I have a new car, and it needs a new sysem...

[KingDiamond 10+ year member]

I just bought a 2005 Mazda 3 5-door a couple days ago. Great car btw! I sold the 1994 Mustang GT that I had before and I didn't take out the sound system because it would have been hard to sell the car without a sound system and I just didn't want to mess around with it anymore. Anyway, the sound system in the MX-3 is decent, but compared to the one I had in my mustang it needs a lot of improvement.

My mustang had:

Alpine 8792 headunit with 4V pre-outs

6.5-inch Focal Polyglass series V2 componens in the front stage

no rear fill

PPI PC-275 amplifier for front stage (75W x 2 @ 4 ohms)

10-inch MTX subwoofer in custom stealth enclosure in trunk

PPI PC-275 amplifier for subwoofer (300W output @ 4 ohms bridged)

I loved the sound system, the fidelity was perfect for what I needed.

With the MX-3 it's going to be a bit tougher though. I want to retain a completely stock appearance. I am keeping the stock radio because the way it is streamlined into the dash it looks wierd replacing it with an aftermarket head unit, even though aftermarket dash kits are available it really looks out of place.

So here's what I'm thinking:

David Navone 4 channel line out converter, I was told by a couple people that this is the best line out converter on the market and it can make factory head units sound as good as an aftermarket head unit in most cases. It has 9.5V adjustable pre-outs and is used in a lot of competition sound systems that retain the stock radio. http://www.david-navone.com

CDT CL-62 Components for the front stage. The stock MX-3 system has 6x8 speakers for the mids in the front doors, and 1.75" tweeters in the upper part of the door. So installation should look stock. I'm going to make a 6.5" adapter out of 1/2-inch MDF, just like I did in the mustang.

I'm not sure which speakers to go with for the rear fill though. I think this car needs rear speakers, and I might keep the rear speakers for now and just see what it will sound like. But if I were to replace the rear speakers they would probably have to be 6x8 speakers because I read there are mounting issues with 6.5-inch speakers in the back. So what are some good 6x8's that provide very good bass? My friend has MB Quart 6x8s and they have very good bass but I'm trying to find out if there's anything else out there that can rival them.

Also I'm not sure what amp to go with. There is a compartment under the floor in the MX-3 that would serve as a perfect compartment for an amp. It wouldn't get much air though but the amps didn't get much air in the mustang either and I never had problems with them overheating. I'm thinking I'll go with a 4-channel amp. The PPI amps had audiophile quality sound but they had reliability issues. I had to take both amps in for servicing after a year of use. I'm going to need an amp with about 100W of output per channel at 4 ohms resistance.

I appreciate any help, thank you!

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[OlogyAudio 10+ year member]

Don't get too ahead of yourself -- you will need to find out if there is a built in EQ (or high pass filter)... to see if you are even getting an accurate full range signal out of the speaker level outs... If not your best bet is to find a qualified repair tech and have them defeat the factory EQ/filters... possibly connect pre level outs at this stage on the back of the factory head unit as well... Granted it is a bit costly it is still going to be cheaper than say a cleansweep more than likely and will do a better job... Then you can get a line driver if you want to boost the signal...

What is the budget asides from what should be done to the head unit?

 

[Justintoxicated 10+ year member]

Thats how my Titan was too, 5 disc CD changer and controlls etc all integrated into the dash. Ended up jsut going with the dash kit in the end because it just was not possible to get a good signal from the stock HU. The stock Hu was only putting out about 6-8 watts per channel @ 2 ohms.

I really was going to g with a clean sweep etc but ended up with the das kit.

If you pick the right HU it should not look out of place at all! Hell it would be cheaper to buy the dash kit and modify it with bondo and paint it to match to make it perfect. Even with the best adapters in the world I doubt I could get the sound coming out of my eclipse HU, plus I would be stuck with no MP3 playback (comes on 06 titans though) and no time alignment or active crossovers.

Got a PAC-SWI-X to work with it after some trial and error IR Led placement so as to retain my steering wheel controlls.

Just something to think about...There are a few different dash kits for my truck some look better than others. The ones on Ebay and crutchfield were pretty shitty, I use a OEM Bezel and Metra mount and it came out great.

 

[KingDiamond 10+ year member]

Well I looked at what some guys have done on Mazda3forums.com and some guys have interesting setups. They recommended that I just use a line-out converter and run a 4 channel amp to some good components and rear speakers, basically the same thing I was thinking. Some guys also built in an 8-inch subwoofer into the wall in the hatch area, but I'm not sure how much that would help bass wise, any idea? Besides the JL 8W7 what's a good 8-inch sub with really good excursion and sound quality?

Also from what some users on the mx-3 forum have tested, the output on the stock headunit is about 23 to 25 watts per channel.

I'm going to find out about the EQ though.