- :
- Mazda 6 Wagon 2019
Hello,
Greetings from Jakarta, Indonesia!
I want to share my audio build log for my Mazda 6 Wagon/Estate 2019. This model comes with Bose sound system, 11 speakers (1 dash center, 2 dash midrange, 2 door-pillar tweeters, 2 8'inch woofers in the doors, 2 rear door speakers, and 2 side speakers in the back. I also post this in other relevant forums.
I think the Mazda 6 Bose system is pretty good and I believe it will satisfy most people - in fact, it runs a three-way system which can cover wide frequency adequately. However, I want better sound quality. I consider myself as audio enthusiast, but not fanatics. Also too lazy to tinker around sound tuning. At home I have Scanspeaks speakers driven by Rega amplifier & Cambridge Audio streamer, and in my other car, I run a set of Morel speakers driven by Genesis amps+ processor. So I have an idea what kind of sounds I'd expect from my (daily) car.
I am not chasing a "perfect" sound in the car. In my opinion, it is virtually impossible to achieve a "home-like sound" in a daily drive car, because a) the inherent acoustic characteristics; b) road noise; c) driving experience and safety; and d) compromise of space. I've heard contest-winning cars - they sound great during stationary, but they are terrible cars for driving. This is why I avoid permanent mods to car interior and strive to save space as possible. Speaker placement in stock location is indispensable for me, because I don't want driving with huge speaker pods in front of my face. As I often bring my family along, space is important and also their listening pleasure as well. In summary, these are what I want to achieve through this install:
- SQ sound, tendency for top 40 music, pop, rock & heavy metal. Probably less than 5% listening to EDM or those with big bass sound.
- Stock speaker placement, no interior mods
- Space efficient, and run efficiently (not excessively taxing car electric system)
- Not more than 1 week to install and tuning
- Good for all-seat experience, but when I drive by myself, I can switch to driver-oriented sound.
Based on above, I draw the plan and asked my installer to do as I wished:
Sound Deadening
Sound deadening in all doors, to minimize rattle and create solid "housing" for door speakers. I also put foam around door speakers. Mazda 6 is a reasonably silent car, so no need to put more deadening on floor, roof, or engine. Solid doors will help to deliver solid midbass performance.
Processor & Head Unit (Signal Tapping)
Since all-seat experience is one of objectives, then I have to use a center speaker. There is only Alpine H800 still in the market which can faithfully process center signal with its Dolby processing. However I have spare MS-8 and decided to use it instead. I think the Logic 7 in MS-8 is better than Dolby in H800 for center processing. Moreover, its autotune feature is unbeatable and no processor in the market can do that as good as MS-8. For lazy ass like me, this is relieving. It's been discontinued and I've owned it since 2012, but it's still in good condition. Till date, I am still wondering how many years they can survive. With all of its pros & cons, and quirkiness, I still think it is a great product and no equal replacement in the market (when it comes to auto tune and center processing).
I read that Helix DSP Ultra and DSP.3 has center processing capability (they call it "Real Center") but looking at the documentation, I am not sure it is processing center channel like the way Logic 7 or Dolby do. It seemed that it is an enhanced sum L+R algorithm and it is marketed for front listening experience (driver+passenger) instead of all-seat experience. My reference installers are also not familiar with this feature, perhaps because it's quite new here, so I can't find reliable hands-on reference. Probably I'll replace the MS-8 with this in the future, if I have time to tinker around sound tuning. For sure, the Helix DSPs are the best in the market today.
No plan to change head-unit. I need the features and no mods on the dashboard. In fact, I believe the Mazda 6 HU is damn good. I realized this when I searched audio upgrade topic in Mazda 6 Forum. This is a very good thread in this forum: . it is now a sticky post. Kudos to the poster. I also attest that this article is valid for Mazda 6 wagon 2019 - that no feature lost by tapping the pre-BOSE amp and you can safely remove the BOSE amp.
The standard HU output is low-level, no equalization, in-phase, balanced, and differential signaling. This makes integration to sound processor is easier than I initially thought and the processor will be fed with high-quality signals from HU. I just tap the Front Left (FL) and Front Right (FR) signal (Black+White and Red+Green), add it to two RCAs connectors (FR and FL) and connect it to low-level input of MS-8, and presumably other processors (Channel 1 & 2 only). That's all!
