Hi guys.

How's the Civic 8th gen stock radio sound quality in comparison with aftermarket ones?

I use only AUX and do not need any other options, I have pretty good source of signal(HTC One with PowerAMP player EQ'ed), and like how stock radio looks so I don't want to change it unless it produces bad sound (?).

I ordered two pairs of Kicker 40CS654 and also considering to get Kenwood SW11 small under seat subwoofer. I do not want to buy an amp, and sub will be connected to the rear speakers if I still need it after installing Kickers.

So is it worth upgrading to aftermarket radio if I do not need any functions like Bluetooth/USB/navi/etc.? Can I get good signal through aux with this stock radio?

Also who is manufacturer of this stock radio? Does it have enough power for proper supporting 4*Kicker 40CS654?

In few words I'm not going to shake the windows of neighboring cars but looking to get good amount of bass inside my car on low to mid volume levels. In the same time I would like not to invest in external AMP and aftermarket head, if that possible in my conditions.

Thanks a lot.

 

I doubt you'll get more bass out of the Kickers without an amp. But you already bought them, so install them and see! Let us know how it sounds.

That little sub may give you enough bass if the fronts don't do it for you.

My concern - Kicker is about as far as you can be from a sound quality speaker. They are meant to get loud, and they do. So if you wanted better sound quality, that wasn't the way to go. Now, if they DO sound better than stock, and you eventually get tired of the Kickers too, know that you have a lot of other options that are aimed more at a balanced sound.

 

Well stock radio + stock speakers - sux. Stock radio + Kickers 40CS654 - even worse.
Got Pioneer AVH-X1500DVD - very big difference now but still sucks with both of these speakers. RMS of these Kickers is 100W so I think they can't be properly powered w/o an amp so returned them and ordered Pioneers TS-A1675R with half less RMS and lower bottom frequency, will see how it sounds in two days.

In my other car I have JL Audio C2-650X same 6.5 size and they sound awesome and deliver pretty deep bass with stock Audi-Blaupunkt HU.

BTW, what were your options?

 

I have to say, I had some JLs and they had a decent amount of bass for just running off the HU. Maybe some Polk or Rockford 6.5s will have more bass. Anything from infinity will have no bass. Hit up Best Buy, but make sure all the settings are at zero (bass,mid, treble, etc.) and there's a flat EQ on the HU powering them.

Honestly I don't have a great amount of experience with low end car audio haha. What you should look for in the speaker specs is a high sensitivity, ~50Hz low frequency extension. None of that will guarantee more bass, but it's a start.

Looking at those JLs you mentioned, you'll notice they have a high sensitivity and decent low end extension.
C2-650x - Car Audio - Evolution® - C2 - Coaxial Systems - JL Audio

 

The deepest string in a double base or base guitar is an E which vibrates at 41.25 Hz so the closer you can get to this frequency, the better base you will have. On eBay I've found some 4x6 speakers that will go below this but no bigger speakers. I know nothing about car steer but it seems that bigger speakers should give better low frequency tones. I've seen some speakers whose ad copywriters bragged about 100 Hz low range. That pretty well sucks. The speakers in my '91 Civic would get down to 55 Hz which places them among the best. But then I understand they were made by Alpine.
Hondas, like all cars, were designed by automotive engineers not acoustic engineers.