Honda e [Advance] Sound System

All Honda E related discussions
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DifficultNorth
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Mar 26, 2021 1:38 am

Post by DifficultNorth »

Ok so I picked up my new set of 6,5 inch speakers for the front doors (JBL Club 622) and set out on a mission to install them and oh lord was that not easy...

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The «universal» bracket that was included with the speakers were apparently not universal enough for the Honda e. The bracket did not fit out of the box and required self tapping screws to be used to fix the bracket to the door by drilling new holes. After fitting the bracket to the weirdly shaped hole I realized that the speaker would not fit as it would touch the metal due to the hole not being perfectly circular.

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After a lot of swearing and arguing with myself I decided I was going to install the speakers no matter what, and did what no man should do to a brand new car; I cut off the annyoing metal part that was in the way...

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After this cut I was able to fit the speaker without touching anything and I was quite happy with my stunt (although this would come back to bite me later...)

I was unable to get hold of original Honda speaker cables for a plug-and-play installation and as such opted to cut the wires, make my own plugs and solder new cables to the speaker itself.

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After using a multimeter to find the positive/negative leads I connected the speaker and behold it worked! I installed the speaker onto the bracket and moved on to the next door.

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I repeated the same steps by cutting off some of the metal on the other door and then I realized that I had made a huge mistake.

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I noticed that the window would hit the back of the speaker when opening it and I cursed and yelled some more out of frustration... After a lot of thinking, trying and failing I eventually came up with a workaround. I used the included ring for the speaker grill used if mounting the speaker externally to move the speaker a bit out from the door. I sandwiched the ring between the speaker and the bracket with a self adhesive rubber seal to avoid vibrations and managed to fit the speaker without touching the glass. However, I now realized that the speaker would fit without cutting the door and I had now molested my brand new car for no reason...

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After sorting the window glass issue on both doors, I tried to fit the door panel only to realize it was touching the speaker. I had to cut off a plastic ring on the back of the door panel speaker grill to get it to fit, but I finally managed to fit the door panels back on and test the speakers, and they sound amazing! I have removed the center speaker from the dash as I have ordered the JBL Club 322F 3,5 inch speaker that I hopefully get in a couple of days.

I apologize for such a long post but I hope this will give some insight for those of you wanting to do the same thing. However, I only recommend going through all this work if you really, REALLY care about the sound quality as I spent 6 hours on the install and took a lot of risk doing so.

Also, in hindsight I should have been more patient and ordered a 6,5 inch Honda speaker bracket/adapter to fit the original holes, as well as a Honda speaker cable with the plug. These things are very hard to find in my country and would require weeks to order from abroad. I have damaged my car to make this work, and I hope I don’t regret it in the future.

DifficultNorth
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Mar 26, 2021 1:38 am

Post by DifficultNorth »

FDAD wrote: Sat Sep 05, 2020 6:36 pm
bogga wrote: Sat Sep 05, 2020 1:26 pm According to the press release its under the back seat
Yes It is.. I've already changed the centre speaker and located the sub, it sits below the back right side... You have to remove the rear seat plus door seals + the seat frame. The sub appears to be 10cm diameter. Haven't got to remove it yet.. just taking notes and seeing what i'll have to do before actually getting to it. :)
Do you know if the subwoofer is active, such that it has its own power or does it only have normal speaker wires? I am looking for replacements and I imagine one would need an active under-the-seat woofer to make it worth changing it. I have tried to locate all the bolts to remove the rear seats, however it seems that some bolts are located under the floor carpet?
Joolsdc
Posts: 550
Joined: Fri Jan 31, 2020 3:39 pm
Location: Worcestershire

Post by Joolsdc »

Comprehensive DifficultNorth
And very useful. I think I heard the shouting in rural Worcestershire 😊
But finally looks a good job. Does eBay sell a fitment to allow different speakers? I used the Honda cable fitment from eBay for the centre speaker - rather than having to cut or solder.
DifficultNorth
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Mar 26, 2021 1:38 am

Post by DifficultNorth »

Haha yeah I let the frustration get the best of me as I was dead set to fit the speaker, and I am rather impatient.

I imagine this kit might fit the Honda e by the looks of it, but it might be a slightly different fit. However, if it does fit out of the box then I have done all this work for naught, and I should have ordered the kit instead.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Speaker-Adap ... gIPw_D_BwE
DifficultNorth
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Mar 26, 2021 1:38 am

Post by DifficultNorth »

Ok so here’s more spam from me!
I located and removed the subwoofer from under the seats and it seems to be a 5 inch (~13cm) woofer in a rather large plastic box. There should be enough space to put a under-the-seat active subwoofer. I am thinking of getting the JBL BassPro SL2 active subwoofer and I just need to find a way to route a 12v/12A power connection to the subwoofer location.

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I had to remove the door seal and bottom panel to access the carpet.

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I then lifted up the seats and removed the seat frame.

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The subwoofer itself is located under the carpet, under the right rear seat.

