I purchased a new Mazda Select Sport a few months ago. I love the car but the car audio system is one of the worst I have heard. I am wondering if anyone here has done an upgrade on a 2024 model that doesn't have the Bose system? I checked Crutchfield and they show the only possible speaker fit would be 4" coaxials in front and rear. I have a 5 channel amp left over from my previous car so I am thinking of going with Focal Access coaxials and a sub in the trunk. I would love some feedback.
stevenjschenkel
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7 Posts
Since I haven't gotten any feedback yet I am going to be the guinea pig. Crutchfield says that to replace the speakers you cannot go larger than 4" speakers. I am going to work with my local shop Log into Facebook I always work with them. My previos car was a 2010 VW Jetta. I had Illusiion Audio 2-way components in the front and coaxials in the rear. I also had a Fi Car Audio sub in the trunk. This was powered by a JL Audio amp wich was 4 x50 watts plus 1 x 150. I had the shop pull the amp out of the old car and I hooked the speakers up directly to the head unit. So the amp and the sub will go in the Mazda. I plan on going with Focal Access 4" coaxials. I will follow up once it is done. I sure hope they can make the speakers fit.
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I just wanted to give an update. I used to build home loudspeakers back in the early 2,000's. My actions here have a lot to do with what I learned back then. The front doors of the Mazda 3 sedan will not accomodate any normal commercial speaker. I was able to put 4" coaxials in the rear. The front has been a process. I replaced the front tweeters with a 3/4 inch cloth dome tweeter. The door speaker is a challenge. The plastic enclosure in the door will handle at most a 3" speaker with a mounting depth of no more than 1.75" deep. I experimented with a couple of full range drivers from Parts Express. I designed my own crossover. It took about 3 tries to get that right. It all sounds good but not quite right. The upper midrange has what some speaker designers call a "shouting" sensation going on. Music like jazz and classical sound great! Some rock and music with strong female vocals come on too strong and make my ears hurt after a half an hour drive. One of the drivers I tried had an aluminum cone and the other a fiberglass cone that was filled with poly. The aluminum cone driver was pretty hard to listen to. The fiberglass driver much better. It just isn't good enough for me. None of the PE 3" drivers that will fit have a paper cone. I am thinking that paper might be just what it takes to mellow out my mids. Kicker makes a 2.75" midrange driver the KSC270 that sounds like it might work. I ordered it today. I will report back once I have it installed.
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7 Posts
It appears the 2024 is a different animal.
Attachments
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The tweeter is in the pillar. That is where Mazda located it. I didn't do the install. My installer did. They told me the door panel was too tight to put sound deadening in. Maybe they were being lazy. I wasn't there when they did it. I did choose the drivers and designed the crosssover though.
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Well you are more techie that I am. I am hoping that the new drivers will at least make things a little more mello. They arrive tomorrow.
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Well thanks to the fires they will arive later.
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