Stock Stereo - Sat Radio, Tape Decks, iPod?

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Kaian

Member
:
2006 Mazda5 Phantom Blue Touring
From the information on mazdausa.com web site, the stereo on the Mazda5 is a "AM/FM/CD audio system" and there is the option to make this an in-dash 6-disc CD changer.

I've now seen models with both the 1 CD and 6 CD versions, and on both of them there are the following buttons along the top: FM/AM - SAT - CD - MEDIA

The first and third buttons are obvious, but there is no function associated with the SAT or MEDIA buttons that I can tell. In the Mazda5s I have seen, there is a "Quick User Guide" that is a series of flip cards going over various features of the Mazda5. I photocopied one of those and looking through it, there are references to SAT being "Satellite ready capability" and MEDIA is "Press to play MD or tape", with an asterix stating that this "denotes optional equipment".

Futhermore, there is a picture of the whole stereo setup, with "Cassette tape slot" and "MD slot" shown as options in the centre of the console, between the volume knob and the and the tuning knob. As far as I can tell, neither satellite radio nor cassette or MD deck is available in America or in Canada, although I'm fairly certain these are options in other locales. I imagine the Quick User Guide is used in many different areas and that's why those are still listed in there.

What I want to know is -- Does anyone have information on what can be done aftermarket to "put in" one or more of these options while keeping the stock deck? Is it possible to install a satellite radio system seamlessly into the system connecting to the SAT button?

My personal desire is to know if an iPod be hooked up in such a way to be usable by either the SAT or MEDIA buttons, but I'm sure others are interested in Sirius/XM radio, tape decks, or just a convienent Aux input. Given the integration of the stock stereo into the car, it would be best to try to take advantage of whatever features it can support rather than buying an aftermarket deck. And I can tell those two buttons want to be used. :)

Anyone have a clue on this?
 
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The Mazda5 headunit is the same as all other new-gen Mazdas (e.g. Mazda3, 6, RX-8). The headunit design is modular in that various pieces can be removed and/or added to it as accessories (e.g. replace single CD with single CD that can also read MP3, add cassette player, add MD player). However, there are some rules, as in you can only choose cassette or MD but not both, and you can't have both the MP3 CD and the in-dash 6CD.

The satellite radio works the same way, with Sirius offered as an accessory (all Ford family is with Sirius).

Regarding the buttons, SAT is only activated if you have the satellite radio accessory and the MEDIA is only activated if you have the tape or MD accessory.

What I've described is the stock setup. Go on the other new-gen Mazda sections on this board to see how people have retrofitted various aftermarket solutions (e.g. iPod).
 
Thanks wongpres. I suspected there were at least similarities between the stereos of the 5, 3 and 6 but I appreciate the confirmation.

I figured out the "cassette or MD but not both" from the context of the Quick Start Guide. On the Mazda5 vehicles I've seen, there is just a sort of placeholder in that area, that says "Multi Function Audio System". Am I right in assuming this is something that could be removed making an opening in that area?

I'll try to check out the other areas in more depth. I went looking awhile ago in that area and it was hard for me to find threads that I thought would be relevant -- the signal to noise ratio seemed off for me. If anyone knows of a specific thread to read a link would be appreciated.

And if I find anything I think is useful I'll link it here myself for others who are interested in this topic.
 
Kaian said:
I figured out the "cassette or MD but not both" from the context of the Quick Start Guide. On the Mazda5 vehicles I've seen, there is just a sort of placeholder in that area, that says "Multi Function Audio System". Am I right in assuming this is something that could be removed making an opening in that area?
Click to expand...

Yes, the tape or MD goes here.

Kaian said:
I'll try to check out the other areas in more depth. I went looking awhile ago in that area and it was hard for me to find threads that I thought would be relevant -- the signal to noise ratio seemed off for me. If anyone knows of a specific thread to read a link would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

As I'm also a Mazda3 moderator, I'm more familiar with the audio threads that have gone on there (as I'm not particularly interested or knowledgeable about aftermarket audio solutions). So here's a couple I found:

http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=104156
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=91184
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=65443
 
perfecto said:
Cassette is an available option in Canada.
Click to expand...

Must be alot of old people there (joking) :-) Unless its winter, then they are in florida.
 
