Bought a Honda Pilot. The system sucks. I would like to beef it up, more volume. I have no problem installing an amp and swapping the factory speakers for somethings better, but I would rather not touch the head. I have heard conflicting information from the audio shops in my town. Is it possible to make significant improvements without replacing the head unit? I'm not looking for award winning sound, I would just like to crank it up and rock out once in a while without all of the Honda factory distortion. Please help and thanks.
I have an '07 Honda Pilot myself. And yes, that internal 6-Disc Changer, XM, etc. head unit is a problem and then some. ( They don't even make indash kits for it yet - prally never will ). This is what I did to mine:
1) Replaced every facotor speaker, except the factory tweeters right underneath the damn windshield.
2)Replaced the factory subwoofer with a Swallow Kicker KVR ( That new swallow sub - Had to stuff the damn wall w/ Polyfill to make it sound like something )
3) I added that U-Pac or whateva convertor to 1 of the rear cargo speakers. ( Connects to speakers and has RCA Output on the other end )
4) Added an Interfire 900.4 ( $290 ) and a Profile 3-way crossover ( $50 ) * This will help the volume out TREMENDOUSLY, and also eliminate alot of that Honda Factory Distoration. *
That's really all you need to do - Atleast that's all I did.
PS - If you ever in the future plan on puttin' some subs in the back, add a seperate convertor,
PS.2 - (Just in case) If you run the crossover, which I highly recommend, you're goin' to need to buy some Y cables: Example: [female]--> Left RCA Rear inputs in Crossover [male]<- 4rm output [female]-->
[female]--> Front inputs in Crossover [male]<- 4rm output [female]--> Right RCA
*Note - All this is doin' is givin' you BOTH rear and front frequecies. ( Front is usually the Higher frequecies, and Rear is the Lower Vocal frequencies ) This way you'll be able to equalize and fine tune your system how you want it. The crossover even comes w/ a Bass Knot and it so you turn it up on the head, and even out the Vocals and tweets ( crossover gain need to be maxed out ).
PS.3 - DO NOT ADD TWEETERS, Well, atleast on the front, side, and rear panels... Airbags will go off...