Coming from an older car (99 Si) I'd rate the stock system a 7. The sound is clear with no distortion at loud volume. The stock "sub" leaves quite a bit to be desired but is decent for those who have never dealt with an aftermarket sub. I recently added my 12" JVC sub with a Kenwood 900 watt amp and would give it a solid 8 now. The 12" is overkill for what I wanted to add bass wise but it's all I had to put in there. I would upgrade the midrange speakers if that's what I thought was important nowadays but I'd rather save and spend money on performance parts.

 

I'll let you know in a few day's, getting my SI coupe today or tomorrow, I will try to be somewhat objective as I have run several variations from 800 to 2200ish watts with anything from a 10 to an 18 for the sub in my RSX for roughly 10 years in a competition class setup.

 

The 13' SI sound system was miserable; immediately upgraded everything. Not sure why they dropped the ball so much but there is no power and no bass. Hopefully for some of you the 14 sounds better stock.

 

It's a matter of personal taste/experience ..:: but it's far from being miserable in a car of this price range.... What are you expecting? a 3000$ system in a car of this price?

Considering the price of the car id
Give a 7. Pretty decent.


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I feel like everyone that says the stock Si system is garbage has come from a car that had a custom system it or something. For a stock econo box I would say the sound system is a solid 7. I'm also sure its better than the competition for cars in same class or how ever you want to word it. I agree the stock sub does seem a little weak but I also don't need it to rattle the mirrors off the car like some stupid high school kid's car. Coming from a CTS-V with the Bose system, I feel my Si is better than the Bose that was in the V.

 

The Bose is very dynamic and clear but not loud at all.it was tuned for low listening levels as the class that car is aimed for.
But your right.for stock it out does most it's competition.

You will never ever see a car with a system that everyone can be happy with.

A lot of times the people complaining dont actually know what a good system is or what it entails.especially when people call the rear mid woofer a subwoofer.you'd think people would know by now it's not a subwoofer.



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I will say, it's one of the better stock systems I've heard. If you like bass, I'd definitely add a sub. The mid and higher range is handled quite well. The aluminum dome tweeters provide excellent clarity, but they can be harsh at higher volumes.

 

When it's advertised as the 320 watt sound system with a subwoofer you kind of expect it to perform (320 watt max and a midwoofer wasn't what they made it seem like so from that perspective it is miserable).....It certainly may be good for the average listener; but my 03 civic with a 100 dollar head unit sounded better imo. So when I went from that to my new SI i expected some decent sound. It was very underwhelming and alot of the competition actual sounds much better in this class. It's not a crap system for a cheap car but the SI is supposed to be in a different class then the regular civic/corolla class. The problem is it's not super cheap to make a big change; I'd say about $1000 would make your system sound pretty darn solid. But that's alot of money and gotta be big into louder music to want to make a change that big. For a stock amped system with a "sub" i'd rate it a 6. It was my only personal disappointment with the car thus far.

 

It's a point of view.. It performs the way I expected. And it's impressive for a civic. It's a civic for god sake!

If you listen good quality mp3's plugged with your cable. It can be really good. Not that impressive for the radio tho. And the XM is decent.

Oh and btw... Don't base your opinion on "watt" #'s... It's way overrated.... 60watts from good brand like onkio, harman kardan, Mitsubishi, etc is powerful compared to a whooping 350watts from Sony.. All marketing.



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Every aftermarket deck is advertised with a heavy overrated sticker.
Just because a deck says 45x4 doesn't mean it does that.
So it's typical overrated labeling.however the stock premium is 320 ,max.
Not rms.

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Oh and btw us & can version of the si doesn't have the same head units and speakers... Never seen a comparison



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Oh and btw us & can version of the si doesn't have the same heat units and speakers... Never seen a comparison



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Now that I didn't know and that also seems rather stupid. Wouldn't it be more cost effective to keep the same setup no matter where the vehicle is being sold? Yes I know different area means different demands and blah blah blah.

 

So on my brief experience after taking delivery tonight and only using radio and classic rock I'll give it a 6.5 out of 10, This is coming from a person that has been installing custom setups since 1985. Bass needs an upgrade for sure, really a nice solid sound quality oriented 8 or 10 with 250-300ish would make a huge difference here, overall bass output is about what I got out of my Sea's 7 inch Midbass's in my 3 way active setup in the RSX but little to no actual sub-bass. Mids and tweets are about what I expected, tweets are a little better but I am not a fan of metal domes that high up, although with them being more on axis I didn't note the same type of harshness you get when hard domes bounce off the glass. Mids were pretty clear but really lacked in the midbass dept. overall highs were pretty clear but did't get that loud to me, but keep in mind I could hit the low to mid 140's db wise in my RSX.

HU is another story, with the IMID integration and the lane change and rear camera I would strongly suggest integration over replacement if you want system as it is a pretty good touch screen unit. I am going to use a RF 3sixty.3 but PPI's DEQ-8, Soundstreams Synthesis, or the Audio control deq-61 would work well, I would not use a JBL MS-8 as even though it would do a good job, you need a center channel in order to reach its full potential and there is no easy way to add that on. The lack of center channel (well and no HID's) is the one bitch I have as cheaper Kia's and Hyundai's can do one but Honda can't and with video and hdmi you would think they might think about dolby 5.1

 

And try to hook it up with a cable and high quality mp3's and let's see if your rating increase.



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The new civic si stereo is terrible for being classified as a premium system. It sounds only slightly better than the one that came from the factory in my 2003 Civic LX coupe. My fathers Chrysler Sebring, with 6 speaker, puts the civic's one to shame. It has no sub but pumps heavier bass. Before my Si, I had a scion tc, 2011, and that thing came with a really good factory setup. 8 speakers, 2 of which were amplified. Honda build awesome cars mechanically, but still lags in the stereo system part. Just a heads up, when modding your civic's stereo, disconnect the battery. I didn't and I fried my factory amp.

 

When I was looking at the specs of the new Si's and saw the 320 watt system with a subwoofer, I was expecting the sound of the stock system to be the best Ive heard (stock wise), but ended up being disappointed when I first sat in it at the dealership and turned the volume up. I will say since I have had this for almost a week now, for some reason it seems to sound alot better, or Ive just gotten use to it. I would have to rate it around a 7 like others in this thread, not bad at all, but could be a little better bass-wise.

 

bass*