Ok, here's my first iPod update.

To get iPod sounds into the stereo, there are roughly three ways to go about it: FM transmitter, cassette tape adapter, or find a way to get an auxiliary input, which may be just a line-in or a dedicated iPod dock connector.

In this post I'm going to write about the easiest method for most people, the FM transmitter. This takes the iPod sound and transmits it on an FM frequency, and you then tune the car stereo to the right station to listen. There are a number of them out there, and they have the advantage that you can take them with you and use them in any other car, which is great if you're traveling and have a rental car.

The disadvantage is that sound quality can vary wildly. Some transmitters are better than others, but the main issue is finding a clear frequency to use. In my case, it's particularly difficult as the SF Bay Area is fairly crowded, and there are multiple broadcast areas: some stations broadcast from SF, some from the San Jose area I live closer to, and it's easy to take a short drive to the Santa Cruz area or the Easy Bay where there are yet more stations. One can get an acceptable frequency in one region, and then have it go out on you when you travel to another area.

Anyway, I'm using the Monster iCarPlay (I've had this for awhile because my wife was using it on business trips) and it works fairly well for the moment. It goes into the accessory plug and I was able to hide the cable very well underneath the console then the cable comes up from the passengers side and I drop the cable into the console well when not in use. When I get into the car, I open the console, take the cable out, drop half the console to get the upper part which is a perfect size to hold the iPod, connect to the dock connector, and I can close the console at this point if I wish.

If the iPod is playing when the car is turned off, then the iPod goes into pause mode. Unfortunately, starting the car does not put the iPod into play, but it does 'activate it' if it had been in the off/sleep mode. It's not a bad system. I get in the car, hook it up, start the car, select a playlist, start playing, close the console, then do my release hand brake/shift/drive and leave things alone until I stop the car which pauses the iPod.

The disadvantage is that if I want to skip a track or do anything with the iPod I can't do it easily, as it's not mounted in any real visible spot and steering wheel/stereo controls of course can't do anything than adjust volume. If I'm at a stop light with a minute to spare I can grab the iPod and mess with it a moment before putting it down, but obviously you need to concentrate on driving, not messing with tunes. If you have a passenger in the front seat then that person can play DJ for you. :)

Overall I give this system 8 out of 10 for style -- you can't really tell there is a cable to connect as it's black, but sometimes the middle area that switches stations falls into the cup area, a 6 out of 10 for sound, which is great at times but gets some noise on occasion, and a 6 out of ten for usability as it works, but it's much easier to change stations or CD tracks than it is to switch things on the iPod.

Other FM transmitters people may want to consider include:

Kensington Digital FM Transmitter/Auto Charger -- similar to the Monster iCarPlay, some say it works a little better, some don't. It's white though so it won't blend in like the black Monster cable will.

AirPlay -- a small device that hooks to the top of the iPod, doesn't charge it but also doesn't have a cable to hide either, and could be used to transmit to other stereos instead of 'just' a car -- although there are wall-socket to car plug adaptors out there if anyone wanted to use one of the previous transmitters elsewhere too.

There are reviews for all of these, and more, at "iLounge" a web site devoted to iPod issues and reviews and such.

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/reviews/
 
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Second iPod update:

Let's talk about cassette adapters. As noted earlier in this thread, one can get a cassette deck for the Mazda5 in Canada, and I imagine there's a way to get this in the States as well, although I haven't looked into it yet. While playing cassettes may not be something many people want to do anymore, it provides another way to get iPod sounds into the stereo.

This XtremeMac adapter is typical of what one can get. Advantages are they tend to be a bit cheaper than a FM transmitter, but if you have to buy the Mazda cassette deck I imagine that will offset any savings, and you don't have to worry about finding a frequency. Sound quality is supposedly a little better but I haven't done comparisons in any car to hear that for myself.

Disadvantages include the lack of portability to other cars, unless they too have cassette decks, and it's still not the best sound you can get. Also you have a cable coming right out of your stereo when it's hooked up. Finally, you're not going to charge the iPod with this like you can with some other systems, but nothing is stopping you from using both a cassette adapter and a separate charger device.


