Mazda3 Forums banner

My stereo plan, need suggestion & help

829 Views 4 Replies 2 Participants Last post by  wetsuitxninja
Right now my stereo is just stock, and I have a Sony Xplode 500W amp sitting around that I bought from a member, the LOC that came with it was broken. Anyways, here is my plan:

1) Either keep the stock HU or get the OEM 2-Din touch screen DVD so that I can keep the steering wheel control. The only thing that's holding me back is that I don't want to wake up one morning to see my window smashed and dvd stolen.

2) Since the LOC is broken, I wonder if I can just use the high level input on the amp instead. Can anyone confirm this please?

3) I know 4-way speakers don't mean they are better than 2-way or 3-way but I like the idea of having tweeters / super tweeters since I don't listen to songs with heavy bass. I saw some Pioneer 4-way speakers on eBay for $80 shipped, seems like a good deal. I don't know if I should use the same 4-way speakers for front & rear. Any suggestion please?

I don't know too much about stereos but this is my guess, please correct me if I'm wrong.

1) Put the amp in the trunk and run a long power source from the battery and fuse it.
2) Run wire from the output of the HU all the way back to the amp.
3) Then run the speaker wires all the way to the front door & rear door speakers.
4) It seems like I won't need any RCA wires because there is nothing to plug them into, do I just use any kind of wire?
5) Where should I hide all these wires? Should I try to avoid power source along the way?

Thanks and hopefully I can get this done by myself, I'd like to learn and try this myself. Most importantly, I don't want to pay hundreds of dollars for some shop to install them.
1 - 3 of 5 Posts
Get a new loc, they are pretty cheap.

1) Thats totally up to you, get a lower deductable if you are that worried, and insure everything in the car.
2) ^
3) The more ways a speaker does, especially in a coaxile means its got that much more crap on it. Take 160 add another 100 and get a decent quality component set.

http://premier-audio.com/index.php?...s_id=1&zenid=35c2d7aa32ef9ac5b32048f7a6a54562

Im very happy with them.

Before these I had a set of pheonix gold xenon 6.5 comps that sounded pretty good too, and they were only like 100 bucks.
4)With the amp you will have RCA's from the loc to the amp.
5)With adding a sub its harder to get alt whine and ground loop noise, so dont stress that too much. With comps and an amp it gets alittle more likely due to extra wires and xovers, seems to be more sensative to that.

If you are just getting some new coax speakers, Look around for a GOOD set of 2 ways.
See less See more
Oh and IMO the hardest part of installing is setting plenty of time aside to get it done right the first time, its easier to have the door panels off and seats out and run the wires just once. Sucks having to do it all over again. Before you put everything together, test it out to make sure it works. Friends help out too for getting you stuff while you have your head buried under your glove box working a hole for your power wire, or in the back seat etc. :p Its fun and easy, just takes some time and a bit of patience.
Definately set aside a full day. That way you dont have to rush to piece it together if you have an obligation to be somewhere.

Go with the LOC and RCA, I dont know about using the high level input, never messed with them.
1 - 3 of 5 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top