an hour without turning the car on.

 

OK, thanks a lot. Humm.. Vivid, just another thing. Do you have any issues charging the Optima battery? Cause I've heard that there was no point in changing the batt since the alternator wouldn't do the job charging it... Didn't take it much seriously, though.