Radio / Speakers on CX-5 SPORT model

[hollis]

sixspeed, isnt that blocking the rear under the seat vents ? or did you re-route them some how?

I figured out I am able fit my RF 360.6 amp under driver seat, just barely. Kind of thrilled since it wouldnt fit under passenger seat nor in the spare tire. I am going to mount it elevated on top of a cross beam right in the center. Still allows rear passengers to slip feet under driver seat and doesnt interfere with the seat height adjustment. Should be very stealthy, barely able to tell it has an after market setup.

I am now leaning toward option 2. its simpler to install, less timing tuning the dash and front doors speakers to sound right ( running them in parallel off 2 channels or having to run the dash on stock radio and front doors off amp), running all speakers from same amp at same ohms is simpler and less distortion then running them in 2 ohms, wife oddy has tweeter in dash and sounds good for stock system.

Has anyone ever seen 3.5" to 1" speaker adapters?
otherwise I will just cut the templates provided.

 

[sixspeed]

subwoofer under the passenger front seat

Huh? Are there vents under the seat? Me no seeum.

 

[nizzy1115]

Mine has them for the feet of the rear passengers. Not sure if your rubber mat is clogging them up. Its a plastic tube.

 

[cmceleste]

How are you guys wiring the amp to the factory stereo?

 

[hollis]

How are you guys wiring the amp to the factory stereo?

PAC TR-4 (tr4) Amplifier/Amp Remote Turn-on Module, its only about $15. It uses radio speaker activity to trigger a 2A load into the amp. This means you will need to connect a 12V + and - to this unit as well.

I am in the process of ordering my parts now and did some looking around to see how hard its going to be running the wiring. the most difficult seems to be the front door hing rubber boot. Mazda uses plug in connector module between the doors and body of the car, so need to be crafty on how to route your wires through these.

 

[hollis]

Well I ordered the JL Audio speakers after listening to Polk Audios (decent but no wow factor), Alpine Type S/R (Too bright for me), all Focals (crap at low end and way overpriced at mid/high end), and other minor brands. JLs had the most mid-bass easily, best staging, softer dome tweeters, very good separation, and just more natural sounding to my ear. I did listen to higher end JLs C5 series, yes they were nicer but double the price. Not worth going from 9/10 rating to say 9.2/10 for 2X the price.

I went with JL Audio C2-650, 2 way components for the front and JL Audio C2-650x, co-axials for the rear. Going to use the dash stock speaker location to mount the tweeters in from the 2 way components. There only 0.25" more in depth then the db651 polks other installed, so depth shouldnt be a factor.

Now hope they sound as soon as the 3 places I listened them too in the car. Should have time to install in the next 2 weeks.

 

[centralpa cx5]

C2s

The JLs are a great speaker, ran the 525 in my 3. Prefer soft domes but the Focal tweet warms up once it gets some break-in time. Have found that to be the case with my home setup as well.

 

[mclark999]

I replaced front door speaker with after market 6.5" triaxials. Much cleaner sound and hardest part was getting door panel back on.

Looks like there is room for 8" speakers if I add a layer or two of 3/4" mdf. I ordered a pair today.

If you are replacing door speakers definitely take the time to add some sound deadener to the doors. They need it! I'll post a separate thread with pics for the 8" install.

 

[centralpa cx5]

An 8 will fit in the front door

I am running the Focal IS200s in the door (plenty of clearance). A local shop fabricated an adapter which made install easy. Definately use sound deadening regardless of speaker size.

 

[xsproutx]

FYI, there isn't anything in "J" for our cars, but "R" works just as well

centralpa cx5,
PAC module might not be necessary.

If you look at the radio pin out, "J" is designed for remote amp turn-on. Just cant verify its active on the base radio. The radio wiring schematic pdf posted has a "*" for the pin out. so might not exist for this radio. Worth taking a volt meter to try it out.

View attachment 194845

 

[hollis]

the issue with using "R" which is IGNITION is that your amp will be always on whenever you have the car in standby (IGN) or Running even if you dont have the radio on

 

[hollis]

Can someone verify the wiring color coding for the speakers?

from CX-5 Wiring Diagram PDF:

Front Left (including tweeter/dash) + Brown (BR), - Green (G)
Front Right (including tweeter/dash) + Blue(L) , - Light Green (LG)
Rear Left + Red with Yellow strip (R/Y), - Blue with White strip (L/W),
Rear Right+ Red with Blue strip (R/L), - Blue with Yellow strip (L/Y)

This shows a code for the color of the wire in Nissan, assume this should be industry standard:
B = Black
W = White
R = Red
G = Green
L = Blue
Y = Yellow
LG = Light Green
BR = Brown
OR = Orange
P = Pink
PU = Purple
GY = Gray
SB = Sky Blue
CH = Dark Brown
DG = Dark Green

When the wire color is striped, the base color is given first, followed by the stripe color as
shown below:
Example: L/W = Blue with White Stripe

 

[xsproutx]

the issue with using "J" which is IGNITION is that your amp will be always on whenever you have the car in standby (IGN) or Running even if you dont have the radio on

This is true, but why would you have the car in standby if you're not listening to the radio? There really isn't much a point and, even if there is, the amps use next to no power when they're not actually doing anything.

 

[mclark999]

I am running the Focal IS200s in the door (plenty of clearance). A local shop fabricated an adapter which made install easy. Definately use sound deadening regardless of speaker size.

Did you put the Focal 8" in both the front and back doors or just the front? I haven't opened the back door panels yet and am wondering what size speaker will fit.

