Mazda5 Speaker upgrade time

[theblooms]

Upgraded the door drivers today with some very inexpensive Dayton Audio classic woofer and tweeters. The 6.5's are DC160-4's, and the tweeters are ND25FN-4's. Only $25 each! That's it! I had some MB Quart crossovers laying around, and used those. The 6.5's fit perfectly with some extremely minor trimming. A Dremel had it done in 60 seconds, it was just that minor.

The difference is nothing short of breathtaking! And I don't even have an amp on them yet!

While I was in there, I laid down a little Noico sound deadening, too.

 

[Maikel]

Nice! I bet the Noico will be a noticeable upgrade there also.

 

[theblooms]

It did. I'm going to go hog wild on it though. Pulling the seats and carpet probably tomorrow, and doing the full 3 layer treatment. (Asphalt/closed cell foam/mass loaded vinyl). I want to pull the headliner and do the roof, too.

The one and only complaint I have about the MZ5 is how they completely skimped on the sound deadening. For example, the rear sliding doors. Big assed doors, and NOTHING in the form of factory sound proofing. Absolutely zero, they didn't even try.

 

[TheMZ5wagon]

Even though dayton audio is inexpensive it's actually pretty decent stuff! The Dayton audio stuff is more on the SQ side of things it's more like an entry level but still really good stuff.
If you put a DSP in there and ran thise tweeters and woofers active it would sound heck of a lot better!
Really good job though it looks great! Sounds like it will sound pretty good as well!
I'm a huge stereo guy, I've got about 4K in my BMW stereo as it's all hybrid audio speakers and sub and Audison class ab amps. So I'm into stereo stuff so when I see it I've got to comment LOL

 

[theblooms]

I'm going to finish the install in the next couple of weeks. I'm going to try to bi-amp them if at all possible. Getting a second run of speaker wire into the door is a nightmare, so much harder than in my CX-5.

This is definitely a budget build, with everything done as "bang for the buck" as possible.

Deck is a Kenwood DDX-8706S, DSP is a Dayton DSP-408, amps are Kenwood KAC-M3004 on mids and tweets, and a KAC-M3001 on the subs. The entire car has been triple layer sound proofed. Killmat on the bottom, then a layer of Noico closed cell foam, and finally some Mass Loaded Vinyl on top.

You obviously see the front drivers, the rear speakers are Mmats 5x7 coax's that I picked up for $79/pr from the local car audio dealer. Subs are a pair of old school American made Rockford Fosgate Punch RFZ-1408's in a sealed box. Wait till you see how I did the enclosure! They have the exact amount of prescribed airspace, I kept the spare accessible, yet the box is completely invisible! I'll be posting pics of the final install in a few weeks.

 

[goodpeoples]

Definitely wanna see that box!!!! Stealth boxes with appropriate airspace can be hard enough x.x

 

[turbonium959]

I just finished applying Noico (80 mil sound deadening and Red 150 thermal) to my doors. Mazda's efforts at NVH on this car are absolutely atrocious. I had to remove all the stupid styrofoam and felt they had in the front doors. On the front doors, access to sheetmetal is very restrictive, unless you are in the mood of removing the window motor and such. For the back doors I only applied Noico to the door cards. There really is not much room between the hardware on the door and the door cards, so that did not help with much noise reduction. I've done the trunk lid and trunk area as well.

So far, it's hard to tell how much it helps with the noise. The engine in this car is just so dang loud. The glass is so dang thin. Also, I managed to put Fuzion tires on my car that are also loud. Therefore, good and loud stereo is the way. I am a fan of Alpine products, so I have an Alpine head unit with Alpine inline amp, Alpine powered sub (fit under driver's seat), Alpine 5x7 in the front, Alpine tweeters in the front as well (OEM tweeters are weak as hell), Alpine 6.5 rears with coaxial tweeters. So, nine speakers overall and with volume up, they sound really nice

I am also planning to do the floor and ceiling as well.

 

[Jsmith918]

A small upgrade...

 

[theblooms]

The rear speakers in our MZ5's are completely open to the air, both sides. That makes them absolutely not work. It's no different than just laying it on the back seat! Speakers only work when the back is isolated from the front. So, isolate them! XTC baffles are super cheap, about $7/pr, and will make your speakers sound so, so much better.

 

[TonyC]

you took that much of the rear interior paneling off just to replace the speakers & add a plastic basket? *respect*

 

[theblooms]

you took that much of the rear interior paneling off just to replace the speakers & add a plastic basket? *respect*

It's literally one single panel for that whole side. It's like 3 screws and 10 clips.

Besides, I was adding sound deadening, anyway.