Let's make some things clear from the start:
- I come from - what they call "old-school" - SQ background where car audio installation was more about making things rather than shopping Crutchfield for adapters.
- The systems that I have built personally have been built around front components rather than a subwoofer.
- In my previous builts mid-bass speakers have been picked specifically for the SEALED ENCLOSURE installation and sealed enclosures have been made either on the floor (from under the seats) or right on the doors. I never believed in "into the door" speakers installation and I still don't. If that last sentence goes way beyond of what you can comprehend in terms of "car audio installation" - you should probably quit reading this thread altogether.
With my previous car - 2nd gen Mazda 6 - the memory of the endless quests for perfect sound was probably so fresh that I ended up doing absolutely nothing to the factory system - it was acceptable and always justifiable by "who cares - given that we're feeding it a digitally-severed data over a wireless interface?".
Fast forward a few years, here I am - traded in the 6 for a mid-trim 2016.5 CX-5. This is the non-BOSE sound system, but with a full-blown head-unit with GPS and all the yada-yada... After the initial euphoria from the new car's smell, I quickly realized that the stock audio isn't worth a rat's a$$. But, I really didn't feel like going in the whole nine yards - re-building everything - especially considering how deeply the stock head unit is tied in.
With that said - I decided to go (what I though) the easy way, and only replace the speakers without proper door prepping and such, after all - I don't listen my music that loud...(boom07)
My choice of components was dictated by:
-availability (I'm in Canada)
-high sensitivity (over 93db)
-acceptable budget (there's really no use in getting 500$ Focals if what these fed with is only as good as these flimsy speaker wires coming out of the god-knows-what-tuned-for stock head unit.
Basically I just wanted to make things more acceptable. So after some searching and getting up to speed with the current aftermarket car audio market I've ordered a set of JBL's "factory replacement" components. Separate GX600C for the front and coaxials GX602 for the back, both in 6.5". If my understanding is correct - these are the face-lifted GTO-s from the years back and they are the twin-brothers of what Infinity sells as the Reference series. I was choosing between the GBL-s and Hertz DSK-s, but went with JBL-s since they were cheaper and have a lower impedance - 2.3ohms vs the usual 4.
In retrospect I kinda regretted my choice since Hertz HSK-s are apparently easier to install using the OEM pods.
I don't want to bore everybody with the step-by step process, so I'll try to keep it short:
My first install attempt half-failed since I tried to re-use the factory pods, but it came out very un-ZEN (in all regards) to my liking. Not to mention that the coaxials in rear door ended up sitting too high and the tweeter was interfering with the trim's speaker "grills".
Part of the problem is that I can't keep my car disassembled - it's my daily driver. And another problems is - I totally forgot how time consuming that sh#t is.
The following (crappy weather) weekend I decided to make it "properly", so instead of trying to salvage the stock pods - I made new mounting plates out of 3/4" hard plastic.
Rears:
With 3/4" plates these tweeters still ended up a little too high and I had to route out another 3/8" to achieve proper clearance. It isn't as pretty anymore but it worked out perfectly:
Sorry, no "final" picture.
And another "bad weather" weekend later I had fronts re-done:
As you can see, front "pods" ended up being a little more interesting and yes - they are canted about 7-10degrees up and towards the listener. Not enough by any SQ standards but better than nothing.
Comparing to all that, mounting tweeters was a kid's play. OEM tweeter already ripped out:
These 3/4" screamers fit just perfectly, no trimming required:
Just some drilling + hardware:
If anyone who'd previously seen JBL's included tweeter brackets - is wondering why I trimmed the upper tabs and used the bottom ones - it basically comes down to pushing vs pulling... A subtile, but very important difference.
Here comes the fun part - wiring!!!
Premises:
-It is quasi-impossible to pass new wires into and from the door
-Both - mid-bass and tweeters have to be connected through crossovers. This is how things are supposed to be. You can't only use crossovers with either one. Unless you have a set of spare crossovers with same setting - then everything is slightly easier.
