Car Audio improvement ideas requested

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KS

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Car Audio improvement ideas requested
« on: 26 Sep 2016, 12:06 am »
I really like my G-R N2X and G-R servo sub.  I know you guys will have some good ideas for the car audio.

New Mazda CX-9 (like it a lot).  Bose OEM subwoofer...not so much.  Too much bass quantity, very little quality.  Boomy, muddy, etc.  Disappointing for a system designed for the car.  I know I can't get it close to the servo sub, but anything better than what it is will be a big improvement. 

I'm thinking of adding polyfill and maybe stick some anti-resonance material to the outside of the housing.  The housing sits in the middle of the spare tire.  The housing is about 15" diameter, 6" tall, 5-1/2" driver without a gasket under the flange, amp in the housing.  The driver cone faces the top cover with a 1/8" gap around the periphery for an outlet.  The back of the driver is in the enclosure with about a 12" long outlet duct. Any ideas, guys?  Parts Express Sonic Barrier Lightweight Vinyl Sound Damping Sheet???  Or?  1/2" thick fiberglass mat or something else above the cone and under the lid?









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Johnny2Bad

Re: Car Audio improvement ideas requested
« Reply #1 on: 26 Sep 2016, 12:46 am »
" ... I know you guys will have some good ideas for the car audio. ..."

I wish I had your confidence in our ability to help. Being a Mazda owner but mercifully blessed with a non-BOSE system from the factory, I have a very nice audio system in mine. However, those who have the same model but with the factory BOSE system don't report such great success.

I like Mazda vehicles but they have been married to the BOSE car audio systems for a long time (going back to the 1990's). The problem is, for one, it doesn't sound all that great to a discerning ear (but sounds great to the ordinary person) and for two, BOSE uses unconventional interfaces to achieve it's sound system objectives.

For example, although I don't know the exact parameters of your CX9's system, a typical BOSE approach would be to use very low impedance loudspeakers ... 1 ohm is not out of the question. In this way they achieve high power output (a 10w amp into 8 ohms is a 80w amp into 1 ohm, all things being equal)

BOSE is also fond of equalization to compensate for the inherent response of it's chosen drivers. So you often find you cannot simply replace the BOSE system drivers with other, higher quality units, as they are not fed a conventional flat frequency response signal.

The true solution with any integrated BOSE autosound system is to find the flat line level out, if it even exists, at the output of the head unit, and install your choice of power amplifier and loudspeakers. The problem is with the most modern vehicles you cannot always hack the sound system due to massive integration with the rest of the vehicle's electronics.

You would be best served by asking questions in a forum specific to the CX-9. That's where the options available to you will probably reveal themselves. You could then come back here once you are armed with the details of your CX-9's BOSE system, and then, maybe help could be offered. But without specific information to your year vehicle, we probably won't be much help here, as what we may suggest will often simply not work in a BOSE system.

Rocket

Re: Car Audio improvement ideas requested
« Reply #2 on: 26 Sep 2016, 01:19 am »
Hi,

I recently purchased a Mazda 2 and my wife has a Mazda 3, both, current models.  The factory units which are supplied in the Australian cars are pretty awful. I'm not sure of the brand though. I replaced the fronts with a good quality split system, a smallish digital amplifier and use a 10inch subwoofer in a box which is in the rear of the hatch.

I'm getting pretty good sound but it was quite expensive to do so.  I also added sound deadening in the front doors.

Cheers Rod

KS

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Re: Car Audio improvement ideas requested
« Reply #3 on: 26 Sep 2016, 05:42 am »
"You would be best served by asking questions in a forum specific to the CX-9"
But those guys don't know audio like the people here.  I'm not going to bother to change out the Bose system.  Other parts of the frequency range are good enough.  It's just the bass that is terrible.  I'll try fiberfill in the housing, some kind of anti-res on the box, maybe some kind of thin fiberglass mat under the top cover, and I can undo anything in case it makes things worse.  If anyone has any better ideas, I'm ready for them.

Danny was a big help to me when I upgraded some old Mission speakers at home.  He provided upgraded crossover parts and gave me damping advice.  I'm hoping for similar help with this Bose disappointment.  (Which should I buy for noise cancelling headphones for flying...Bose $250, Sony $150, or Monoprice $90 ?  Monoprice has good stuff at very fair prices.)

mcgsxr

Re: Car Audio improvement ideas requested
« Reply #4 on: 26 Sep 2016, 01:28 pm »
The fiber fill is a fairly well documented mod for the Mazda and Ford subs.  I have one in a 2013 Escape (Sony not BOSE) and may in the future try the mod.

Your only other approach would be to ditch the stock sub enclosure and fiberglass your own and use your own amp.

Your call if it is worth it.  I won't for the Escape personally.

nickd

Re: Car Audio improvement ideas requested
« Reply #5 on: 27 Sep 2016, 04:47 am »
My Son bought a used '99 Infinity I30 back in 2005 while in school. It came equipped with the Bose system. In a couple of months his heavy hand on the volume knob killed the left front speaker/amp module. Parts were crazy expensive.

