I am looking to do the door speaker install and tweeter install myself based on Element J's site which most people are familiar with. He put Infinity 652i's into the door speakers and Infinity 1001t tweeters. Sounds like a sweet setup but take into consideration that i don't know JACK about car audio.

Are these infinity speakers low/mid/or high quality speakers/tweeters? Is there anything i can get for a little higher or lower price that would be better sound quality than these that will still fit where the factory speakers go?

what does it mean when he says you can go w/ "component" speakers?? are these more expensive? better quality?

Should i go to circuit city for these Infinity speakers or go to someplace like Crutchfield? I know crutchfield has the Honda speaker connected needed for the install.

please either post a response or email me at
mooremr6779@yahoo.com

- Mike

I am looking to do the door speaker install and tweeter install myself based on Element J's site which most people are familiar with. He put Infinity 652i's into the door speakers and Infinity 1001t tweeters. Sounds like a sweet setup but take into consideration that i don't know JACK about car audio.

Are these infinity speakers low/mid/or high quality speakers/tweeters? Is there anything i can get for a little higher or lower price that would be better sound quality than these that will still fit where the factory speakers go?

what does it mean when he says you can go w/ "component" speakers?? are these more expensive? better quality?

Should i go to circuit city for these Infinity speakers or go to someplace like Crutchfield? I know crutchfield has the Honda speaker connected needed for the install.

I'll give shopping advice, but not equipment choosing advice, since I just decided to blindly trust the people who had picked Infinity speakers. We'll see how it works out.

Crutchfield is great for figuring out what works in your vehicle and making sure that you end up with all the parts you need. It's also great if you need handholding and/or install support.

But at the rates Crutchfield charges for equipment, you might as well just go to best buy and get things installed there!

Also, since the Element is rather new, the options are still very limited. So, using crutchfield, this site, and past experience, I made my shopping list. Then went shopping...

I used http://froogle.google.com/ , plus some additional searches on http://www.google.com/ to locate a place that I could get my six speakers and the headunit I was interested in. The prices were insanely low. I found out the reason at checkout, shipping was flat rate at $50. However, even with that "trick" the deal was still better than getting them at retail or crutchfield or any other online mail order house. Anyway, that was http://www.ikesound.com/

[I usually shop by carting the same stuff at multiple mailorder houses all the way past the point where shipping charges are "exposed", as to get the best deal.]

Since I'm not using Crutchfield, I still needed to get the wiring harnesses, including the speaker connectors. I found the speaker connectors (only needed if you want to avoid butchering the oem aka honda wiring) as well as various other connectors I needed (for interfacing a headunit and my bluetooth speakerphone) at http://www.partsexpress.com/ for super cheap. They also had the lowest price I've ever seen for a "speaker-level to line-level" converter that works up to 50W, which I need for technical reasons involving the speakerphone unit, though I fear I'll run out of room behind the dash before I'm halfway through my install...grr...

Their search engine is rudimentary, but searching for "honda" should show all the harnesses. It seems their shipping is pretty much cheap flat rate, so I took a shopping expedition to get cords, wierd adapters, etc. that I'd normally grudgingly go to radio shack to get, but paid 1/3 the price for them there. Shipping for it all was < $7. Course, I spent $140, but that involved my home studio recording hobby as well. :)

That was friday (instead of working). :) Still waiting for the stuff to be shipped...

-brendan

thanks so much for the info. Since you did jump into the infinity set could you send me the exact links for the 4 door speakers and the link for the tweeters you purchased? Also, what exactly am i looking for w/ the Honda connector on the other site? The headunit i am looking at is the Eclipse 3403 CD/Mp3 player. Any word on this one?

- Mike

thanks so much for the info. Since you did jump into the infinity set could you send me the exact links for the 4 door speakers and the link for the tweeters you purchased? Also, what exactly am i looking for w/ the Honda connector on the other site? The headunit i am looking at is the Eclipse 3403 CD/Mp3 player. Any word on this one?

The ikesound.com people required that I send them a fax or image of my credit card and drivers license (with most #s removed at my option, and I emailed them a jpg of both) before they'd ship. However, now I have a tracking #. Apparently, they're a smallish shop and are worried about fraud. Anyway, here's the pages I ordered from:

Pair of 1001ts:
http://www.ikesound.com/product-product_id/1352

2xPair of 62.5is:
http://www.ikesound.com/product-product_id/597

I also ordered this pioneer "premier" DEH-750MP headunit:
http://www.ikesound.com/product-product_id/1496

Regarding connectors: I can't say much about your headunit. Hopefully it comes with it's own wiring harness (that's pretty typical), regardless of whether it uses the ISO connectors or not.

Either way, using butt connectors, etc., you'd wire the included harness into a METRA 70-1721 (part #265-624 at partsexpress), the other side of which emulates the back end of a honda headunit, and plug that directly to the OEM wiring behind the dash.

For the four in-door speakers, you'd want METRA 72-7800 (part #265-775). For the tweeters, I don't know, you're probably going to have to cut wires, I think. On top of that, there are mounting issues that make returning to stock less likely. If you get rid of the Element, the new tweeters'll have to go with it.