Sooooo after wasting about 4 hours trying to figure out that it's near-impossible to pass new wires into the doors, only cutting one wrong pair of wires of the OEM harness with a a repair that followed - I found where to splice and tie in the crossovers:
It is'n an easy job, but it's very doable. B.t.w. tweeters are on new wires altogether and all wires have been soldered. As with most my installs - crossovers have found their places somewhere under the dash on a tab of velcro.
In the aftermath, the good:
-These JBL-s, for the price, comparing to the OEM "speakers" - they sound fuc@ing fantastic!!!!!
-JBL's tweeters are perfectly adequate to be bounced of the windshield from the factory locations. Like most 3/4" high-frequency drivers - these are kinda harsh even on the lower setting, but reflected - plenty good. I made a mistake of running these on the +3 setting the first couple of days, thinking that I've adjusted them into "-3" and that they are filled with sand. As it turned out - JBL crossovers only have a 0 and +3 settings. The stupid things we do in a rush....
-This particular install is by no means up to any SQ judgement, but given the nature of the content fed to these speakers - they are more than adequate. Staging is pretty decent b.t.w.
-Don't know if it's good or bad, but these particular component are kinda blunt unless played loud. It's hard to describe, perhaps they haven't broken in yet, but the sweet spot is around sound levels of 35 to about 45 (50 if you're a special mood). And that with no distortions!
The bad:
- These don't play very low, so don't expect any crazy bass levels.
- I hate door installs!!! Stupid doors have to be deadened to the death, and even then they resonate.
- I don't know if anybody realizes that, but these speaker "grills' in door trims are in fact screens that are blocking and trapping a solid amount of sound. As a result these trims are fuc@ing chanting... I highly doubt that I'll be able to beat that with deadening, so new pods (along with sound deadening) which will take the speakers on top of the trims are coming.
- JBL's installation hole diameter is a tad too small vs what the factory pod has, so even with the install ring - it's not exactly straight forward. If I had to do it again - I'd get the Hertz DSK - I gathered (from other Mazda3 and CX5 owners) that these go in a lot easier (if you want to keep the factory pods).
- 6.5" speakers into the rear doors is waste of money. What goes from the head unit into the back is severely cut up and down. I don't have the right microphone to measure it, but it feels like 500 to about 10k hz give or take. Nothing lower or above. So as far as I'm concerned, next time I'll be opening these rear trims, 6,5" coaxials will get replaced by plain, 4" wide-band speakers. After all - these are only there for the passengers and in over 15 years of car audio experience I haven't had a single person sitting in a back of my car who knew words like "sound staging" or "tonal balance".
- As it usually happens with most audio installs (if you do it yourself) - the further you go - the more you want. Initially I was planning to leave it at that... but now, having to put more work into the doors - my thinking goes "if I'll be taking all that crap apart - I might just as well throw in something better in terms of components and - perhaps - add an amp to it... So these gorgeous pods that I made, they might just pop up in the "for sale" section in a couple of weeks along with the speakers and all the hardware. On the other hand - I haven't achieved even 50% of what these speakers are capable of when installed properly - and I'm still in for some surprises with the doors properly done.
The biggest limitation to building anything more or less interesting - is the stock head unit with no proper AUX outputs and no real way of making them. These who don't know - when the trend of non-replaceable head-units has started - it was fairly easy to open these up and add a set of aux outputs just before the internal amp... but back then it was all analog vs today - where everything inside these head units is digital right up to the wire plug. I have consulted with some knowledgeable people though and the word is - once you get all your setting where you want it to be - you can safely set aside the stock unit and put anything your soul might desire...
Having used more expensive components in the past - I'm sort of surprised as to what can be achieved with more mainstream stuff. It wasn't said for nothing that proper installation makes up for 80% of the final result.
Sorry for the long post. Hopefully somebody will find it useful. If you need more details regarding any aspect of this - feel free to PM me.
