(2017 CX5) Does changing only speakers improve sound quality much?

[NealfromNZ]

Does anyone know the specs on the 2018 CX5 Sport head unit? Or where to find them? Watts per channel? The 400pg mazda manual I have is no help at all, and neither were the dealership guys. As nice as they are when I bought my vehicle, they didn't know such info. The quality of the music from my Android Auto is fine, as is the FM radio. The JBL 628s I installed sound great, after a few weeks, they still sound really good. I have the bass turned up and the treble up +1 more than the bass. I still have to buy new spks for the rear. Hertz 6.5 maybe, or other JBL. Any suggestions? I'm looking for more boom. I'm also thinking of putting a JBL sparetire Sub in the trunk, costs a lot, but I do love my bass. Has anyone swapped out their headunit with something else and not lost any feature? That's all I have for now. Cheers!

Run the same brand in rear. You’ll get a better tonal match . Sub is only way to go rather than turning up bass on a pair of 6.5 inch woofers. Typically 6.5s don’t go that low. Needs a sub to fill in the 20-45hz region.

I doubt the factory amp non Bose would be doing much more that about 20-30 watts per channel.

 

[Robbo]

I pulled the speakers out of my NZ new 2018 GSX and they were absolute crap. Diabolical. The speakers in my base model Outlander were vastly superior. (This is non Bose obviously.) So I think yes even a cheap set of Pioneers or whatever from Supercheap will be an improvement with the stock head unit.
BUT I really struggled to get a nice sound out of the factory head unit - I ended up installing a sound processor to fix it - initially I just ran an amp directly off the OEM unit, which was better but still not great. It’s got to be one of worst stock systems on any new car I reckon - and tricky to upgrade!

 

[theblooms]

Has anyone swapped out their headunit with something else and not lost any feature? That's all I have for now. Cheers!

The 2nd gen head units got away from the standard size double DIN that the first gen had. Unfortunately nobody makes a quality radio that replaces the "zit" on the top of your dash. And don't be tempted to buy a Chinesium POS you find on Wish or Alibaba. You'll wind up hating it.

You just need to take that money would would have spent on that Chinese junk and put it towards a quality factory integration processor from Rockford Fosgate, JL Audio, Audio Control, Helix, or Mosconi. Other reputable companies make good system integration processors as well, that's just the ones that I have experience with.

 

[hduong]

I pulled the speakers out of my NZ new 2018 GSX and they were absolute crap. Diabolical. The speakers in my base model Outlander were vastly superior. (This is non Bose obviously.) So I think yes even a cheap set of Pioneers or whatever from Supercheap will be an improvement with the stock head unit.
BUT I really struggled to get a nice sound out of the factory head unit - I ended up installing a sound processor to fix it - initially I just ran an amp directly off the OEM unit, which was better but still not great. It’s got to be one of worst stock systems on any new car I reckon - and tricky to upgrade!

Is yours the 4 or 6 speaker system? I find bass lacking on my 2021 GS 6 speaker system. I just upped the bass by 2 for now. May add a sub down the road as I'm not a fan of using EQ. Just don't want to mess with the car yet.

 

[Soundz]

Mine is a 4 speaker GX (sport), I wish tweeters were included, but they really went barebones on the base model here. In Canada, they only give the 6 speed manual CX5 as a base model. 2018 was the MT last year. I really wanted the manual transmission. The GT has a much better sound system, but I'm confident I can figure out and eventually install my own tweeters and sub. I'm not really looking to fabricate or put holes in my door panels for tweeters, but the mirrors don't have little removable triangles, the door panel is one large piece. No dash grills either.

 

[7eregrine]

If you've ever heard a truly good car stereo, you'd absolutely understand the disappointment.

But if you've ONLY ever had OEM radios (or poorly installed aftermarket ones) you'd understand why many of us like the stock.

 

[hduong]

I have not heard the 4 speaker system but not surprised to find it lacking. My previous car had an acceptable 6 speaker system with sub. I upgraded my first car stereo system when most head units were standard size.

 

[theblooms]

But if you've ONLY ever had OEM radios (or poorly installed aftermarket ones) you'd understand why many of us like the stock.

100% true. One of those things that until you've personally experienced it, you simply didn't know how good something can be!

The first time I got into a car with an absolutely top tier award winning stereo, I was instantly hooked. It was all the way back in 92 or 93, I attended the World Series of Sound in Greenville, SC. I got to experience a great many amazing cars, but the one that just absolutely drew me in was Mike Mineo's Camaro. Words just cannot describe how that car sounded, and much to the chagrin of my checkbook, I've been chasing that perfection ever since!

 

[Tribe&TrueRacin]

If you've ever heard a truly good car stereo, you'd absolutely understand the disappointment.

Yup

Back in the day, the jump from tape to CD was an absolute revolution.

I mean, going from a cheap crappy factory tape deck to a quality tape deck like Alpine or Nakamichi was a big jump, but when CD's came out? Game changer.

But see I may be ageing myself....before Audiophile was even a term used to describe musical sound enthusiast and years before stereo contests.....
I use to record my Nylon from a Linear tracking turn table with sound filtering output adjustments (no crackles or hiss sounds) onto Maxell or Memorex High Bias Audio Cassette Tapes. So when CD started on the sign they were poor quality sound comparing my recorded tapes. I think I was guessing a Blaupunkt New Yorker head unit and amps with Audio Dyne speakers back in the early 80's. Now in the mid 70's my first car a rare Buick 2 door LeSabre I had 8 track but with - quad and ready for this reverberation. I ran it through a weird little amplifier I don't even remember the name powering some chrome grilled door speakers and in the rear deck was my Jenson 6x9 Triax 2's.
In 1982 I custom built a stereos system in my brand new 1982 Camaro that had 5 amps and 36 speakers. You could only physically see 6 of them. Back than it was very KOOL because I installed a black and white 2 inch screen TV and ran the sound system through it. No one was doing that kind of stuff than. Although the kraz was installing the biggest woofer 15-20inch with the biggest amps available just to cause the feeling of your heart stopping and the tingling of your head hair. Never understood why that was and still is so popular. To each there own? So ya I like to think I was at the beginning of the auto stereo hobby.