One interesting upcoming device in this area is something called the SmartDeck, which goes beyond the typical adapter by allowing some steering wheel controls to work: To quote -- "it achieves truly seamless integration between iPod and cassette deck. Use the cassette deck's forward and rewind buttons to advance to the next or prior songs in the iPod playlist. Pause and stop buttons do what pause and stop buttons are expected to do." Of course, the SmartDeck is not out yet. When it comes out, i may get it and try it in my wife's Toyota Sienna which has a cassette deck, just to see how it works and to give her a solution since I stole her FM transmitter. :)

Another thing I like about these kind of solutions is it makes use of the otherwise ignored "Media" button, whereas other solutions piggyback over FM or do things to the CD player (which I'll get into in a future update). I might be a little weird, but I don't like having buttons that do nothing. :)
 
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Kaian....
I'm in the same boat. I had my Mazda 5 for 2 days now and I miss my MP3 player.
My car comes with the popular pack so I have the 6 CD....but still want to connect my MP3 player. I use aux adaptor in my previous car. The adaptor uses the CD changer input...telling the head unit that there is a cd changer connected but actually it is the mp3 player. Try Blitzsafe website. I will try to contact the place that I bought my adaptor and see if they have something for mazda 5
 
Ok, now it's time to get into the auxiliary inputs. The idea here is that we're going into the car to create the input we need. A direct input will have the best sound quality, but is the most complication option, as it requires disconnection and reconnecting things to the head unit.

Most inputs of this nature work with the CD player. You have a device that connects to the CD changer input and this devices fools the stereo into thinking you have a CD changer when in fact you're connected to the iPod. You usually activate this interface by pressing the CD button twice.

I've only looked briefly at the options in this area at the moment. Eventually I'll try to write a summary of the different connectors and costs for doing this, unless someone else wants to volunteer to write a summary for me. :) In this post I want to focus on another solution that has similarities and differences from using the CD changer.

AuxMod is a project that aims to give auxiliary inputs using the cassette input rather than the CD changer. Unlike the cassette adapters mentioned in a previous post, AuxMod does not require you to already have a cassette deck. In fact, since this solution takes over that input, you cannot have both AuxMod and a cassette deck in the same car.

At the Syflex site you'll see references to the "Tape/MD" button -- this is the Media button on the Mazda5. As the site indicates, there are actually two versions of the AuxMod. The Basic will give just an input, while the Advanced aims to give better features.

From what I've read, this is a independent home project, which seems to work fine, but requires people to be on a waiting list while they make these units. Additionally, one needs to figure out the installation themselves -- Syflex just sends you the device.

I'm personally leaning towards this solution, but I don't want to rush into things. I'll wait a bit to see how the Advanced units work, and I'd like to get some clear instructions on how to get into the stereo on the Mazda5 rather than be the first to do it. :)

If you want to read more about this from these forums, check out Aux Input, On It's Way!, which is an insanely long thread where I first found mention of this. Note there's a lot more in that thread than just AuxMod, including some options from awhile ago that didn't pan out, some talk of CD changer solutions, etc. I include the link for completeness, but the signal-to-noise ratio in there is not ideal from my point of view. :)

OverLORD, the person behind Syflex, seems to be giving updates at this Custom Aux-In Module thread on the RX8Club Forum. The last comment from him on this on 6 July 2005:

We want to make the iPOD interface work seamlessly. It's going to take some doing, and may delay our launch of Advanced a bit, but we're pretty sure that we can create some hooks to allow the PC app to pull/push data from Winamp or another app to the HU, as well as the same from the iPOD. It's just a matter of time to get the user interface and the nitty gritty ironed out.

Still, please don't hold me to it until it's done

Regards,

OverLOAD
Click to expand...

As I mentioned earlier, from an aesthetic view I like the idea of using the Media button rather than messing with the CD changer stuff (I believe sound-wise both options would be fairly equal), which is why this option appeals to me.

However, the CD changer options are more established (because they can be used with pretty much any stereo with CD changer connectors) and there's a few options there still to go over that may be more viable now for those not willing to wait. And if you don't want to go to the trouble of having to do an install the FM modulator option is much less hassle to setup.
 