- I come from - what they call "old-school" - SQ background where car audio installation was more about making things rather than shopping Crutchfield for adapters.
- The systems that I have built personally have been built around front components rather than a subwoofer.
- In my previous builts mid-bass speakers have been picked specifically for the SEALED ENCLOSURE installation and sealed enclosures have been made either on the floor (from under the seats) or right on the doors. I never believed in "into the door" speakers installation and I still don't. If that last sentence goes way beyond of what you can comprehend in terms of "car audio installation" - you should probably quit reading this thread altogether.
With my previous car - 2nd gen Mazda 6 - the memory of the endless quests for perfect sound was probably so fresh that I ended up doing absolutely nothing to the factory system - it was acceptable and always justifiable by "who cares - given that we're feeding it a digitally-severed data over a wireless interface?".
Fast forward a few years, here I am - traded in the 6 for a mid-trim 2016.5 CX-5. This is the non-BOSE sound system, but with a full-blown head-unit with GPS and all the yada-yada... After the initial euphoria from the new car's smell, I quickly realized that the stock audio isn't worth a rat's a$$. But, I really didn't feel like going in the whole nine yards - re-building everything - especially considering how deeply the stock head unit is tied in.
With that said - I decided to go (what I though) the easy way, and only replace the speakers without proper door prepping and such, after all - I don't listen my music that loud...(boom07)
My choice of components was dictated by:
-availability (I'm in Canada)
-high sensitivity (over 93db)
-acceptable budget (there's really no use in getting 500$ Focals if what these fed with is only as good as these flimsy speaker wires coming out of the god-knows-what-tuned-for stock head unit.
Basically I just wanted to make things more acceptable. So after some searching and getting up to speed with the current aftermarket car audio market I've ordered a set of JBL's "factory replacement" components. Separate GX600C for the front and coaxials GX602 for the back, both in 6.5". If my understanding is correct - these are the face-lifted GTO-s from the years back and they are the twin-brothers of what Infinity sells as the Reference series. I was choosing between the GBL-s and Hertz DSK-s, but went with JBL-s since they were cheaper and have a lower impedance - 2.3ohms vs the usual 4.
In retrospect I kinda regretted my choice since Hertz HSK-s are apparently easier to install using the OEM pods.
I don't want to bore everybody with the step-by step process, so I'll try to keep it short:
My first install attempt half-failed since I tried to re-use the factory pods, but it came out very un-ZEN (in all regards) to my liking. Not to mention that the coaxials in rear door ended up sitting too high and the tweeter was interfering with the trim's speaker "grills".
Part of the problem is that I can't keep my car disassembled - it's my daily driver. And another problems is - I totally forgot how time consuming that sh#t is.
The following (crappy weather) weekend I decided to make it "properly", so instead of trying to salvage the stock pods - I made new mounting plates out of 3/4" hard plastic.
Rears:
With 3/4" plates these tweeters still ended up a little too high and I had to route out another 3/8" to achieve proper clearance. It isn't as pretty anymore but it worked out perfectly:
Sorry, no "final" picture.
And another "bad weather" weekend later I had fronts re-done:
As you can see, front "pods" ended up being a little more interesting and yes - they are canted about 7-10degrees up and towards the listener. Not enough by any SQ standards but better than nothing.
Comparing to all that, mounting tweeters was a kid's play. OEM tweeter already ripped out:
These 3/4" screamers fit just perfectly, no trimming required:
Just some drilling + hardware:
If anyone who'd previously seen JBL's included tweeter brackets - is wondering why I trimmed the upper tabs and used the bottom ones - it basically comes down to pushing vs pulling... A subtile, but very important difference.
Here comes the fun part - wiring!!!
Premises:
-It is quasi-impossible to pass new wires into and from the door
-Both - mid-bass and tweeters have to be connected through crossovers. This is how things are supposed to be. You can't only use crossovers with either one. Unless you have a set of spare crossovers with same setting - then everything is slightly easier.
