I am the happy owner of a 2018 Accord EX. However the stock sound system leaves much to be desired. So i replaced all 4 speakers with Infinity REF-6532ex. When i took the front driver side door off i noticed there was water on the factory speaker. Charlotte NC has seen a lot of rain recently and we had a downpour the day before i switched out the speakers so while i expected there might be a little moisture in the door, i was surprised at the amount and that it was even on the speaker. i dropped the car off at the dealer and their reply was water in the door is normal and the moisture barriers were in place. Has anyone else noticed excessive moisture in the door panels? By the way, the infinities are an improvement over the stock speakers. However now looking at an under seat sub for just a little more low end. Any recommendations?
While replacing front speakers noticed water in the door
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New door speakers
So, can you please explain what improvement you are seeing in the Touring with new door speakers? What did you install? I thought I read the Touring audio was better than some other models. Not sure in what way. I’m not sure which speakers (maybe all) are giving me the cheap sounding midrange I hear. I’ve adjusted the equalizer many times but the only thing which seems to work is to turn down the midrange. However, I have noticed the sound system is better or worse depending on the source. ITunes seems better than Sirius.
I got a set of Hertz MLK 1650.3 LEGEND component speaker, right now I only installed the front mid-range powered by factory amp. The front tweeter is too big to replace the factory tweeter, still looking for a solution to surface mount them with minimal modification.
As I'm only halfway done my upgrade, the improvement is limited, the mids are obviously much more firm and clear compare to the factory mid-range, these speakers can take a lot of power and the factory amp is weak.I plan to do a full upgrade with a Alpine h800 sound processor and alpine PDX-F6 4-ch AMP, I will go active for the front as well. I will replace the factory sub to a free-air sub because I don't want to lose any trunk space.I will start a new post when I collected all the necessary parts.
The speakers in the touring trim, they were the same crappy junk just like the other trims. you can feel them when you have them in hand, the magnet is tiny and cone is paper or plastic. The amp on the touring is 10-ch active crossover fed by the head-unit through proprietary SPDIF. the amp then mix and split signal to 10 ch.
Interested in making some speaker changes. However, also not interested in breaking stuff accidentally in the new car, trying to remove door panels, rear window panel, etc. Is there a repair manual anywhere?
>Michael - You said you replaced 4 speakers with the Infinity REF. Assume this was two in the doors and two in the rear deck? How do you get access to these areas? The Infinity REF you mentioned are two-way. I assume the Honda originals were not? In my model (maybe yours as well) the doors have a separate tweeter in my model. If not did the extra tweeter help/hurt at all?
>ddmond - sent you a pm today...
Thx DD
>Michael - You said you replaced 4 speakers with the Infinity REF. Assume this was two in the doors and two in the rear deck? How do you get access to these areas? The Infinity REF you mentioned are two-way. I assume the Honda originals were not? In my model (maybe yours as well) the doors have a separate tweeter in my model. If not did the extra tweeter help/hurt at all?
>ddmond - sent you a pm today...
Thx DD
Update: I found that Crutchfield has all of the stuff I need, including install instructions, removing panels, etc., tools and all of that! They really have their act together! This is going to be fun!
Only question I have at this moment: Since my car has 4 tweeters already, if I put in two-way speakers in the doors and back window panel, am I getting too extreme with the tweeters? Am I better suited to just get door/rear deck speakers without additional tweeters? The stock tweeters in the front are up in a good, high position. Of course, those stock tweeters may be part of the problem, not sure...
Thx DD
Only question I have at this moment: Since my car has 4 tweeters already, if I put in two-way speakers in the doors and back window panel, am I getting too extreme with the tweeters? Am I better suited to just get door/rear deck speakers without additional tweeters? The stock tweeters in the front are up in a good, high position. Of course, those stock tweeters may be part of the problem, not sure...