See Element-J's site for info on tweeter install, etc.:

http://www.govst.edu/users/gallery/element-j/

Other people have posted here that they've used the cutouts from the back of PC PCI-slots as a brace instead of the rolled metal.

Again, take all the above with a grain of salt, I haven't even started yet, still waiting for the equipment to trickle in.


Good luck,
-brendan

looks great, especially the prices :lol:

How did you decide to go w/ that headunit? I have been looking around and someone said that an Eclipse 3403 would be a great deal at $240 for having cd-r and mp3 playback capability. But it seems like you are getting that price for a nice headunit w/ XM ready and some other xtras. I just want a headunit that has mp3 cd-r playback ability and a nice interface and a reliable name and sound quality. any suggestions?

i am also looking to purchase a 10" sub and box to put in the back and power it and the speakers w/ an amp. Any suggestions that would go along nicely w/ the infinity speakers? i want good solid punch bass for bass-heavy electronic music.

Also, are the guys at crutchfield going to give me a hard time or jacked up price for install if i buy all of this audio and install the door speakers and tweeters myself and then have them install headunit and sub and never buy any equipment from them?

- Mike

sorry for all the amateur ??s, this is my first adventure into car audio. I hope to learn a lot from it.

Re: prices

Just remember the $50 shipping and the extra hassle of faxing/emailing identification. Combining the entire order together with them made it a good deal, even with the high shipping (aka "shipping and HANDLING aka PROFIT") surcharge. Ah, perhaps combining the order was what they want people to do?

Re: headunit

I chose the pioneer since I'd had one in the past and had been very happy with the operation and sound/power output. Didn't really look around too much, other than to verify that Pioneer was still considered at least "good". The "75x" level seems to be at the right spot on the prices/features curve. Liked the mp3/cd-r playback, etc. Heck, I could do without the stupid animations as well, but wanted a very bright display and the lower versions ("trim lines"?) didn't seem to offer that.

Still have the old (ancient) CD unit in a box (as the taurus was totalled by a pothole in febrary), though all the markings have rubbed off the buttons and the buttons are a bit persnikity. Got five or so years out of it, though. :)

I also still have the IP-Bus-to-RCA connector which works with the new unit, so I won't have to dish out the extra $30 or so for the part needed to wire the element's aux jack and/or my empeg unit. The single thing I don't like about the pioneer is that the face covers up the slot when the unit is in operation. Oh well, can't have it all.

I chose the DEH-750MP "Premier" vs. the DEH-7500 (regular "Pioneer") simply because for a few $ more, the line-outs are a bit higher voltage (6V vs. 4V), which might matter if and when I go for a non-OEM amp: other than the labelling, every other feature is identical. Not important for now, as I'll be using the speaker-outs, attenuated via an adapter available at partsexpress.com, so that I can interface my speakerphone.

Re: sub

No idea. To me, putting an external sub-box anywhere in the Element goes against one of the big features: space and adaptability. What if you need to move people/stuff around? What if you need to throw wet stuff in the car? Maybe if you could roof mount it internally in the deadspace over the head of the passenger, then I might be OK with it... :) I'll stick with the OEM amp and dash-sub for now (well, we'll see how everything sounds first, I guess...). Never really been a fan of the enhanced low-low frequencies, anyway, I think they're highly abused on the road.

Maybe someone else can chime in here with non-slanted advice?

Re: installers

Huh, I didn't know Crutchfield does installs...did you mean Best Buy/Circuit City type places? I doubt they'd get too upset, they charge the same whether you buy the equipment there or not (unless they are having an install special). Now, in terms of warranting (warrantying?) the work, there might be differences in what is covered if you obtain the equipment elsewhere. But since they make (read: charge) good money for the installs, I'm sure they won't turn you down.

They may charge some additional part charges for harnesses, connectors, etc. that you don't have. Not sure how willing they'd be to accept those parts from you, nor whether the part charges are reasonable or not.

I'd ask them for estimates on the headunit and speaker installs (all six, and each of the 3 pairs). If they bundle things and give a discount, heck, it might be better to have them do it all. If not, you should do the easy stuff. My assumption is that the installs are easiest in this order: rear speakers, front speakers, headunit, front tweeters, separate amp w/ subbox.

The front tweeters seem to require creativity and good hand skills. Everything easier than that just requires having the right equipment and patience. A separate amp requires all sorts of evil wiring, since no amp currently available out there will fit in the space that the honda amp sits in (assuming you have an EX, not a DX), and therefore your amp location will have to be under a front seat or in the cargo area.

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Re: amateur questions

Not at all. I'm only one step away from being where you are. My old pioneer was installed by best buy. I reinstalled it to add the RCA adapter once, then moved it from my old Colt to my old Taurus when the Colt was dying. It always worked, but the disorganized nest of wiring behind it after I'd done my job was rather alarming.

One last thing:

Best buy used a wire-nut looking thing (not screw-on like the ones for A/C, but crimped on). I think I'm going to go with butt connectors, since those seem like they'll be easier to wrangle the wires in wire-ties/zip-ties with.

-brendan