Mazda Protege5 head unit and speaker upgrades! HELP

Hello
I'm looking to upgrade the sound system in my Protege5, I already bought a pair of Pioneer 6X8 speakers for the front doors, a wiring kit, and a BOSS subwoofer amp for a small 8" kicker in the trunk. What I am wondering though is whether or not the stock P5 head unit is actually part of the problem when it comes to the bad sound quality, would I have been better off buying a better amp, rather than better speakers? What's everyone's experience with the P5 head unit? How much of a difference will better speakers alone make? All comments and advice welcome!

Best regards, Caleb

Speakers will help but the stock HU only puts out about 15w per channel. Any aftermarket HU you get will put out 45-50w per channel which will make an enormous difference. You can amp the speakers as well after you upgrade the HU but I would not expect much from a stock stereo especially one that is now 13 years old.

Absolutely ditch the stock unit. Even a cheap aftermarket will be night and day, although they do not produce what the manufacturers claim. 50 claimed watts from a head unit and 50 actual watts from an amplifier are not equal, the amp will sound better every time. Most headunits have a 15 or 20 amp fuse, that limits their theoretical capability to ~40 watts at the maximum.

You can get a pretty decent 4 channel amp for nothing these days (bridge the rear two to run the subwoofer), or you could get another two channel amp and run it with the one you already have.

The stock HU is just too easy to upgrade on these. No good reason to keep it.

P5 speakers are 5x7. 6.5s are probably your best bet. Round speakers not only sound better but you'll have tons more choices. Any installer should have some adapters, or you can make a couple outta some particle board. 6x8s can be made to fit though if you're set on those.

And I agree about the head unit. These days, unless you want touch-screen nav and back up cameras, it's hard to spend more than $300 on a head unit. That 300 will get you a MUCH better head unit than you think. I couldn't believe how nice my 200 dollar Alpine is.
Another thing I bought and love is an infinity Basslink. A basslink is a self powered 8" subwoofer than fits in the rear hatch. It takes up 1 square foot of space and made a huge difference in my P5. No bumping the neighborhood, but the SQ is definitely there.

I definitely do not regret getting an amp with my head unit. Makes a big difference in my opinion. I was able to put the amp underneath the drivers seat for a nice stealthy install.

Luken10 said:

I definitely do not regret getting an amp with my head unit. Makes a big difference in my opinion. I was able to put the amp underneath the drivers seat for a nice stealthy install.

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I added a pair of three way pioneers in the front, two way pioneers in the back (new, ebay), pioneer AVIC U-310BT nav radio off of ebay used, Kenwood KAC 4 channel micro amp behind the dash (best buy, open box) and a bazooka amplified sub in the hatch (ebay). Didn't spend too much and now she's rockin pretty good! You can do quite a bit with a P5 audiowise, from mild to wild depending on how loud and how much!