Speaker Selection & Placements
For fronts, I use Audison APK 165 2ohm, active. It's a two-way component set. I put the tweeters on stock door pillar, and woofer on the stock door location. Tweeter must be 1" for stock location. I use the supplied passive xover for tweeter but go active for the woofer. The xover will be able to "soften" the tweeter sound (new tweeters usually sound harsh before break-in) and also protect it from potential surge of low frequency. The woofer is 2ohm, meaning it will get more juice from the amplifier. I believe that for solid midbass performance, the woofer should be fed with power headroom, say around 30-50% more so that in the event of higher excursion needed, the midbass can deliver their job. In challenging stock location, this power headroom is crucial because it helps the woofer to sound louder and easier to EQ. Audison APK Woofer asks 70W RMS, and I supplied it with amp 130W @2ohm.
For center, I use Morel Hybrid Integra 402. The stock center location actually can only handle 3 or 3.5" speaker, so I had to make slight cutting in the stock placement, but just minor cut and I can easily return the original center BOSE speaker in the future. This Morel is simply amazing and they can handle low frequency up to 80Hz. For center processing, the center speaker has to be good quality, or even better than front speakers. This is because center speaker has to be able to play low frequency (say 100-300Hz) up to 20KHz for strong center image/staging. This is more important for licensed processing like Logic 7 or Dolby. Any good 3-4" driver can do this, as long as they can faithfully deliver 200Hz-20KHz, but I have bias over Morel, so this is very subjective. I place the crossover under the driver seat.
I also think that coaxial won't work in center because of height of tweeter. Point-source will do.
The stock location can cater separate tweeter + 4" midbass for better performance. But to make life simpler, I opted for point-source driver instead. Point-source drivers are easier to EQ due to phase coherence, instead of coaxial. This is important for front application. Other than Morel Hybrid, there are Morel Tempo Integra and Audison APX 4 which employ concentric tweeter.
For rear door speaker, I use JBL GTO629. These are very efficient speaker, at 3 ohm. They're not crucial for front side listening, but for rear passengers in all-seat listening, they can make difference. They're more for ambience purpose.
For subwoofer, I used powered subwoofer Rockford P300-10. It is in sealed enclosure, with tendency for tight bass. I listen more to SQ, and I don't really like boomy bass. I need space in my boot, so this active subwoofer package is the answer. It's easy to install, practical, and importantly, its built right and the box size is proper. I didn't want to build custom enclosure in the trunk because it's difficult to size it right. Subwoofer has to be placed in right enclosure size.
Greetings from Jakarta, Indonesia!
I want to share my audio build log for my Mazda 6 Wagon/Estate 2019. This model comes with Bose sound system, 11 speakers (1 dash center, 2 dash midrange, 2 door-pillar tweeters, 2 8'inch woofers in the doors, 2 rear door speakers, and 2 side speakers in the back. I also post this in other relevant forums.
I think the Mazda 6 Bose system is pretty good and I believe it will satisfy most people - in fact, it runs a three-way system which can cover wide frequency adequately. However, I want better sound quality. I consider myself as audio enthusiast, but not fanatics. Also too lazy to tinker around sound tuning. At home I have Scanspeaks speakers driven by Rega amplifier & Cambridge Audio streamer, and in my other car, I run a set of Morel speakers driven by Genesis amps+ processor. So I have an idea what kind of sounds I'd expect from my (daily) car.
I am not chasing a "perfect" sound in the car. In my opinion, it is virtually impossible to achieve a "home-like sound" in a daily drive car, because a) the inherent acoustic characteristics; b) road noise; c) driving experience and safety; and d) compromise of space. I've heard contest-winning cars - they sound great during stationary, but they are terrible cars for driving. This is why I avoid permanent mods to car interior and strive to save space as possible. Speaker placement in stock location is indispensable for me, because I don't want driving with huge speaker pods in front of my face. As I often bring my family along, space is important and also their listening pleasure as well. In summary, these are what I want to achieve through this install:
- SQ sound, tendency for top 40 music, pop, rock & heavy metal. Probably less than 5% listening to EDM or those with big bass sound.
- Stock speaker placement, no interior mods
- Space efficient, and run efficiently (not excessively taxing car electric system)
- Not more than 1 week to install and tuning
- Good for all-seat experience, but when I drive by myself, I can switch to driver-oriented sound.
Based on above, I draw the plan and asked my installer to do as I wished:
Sound Deadening
Sound deadening in all doors, to minimize rattle and create solid "housing" for door speakers. I also put foam around door speakers. Mazda 6 is a reasonably silent car, so no need to put more deadening on floor, roof, or engine. Solid doors will help to deliver solid midbass performance.