Thx DD
update after two weeks with new speakers
In response to the question on how to replace the four speakers, Crutchfield supplied delivery instructions with the speakers, as well as the necessary brackets and wiring connectors. I also spent about an hour on youtube searching installation videos. Replacing the front speakers was easy and only took about 15 minutes per door. Replacing the rear speakers took me half a day. I am not a professional and had to learn two lessons while replacing the back speakers. Connect the wiring harness to the speaker before you put it in the back deck, and install the speaker in the bracket before you install the bracket in the rear deck. The rear deck speakers also required taking out the rear seat, rear sail panels, and some door rubber. The new speakers are two ways, the old speakers were not. My decision at the start was not to replace the head unit or buy an amp. Now the rear speakers are almost worthless. The sound quality coming from the rear speakers is nothing like the front. I read on this forum that there is a dip in the sound range on the rear speakers, maybe tied to the noise reduction system. Not sure if that is true. I also saw a way to disconnect the noise reduction system, but that involves taking the dash apart and i am not too eager to do that. In my opinion, the effort to replace the rear speakers was not worth the return on the sound quality. In retrospect, I would probably leave the rear speakers alone and invested more or the front speakers. Maybe purchase components for the front speakers and buy the upper sail speaker bracket directly from Honda. I think having the tweeter separate would have allowed for better base from the midranges as well as more direct upper sounds.
That said, i am happy with the infinities and do not regret the cost or effort to replace the factory speakers. I can crank up the music on my songs now and am happy with the mid and uppers frequencies.
In response to the question on how to replace the four speakers, Crutchfield supplied delivery instructions with the speakers, as well as the necessary brackets and wiring connectors. I also spent about an hour on youtube searching installation videos. Replacing the front speakers was easy and only took about 15 minutes per door. Replacing the rear speakers took me half a day. I am not a professional and had to learn two lessons while replacing the back speakers. Connect the wiring harness to the speaker before you put it in the back deck, and install the speaker in the bracket before you install the bracket in the rear deck. The rear deck speakers also required taking out the rear seat, rear sail panels, and some door rubber. The new speakers are two ways, the old speakers were not. My decision at the start was not to replace the head unit or buy an amp. Now the rear speakers are almost worthless. The sound quality coming from the rear speakers is nothing like the front. I read on this forum that there is a dip in the sound range on the rear speakers, maybe tied to the noise reduction system. Not sure if that is true. I also saw a way to disconnect the noise reduction system, but that involves taking the dash apart and i am not too eager to do that. In my opinion, the effort to replace the rear speakers was not worth the return on the sound quality. In retrospect, I would probably leave the rear speakers alone and invested more or the front speakers. Maybe purchase components for the front speakers and buy the upper sail speaker bracket directly from Honda. I think having the tweeter separate would have allowed for better base from the midranges as well as more direct upper sounds.
That said, i am happy with the infinities and do not regret the cost or effort to replace the factory speakers. I can crank up the music on my songs now and am happy with the mid and uppers frequencies.
Thanks a lot, Michael. After I saw the instructions from Crutchfield for the back speakers, I was pretty sure I might pass on the rears and just return them. Since I have the tweeters on my model near the front windshield pillars, I was thinking maybe adding the Infinity’s in the front with tweeters might be too much. I guess I can try them and see since the front doors are pretty easy to work with. My main concern has been the hollow, annoying midrange in front. I might look at returning all and get some fronts without the tweeter. You review of install was very helpful. Thx DD
Actually I saw several posts saying that you will notice significant improvement of the front stage by just replace the front tweeter.
thx ddmond, Sent you an email this afternoon. That is interesting that the tweeters have that much impact in the front stage?? Can you tell me where you read that, on a forum, etc? I would like to review.
Only issue with replacing the front tweeters, per the Crutchfield tweeter instructions, you have to fashion some form of bracket to mount the tweeters in the sail by the door windows. Maybe hot glue them in, provided they fit in the sail. Maybe I should have purchased door speakers with separate tweeters as you did instead of the two-way door speakers I did purchase Tweeter fitment in the sail is an issue as you know all to well, since your new tweeters won't fit in the sail.
Thx for the info!
DD
Only issue with replacing the front tweeters, per the Crutchfield tweeter instructions, you have to fashion some form of bracket to mount the tweeters in the sail by the door windows. Maybe hot glue them in, provided they fit in the sail. Maybe I should have purchased door speakers with separate tweeters as you did instead of the two-way door speakers I did purchase Tweeter fitment in the sail is an issue as you know all to well, since your new tweeters won't fit in the sail.
