Hello boys and girls, I just like to share with you all my current car audio project for my bro's Mazda CX-5. I have to say, the CX-5 is a blast to work on, and I have to say the easiest I ever have to deal with.
After one week of listening to the basic audio system (fullrange+tweet fronts and full range rear), I have a fairly good idea of the speaker's behavior. Seems to me the midbass is very dominant, which is good because finding a good bass can be a daunting task. I decided to retain the standard head unit aswell, as my brother likes using bluetooth streaming audio, phone etc etc - not to mention it controls interior lighting and some other stuff in there. But it doesn't seems to be able to go that loud...
Anyhow, the process is very simple to do in this car, and I believe it has been discussed in this forum of how to access the head unit by removing the dash/air-con vent panel.
And this is the beauty and the beast processor:
A bit about MS8 for those who don't know. It is a processor which is able to do autotune and autoeq. It features incredibly smart Logic7 algorithm to recreate space inside your car for that lifelike sound performance. It is designed to to tackle today's car with integrated headunit, which sometimes replacing it is just not an option; therefore MS8 can accept hi-level signal as its signal source. What's that? Hi-level signal? Ok, hi-level signal just means you no longer need to use RCA cables commonly found on aftermarket head unit, and that means you can just use the speaker cable from the standard head unit as its signal source.
Anyhow, cut to the chase.
Since my bro's CX-5 is right hand drive, I took a quick peek from under the passenger footwell and found a huge rubber grommet with a small hole on it already (no, is not defect, is just...looks like its prepared for guys like me). So I removed the battery and confirmed it leads to the engine bay. I simply pull out the grommet and poke a hole from the engine bay side and easily guide 4awg wire to exit from the hole I mentioned above. I should've taken picture on that tiny hole, my bad.
Now that bit is done, I simply find a bolt big enough to secure my equally sized 4awg ground wire's ring terminal.
I then cut the std head unit's wiring harness only for the speakers and 12v+. MS8 only needs 2 signal wires, and just grab the front left and right signal from the headunit, wire it back to MS8's input harness. The from MS8 output harness, simply wire it to the std head unit's harness which goes to the speaker. Obviously. And wire MS8's remote turn on signal to the 12v+ cable.
Then it looks like this:
and this
And sounded like this (you can view it in 720HD):
And it sounded very good for what it is! I high-passed the front at 30hz/24db while the rear at 100hz/24db.
The standard speakers are on its limits, and depending on the songs I rather not go beyond 40/60 volume. But the bass is strong and not breaking up though! My brother thought I added a subwoofer; well not yet, but there will be one this weekend!
After one week of listening to the basic audio system (fullrange+tweet fronts and full range rear), I have a fairly good idea of the speaker's behavior. Seems to me the midbass is very dominant, which is good because finding a good bass can be a daunting task. I decided to retain the standard head unit aswell, as my brother likes using bluetooth streaming audio, phone etc etc - not to mention it controls interior lighting and some other stuff in there. But it doesn't seems to be able to go that loud...
Anyhow, the process is very simple to do in this car, and I believe it has been discussed in this forum of how to access the head unit by removing the dash/air-con vent panel.
And this is the beauty and the beast processor:
A bit about MS8 for those who don't know. It is a processor which is able to do autotune and autoeq. It features incredibly smart Logic7 algorithm to recreate space inside your car for that lifelike sound performance. It is designed to to tackle today's car with integrated headunit, which sometimes replacing it is just not an option; therefore MS8 can accept hi-level signal as its signal source. What's that? Hi-level signal? Ok, hi-level signal just means you no longer need to use RCA cables commonly found on aftermarket head unit, and that means you can just use the speaker cable from the standard head unit as its signal source.
Anyhow, cut to the chase.
Since my bro's CX-5 is right hand drive, I took a quick peek from under the passenger footwell and found a huge rubber grommet with a small hole on it already (no, is not defect, is just...looks like its prepared for guys like me). So I removed the battery and confirmed it leads to the engine bay. I simply pull out the grommet and poke a hole from the engine bay side and easily guide 4awg wire to exit from the hole I mentioned above. I should've taken picture on that tiny hole, my bad.
Now that bit is done, I simply find a bolt big enough to secure my equally sized 4awg ground wire's ring terminal.
I then cut the std head unit's wiring harness only for the speakers and 12v+. MS8 only needs 2 signal wires, and just grab the front left and right signal from the headunit, wire it back to MS8's input harness. The from MS8 output harness, simply wire it to the std head unit's harness which goes to the speaker. Obviously. And wire MS8's remote turn on signal to the 12v+ cable.
Then it looks like this:
and this
And sounded like this (you can view it in 720HD):
And it sounded very good for what it is! I high-passed the front at 30hz/24db while the rear at 100hz/24db.
The standard speakers are on its limits, and depending on the songs I rather not go beyond 40/60 volume. But the bass is strong and not breaking up though! My brother thought I added a subwoofer; well not yet, but there will be one this weekend!