After market stereo speakers

MX5PWR · Post by **MX5PWR** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 11:37 am

Hi Steph, congratulations on your wise purchase.

I wouldn't try putting them in the doors. I know of several people who have
put 6x9 speakers in the rear shelf behind the seats. (I have 6 1/2 inch
speakers there). If you lift the carpet that covers the shelf you will see
that there is pressed metal plate that is bolted in place. At each side there
is a gap under this cover which means that you can cut out a hole that will
take your speakers. It is a tight fit but with a bit of juggling can be done
ok. It is ok to cut that shelf as it is not a structural part of the car, but
don't cut into any of the body as you can then have trouble with warrants.

Alternatively, sell the 6x9's and get a pair of good quality 6 1/2 inch
speakers for the doors.

Good luck and have fun.

Nigel

karlncas · Post by **karlncas** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 6:26 pm

Hi,

Try lifting the carpet behind the seats and you will find a panel that is
easily removed, you can cut holes in this if you wish to and mount them
either facing forward or upwards, mine face forward ut I now wish they faced
upwards,advantages to this are that the piece of metal the holes are cut
into are easily replaced if you want to reverse this. The carpet can either
be cut or you can put it back over the top for that stelth effect so no one
will see them and not therefore encourage a break in

Karl and cass Blumenthal

_____

From: e-admin@mx5club.org.nz [mailto:e-admin@mx5club.org.nz] On Behalf Of
Steph Bond
Sent: Sunday, 10 April 2005 10:33 a.m.
To: mx5list@mx5club.org.nz
Subject: After market stereo speakers

Hi everyone,

I purchased an MX5 several weeks ago and am wanting to put in an after
market stereo that I already have. The problem is I have 6 x 9 size speakers
and don't know where to put them?! Is putting them where the speakers in the
doors already are the only option? Has anyone else fitted larger speakers
into an MX5, if so, where did you put them?! Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Steph.

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poison · Post by **poison** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 7:57 pm

I agree with this idea, I put components into my car and get plenty of treble
now but lack mid range big time as it's all down in the footwells and lost in
the wind. I have a sub in the boot but just can't seem to get enough mid. I'm
looking at the 6x9 idea in the rear shelf. the only issue is with the roof
down I have a cover over it and worry this will muffle the sound too much...
experience anyone please...

Cheers
Gazza

"PO1SON"

Colin · Post by **Colin** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 8:30 am

I have tried so many variations in the past.
The set up I have now is this:

Alpine head unit MP3 etc ...lovely. Not bought from a parallel importer.
Alpine amp in the boot.
6 x 9 in the doors. These are Blaupunkt tri axial dual voice coil speakers.
The dual voice coil means you can drive the bass much harder and run them both
from the amp separately. The headrests have 3 inch coaxial Blaupunkts. A pair
in each. Driven off the head unit. No speakers in the rear.

Some of the people that went to Manfield training will remember how hard this
simple system goes. At 100 kph it is astonishing. Very full and with plenty of
adjustment for taste left. Oh yeah and very loud.

Speakers in the back shelf work ok. Not good ,just ok. Your right about the
muffling of the sound. Even when the felt etc is removed. The cover and in my
case the draftstop that fills the width of the car and sits on the presstuds
doesn't help. I have had the 6x9, some 6 inch free to air subs ( I know,they
work better than they should) 8 inch coaxials, and many combinations of fronts
and headrest.

The current system is by a country mile the best both in quality and volume.

A good basic system can be had by leaving the standard head unit and headrest
speakers in. Buy a good quality amp and very good quality coaxial speakers for
the doors. I started with 6 inch. This works very well and is a relatively
inexpensive upgrade.

The quality level I am talking about is not to my knowledge available form dse
or jaycar.

As a last note, I battled with this for years by myself. Messing about with it
in the garage on winters nights became a regular thing. This last system I got
professional help with. Malcolm Campbell of Hutt Car Stereo and Alarm
Specialists.

His advice and installation skills are awesome.

Come on Gazza... come up here to Kapiti and have a listen. Oh and bring your
favourite cd.