Thx for the info!
DD
Wanted to update the forum folks. Thanks for all the advice.
Crutchfield has been great with advice, etc. Install instruction, etc. and became even greater when I talked to an advisor named Norm who in a past life was an installer. He has a tremendous amount of knowledge!
Installed Infinity Reference REF-6530cx with separate tweeters in the doors of my 2018 Accord 2.0 Touring. Followed the advice of Norm to also buy the Hushmat Wave Breaker Kit to apply to the outer door behind the speakers and also installed XTC 6-1/2" Speaker Baffles, 3-1/4" depth and using his instructions to cut out the backs of the baffles to allow the speaker to breathe. Tweeters needed some mounting modifications but Infinity supplies four different adapters of which one was rather helpful in the install.
Finished the car today. The front stage is fabulous now! I hear a substantial difference! Good, clear bass up front, no muddy sounds like before. Very solid mid range from the door area and those little tiny tweeters are just fantastic! In fact the front stage is so alive now, I don’t hear as much from the center dash channel which I believed was the culprit causing much of the hollow, dead, mid range sound. Being higher up, in the center dash, and bouncing off the windshield as well as the plastic back of the Infotainment display, it was adding more crap sounds than the rest of the front stage. Not so now… It just sort of fits in.
I can now move the fader more toward the back to actually hear something from the anemic back deck, so finally sounding quite decent with front/back separation and some bass from the rear.
I cancelled the order for the center channel dash speaker. Didn’t want to take half of the dash apart anyway. Don’t need it now. Which saved me $150 as they were only sold in a pair and quite a bit of tedious work.
The system still needs improvements, rear sub is weak and really all of the rear deck speakers are weak. But from my reading, the amp or DSP portion of the amp is apparently responsible for this via Honda design.
Even Sirius radio sounds good, which is saying something for their weak digital, low-Khz music transmission.
Haven’t tried my iPhone yet. That sounded the best before. Even FM was decent!
Next step may be to put all of my Apple ripped music on a USB drive and plug it in the center console and set it up for maximum KHz to equal whatever the Honda system will allow and play. Have to research this...
So, great day and I didn’t break anything in disassembly or in re-assembly!
PS: Don’t forget about consider adding the hush mats to the door body behind the speakers. Eliminates a lot of bouncing distortion from the metal body behind the speaker. Also add foam cups on both doors, per the Crutchfield guy. I can't say for sure they have made a difference, as I did not experiment with or without. For the $40, if that guy Norm liked them than I would follow his advice.
I am good for now. The whole system is revitalized. Maybe later will try something to help out the dead rear
DD
Crutchfield has been great with advice, etc. Install instruction, etc. and became even greater when I talked to an advisor named Norm who in a past life was an installer. He has a tremendous amount of knowledge!
Installed Infinity Reference REF-6530cx with separate tweeters in the doors of my 2018 Accord 2.0 Touring. Followed the advice of Norm to also buy the Hushmat Wave Breaker Kit to apply to the outer door behind the speakers and also installed XTC 6-1/2" Speaker Baffles, 3-1/4" depth and using his instructions to cut out the backs of the baffles to allow the speaker to breathe. Tweeters needed some mounting modifications but Infinity supplies four different adapters of which one was rather helpful in the install.
Finished the car today. The front stage is fabulous now! I hear a substantial difference! Good, clear bass up front, no muddy sounds like before. Very solid mid range from the door area and those little tiny tweeters are just fantastic! In fact the front stage is so alive now, I don’t hear as much from the center dash channel which I believed was the culprit causing much of the hollow, dead, mid range sound. Being higher up, in the center dash, and bouncing off the windshield as well as the plastic back of the Infotainment display, it was adding more crap sounds than the rest of the front stage. Not so now… It just sort of fits in.
I can now move the fader more toward the back to actually hear something from the anemic back deck, so finally sounding quite decent with front/back separation and some bass from the rear.
I cancelled the order for the center channel dash speaker. Didn’t want to take half of the dash apart anyway. Don’t need it now. Which saved me $150 as they were only sold in a pair and quite a bit of tedious work.
