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Hi everyone. I have a 2019 Accord Hybrid Touring. I'm a bit of a basshead so I had to upgrade the stereo system. I wanted to share my experience with all and hopefully receive some feedback from others who have added amplifiers to their hybrids as well.

In summary, I have ran a 1500 watt amp for over a year and I've measured over a 100 amp draw with no detrimental effects so far. Has anyone here ran anything over that on their 10th gen hybrid?

The amp wiring is 4 gauge OFC with a line out converter from the factory sub signal. All subs have been dual 2 ohm wired in parallel to 1 ohm and been housed in a custom-built 1.8 ft^3 ported enclosure tuned to 32 hz. I first installed a Wolfram W1500 (1600 watts RMS) on a Sundown SA12 over a year ago. I swapped the sub to a sundown U12 and then the amp to a Sundown SFB1000d (1450 watts RMS). I'm currently in the process of swapping the sub and box first (leaning towards a SSA ICON 15 in a ~3.25 ft^3 enclosure tuned to ~29 hz) and possibly the amp next.

I've not been able to find hard specs on the 12V converter (if anyone has them, please share them) but I've read in a forum that it's max rating is 75 amps. With my own testing, I've pulled over 100 amps to the amp alone (my amp clamp maxes at 100 amps and I've maxed it out) and obviously this doesn't factor in the other 12V components that are drawing power as well.

During the 100+ amp testing, the voltage at the battery remained 14.6V so I'm confident that the converter can output 100+ amps for at least short periods of time. I take caution to not place any extra demands on the electrical system when I'm really pushing it (heated seats, etc.). Of course, the long-term impact to the reliability of the car is still to be determined but I've not had any issues so far and I've accepted the risk that the converter will possibly fail prematurely.

This 100+ amp draw was on test tones cranked to the absolute max and way above clipping. When playing music at normal gain levels, my max amp draw isn't this high (~50-60 amps maybe, I haven't tested this much). So I feel fairly confident that I could operate a larger amp at normal gain levels and still not exceed the 100 amps that I've already pulled. The system is already quite loud though, so I'm not sure that this is something that I'd ever desire to do. And while I don't mind pushing the limit a little, I don't want to do something stupid and push it too far. I do have a 2.5k amp on order for another car though that I might try on the Honda. So I'd like to receive feedback if anyone here has pushed beyond these levels yet in their hybrid and I'm free to answer any questions that anyone else might have.
 

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Discussion Starter · #2 ·
I upgraded the amp to a Wolfram O-2400. The system sounds much better and there have been no issues so far. I’ve ran it for a few hours.

I have an SSA Icon 15” that I’m building a box for now. The box will be 3.5 cubes tuned to 29hz. That’s close to the biggest box that I could fit without having to build the box in the trunk which I’m not willing to do. I’m going to mount the sub facing the cabin and seal it off from the trunk.
 

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I installed the 15" ICON last night. It bangs hard. The O-2400 might be too much amp for it though. Judging from the excursion that I'm, it certainly couldn't handle anything larger. I had it stinking a little. I think that it was just some glue burning off instead of the voice coils. Time will tell. I also have a 15" Fi BTL3 for another vehicle that I might install just for fun, but I'm very satisfied with the ICON.

The box dimension are 34" W x 17.5" H x 18.5" D. This is about as big as it can get without building the box in the trunk. I built the box out of poplar plywood. This is my first one that wasn't MDF. The plywood is much better, I will never use MDF again.

I'II will have to do some additional sound proofing steps. The biggest issue that I have now is the plastic third brake light housing slapping against the back glass. This rattle is very loud as it is occurring inside the cabin. I haven't sealed off box from the trunk yet, so I still have it firing towards the rear. Hopefully once I get the trunk sealed off and the sub firing into the cabin that it will resolve more of the rattles.

The hardest to find rattle was the weight that is in the trunk lid, it is behind (above) the carpet panel. I assume that this weight is to balance the trunk and prevent it from opening too fast, particularly when the remote trunk release is used. This weight is around 1 pound and it's mounted in rubber. This causes the rattle to be intermittent and very strange sounding. Being that it's rubber mounted, it probably won't cause an issue on lower powered systems but it was certainly very noticeable with my 1500 watt amp. I removed it with no noticeable consequences so far.

Additionally, I move the trunk latch down an 1/8" of so to make the trunk latch tighter. This did help with rattles, but it makes the trunk slightly harder to latch.
 

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2019 Accord Hybrid Touring
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Hi Benji boy,

Thank you for the writeup on your experience with installing a high output amp on the accord hybrid.

That's one of the scary things that has me going super safe on my future build for this car. I have the same 2019 Hybrid Touring and am planning the following:

1. Alpine KTA - 450 power pack (50rms x 4 @ 4ohms
2. Alpine KTA - 200M power pack (200rms @ 2 or 4 ohms)
3. Axxess amp bypass AXDSPX-HN3
4. Morel Virtus Nano Carbon 2 way for front going active.
5. Audio Frog GS8ND2 sub/mid ass.

As you can see, going conservative, but even though, still am going 10 amps over (at least on the fuses adding both up, totaling 40)

Omitting rear speakers for now and plan to feed the center channel to the fronts with the dsp.

I welcome your feedback on this setup.

Thanks!
 

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I have the same car and I have: Front: HERTZ MPK 165.3 Mille pro Rear: HERTZ MPX 165.3 Mille pro Front center: Audio frog GS25 Sub: CP112LG-TW1-2 Amps: Helix V Eight using 7 channels x 75 watts rms Audio Control ACM 1.300 (300 watts rms at 2 ohms) So far no issues.
 

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You can't tell if your having problems yet but there's a reason your not supposed to go over like 300w or 400w and 30amp on hybrids. You could be damaging the hybrid and auxiliary battery charging systems irreparably, just in small increments slowly over time. Unless you have examined the entire electrical system you don't know if this is happening. Companies like Crutchfield have spent millions of dollars on installs and research into these cars. Good luck.
 

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I have a '21 Accord Hybrid Touring, and it's (right now) getting AF GS10/60 front stage and two AF GB10d4 subs, powered by a Helix V-8 (75w x 8) and a Helix M One X (~1180w x 1). I figure it's a risk, but one I'm willing to take.

My shop did strongly encourage sticking to class D amps, given that it's a hybrid.
 
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