Smiles
Colin

Doug Matheson · Post by **Doug Matheson** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:11 am

Does the Bose C.D player come standard in the N.B mk2 ?. Is it any good?
I took a 98 for a test drive and it had a Bose, didn't test it out much at the
time, more interested in the car. But I would have thought Bose was a pretty
good brand and if you had one already in the car there would be no need for an
after market unit.
Any comments anyone?
Doug

Tim Chu · Post by **Tim Chu** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:30 am

Hi Doug,

Yip I'm pretty sure the Mk2 NB came with the Bose as standard.

I've got a 98 NB that came with the standard single din Bose head-deck and
amplifier/speaker combination. I keep hearing off all the problems that
people have with the Bose unit and have never experienced these problems
myself. I thought the standard setup was pretty good as a factory unit.

I upgraded my Bose head-deck (coz I wanted an MP3 capable unit) to an Alpine
CDA-9835 (bloody excellent head-deck if you ask me) and left the rest of the
setup as is from the factory. After changing the head-deck I did notice a
much greater increase in the sound quality (loudness, clarity with the bass
and treble) and its pretty bassy to the point where I don't need a sub in my
car. The output of the head-deck is 60W x 4 RMS (where as most are only 50W
x 4 or 52W x 4) and you can change the settings of the head-deck so that
most of the bass goes to the woofer and the treble to the tweeter for even
greater quality, so that might have something to do with it as well.

The one thing I did notice though as that I don't have to turn up the volume
on the head-deck very far to get it very loud. But that's probably just
something to do with an incompatiblity between the Alpine head-deck and the
Bose speaker/amplifiers.

Overall I thought the factory Bose speakers and amplifier do a pretty good
job. But it seems that my opinion is totally different from what I've read
here and in other forums on the quality of the Bose setup...maybe it's the
music I listen to or my hearing is shot!!!

Tim
"TIMMAY" - 98 RS

________________________________

From: e-admin@mx5club.org.nz [mailto:e-admin@mx5club.org.nz] On Behalf Of
Doug Matheson
Sent: Tuesday, 12 April 2005 10:11 a.m.
To: MX5List
Subject: Re: After market stereo speakers

Does the Bose C.D player come standard in the N.B mk2 ?. Is it any good?
I took a 98 for a test drive and it had a Bose, didn't test it out much at
the time, more interested in the car. But I would have thought Bose was a
pretty good brand and if you had one already in the car there would be no
need for an after market unit.
Any comments anyone?
Doug

Post by **zorruno** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:36 am

on 12/04/2005 8:30 a.m. colin wrote:

6 x 9 in the doors. These are Blaupunkt tri axial dual voice coil
speakers. The dual voice coil means you can drive the bass much harder
and run them both from the amp separately.

Do you run a four channel amp just for the 6x9s with each coil driven
seperately?

Speakers in the back shelf work ok. Not good ,just ok. Your right about
the muffling of the sound. Even when the felt etc is removed.

personally I'd never put anything but a bass driver in the back shelf.
Seems a bit of a waste to me having sound coming from behind you (which
is one of the reasons why I don't like headrest speakers... but that's
another story!). An 8" will fit - just, and you can obviously have one
on each side. Needs metal cutting, but there is a good howto on the net
somewhere. Output is nowhere near as good as from an enclosed/tuned
box, but doesn't steal any room from your boot - which is a bit precious
in an MX5.

The quality level I am talking about is not to my knowledge available
form dse or jaycar.

The re-sponse branded speakers from Jaycar are pretty good for their
price, and have been compared with speakers over twice the price from
many audio stores. They don't seem to have the product range they used
to though.

I couldn't really recommend any speakers from DSE. They have cheap
electronics these days though, and have good warranty/repair support and
a great returns policy.

As for getting more midrange Gazza, the best thing to do is more
power... larger amp &/or more efficient speakers. And if the treble is
overpowering the rest, you can either put an attenuator in series, build
a better crossover, or what I'd do is move the tweeter to the footwells
(but there is another long story in there too...)

cheers
zorruno

Colin · Post by **Colin** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 12:39 pm

Yes , I should have said that. It is indeed a four channel amp. Two
channels to one coil each speaker and two to the other.
Dse do have cheap electronics and gadgets. I bought a telly, 20 inch
flat screen last year. Dse branded and 229 dollars. It is excellent
value.