The system still needs improvements, rear sub is weak and really all of the rear deck speakers are weak. But from my reading, the amp or DSP portion of the amp is apparently responsible for this via Honda design.
Even Sirius radio sounds good, which is saying something for their weak digital, low-Khz music transmission.
Haven’t tried my iPhone yet. That sounded the best before. Even FM was decent!
Next step may be to put all of my Apple ripped music on a USB drive and plug it in the center console and set it up for maximum KHz to equal whatever the Honda system will allow and play. Have to research this...
So, great day and I didn’t break anything in disassembly or in re-assembly!
PS: Don’t forget about consider adding the hush mats to the door body behind the speakers. Eliminates a lot of bouncing distortion from the metal body behind the speaker. Also add foam cups on both doors, per the Crutchfield guy. I can't say for sure they have made a difference, as I did not experiment with or without. For the $40, if that guy Norm liked them than I would follow his advice.
I am good for now. The whole system is revitalized. Maybe later will try something to help out the dead rear
DD
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16 Posts
DDNorCal, glad to hear those infinities made a huge difference in your Touring. I love my Touring, but no adjustments I make in the sound settings makes the audio sound great to me. I’m looking to do some upgrades very soon. I had a question though. Did you happen to use the crossovers supplied with your infinity speakers, or just connect them to the factory wiring?
Infinity speaker replacements - crossover
I did not use the crossovers. They are awfully big boxes, (like 4"x 4" x 1"), but that is not reason i didn't use them.. In some Accord trims, there is a orange capacitor on the in-door tweeters (on window sail). Actually, the cap showed up on the pics from Crutchfield. I talked with the rep at Crutchfield (who was an installer in a previous life) and he directed me to use the Infinity cross overs. Mostly because the pics he had seen showed the cap on the tweeter. Mine did not have any caps. So, I guessed that the head was doing all of the crossover management.
I later spoke to the same guy and indicated the pics they had must have come from a different trim than Touring 2.0 as my tweeters did not have them. He indicated I likely made the appropriate decision.
Good luck....
I did not use the crossovers. They are awfully big boxes, (like 4"x 4" x 1"), but that is not reason i didn't use them.. In some Accord trims, there is a orange capacitor on the in-door tweeters (on window sail). Actually, the cap showed up on the pics from Crutchfield. I talked with the rep at Crutchfield (who was an installer in a previous life) and he directed me to use the Infinity cross overs. Mostly because the pics he had seen showed the cap on the tweeter. Mine did not have any caps. So, I guessed that the head was doing all of the crossover management.
I later spoke to the same guy and indicated the pics they had must have come from a different trim than Touring 2.0 as my tweeters did not have them. He indicated I likely made the appropriate decision.
Good luck....
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16 Posts
Thanks!
I bought the same Infinity speakers for my Touring and installed them the other day. The woofer was an easy install thanks to the adapter rings i used. I ended up hot-glueing the tweeter in place, but was very easy. One of the supplied tweeter mounting pieces made it a nice square fit, and allowed me to easily secure it with hot glue. All without having to modify the tweeter mounts in the car.
They are a huge improvement over the factory speakers. Nice, tight midbass and very clean sound. In a way, the factory subwoofer seems to stand out more and be more effective now.
But I will be upgrading the subwoofer soon, with a dedicated subwoofer amplifier. I need a bit more ‘oomph’ than a little 8” sub can provide.
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1 Posts
Hey man i know exactly what your talking about . I upgraded my factory speakers with components about a year ago and seen moisture also so i wrapped it up tightly. Well nowa year later my front speakers stopped working so i took apart the head unit and started there . Went to the amp . Nope . Then went to the doors . I can feel the cables so moist and knew that had to be it . So i disconnected the speakers and they worked perfectly when connected to the back . Water must have fried the harness some how . Still in the process of finding a solution on this matter
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977 Posts
Installed some door speakers today used some baffles to solve this issue. I used the foam ones for the front and trimmed them up so the bottom part is open but the top is shielded from the water. Should just flow around the sides now leaving the speaker nice and dry. The silicone ones are completely open and wasnt so sure about how well they would protect from water.
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977 Posts
Don't. I have had two of these cars both with and without tweets, and have replaced the speakers in both.
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