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There is plenty of space in the compartment.

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The woofer box measures approx 600x230x75mm

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The speaker itself is a 5 inch (~13cm) speaker and is approx 7cm deep.
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iHansz
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Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands
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Post by iHansz »

Wow, I would never dare. Not that I'm not technical, but I'm afraid of breaking things. I always have parts left over when I have taken something apart and put it back together. :lol:
Dutch Advance in Charge Yellow on 17"
1st registered Oct 2020
Home charger: public charging stations only
Joolsdc
Posts: 550
Joined: Fri Jan 31, 2020 3:39 pm
Location: Worcestershire

Post by Joolsdc »

Top job DN. definitely not spam!

interesting that the woofer is downward facing.
So you would replace with a powered JBL sub-woofer?
More photos please. Where will you run power from?

How did you get the back seat out? Before you could remove the frame.

Thanks again. This is great information
DifficultNorth
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Mar 26, 2021 1:38 am

Post by DifficultNorth »

Joolsdc; I apologize for not taking that many photos, but I will try to explain the process.

The seats themselves lifts right up, there are two clips in the front of the seats and a bolt in the trunk. Its a 10mm bolt fixed to a kind of metal hoop. You should easily see it after removing the floor and styrofoam in the trunk. Thats all that is required to remove the seats themselves.

Once the seats are removed, you have to remove the seat frame that is fixed with five 14mm bolts. In order to get to the subwoofer itself, you have to lift up the carpet. To do this, you have to remove the door frame seals as well as a plastic cover on the bottom of each door. The seal pulls right off easily. Pull them outwards away from the door.

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After you have pulled off enough of the seal to expose the plastic cover holding the carpet, you can remove the cover by pulling it up. The cover is held in place by two clips and you have to pull quite hard.

Once the seals and plastic covers are removed from each door you will be able to pull up the under-seat carpet and expose the subwoofer. The carpet is held by three clips, one by each door and one in the middle. Pull up hard where the clips are holding the carpet to remove it. The woofer is fixed with three 10mm bolts.

I have now replaced the subwoofer with the JBL BassPro SL2 and I must say it made a huge difference!

I pulled power from the fuse box located on the bottom left of the driver side dash. I had to remove the door seals and bottom plastic covers to expose a route to pull the cable. I located a non-essential fuse (12v power outlet) and used a fuse splitter to connect the positive 12v power lead to power the woofer.

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I kept the original 20A fuse for the power outlet and added a 15A fuse as required for the subwoofer.

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I then routed the new cable along the channel on bottom left of the car, under the doors. I routed the new cable in a tube and zip-tied it to the existing wires

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I then routed the cable under the rear seats carpet and to the subwoofer.

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I connected the negative wire with a self tapping screw to the metal floor and cut the old speaker wires and wired on some new plugs to fit the subwoofer. The subwoofer itself is fixed to the floor with screws, which I drilled and tapped first. I put a self adhesive soft rubber seal under the subwoofer to avoid vibration.

It was a long process and a lot of work, but it was easier than I feared. So far I am very happy with the result, but it required a lot of tuning to get it playing right with the rest of the speakers. I am still missing the front central speaker, and I expect to have it tomorrow. Hopefully my explanation makes sense although it lacks photos...
Joolsdc
Posts: 550
Joined: Fri Jan 31, 2020 3:39 pm
Location: Worcestershire

Post by Joolsdc »

Wow. Amazing detail DN. Thank you. I will re-read your details.
You and FDAD have really done great work for the site to improve the Honda e sound system
DifficultNorth
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Mar 26, 2021 1:38 am

Post by DifficultNorth »

I have now installed a new front central speaker and I must say that I am extremely happy with the final result!

I opted for a slightly larger and more expensive 4 inch speaker from Audison instead of JBL as I wanted the central speaker to ensure the best possible midlevel and treble. I got the Audison Prima APX 4 which is fairly shallow for its size but with great full spectrum sound, although it was a big step up in price at €100, though this was for a set of two speakers. It was very difficult to get hold of a single speaker to my spec.

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In order to fit the larger speaker I had to do a lot of modifications to the speaker assembly in the dash. The existing speaker fitting was too narrow and too tall to fit the speaker, and as such I had to cut a lot of the plastic as well as engineer some new 4 inch brackets to hold the new speaker.

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After removing the «extra» material I removed the existing speaker connection from the amp and soldered on a new contacts to the wires. I also soldered on new contacts to the speaker itself.

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After fitting the speaker to the new bracket it fit quite well, although I had to cut off quite a lot of material to make it fit properly. It was very hard to access the assembly to cut the material, so the final result is far from pretty but it does the job.

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This has been a rather long and difficult journey, but I have learned a lot and I am extremely satisfied with the result! For my ears it was definitely worth it. However I would caution anyone else to think long and hard before embarking on a similar project, especially since it most likely involves heavy modifications to your brand new car, some which are non reversible.
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