Cheers
Colin

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 6:04 pm

Not all NBs have the Bose system unless they are a higher spec or have been
added as an option. My 1998 NB had the Bose head with amplifier and 8"
speakers plus tweeters in the doors. I didn't like the sound at all,
especially on the radio when receiving AM. I use AM a lot so that is
important to me. The AM sound was very low quality with speech being almost
unintelligible. FM reception was ok but not as good as many others I have
used. Also, a band expander would be required and these still will not give
the full 20MHz frequency coverage required. I also wanted MP3 / WMA
capability as well so the Bose unit had to go. There is no provision for the
Bose to drive rear speakers if you wanted to fit some.
Replacing the head unit with an aftermarket unit is very easy, however you
can't easily use the Bose speaker / amplifier system as the amplifier uses a
balanced input requiring an interface between your new head unit and the
amplifier. Using the Bose speakers direct to the new head unit is also not
an option as the 8" speakers are only 0.5 ohm impedance. Most head units or
other amplifiers require 4 ohm load. The tweeters are normal 4 ohm units so
you can use them.
The replacement (JVC in my case) has much improved audio quality, better FM
receiver and vastly better AM receiver than the Bose unit. The MP3 playback
works very well. I installed a pair of rather cheap and nasty Boschman 6.5"
speakers with a suitable mounting adaptor in the doors. Even with these
speakers the effort was well worth it. I would like to use much better
speakers, maybe 6x9 if they will fit, to improve the bass response.
The original speaker wiring to the doors is very small so I wonder how the
Bose amplifier ever managed to get any decent volume from the 0.5 ohm
speakers. The losses in the wiring at that low impedance would be quite
high. I intend rewiring the door speakers with heavier wire as well.
I chose the JVC unit for two main reasons:
1/ I wanted a rotary volume control (I hate push button volume controls!)
2/ I wanted an audio attenuator button, something I use a lot.

Grant.

Stevo · Post by **Stevo** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 8:09 pm

I have the 98 NB also with Bose system but my head unit has cd player, tape
player, AM/FM radio, TV system and Navigation system. The latter 2 dont work
in NZ yet but overall I rate the sounds as rather good. It also has a 6 disc
Panasonic CD Changer in the boot that has stopped working. Does anyone know of
a good repairer in Tauranga area that could have a look at it for me?.
Also as I have just moved to Tauranga, can anyone suggest a good garage for
servicing. Cheers Stevo

EricW · Post by **EricW** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 9:07 pm

It seems this debate about stereo heads has been going on for ever, which,
considering it is a sports car, and we normally drive "Top Down" with all the
attendant wind noise, seems just slightly strange.

However, for your delictation, may I recall a song which dates from the 1950s,
it has a message for us all.

Hi Fid el ity,
Hi Fi's the thing for me
All the loudest notes neither Sharp nor Flat
The ear can't hear as well as that
Still, I ought to impress some passing Bat
With my Hi Fid el ity!

Hi Decibel Gain
Is easy to obtain
I've a tone control with a single touch
Grand Opera sounds like Double Dutch
But I never did care for Music much,
It's the Hi Fid el ity!

(Flanders & Swann, "A Song of Reproduction" 1958)

Have a pleasant evening

Eric

Colin · Post by **Colin** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 9:57 pm

That's a bit of top quality recalling going on there!
Smiles
Colin

Simon Lord · Post by **Simon Lord** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 6:56 am

Eric, Flanders and Swan indeed - you're showing our age! Haven't we moved on a
long way from the 97 'orsepower omnibus?

Simon

EricW · Post by **EricW** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 8:54 pm

Simon,Calm down and have some Madeira My Dear!

Eric

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Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 14:02:12 +1200
From: Mike McCready <m.mccready@gmail.com>
To: mx5list@mx5club.org.nz
Subject: Headrest speakers
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Hi,
Just wondering if anyone has put headrest speakers into a mk1
mx-5, i can see that the headrest has the space for them, but not sure
what speakers to get, and from where. I did find this site:
http://www.clearwateraudio.com/headrest.htm which makes the speakers
specifically for the mx-5 but they are based in the states. Any help
would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

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