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Kaian - thanks for all the info! I've been reading all the posts by overLORD et., al - pretty interesting stuff - I wonder how long it'll take for stock HU's to have a aux jack pre-installed. I don't have an ipod - the hubby does - but I'm thinking that since the CD changer is mp3 compatible - I'll just burn some of his favs onto CD and keep them in the car - he doesn't drive it that often (his loss!)

Anyhow, keep us posted!

- Ceril
 
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Opening the Head Unit

I lurk around at a few other forums, and on the Mazda5 forum at MPVClub.com, there's a thread about stereos and "papabear" posted some illustrations on how to get to the head unit.

Note there are two relevant posts. The first post has four illustrations, but a little later in the thread someone asks about finding screws, which brings another post stating that you have to do some extra steps involving messing with the shifter area. This second post includes three additional illustrations.

I've copied the information to a local file in case I ever want to be brave and try to do a modification myself, but I felt is was better to post the original source of the information rather than reproduce the info directly here. Credit where credit is due and all that.

I don't have any plans at the moment to try a mod as we're exactly three weeks from my wife's due date (we're about to have our third child, a girl to join our two boys) and I don't want to attempt a project when there's a chance she could go into labour at any moment. :)
 
Thanks, again for pointing me in the right direction. I don't know if I'm brave enough to make a try while the car is this new - that's a good idea to save the info to a file somewhere so that I don't have to do the search from scratch when I'm ready.

Congrats on kid #3 - big step! Get your sleep, if you can, NOW! LOL.

Kaian said:
I don't want to attempt a project when there's a chance she could go into labour at any moment. :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can see that - rushing to the hospital with the dash ripped apart!! On my old miata - to get to the HU you had to disconnect the button to the emergency flashers and to the flip up headlights - I think that more than once I forgot to reconnect them.
 
miatafied said:
Yeah, I can see that - rushing to the hospital with the dash ripped apart!!
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I want to avoid. Plus, I still don't have anything to put in right now. I'm leaning towards doing the AuxMod eventually, but I want to see how the Advanced version works out, and then apparently there's a big waiting list. At least now I have some idea of how I'd get that in there once I got it.

If I ever do tackle such a project, I'd take a lot of pictures of the process and make a thread for it. Part of me hopes someone else gets inspired by this thread and tackles it first though so I'm not the guinea pig. (eek2)
 
iPod solutions from Mazda in Japan

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/aug/04cars.html

Apple & Leading Car Companies Team Up to Deliver Seamless iPod Experience in Japan

TOKYOAugust 4, 2005Apple today announced that Nissan, Mazda and Daihatsu in Japan have joined BMW, MINI, smart and Alfa Romeo in Japan to deliver iPod integration with their car stereos for 2006 model lines. Seamless integration of iPods in cars allows music lovers to enjoy high-quality sound through their cars stereo system, easily access their entire music library and take their music with them everywhere they go.
 
wongpres said:
The Mazda5 headunit is the same as all other new-gen Mazdas (e.g. Mazda3, 6, RX-8). The headunit design is modular in that various pieces can be removed and/or added to it as accessories (e.g. replace single CD with single CD that can also read MP3, add cassette player, add MD player). However, there are some rules, as in you can only choose cassette or MD but not both, and you can't have both the MP3 CD and the in-dash 6CD.

The satellite radio works the same way, with Sirius offered as an accessory (all Ford family is with Sirius).

Regarding the buttons, SAT is only activated if you have the satellite radio accessory and the MEDIA is only activated if you have the tape or MD accessory.

What I've described is the stock setup. Go on the other new-gen Mazda sections on this board to see how people have retrofitted various aftermarket solutions (e.g. iPod).
Click to expand...


how do i get the esn number from my mazda 3 radio????????????????
 
I'm on the waiting list for the AuxMod advanced and currently use the Monster iCar thing. It worked fine with my Jetta, but with the 5, I get some much static and when it comes thru, I can barely make it out. Why can't I get it going like some of you? I lay my iPod down by the cup holder.

Someone needs to make an iPod cradle/dock that has the dock connector in it along with the 3.5 plug that connects to a cirgarette lighter. THere are so many separate solutions but not one in a 'dock' type package with the dock conector. So, no cables to connect with the iPod, just dock it and go. I may try and jimmy rig something together with a cradle and my spare dock. But I still can't figure out why I can't get the Monster FM thing work right with my 5.
 
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