[CU2] Accord Euro - Focal speaker upgrade

[JustRight]

Hi All,

I thought you might be interested in a project I have recently completed on my CU2 Luxury 6MT.

After taking delivery of the car back at the end of May I was very impressed by the car in general, but I thought that the sound system seemed to be a bit of a let down.

Now, to be fair, it's not actually that bad as far as stock systems go, but the shallow all plastic door and parcel shelf speakers leave a LOT to be desired. The factory head unit is pretty good and is supported by a small Panasonic amplifier mounted in the boot. This makes access to the unit really easy as you do not have to get into the dash. Also, the Panasonic system does not output in 4 channels from the head unit. Instead you get a simple L & R preamp out plus a pair of data lines that Panasonic call their ELS system?? Basically this instructs the amplifier how much Bass, Treble, Subwoofer, Center, Fade and Balance you have selected on the head unit. So its a case of leave the head unit alone and take the high level outputs from the amp in order to keep the full functionality of the head unit.

My upgrade consists of:

2 pairs of Focal 165VR component splits
1 pair of Focal 165CVX coaxials
1 Focal Solid-4 Amplifier
1 PAC SOEM-4 premium LOC

I chose to leave the Front Centre and Subwoofer speakers being powered by the factory Panasonic amp whilst replacing all the other speakers.

I run the front splits from two channels of the Solid-4 whilst running the rear splits and the parcel shelf coaxials in parallel from the other two channels. This works really well. The Solid-4 is built to handle 2 ohm loads and can also handle differential loads.

Needless to say that this has transformed the quality of sound from this system. It's very impressive now! Great tonal quality, adequate bass, without buzzes and rattles. All in all, very much better than standard. Although, I have to say that the system still sounds very 'bright' and rather harsh. Perhaps the Focal's will settle down over time?

Anyway, here are a few pics for you if you are interested.

First, mounting the Focal 165VR Crossover in the rear door trim:


Mounting the Focal 165VR Crossover in the front door trim:


The 165VR woofer in the front door. 1x16mm + 1x12mm MDF spacers.


The 165VR woofer in the rear door. 1x16mm MDF spacer.


Splicing into the speaker output loom from the Panasonic amp. Speaker level inputs to the PAC SOEM-4 transformer based, DC coupled LOC and RCA outputs to the Focal amplifier.


Finally the Focal Solid-4 Amplifier. I made a cradle which I mounted to the rear parcel shelf. The Amplifier is then mounted in the cradle which can be swung down for access to the controls and wiring. I've shown the amp in it's lowered position here.


Cheers

PS: The Focal Polyglass range of speakers provide an oustanding value for money basis for the upgrade of our Honda based systems. I can't speak highly enough of their quality and performance, or of the standard of support provided by the people at Focal Australia!

After much listening and research I added a Digital Signal Processor to enable me to fix the dreadful factory EQ of the standard Head Unit/Amplifier. Check out the details on this thread: http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/showthr...cessor-upgrade


A new update

I finally gave up on the factory sub-woofer in the parcel shelf. I have now installed a Focal Polyglass BombA 27V1 11" powered subwoofer. I have been able to take the RCA sub output from the Rockford Fosgate 360.2 as the input for the amplifier on the BombA 27V1. Apart from running some additional power and earth cabling and tying down the sub box, the installation was relatively straightforward, and the sub fits very nicely behind the rear seats leaving a good amount of boot space. I use special anderson plugs on the power and earth so the whole thing can be easily removed.

Also, on the strong advice of the guys at Focal Australia, I went to the trouble of removing the factory sub-woofer, leaving the resulting hole in the parcel shelf empty. This was not a simple job as it means removing the rear plastic parcel shelf completely, but the result has been well worth the effort.

I was also able to make use of the remote volume control provided with the RF 360.2 to control the output to the new Focal subwoofer, giving me effective volume control over the sub.

This additional installation has really rounded out the system and given me an enormous amount of bottom end that the component splits are just not designed to produce. By driving the sub from the 360.2 signal processor I have also been able to tune the sub along with the rest of the system, fantastic!


A new update

After some questions on other aspects of the install I have added some additional photos of the door trims etc:

Extra trimming required for clearance of the Focal speaker at maximum extension.

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Location of Crossover in front door trim.

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Location of Crossover in rear door trim.

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Assembled front door.

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Assembled rear door.

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