Protege 5 audio ?'s

[mazda5protege]

I just got a mazda 2003 5 brand new, and saved $4,000 off sticker .

I want to keep the stock deck because of theft problems. I want to put Infinity Reference 6800cs componet speakers in the front but i don't want to put the tweater in the "factory" spot because of sound Q isues so can it go behind the factory grill by the mid?

Compared to this pictures where should it go?

I'm not to sure about rear speakers. But for the sub i've been Wanting a 10" Polk Momo and to power all this something like the Alpine V-Power 5 channel amp since someone on this form said it would fit under the seat. Will almost any amp fit under the seat?

 

[ELEmental59437]

Most people with seperate tweeters cut a hole near the top of the door panel and put them there. I have the Alpine TypeR door speakers and the tweeter is attached to the speaker. If your interested in relocating the tweeter and dont want the stock tweeters in that plastic piece, I will trade you my 2002 plastic triangle pieces that dont have the tweeters in them. Let me know.

I have a computer under one seat and a PS2 under the other seat so I dont see there being a problem with putting an amp under the seat. I have my amps in the hatch screwed into the rear seat.

Dont forget to put the rain guards on the new speakers and dont leave any crossovers or anything inside the door because our doors leak water bad when it rains.

 

[mazda5protege]

Most people with seperate tweeters cut a hole near the top of the door panel and put them there.

Does their just happen to be a factory hole they can thread a screw through their?

This is the right decision to not put tweater where the factory ones were right? since From what I have read it produces a bad sound stage/ sound quality.

 

[got wake?]

here's my $.02:
i'd put in a set of 5.25" components up front, and the 6.5's in the rear doors. with 5.25's, you'll be able to move the woofer back a little, and put the tweeter in the same location behind the door panel, so you don't need to do any cutting to the door panel. the tweeter will also be further away from your ears, and closest to the woofer for better imaging most people use plastic adapters to put 5.25 or 6.5's in their front doors, but i highly recomend using 1/4" wood to make a custom adapter. here's the plastic one:
cheap plastic one
the woofer will be centered, and you might not have enough room to mount a tweeter. even if there is enough room, cutting the hole for the tweeter will make the plastic adapter weak, and you'll loose SQ cause it'll be shaking more. with a wood adapter, all you have to do is trace your stock speakers on it, trace the woofer and tweeter hole, and cut it out with a jigsaw then you'll have a strong, sturdy adapter to mount components to. when you do this, make it so the woofer is to the rear of centered, so there is plenty of room for the tweeter. you'll also need to seal the wood with wood sealer or paint. if water gets in the door, it'll mess up the adapter if it is not sealed. your other option would be to use the plastic adapter for the woofer, and then cut a hole in your door for the tweeter. for better imaging, you'll want the tweeter in the lower part of the door. there was a pic on protegeclub that showed a nice looking location that was good for imaging, but the site's down anyways, it was just above where the speaker grill is on the door panel. let me know if you have any questions on any of this under the seats have a lot of room to fit an amp. you might have to cut off the vents under them, though also, the momo subs are all marketing. they are definitely NOT worth the money. you are paying for the momo name, not for performance of the sub for $220 for a single 10, you can do WAY better it's got a small magnet, it only has a 2" voice coil, and is only recomended for sealed applications they don't even publish any technical specs on the sub if you only plan on running a sealed box, i HIGHLY recomend the O-series from elemental designs. it's got a 3 year warranty, like the MOMO, so don't worry about that i installed an O-series 12 in my friends car, and WOW, i'm not a fan of sealed boxes but it was sweet granted it only has a 2" VC also, but it's been optimized for sealed application, and it has a larger magnet and i can almost garautee higher excursion too one of my friend's got a momo 10 in their box when it first came out, and i wan't very impressed. he blew it, and got the newest one, and i'm still wasn't impressed. using their box, we put in a O-series 10, and it was noticably louder needless to say he sold his momo to pay for the O10 i would also highly suggest an SC10 from resonant engineering.
www.respl.com
for $149 directly through them, it's a great deal. it has the same excursion of the O-series, and it will work great in either a sealed or ported enclosure.

