Just wonderin' if I could hook up an amp w/o buying a deck.

 

do you mean RCA jacks? if so i highly doubt it

 

stock 5th gens dont, not sure on 6th, but I would say no.

 

I don't think Honda produces a head unit with outputs.

 

yes u can hook up an amp and subs to a stock deck, but sometimes theres distortion, such as a low bass coming out of the speakers when the tuner is off, my friend (a stereo freak) hooked up an amp and subs to my car without an aftermarket receiver, im guessin u want the bass while keepin the stock look, same here, my friends work came out better than expected and im not getting any distortion, although my friend expected it also, what you need is a subkit, look into it


[Modified by getinmahbilly, 6:29 PM 6/12/2002]

 

A subkit? What the hell is that? All I have at this time is the amp wiring and the subs.

 

hence the name subkit....its a subwoofer kit so u can install your sub and amp without a deck, or u can just go buy some power cable, remote wire, ground wire, some rca, a fuse holder, and a hi-lo converter, thats basically the contents of a subkit

 

Get a line output converter and hook it right into your rear speaker wires.The more expensive ones are worth it (better sound quality).

 

I think this is called a passive amp or something. I would never recommend it, seems too ghetto.

 

Nope.
You can get an adaptor to allow you to use your stock head unit, but you do lose sound quality.

 

Although I consider it sacreligious that anyone thinks they can draw decent sound from a stock radio through any sort of converter to an amp and then subs.

My suggestion - buy a new radio with high voltage out puts. But an amp. Buy some decent components. Buy one or two small subs. Listen to music how it was supposed to sound.

But since you don't want that... just go get a high to low converter from you rlocal stereo shop... don't got to radioshack for this one. If they charge you anymore than 20 bucks them to f*ck off. tap your connections to the speaker leads as close to the head unit as possible, make sure you get polarity right, then run the RCA out of the converter down the opposite side of the car as the power cable. It takes a little extra time but not having alternator whine is much better than having to redo it all when it turns out you do.

 

What I find interesting on Honda's is that they all use the same speakers, for example my Mom has a 98 EX and the sound on her's compared to a friends 2001 EX is so different. Seems that it's the head unit that makes all the sound difference, doesn't Honda use Pioneer Speakers and Alpine Head units?

 

Yes the head units are Apine - if you guys didn't know you can buy an Apine changer and an adapter and plug it right into your stock head unit... or if you know the pinouts you just switch pin 7 and 8 (power and ground) and modify the locking tooth on the Alpine plug and you're good to go.

Just about every head unit Honda has put into a car since the late 1980's is the same damn head unit with a different face. Every single disc CD player has the same internals and the next single disc Cd player... the same goes for tape players too. The only thing they change is the face for asthetic reasons. I can almost guarentee that every head unit (just the single DIN sized units) has the same power converter, and sound processing ciruitry as the next one. So, no, the difference in sound between vehicles has little to do with the head unit.

I would guess the major reasons behind the difference in sound from car to car has to do with the speakers. The age of the speaker, whether is a dual paper cone, or coax, or seperate mid and tweet driver. Aside form that the imaging of a speaker makes all the difference in the world. Imaging is affected by lots of differenthtings like rigidity of the speaker mount, whether or not their is a seperate tweeter, where that tweeter is mounted, the difference in distance between the driver and left and right speaker, etc.

If you ever get a chance to ride in a Del Slow listen to the stock system with the fader and balance set to middle. The rear speakers are only 18 inches away from your head where as the front speakers are way far away and at crazy different angle to the driver. Sounds like ***!!!

That my audio lesson for the day.