I spend way too much time in the car and am considering buying a hybrid. I have two 10" enclosed subs in the trunk of my current car and was wondering if these would fit in the trunk of a HCH or does the battery assembly take up too much space.

It looks like the sub enclosure would fit quite nicely in the hatchback of the Prius (better arrangement actually) but I read a rumor that installing aftermarket head units was difficult in this car.

Any advice?

 

buy the hch and talk to tbaleno about installing sub decks in your trunk. he's currently working on that in his hch

you are correct that replacing the prius' head unit is more difficult than the hch, and i believe you must take out one of the screen console components - can a prius II driver affirm or deny?

with the hch you can just slide out the head unit, detach audio/power/ant and reattach to new unit, just like any other civic

 

Yep, tbaleno is the man for that particular trouble-shoot, imo

He's been a good, free consult for my initial Prius sound system plans and will gladly show you his HCH pics over at cardomain. heh

 

I remember back in the 1980's when car radios were even worse than today I could upgrade the OEM rear deck speakers and have a dramatic increase in fidelity.

In fact I had a pair of Sony Triaxle 6x9's that went into 4 or 5 cars.

Looking at the back of the HCH stock rear speakers, the magnets look really small and weak.

A question for you Audio pros....
If I went to a store like Best Buys and got their best 6" full range speakers and installed them myself can I expect a dramatic increase in fidelity, just like my trusty Sony Triaxles of the '80s without changing the head unit?

I really don't need brain-shakin, head-bangin bass or anything like that but an improvement would be nice.

 

I was corrected by a prius owner when I said that it looked more diffiicult to install an afetermarket radio in a prius. Apparantly the prius comes with a spot that you can use to add an after market radio.

As far as subs in a civic. Yeah the trunk space is a pain to work with. So many nooks can cranies. I currently have 2 1.6cf boxes in my trunk and I have some space left over. However, I am looking to redesign my boxes to recover even more space. I also have 3 amps in my trunk one of them being 30"x10" by 3" or so.

If your subs only take up like .9 cubes you can probably build a couple of boxes 12x15x12 and fit them in the sides and not use up much of your trunk. I don't know the actual size your boxes have to be so you can take it from there.

Hot_Georga:

I hear that replacing either the headunit or the speakers will make a difference. Probably not a huge difference but the stock radio in the HCH is so poor to start that anything would help. A full range speaker would do wonders. Add a small amp into the mix and you should be good to go.

BTW: did anyone ever price our speakers from honda? I think the dealer charges $9 for them that should speak volumes about the audio system in the HCH.

 

A new head unit makes a world of difference, even w/ the stock speakers. One with a blue-lit front screen also matches well with the rest of the dash.

 

i'm thinking about getting a new head unit and front speakers

any recommendations?
i've put my eyes on an Aiwa CDC-X204 receiver and a pair of Infinity Reference 6002si 6.5" shallow-depth speakers

should i bother upgrading rear speakers, or switching my choices to the next models up? (Aiwa CDC-X304 reciever and Infinity Reference 6012si 6.5" shallow depth speakers)

 

I now have the QLogic twin sub enclosure (1.0 cf).

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Q-Log...oductDetail.do

Any guesses? If too big, a custom box isn't too tough to design.

Also, are the rear deck speakers 6 x 9 or 6 1/2"

 

That sub woofer encloser will fit in the trunk. It will come out into the trunk a bit more than I would like (I'm pretty picky about how much space I want). But It shouldn't be too bad if your not interested in getting every inche of space out of your trunk.

 

For anyone interested in replacing speakers here is a bit of advice you may or may not know. The stock speakers are ment to play full range. Aftermarket speakers sometimes don't play bass very well and need to be enhanced by a subwoofer or a midbass speaker.

Infinities are known for not playing very low so the lows will be very weak. Unless you are using a subwoofer or other low playing speakers look for speakers that have a range of about 50hz-20Khz.

Also, Most speakers will need a spacer or an adaptor for the front door.