No rear speakers. Aftermarket speaker recommendations?

[snickk]

Our new 2025 cx30 preferredis a great car, however, we were very surprised that Mazda discontinued the rear speaker from previous models without disclosing this. . There are rear speaker grills but they are empty! There is a virtual control for moving sound to the rear , but again no speakers , so that is useless!

The speaker front/ rear fader control is also useless as there are no rear speakers. These all seems a bit misleading. I also see that that there is a recent class action suit against Mazda for a similar issue with the Mazda3 speakers.

Crutchfield sells speakers to fit the rear and I see some wires but the Mazda dealer tells me it is not possible to upgrade which seems very odd.

Has anyone had success in upgrading their 2025 cx30 preferred (6 speaker system), to put speakers behind those empty rear grills? And if so, was the installation plug and play, using the existing wiring and virtual sound system controls (such as fader and speaker selection options on the console)?

Thank You, Mike

 

[theblooms]

Before you go spending a bunch of money, you first need to figure out if those wires actually have a signal on them. Get any old random speaker and use some alligator clips to temporarily attach it to the speaker wires. If you hear sound, you're good to go. If not, check the settings on the radio, make sure you're not faded all the way to the front. If you're not faded all the way to the front, and you still don't hear any sound, then there's simply no sound. It is what it is. No soup for you.

You could always take the effort to add an amp and run new speaker wires, and all that entails, but we're talking about rear speakers here. Nobody who cares about how a stereo sounds cares. Think about it this way: when you go to a pub or venue to see a live band, do you face the band or sit with your back to them? Obviously you face them. That right there is why rear speakers are almost meaningless. Music comes from in front of you.

Now all that said, Mazda base stereos are pretty awful. The upgraded Bose stereos are barely tolerable. I'm a big time music junkie. I don't mind putting in *a lot* of time, effort, and money chasing great sound. And I've had an upgraded stereo in every single car I've ever owned, including my 21 CX-9 where I changed out everything except for the head unit, and that's only because you can't change it out.

A word of advice, any money you would have set aside for rear speakers, put that towards better front speakers instead. And the craptacular front speakers you have now, (assuming you have singal back there), move those to the back.