I seem to remember hearing or reading something to the effect that Honda radios are very much integrated into the electronics of the vehicle itself, and that this may not be as easy a swap as you are hoping... Tony just put an empeg into his new Accord... he would probably know more about this than I.

There was nothing special about the factory radio system in my Accord. Just like any other factory car stereo... unscrew the factory radio, unplug the harness. An adapter harness from Crutchfield allowed me to access the factory speaker wires without splicing directly into the car's wiring.

Note that I can't stress enough how helpful it is to have the Crutchfield "master sheets" for your make and model of car. These things are a work of art, I tell you. It showed exactly how to dismantle my dash and doors to get to the stereo and the speakers. Right down to careful instructions on how to pry out the clock assembly by using a soft cloth to wedge the screwdriver against (so you don't mar the dash bezel). Fantastic stuff.

Of course, I didn't get the "high-end" factory stereo with the car, just the single-DIN-size tape player. I don't know what the radios are like in the... what was it... the "Odyssey"? But if they're anything like the Accord, there's a pretty standard DIN mounting space available, and you'll probably have no trouble, especially if you're paying a professional to do it.

I had to drill a couple of holes in the sleeve to securely mount it to the brackets, and I had to cut a small piece of black plastic to cover a 1cm gap around the Empeg sleeve, and running the cables from the dash to the trunk (for the amps and the subwoofer) wasn't a walk in the park, but there's nothing special about any of that- it was all pretty standard aftermarket installation stuff.

In fact, I'm pretty impressed with how the Empeg looks in the car. The black of the plastic on the dash bezel perfectly matches the black of the Empeg handle. I keep thinking I'm going to take pictures and document the install here on the BBS, but I've been pretty lazy lately... would anyone really benefit from such a documentation project, or would I just be wasting time and energy to do it?

Or maybe it was difficulty with aftermarket remote-start/keyless entry/alarm systems...

Now THAT I wouldn't know about. The car comes with a keyless entry/alarm system already, and I'm not planning on replacing that.

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144