 

[nizzy1115]

I am running the Focal IS200s in the door (plenty of clearance). A local shop fabricated an adapter which made install easy. Definately use sound deadening regardless of speaker size.

Did you put the Focal 8" in both the front and back doors or just the front? I haven't opened the back door panels yet and am wondering what size speaker will fit.

Please look at my posts and pictures. Fronts could accept up to 9" like the bose model has but the backs are smaller. 6.5 should be max.

 

[centralpa cx5]

IS200s

I replaced the fronts only. The rears are oem on deck power. Not a fan of rear speakers as they provide rear fill only. If you run a setup with DSP that is entirely different, though. Music is typically coded as 2-channel stereo so rear speakers only serve those sitting in the back. Only my Golden Retriever sits back there, pretty sure he could care less.

 

[cmceleste]

Finally put the dash speakers in! I also went with the JL's posted previously. They fit fine, a little tight, as the mounting depth was a big large. It sounds much clearer and I can tweak the sound settings differently with clearer mids and highs. Im pretty satisfied overall so far.

The stock door speakers are just way too muddled without any definition and the bass is terrible at higher volumes too. Are you all finding that changing the door speakers makes it that much better? Any other advice that wasn't mentioned? Thanks

 

[cmceleste]

Can someone verify the wiring color coding for the speakers?

from CX-5 Wiring Diagram PDF:

Front Left (including tweeter/dash) + Brown (BR), - Green (G)
Front Right (including tweeter/dash) + Blue(L) , - Light Green (LG)

BTW This is accurate in the dash.

 

[milkyxj]

I replaced front door speaker with after market 6.5" triaxials. Much cleaner sound and hardest part was getting door panel back on.

Looks like there is room for 8" speakers if I add a layer or two of 3/4" mdf. I ordered a pair today.

If you are replacing door speakers definitely take the time to add some sound deadener to the doors. They need it! I'll post a separate thread with pics for the 8" install.

Any news on doing the 8" speakers in the front doors?

 

[hollis]

Well just an update for my audio upgrade.

Items installed/used:

stock CX-5 manual Sport radio (non 5.8" display)
Fronts: C2-650 JL Audio C2-650 6.5" Component Car Speakers w/ Adjustable Crossovers
Rears: C2-650X Pair JL Audio C2-650X 6.5" 200 Watt Car Stereo Speakers with Silk Dome Tweeters
(2) PAC SNI-35 ADJUSTABLE LINE OUTPUT CONVERTER W/ VARIABLE LOC LEVEL RCA SNI35
(1) PAC TR-4 (tr4) Amplifier/Amp Remote Turn-on Module
Audio Technix B-Stock 50 sq ft 60 mil (Sound_Deadener)
Under layment Whisper Quiet sound proofing material
Rockford Fosgate 360.6 AMP 6 channel
Kicker Solobaric 8" self contained sub

Things done:

- The sound deadener was put on the 4 door panels, both outer and inner parts, the tailgate, rear corner panels and truck floor... even the gas cap and the back of the rear license plate. The panels really feel solid now. The sound deadener took about the longest of all the things! I mean it took about 3hrs per front door, 2hrs per rear door, 2hrs for tailgate, 3hrs for truck. I removed plastic panels rear seats back, thats were a bit of time went too. For the door panels, I removed the inside black panel piece that holds the window motor and glass. The process cut up my hands quite abit with this stuff, the edges are thin aluminum and most metal framing in the car has sharp edging. The stuff did make a big difference in reducing metal resonance and giving more luxury feel.

- installed the under layment in the tailgate and around the truck floor/rear fenders/spare tire. There is actually noise sound proofing material under the spare tire, but it really should have been over the entire truck area. This was quick 2 hrs using 3M 90 Hi adhesive spray to places that were already accessible. When going over rail tracks or large bumps, it is near silent. Overall highway noise has been way reduced

- Decided on using 2 way components in the fronts, 6.5" in the front doors and tweeters in stock dash location. The speakers were too wide in diameter to use stock speaker brackets as is, so had to remove the outer plastic flange and used some of the sound deadener to make it air tight. In the dash, I used the stock speaker plastic templates to install JL audio tweeater in flush position. For the rears, just JLs co-axials and modded the rear stock brackets as well.

- I decided not to run new 16 gauge speaker wire from amp to door panels, the door boot were so tight it wasnt worth the extra time to do it.

So this is how the audio is running for say Front Left side:

Stock Radio ==> Cut in wire next to inside fuse box ==> (Front) PAC SNI-35 ADJUSTABLE LINE OUTPUT CONVERTER ==> AMP ===> JL Front Left crossover ==> Splits back to stock wire next to inside fuse box for door 6.5" speaker and the straight to the dash tweeters.

If you break a door trim fastener, no big deal the mazda part number is GJ6A-68-AB1 their about $1/each, just broke 3 in the whole install.

Things not finished:

-mount the amp under driver seat (not on the floor)
-route the rear sub wire to the amp under the carpet
-install PAC ground loop 3.5mm filter (just ordered it) - getting some electric feedback noise from my cellphone being plugged into the 12V outlet
-adjust the gains on speakers, amp crossover, etc
-put back the plastic panels

In the middle of the install, I got a double ear infection so its been taking a bit longer then expected to finish.

Still have some clean up work but here are some pictures.

Rear Right side, new JL audio speaker in stock bracket with sound deadener
new sound proofing installed in trunk area
new sound proofing installed in tailgate area
JL audio tweeter being mounted in stock templates from dash
fit checking JL audio tweeter in dash