PAC AOEM-MAZ2 for 2016.5 CX-5 non-Bose - wiring

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NorCal
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'16.5 Tour AWD
I've read through pretty much every thread I could find that mentions this PAC adapter, but still have questions.

I upgraded the factory speakers a few months after I bought the CX-5 new, with Infinity REF-6522s in front and rear. OK improvement, nothing spectacular. My 18-year-old daughter mainly drives it now, and she says it's sorely lacking in punch; agreed. The plan was to install an accessory amp, but no subwoofer at this time.

After reading all the posts regarding the PAC interface, I assumed it was plug-and-play. Got the main harness, RCAs, and power hooked up, no problem. Here's where I need guidance:
  • Although everything I've read says no cutting necessary, I need to cut into the wires running to the four speakers, and splice in output wires from the new amp, correct? If so, where's the best place to make these splices?
  • I'm assuming I won't run the amp to the two dash speakers. Is this a good or bad decision?
  • Both the interface and the amp have remote turn-on wires. Is there an advantage to using one over the other?
Back in the day I did a number of installs, but it seemed a lot easier in that pre-TAU era... I feel like I'm starting over. Thanks in advance for any help!
 
There should not be any cutting of the factory wiring harness whatsoever. None.

Some of the radios, you simply unhook the harness from behind the radio itself, and simply hook the PAC between the car and the radio. That's literally all it takes. Now, that said, sometimes you'll have to modify the PAC somewhat, as with some installs it won't provide a proper turn on signal to the amp. In that case, simply hook the amp's remote turn on to the red wire power wire on the PAC harness. This will turn the amp on and off with the car. Whether or not you have to do this depends entirely on your exact car.

Now, if you have one of the fancy radios with the remote breakout box (you don't have Bose, so I'm guessing that's not the case), the harness will hook up after wherever that breakout box is located. Someone else will have to chime in here, because I have no idea where they stash those things.

As far as which speakers to amplify, I always say put an amp on literally all of them! Mo powah, babee!

If you do decide to amplify the door and dash speakers, you can either run your own speaker wire from the amp to the speakers, or you can use the factory wiring. Getting speaker wire into the doors is easier than it sounds. In our cars, Mazda left plenty of room to get your hand up behind the dash to fish wire through the factory rubber grommet from the cabin to the door. I know, because I've done it. There are spots on the sides of plastic door harness clips that have room enough to fish 16 gauge wire through.

If you don't want to run your own speaker wire, simply cut the speaker wires on the PAC harness, and splice wires from the amp to the speakers there.

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Oh, as an aside, I feel that the factory radio is kinda crap, so I installed a Kenwood DDX-8705S in my CX-5. The difference is absolutely night and day, and now I have Android Auto! When I did that, I went with the iDataLink Maestro RR interface. I even get gauges right on the radio now!
 
Thanks! No fancy radio, just the stocker ; ) I went into the doors when I installed the speakers, but I'll likely tap in to the factory harness close to the TAU for the amp speaker output.
 
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