2016 CX-5 grand touring Bose headunit aftermarket upgrade

Thanks so much in advance for reading. I apologize if this is in another thread somewhere, I just had trouble finding it.

I have a 2016.5 cx-5 grand touring with nav and the bose system. I really am fed up with the infotainment system and want to switch out the head unit.

I researched but get a lot of conflicting info and got confusing for me.

Is it possible to swap out the headunit while keeping the Bose speakers and whatever else came with the car? Are adapters available to retain the center console controls and steering wheel controls?

If anyone can tell me what they did or what they bought (part numbers) which worked I’d really appreciate it.

Thanks and happy holidays!
 
I have a 2016.5 cx-5 grand touring with nav and the bose system. I really am fed up with the infotainment system and want to switch out the head unit.

Is it possible to swap out the headunit while keeping the Bose speakers and whatever else came with the car? Are adapters available to retain the center console controls and steering wheel controls?
Speakers are always the weakest link in a audio system. If you dislike the sound quality of your Bose system, the easiest and cheapest way to improve is to replace those cheap paper-cone Bose speakers. There’re too much involved replacing the Bose head unit and infotainment system unless you don’t care about many build-in features and steering wheel controls which will be lost with any after-market head unit.

Here are some good info for speaker upgrade:

2016 with bose front door speaker replacement

2016 CX-5 Audio upgrade thread

Installing 8" Speakers in Mazda CX-5 (early CX-5 Sport)
 
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Yes to all of the above.

What are your specific complaints?

The head unit is not bad, at all, IMO. The horrid Blose sound comes primarily from the 3 dash speakers, that have a response shelf above 3500 Hz, making them screechy. The rear door speakers and C pillar speakers are similar. The Blose amp contains electronic crossovers and the exaggerated bass boost sent to the front door woofers (since they die below 40 Hz, they're not even CLOSE to subwoofers). There is enough cut in the bass control to kill most of it. The Nav system, though still too much "Mother, may I?" is far better than the Tom-Tom system in the 2015 and earlier models. It is not a Garmin, sadly.
 
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