Hey guys, I see a lot of good advice in this forum, so figured I'd throw my question out there and see what you think. I am inheriting my wife's 2007 accord EX sedan, that currently has the stock HU, and a USA-Spec PA15HON, which.. although I don't get any display, and lose the changer features, works decently for letting me stream spotify / itunes from my iPhone in the car. The problem is I'm really lacking in sound, mostly bass.

I have an amp / sub from my last car that I can re-use. It's nothing extraordinary, but in my open-air Hyundai Santa Fe, has treated me well with the additional bass. I'm not sure how it will do sitting in the enclosed trunk of the Accord.

The amp I have is a Kicker ZX300.1 mono amp- 300w@2ohms / 150@4, with an eclipse SW4200 12" sub in a smallish enclosure. (4ohms). The amp has both high and low level inputs that can be used, although I'm not sure if I can still find the high level harness if that's the route I take.

It seems there are a lot of different routes I can take, even with a fairly limited budget to improve the sound in the car, I mostly listen to Electronic / House and Breaks, some Dubstep / HH / Classic Rock mixed in as well, so overall bass is important, but I love clarity and overall volume as well.

Currently my budget is only about 400$ for now. Any ideas?

 

N-RHL2 - BEST LOC IN THE WORLD!! - $24.95 : Zen Cart!, The Art of E-commerce

this would be a good LOC. has an auto-turn on and remote output. probably be better than the built-in high-level inputs.

placement in the rear corner would be ideal. passenger corner has the jack so the driver's corner is a good location.

 

So this would let me keep the factory HU and my current setup, and just add the amp in. Would you suggest using this, and then upgrading the factory speakers, along with an amp for those? Would something like that be doable for the 400$? Or would I be better off just replacing the HU altogether for now? I'm not against it, just trying to get the best bang for the money. I'm not sure how much gain I'd get from a new HU with the factory speakers + amp?

 

Then again, for 25$, I guess I can put this in and see how the system sounds, and go from there.

 

use the above linked product if you just want to add subs - connected to rear speaker wires.

use this if you want to upgrade speakers also:
N-RHL4 a 4 Channel, 50 Watt per channel , Line Output Converter - $39.95 : Zen Cart!, The Art of E-commerce

and connect to all four factory speaker outputs, then add new speakers powered by an external amp. easiest way to interface is to get two harnesses:
70-1721 and 71-1721
will give you full access to factory wiring behind the HU without cutting any wires.