Infinity tweeter install

[starlightmica]

Today's project: installing a pair of Infinity tweeters purchased on eBay. They cost $44 shipped, adapter cables $8, and hole saw $6, about half the price of buying the Mazda OEM tweeters and garnishes.



1 3/4" hole drilled into the sail panel, flush mount pressed into placed. Being the total amateur that I am, the part that's supposed to screw onto the other side won't fit, so some glue is going to have to hold this in place.



Tweeters inserted and fastened, facing the passenger compartment



Okay, off to get Metra adapter cables at Circuit CIty...

 

[monsta]

Well...how's it sound?

 

[starlightmica]

Good question. CC didn't have the correct harness, so it will have to wait until I can pick one up this weekend. (boom02)

 

[monsta]

Well, look on the bright side. At least you have a Circuit City!

My new Sport doesn't have tweeters but I;d like to add some, plus a small subwoofer. I look forward to your "review".

 

[starlightmica]

A guy at Crutchfield didn't know what connector to use, either. I'll probably end up snipping off the factory connector and use some screw-together quick connects. Here's tweeter wiring diagram, for your reference:

 

[CX-7owner]

Infinity's are a great set, I personally have the Kappa series tweeter, and reference speakers.

 

[starlightmica]

I ended up using the Posi-Products #502 car speaker connector kit from Crutchfield to seal the connections, using the wiring diagram above. I had to snip & strip both ends of wire instead of just the speaker end to get the connection to work. The reason: Mazda5 tweeter wire is too small for the sharp end of the cap to pierce. If you know what you're doing, you could get by with something cruder/cheaper.

Sound quality: I've only had a brief, few minute test on both classical radio and a violin concerto CD, and I would say it's a nice improvement on the muddy sound of the stock speakers. I'll report back after I've had a chance to try out this disc next week:

 

[starlightmica]

Follow-up:

Ms. St. John sounds as lovely as ever, and the tweeters do a wonderful job in bringing out her sound. However, the low range (i.e. Beethoven's 9th) is still disappointing due to muddy stock speakers and their lousy bass as well as the Mazda5's noisy cabin. I'll eventually end getting new speakers, etc.

BTW, the prior generation Infinity 1011t tweeters are available from Wal-mart online for $50:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5799534

 

[starlightmica]

Follow-up part 2: tired of the tweeters outshining the crummy factory doors speakers, I got a component system: Infinity Kappa 680.7cs, off eBay for $91 shipped, along with XTC 6x8 foam speaker baffles for $15, and a few bucks for a low end soldering iron and lead-free solder.


Speaker, tweeter flushmount hardware, tweeter, & crossover. The 6x8 is barely any bigger than the factory speaker, but the magnet is much lighter.


Here's the hole I made for the tweeter flush mount earlier. The Kappa mounting hardware is 3mm wider so this was enlarged with sandpaper.


Tweeter in place, tilted towards driver. As I cut the tweeter wire previously to fit the Reference units, they were sealed with electrical tape.


Crossover mounted with generic Velcro underneath removeable door pull panel, for easy access to play with the +3db tweeter boost switch. Factory speaker wiring (yellow & grey) was cut and stripped to plug into the crossover. Someone want to hide their iPod in here?


Speaker in factory 6x8 position with XTC baffle cut to fit, crossover to the upper right in the picture; speaker wire previously soldered to secure it. The hole is rimmed by plastic and at 4" deep, so if you're a purist who wants 6.5" round speakers, cut away!

--

Low and mid-frequency now sounds much clearer, and louder thanks to the 2 ohm, low-resistance speakers. I'm not sure I can tell the difference between Reference and Kappa tweeters. Done shopping for front speakers, for now.

However, it's missing the extra kick I've felt on our Camry's factory JBL 6 speaker + amp setup. Looks like I'll be shopping for one of those next. CarDomain's got a sale on one of the lower-end JBL amps, CS60.4, that at 2ohms matches the Kappas' RMS.

 

[starlightmica]

additional pic of replacement hardware with factory speaker