 

[mypfizzle]

i too would mount the tweeters i the door pannel.. but that is only if u dont mind cutting into your door.. if you dont want to do that then i would look at putting them in the stock location that is posted here.. i deff would not put them in the sails where the stock ones go -=(

 

[Sir Nuke]

mazda5protege,

keeping the stock headunit and adding an amp and sub is a snap. I for one did it. I have the Alpine Vpower 5 channel amp as well and its mounted under the drivers seat.....I have had NO issues at all.

as for a sub....another one to consider is the 10" powerwedge with a 10W0 in it from JL AUDIO. it works great with the above mentioned amp.

 

[Natey]

I put my tweeters on the down-low because of theft, too. They sound great where they are, but I did have to cut the door.

 

[hellcat]

Don't do it, if the little tweeter is below your waist it'll sound bad. You will lose SQ.

 

[servoeyes]

Don't do it, if the little tweeter is below your waist it'll sound bad. You will lose SQ.

Explain please? Do you mean if it's in the door and below your waste? That being the case, then why are the Boston Z series tweeters mounted on axis? I mean...if the tweeters are blocked by your thighs, then sure you'll lose some SQ. But if you plan properly it shouldn't matter that it's below your waste. The midrange is below your waste, and that's where most companies recommend they stay. Those companies also say your tweeter should be within several inches. So...I guess I'm confused as to why you would make your above suggestion...

 

[got wake?]

Don't do it, if the little tweeter is below your waist it'll sound bad. You will lose SQ.

lol, that's some funny s*** for best SQ and imaging, you want the tweets and midbass as close to the same distance from your ears as possible, which is why pretty much every SQ competitor has their's mounted in kick panels by thier feet

 

[mazda5protege]

"Natey" What are keeping your tweeters in place? I've noticed that alot of tweeters have threads on the back that you can put a screw into are you doing that?

"Sir Nuke" I've read about the choices you made in the post you that you were debating what kind of car audio equip to install. You went from a bass tube to a nice JL 10" ? sub.

I checked it out last night their is ALOT of room under our seats but that dumb heat blower is a problem. What have you all done? Just cut it ? I think the last thing you want is hot air blowing on a amp. But I love the I idea of a 5 channel amp, since you will still have the ability to fade and balance the speakers. To mount an amp under a seat what do you do? Screw it in? after removing carpet/seat? i guess, I've never done an amp install.

But i've read somethings.

1. Get an amp kit, and get the power cord to run threw the firewall where some of our protege 5's wires come into the cabin located under the steering wheel.

2. Some how mount the amp under the drivers side seat. I know you are supost to keep the power and speaker wire far away from each other.... So what would be the best way to get the speaker input and output wire from the amp to the HU? Since the power cord will run on the left side, maybe take apart the console where my GASP automantronic stick is and run the speaker wires under their then go under the passengers seat up to the HU, to try to keep the speaker wire as close to the passengers side.

Also obviously the most likely thing to get stole is the sub and box. I imagine I could purchase some screw with a unique head.... other then the + or - to screq it done in the hatch.... has anyone ever thought about this or done it?

 

[ELEmental59437]

You can direct the vent over the amp or stuff it with syrafoam. I believe sir nuke did the styrafoam. I dont have an amp under the sear but I have a computer and a playstation2 and I just directed the vent over them both. The vents blow only when you have it set on the floor setting and only blow heat when your in heater mode.

I personally like having the amp mounted on to the rear seatback. I am planning a custom fiberglass box so they wont be mounted there anymore, but it allows for easy access for tweaking the settings or whatever. Just use whatever screws came with the amp or some short self tapping screws and drill it into there with the seat-back down.