I offered to "fix" the stereo for Christmas for him. After discussing options with the local car stereo shop, I went a bit large and installed a Alpine head unit., 6" woofers & soft dome tweeter separates in the front doors and 6" coax in the rear deck. 2 amps under the seat and a 10" JL sub in the trunk in a sealed wood box. $1400. Installed if I remember correctly.

It's 11 years later and he still has the car (and now a degree, career, wife, kids, dogs etc.). The car body is looking a bit rough, but the stereo still amazes me, him and anyone that goes for a ride. Better than most home rigs for sure. He never became an audiophile, but enjoys the commute for sure.

If you really want to LOVE driving that Mazda, Invest in a nice car rig and keep the car for a while.




gregfisk

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Re: Car Audio improvement ideas requested
« Reply #6 on: 27 Sep 2016, 07:27 am »
My Son bought a used '99 Infinity I30 back in 2005 while in school. It came equipped with the Bose system. In a couple of months his heavy hand on the volume knob killed the left front speaker/amp module. Parts were crazy expensive.

I offered to "fix" the stereo for Christmas for him. After discussing options with the local car stereo shop, I went a bit large and installed a Alpine head unit., 6" woofers & soft dome tweeter separates in the front doors and 6" coax in the rear deck. 2 amps under the seat and a 10" JL sub in the trunk in a sealed wood box. $1400. Installed if I remember correctly.

It's 11 years later and he still has the car (and now a degree, career, wife, kids, dogs etc.). The car body is looking a bit rough, but the stereo still amazes me, him and anyone that goes for a ride. Better than most home rigs for sure. He never became an audiophile, but enjoys the commute for sure.

If you really want to LOVE driving that Mazda, Invest in a nice car rig and keep the car for a while.

I have a Buick Enclave and I had to laugh about the heavy hand of your son. My system goes pretty darn loud but even turning it up all the way isn't loud enough to get the system to distort. I guess they figured out how to limit the output so you can't  blow up the speakers?

Being a Bose system I'm not sure how you will be able to integrate something else into it? My system's bass is bloated but listenable, if i had a choice i would probably  have the above mentioned Alpine system. I installed several of them in my cars and trucks when I was in my twenties and was very happy with them. that was 20 plus years ago thou and I now spend my money on my dedicated audio system at home and don't worry about my automobile audio systems.

orientalexpress

Re: Car Audio improvement ideas requested
« Reply #7 on: 27 Sep 2016, 04:08 pm »
i have my Lexus ls400 since 2000,in 2010 i remove the nakamichi stereo system from the lexus ,replace it with pioneer bt920 with navigation.JL speakers up front and a JL 10 subwoofer in the back,1 JL 75x4 amp  in the front and JL 500 sub amp for the rear.pretty straight forward install.Pioneer Deck make everthing modernize including cd,dvd and mp3 , bluetooth phone,bluetooth  connect to my iphone for my music collection and navigation system :thumb: everything cost less then 2k install.best 2k aftermarket system i ever heard. :thumb:

mcgsxr

Re: Car Audio improvement ideas requested
« Reply #8 on: 27 Sep 2016, 04:16 pm »
It seems that bass is the biggest issue for you (quality).

I imagine an 8 inch sub could be custom fiberglassed into that spare tire well, and driven with a stand alone amp - leaving everything else stock.

I believe you could tap into the existing sub speaker wire and use an LOC (or more modern equivalent if my years out of the game are showing!) to run an external amp for the custom sub.

A friend of mine stuffed a 10 into his spare tire well in his convertible RX-8 that way.

SoCalWJS

Re: Car Audio improvement ideas requested
« Reply #9 on: 27 Sep 2016, 04:35 pm »
If Bass is the issue, you might want to consider a "self-contained" bass box that you can leave in the car 99% of the time and get good bass, then if you need max room for hauling something, you can pull it out. It's what I did in my Z and I'm reasonably happy.

Get an installer to put in an amp and a speaker wire that leads to where you would put the box, leave enough slack so that you can connect/disconnect the wire.

Danny Richie

Re: Car Audio improvement ideas requested
« Reply #10 on: 27 Sep 2016, 07:09 pm »
Figure out what is causing the bass to sound so bad first of all. It could be the box it is in or the resonances of everything around it. Put on some bass heavy music and start feeling around it and everything else. Check inside the box too and see if any damping was even used.

nickd

Re: Car Audio improvement ideas requested
« Reply #11 on: 27 Sep 2016, 11:55 pm »
5" woofer in a plastic box with a ton of Bose eq. and boost. I would imagine some dampening might help, but I would think it impossible to change the eq. boost in the onboard amp. Makes you wonder what those Bose engineers are thinking is good sound?

I had 93 Ford explorer with the JBL sound system option including a built in sub and the bass (and everything else) was dam good. The stereo was the best thing in that car. They can do it right if they want to.