1982

 

[theblooms]

in the rear deck was my Jenson 6x9 Triax 2's.

Dude, SICK!!!!!

My first pair of 6x9's were also Jensen Triaxes! Got them back in 1987 for the rear deck of my 72 Coupe DeVille.

 

[Tribe&TrueRacin]

Dude, SICK!!!!!

My first pair of 6x9's were also Jensen Triaxes! Got them back in 1987 for the rear deck of my 72 Coupe DeVille.

NIce!
Ya so you and I are fore founders so to say of true Audio Car sound systems.

 

[theblooms]

My first decent tape deck was the top of the line Realistic. Way cheaper than an Alpine or Blaupunkt, and I was 15 and had a super strict budget.

The one feature it had that was almost unheard of was automatic music search. Hit FFD, and the tape would stop at the next song. Hit REW and it would replay the song you were on.

When my friends saw it do that, they absolutely FREAKED OUT! And yeah, it was a killer feature for sure. Very rare back then.

 

[7eregrine]

My buddy always upgrades his sound systems and they are amazing. ALways wants to do mine and I'm always... nah. I'm good. Wants to put a sub in the back. No no no....

 

[Robbo]

Is yours the 4 or 6 speaker system? I find bass lacking on my 2021 GS 6 speaker system. I just upped the bass by 2 for now. May add a sub down the road as I'm not a fan of using EQ. Just don't want to mess with the car yet.

I think it was 4. The components I added included tweeters which are now where the factory tweeters are on the Bose or 6 speaker cars. I added a sub (underseat) to the factory system and I didn't like it - the factory head unit didn't really produce the right signals to get a good sound out of the sub. I truly believe a sound processor is the only way forward with the base systems.

 

[Tribe&TrueRacin]

My first decent tape deck was the top of the line Realistic. Way cheaper than an Alpine or Blaupunkt, and I was 15 and had a super strict budget.

The one feature it had that was almost unheard of was automatic music search. Hit FFD, and the tape would stop at the next song. Hit REW and it would replay the song you were on.

When my friends saw it do that, they absolutely FREAKED OUT! And yeah, it was a killer feature for sure. Very rare back then.

Hmmm let me think, BACK IN THE DAY, inexpensive and had cassette tape (tape for short) music search... KRACO!
They contributed to the UFO phenomenon. Thats when you are following behind your friends and suddenly a cassette flies out the window with the tape trailing like a kite. When you arrive, it is always the same story, The f***en radio (not called head units back then) ate my favorite tape. Those flying tape sightings increased with the music search feature on head units.

 

[theblooms]

Crack-o and Sparko-static were the worst!

 

[Kedis82ZE8]

Completely depends on your budget. You can get something decent like Kenwood or Rockford Fosgate for $150, or you can get the Best of the Best of the Best Milbert for $5500.

Oh, and that $5500 Milbert? It's a 2 channel amp, 35 watts per channel. But there does not exist a more sonically pure car audio amplifier anywhere in the world than that baby. BaM-235ab if you're curious about it. It's my Holy Grail. Something that I'll never attain.

"Likely nowhere" near that Milbert but I can relate to some degree with audio quality when I get into my GX 460 with it's 7.1 Mark Levinson ... I have a few of the rare DVD-Audio discs it supports and it creates a surreal audio experience for me.

 

[frotasticben]

The 2nd gen head units got away from the standard size double DIN that the first gen had. Unfortunately nobody makes a quality radio that replaces the "zit" on the top of your dash. And don't be tempted to buy a Chinesium POS you find on Wish or Alibaba. You'll wind up hating it.

You just need to take that money would would have spent on that Chinese junk and put it towards a quality factory integration processor from Rockford Fosgate, JL Audio, Audio Control, Helix, or Mosconi. Other reputable companies make good system integration processors as well, that's just the ones that I have experience with.

The Double DIN hole is still there, its just covered up. It would take a LOT of fabrication to put in a Double DIN stereo. My Mazda Service Tech and I are convinced that for an effort to reduce costs on the 2nd Gen CX-5, they just used the same framing as the 1st Gen with new outer panels.

 

[NealfromNZ]

I don’t think the Double DIn idea would be a huge upgrade in terms of source sound quality. Just a dsp / amp / speakers swap out should do it. DSP or Amp with dsp just needs to take a differential audio signal input from the infotainment unit. That and 320kbit or usb / android auto / CarPlay connected phone with lossless content.

Still haven’t done the CX5 , couple of other projects in the queue.

Love all the old school systems mentioned earlier . Did a alpine system in the 80s to my 1981 626 coupe. Ironically still have that gear in boxes.

Put in a reasonable system into my car about 8 years back. Used end of line speakers and amps to keep costs down. But even now it’s still sounding good.

Have this sitting behind my ski port arm rest for filling out the bottom end

 

[theblooms]

Nice! Are those 9x12's? I know JBL and Tang Band made some, along with some other companies, but it's still a fairly rare size.

I'd love to see that Alpine equipment. I'm pretty big I to old school stereo stuff. Though it's big time paired down now, I still have a fair few pieces of equipment left. I even have some of the old gold letter Kicker 10's that are still in fantastic shape.