To answe your guestions:
There is a how to on installing an amp wiring kit.. theres actually more than one location you can run it through the firewall.. and the basic way of installing it would be power wires on one side and speaker wires on the other. Sir nuke also had the idea of buying a reverse harness for plugging into the stock head unit and splicing speaker wire into that. That way you dont have to cut any stock wires. I dont have my stock head unit so i bought the harness that plugs into the stock wires and spliced into that.

 

[mazda5protege]

If my car was going to be garaged all the time like it is right now, I would most likely put the amp on the back seat but i'm going to SWT (Texas State) after x-mas. And I'm sure some poor college kid stealing an amp and a sub from my car would make him more happy. I'm just cautious because with my past 93 honda accord someone smashed in my drivers side window and ripped out my HU and I think I found glass peices for like 3 months after that. Oh on another note last October I had a pumpkin smash out my WHOLE rear window.... needless to say my new protege 5 in parked in the garage right now and the grocery getter is outside

 

[ELEmental59437]

Yeah I know how it is, in my last car my head units got stolen twice within 2 weeks. I had to replace the drivers window out of pocket both times. I got an alarm on that car and it stopped. The remote start / pager alarm was the first mod I did the the Protege5.

The hatch has a cover on it so it hides any trace of a system, unless a theif hears it and decide to get curious. I would suggest tint and an alarm (not a cheap alarm) before you do much else. I have a friend with a GSR and he was dead set on spending his $200 on a head unit but I insisted he got an alarm first. The only way he would was for me to let him borrow my spare cd player and install the alarm for him. His car got broken into the night before the alarm came in the mail and my head unit got stolen. He's glad I knew what I was talking about and saved him $200, but it still blows that my stereo was stolen.

Your plans of keeping the stock head unit and upgrading everything else won't sound bad at all. I am surprised how well the stock hed unit sounds compared to most stock systems. I am very happy with my system, I just want better subs and I will be set. Good luck with your install.

 

[mazda5protege]

With Tint it seems like you get what you pay for right? I would hate to have any bubbling effect down the road.... most back their work with a warrenty correct?

 

[ELEmental59437]

Yeah most places around here have a lifetime warranty against bubbles. Just dont use windex or anything other than soap and water on it.

 

[b_real45]

Stoner's Invisible Glass works just fine for me.

 

[mcstark]

Just got my tint done and they told me to use Armor All window cleaner -- doesn't have any ammonia in it. I bought the box of wipes and they work great. I got 20% tint from the b-pillar back and from the outside you can see two things: jack and s***.

 

[mazda5protege]

I just went to Custom Sounds, and got some prices.

$180 for Formula 1 window tint - lifetime warrenty

$329 for a Viper 350hv line alarm installed. Which is looks expensive for only that.

$400 for a Viper 550 ESP installed looks like a good deal.

 

[Sir Nuke]

Mazda5protege,

I never considered a bass tube....my first choice at the recomendation of 1stmp3inNH was the JL Audio Powerwedge, I went and listened to it and that convinced me.

what you described for running your speaker wires is EXACTLY what I did and I have NO issues with induced noise at all. The power for the amp is down the drivers side and all the speaker wires and the amp power on lead run out from under the seat under the console and up to the headunit.

As for mounting the sub....what I did was went to walmart and went into the craft section. there I found some 2 1/2 inch wide adhesive backed velcro. I put two strips of the LOOPY side on the bottom two edges of the amp and it sticks down to the carpet like a champ....in fact its a b**** to get up once you put it down.

as for the heater vent....well its only plastic....and I am sure that on the rare occation when someone rides in the back they won't notice that there isn't any hot air shooting up their legs.....I trimmed off the duct and took a coozy (drink can insulator) and trimmed out a piece of the foam rubber just the right size and stuffed it in the end to close it off.....of course in the summer you can take it out and if you put your A/C controls in the right position you can actually supply cooling air to the amp. :{D

btw.....when you are doing the install with the amp under the seat and running your wires throught he console....you will find the job 100 times easier if you will just remove the drivers seat from the car. it gives you lots of room to work and its a lot easier to see what the heck you are doing.