Processor & Head Unit (Signal Tapping)
Since all-seat experience is one of objectives, then I have to use a center speaker. There is only Alpine H800 still in the market which can faithfully process center signal with its Dolby processing. However I have spare MS-8 and decided to use it instead. I think the Logic 7 in MS-8 is better than Dolby in H800 for center processing. Moreover, its autotune feature is unbeatable and no processor in the market can do that as good as MS-8. For lazy ass like me, this is relieving. It's been discontinued and I've owned it since 2012, but it's still in good condition. Till date, I am still wondering how many years they can survive. With all of its pros & cons, and quirkiness, I still think it is a great product and no equal replacement in the market (when it comes to auto tune and center processing).
I read that Helix DSP Ultra and DSP.3 has center processing capability (they call it "Real Center") but looking at the documentation, I am not sure it is processing center channel like the way Logic 7 or Dolby do. It seemed that it is an enhanced sum L+R algorithm and it is marketed for front listening experience (driver+passenger) instead of all-seat experience. My reference installers are also not familiar with this feature, perhaps because it's quite new here, so I can't find reliable hands-on reference. Probably I'll replace the MS-8 with this in the future, if I have time to tinker around sound tuning. For sure, the Helix DSPs are the best in the market today.
No plan to change head-unit. I need the features and no mods on the dashboard. In fact, I believe the Mazda 6 HU is damn good. I realized this when I searched audio upgrade topic in Mazda 6 Forum. This is a very good thread in this forum: . it is now a sticky post. Kudos to the poster. I also attest that this article is valid for Mazda 6 wagon 2019 - that no feature lost by tapping the pre-BOSE amp and you can safely remove the BOSE amp.
The standard HU output is low-level, no equalization, in-phase, balanced, and differential signaling. This makes integration to sound processor is easier than I initially thought and the processor will be fed with high-quality signals from HU. I just tap the Front Left (FL) and Front Right (FR) signal (Black+White and Red+Green), add it to two RCAs connectors (FR and FL) and connect it to low-level input of MS-8, and presumably other processors (Channel 1 & 2 only). That's all!
Speaker Selection & Placements
For fronts, I use Audison APK 165 2ohm, active. It's a two-way component set. I put the tweeters on stock door pillar, and woofer on the stock door location. Tweeter must be 1" for stock location. I use the supplied passive xover for tweeter but go active for the woofer. The xover will be able to "soften" the tweeter sound (new tweeters usually sound harsh before break-in) and also protect it from potential surge of low frequency. The woofer is 2ohm, meaning it will get more juice from the amplifier. I believe that for solid midbass performance, the woofer should be fed with power headroom, say around 30-50% more so that in the event of higher excursion needed, the midbass can deliver their job. In challenging stock location, this power headroom is crucial because it helps the woofer to sound louder and easier to EQ. Audison APK Woofer asks 70W RMS, and I supplied it with amp 130W @2ohm.
For center, I use Morel Hybrid Integra 402. The stock center location actually can only handle 3 or 3.5" speaker, so I had to make slight cutting in the stock placement, but just minor cut and I can easily return the original center BOSE speaker in the future. This Morel is simply amazing and they can handle low frequency up to 80Hz. For center processing, the center speaker has to be good quality, or even better than front speakers. This is because center speaker has to be able to play low frequency (say 100-300Hz) up to 20KHz for strong center image/staging. This is more important for licensed processing like Logic 7 or Dolby. Any good 3-4" driver can do this, as long as they can faithfully deliver 200Hz-20KHz, but I have bias over Morel, so this is very subjective. I place the crossover under the driver seat.
I also think that coaxial won't work in center because of height of tweeter. Point-source will do.
The stock location can cater separate tweeter + 4" midbass for better performance. But to make life simpler, I opted for point-source driver instead. Point-source drivers are easier to EQ due to phase coherence, instead of coaxial. This is important for front application. Other than Morel Hybrid, there are Morel Tempo Integra and Audison APX 4 which employ concentric tweeter.
For rear door speaker, I use JBL GTO629. These are very efficient speaker, at 3 ohm. They're not crucial for front side listening, but for rear passengers in all-seat listening, they can make difference. They're more for ambience purpose.
For subwoofer, I used powered subwoofer Rockford P300-10. It is in sealed enclosure, with tendency for tight bass. I listen more to SQ, and I don't really like boomy bass. I need space in my boot, so this active subwoofer package is the answer. It's easy to install, practical, and importantly, its built right and the box size is proper. I didn't want to build custom enclosure in the trunk because it's difficult to size it right. Subwoofer has to be placed in right enclosure size.
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