Sooooo after wasting about 4 hours trying to figure out that it's near-impossible to pass new wires into the doors, only cutting one wrong pair of wires of the OEM harness with a a repair that followed - I found where to splice and tie in the crossovers:
It is'n an easy job, but it's very doable. B.t.w. tweeters are on new wires altogether and all wires have been soldered. As with most my installs - crossovers have found their places somewhere under the dash on a tab of velcro.
In the aftermath, the good:
-These JBL-s, for the price, comparing to the OEM "speakers" - they sound fuc@ing fantastic!!!!!
-JBL's tweeters are perfectly adequate to be bounced of the windshield from the factory locations. Like most 3/4" high-frequency drivers - these are kinda harsh even on the lower setting, but reflected - plenty good. I made a mistake of running these on the +3 setting the first couple of days, thinking that I've adjusted them into "-3" and that they are filled with sand. As it turned out - JBL crossovers only have a 0 and +3 settings. The stupid things we do in a rush....
-This particular install is by no means up to any SQ judgement, but given the nature of the content fed to these speakers - they are more than adequate. Staging is pretty decent b.t.w.
-Don't know if it's good or bad, but these particular component are kinda blunt unless played loud. It's hard to describe, perhaps they haven't broken in yet, but the sweet spot is around sound levels of 35 to about 45 (50 if you're a special mood). And that with no distortions!
The bad:
- These don't play very low, so don't expect any crazy bass levels.
- I hate door installs!!! Stupid doors have to be deadened to the death, and even then they resonate.
- I don't know if anybody realizes that, but these speaker "grills' in door trims are in fact screens that are blocking and trapping a solid amount of sound. As a result these trims are fuc@ing chanting... I highly doubt that I'll be able to beat that with deadening, so new pods (along with sound deadening) which will take the speakers on top of the trims are coming.
- JBL's installation hole diameter is a tad too small vs what the factory pod has, so even with the install ring - it's not exactly straight forward. If I had to do it again - I'd get the Hertz DSK - I gathered (from other Mazda3 and CX5 owners) that these go in a lot easier (if you want to keep the factory pods).
- 6.5" speakers into the rear doors is waste of money. What goes from the head unit into the back is severely cut up and down. I don't have the right microphone to measure it, but it feels like 500 to about 10k hz give or take. Nothing lower or above. So as far as I'm concerned, next time I'll be opening these rear trims, 6,5" coaxials will get replaced by plain, 4" wide-band speakers. After all - these are only there for the passengers and in over 15 years of car audio experience I haven't had a single person sitting in a back of my car who knew words like "sound staging" or "tonal balance".
- As it usually happens with most audio installs (if you do it yourself) - the further you go - the more you want. Initially I was planning to leave it at that... but now, having to put more work into the doors - my thinking goes "if I'll be taking all that crap apart - I might just as well throw in something better in terms of components and - perhaps - add an amp to it... So these gorgeous pods that I made, they might just pop up in the "for sale" section in a couple of weeks along with the speakers and all the hardware. On the other hand - I haven't achieved even 50% of what these speakers are capable of when installed properly - and I'm still in for some surprises with the doors properly done.
The biggest limitation to building anything more or less interesting - is the stock head unit with no proper AUX outputs and no real way of making them. These who don't know - when the trend of non-replaceable head-units has started - it was fairly easy to open these up and add a set of aux outputs just before the internal amp... but back then it was all analog vs today - where everything inside these head units is digital right up to the wire plug. I have consulted with some knowledgeable people though and the word is - once you get all your setting where you want it to be - you can safely set aside the stock unit and put anything your soul might desire...
Having used more expensive components in the past - I'm sort of surprised as to what can be achieved with more mainstream stuff. It wasn't said for nothing that proper installation makes up for 80% of the final result.
Sorry for the long post. Hopefully somebody will find it useful. If you need more details regarding any aspect of this - feel free to PM me.
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