anyone a little bothered by how we can't change head units? i love the 8's interior and all, but a little customizability would be great. every other car has a changeable head unit. it would be great to be able to put in an in dash dvd or any aftermarket headunit for that matter.

I agree,
but I'm sure some company with supply options down the road

has anyone hooked up an amp to the stock head unit with good results? i'm thinking of adding an amp and sub, swap all the speakers and amp them out but i'm not sure about going with the high voltage inputs. from all my stereo experience, one thing i know is...crappy head unit then crappy quality no matter how high end your speakers and amps are. can anyone correct me on this or do i have to wait till a mounting kit comes out to integrate an aftermarket head unit. if a mounting kit does come out, i'm assuming the lcd function of the radio will be blank. man...why couldn't they just put in a single din unit. any advice appreciated and thanks in advance

Originally posted by rx2,rx8
has anyone hooked up an amp to the stock head unit with good results? i'm thinking of adding an amp and sub, swap all the speakers and amp them out but i'm not sure about going with the high voltage inputs. from all my stereo experience, one thing i know is...crappy head unit then crappy quality no matter how high end your speakers and amps are. can anyone correct me on this or do i have to wait till a mounting kit comes out to integrate an aftermarket head unit. if a mounting kit does come out, i'm assuming the lcd function of the radio will be blank. man...why couldn't they just put in a single din unit. any advice appreciated and thanks in advance

You can get all manner of devices to drop speaker level to line level, they're even discussed briefly on this forum. (I can't remember the thread, but here's the link http://www.soundgate.com/products/level-matching/index.htm )

Some amps accept high level inputs and I'm talking higher quality/price amps too (check out some of the JL Audio range for example). Getting the amount of gain just right to avoid distortion is important.

I fully intend to take the stock dash piece out, cut it to shreds, and then rebuild it for an aftermarket radio. It won't be that hard but it will be time consuming. I'm relatively confident that when I get done, you'll swear it came from the factory that way.

Not all new cars come with standard sized radios, the Mazda is not an exception here... Many cars out there require a new trim piece to install standard DIN sized head units. The biggest problem here is that an aftermarket head unit won't be able to use the LED display on the 8. Give some time and a replacement trim ring will be available, though, personally, I'm happy with the existing head unit, just might throw a sub in there.

Originally posted by rotarygod
I fully intend to take the stock dash piece out, cut it to shreds, and then rebuild it for an aftermarket radio. It won't be that hard but it will be time consuming. I'm relatively confident that when I get done, you'll swear it came from the factory that way.

Keep us posted. Sounds like a cool project.

Yeah, there where a lot of fords (including my current car the zx2) that had an oval-shaped integrated radio/climate control unit. There are two companies that make din adapters, scosche and metra, and they make lots of other adapters. Actually, this year ford changed the design so it's still the oval shape, but with a din radio so you can switch.

I used the scosche kit to change the head unit myself, and it wasn't really worth it imo. Neither adapter really looks right, and both are pretty low quality. If I buy an 8, I would probably keep the Bose unit, which must be much better than whatever ford puts in their cars.

Is it really not possible to install new head units??? I am defintely a beginner here and would like to install satellite radio. I'm seriously looking into buying an rx-8 love the look, feel, and power but am seriously disappointed in not being able to install aftermarket audio/head units. I'd like everyones and anyones thoughts and opinions on this. Will it be available soon/ever?

I haven't seen any such news posted.

There are lots of vehicles with non-standard size & shape head units -- I used to own a BMW 328i with the "Business Audio" (meaning cheap) stereo, it didn't sound all that great. It was a weird size, and couldn't be replaced.

It's possible the aftermarket will come up with some solution for the 8...just be patient!

Originally posted by KFence27
Is it really not possible to install new head units??? I am defintely a beginner here and would like to install satellite radio. I'm seriously looking into buying an rx-8 love the look, feel, and power but am seriously disappointed in not being able to install aftermarket audio/head units. I'd like everyones and anyones thoughts and opinions on this. Will it be available soon/ever?

There are companies that specialise in hijacking the protocols of the oem units and developing adaptors for them. I'd bet that there will be a line input facility fairly soon.

For XM radio (wish we got it in Oz), you could always i/f with a hi quality fm modulator. (This isn't line quality, but it will probably satisfy 90% of peoples desires in terms of XM radio).

I plan to introduce a lot of technology into my 8 over time, but I'm not in a rush, I'm going to have it for quite a while and will enjoy the progressive refinements.

Kev.

Don't forget folks, the actual head units themselves are standard double-din. The only thing non-standard is the faceplate itself.

---jps

Originally posted by rotarygod
I fully intend to take the stock dash piece out, cut it to shreds, and then rebuild it for an aftermarket radio. It won't be that hard but it will be time consuming. I'm relatively confident that when I get done, you'll swear it came from the factory that way.
I'm thinkin your Userid should be "AudioGod" not Rotarygod! :)

defently audiogod
have you seen what he is working on?

No! What??? ;) j/k

I'll be working on it again tomorrow. Wait until you see the other RX-8 box!

Many might disagree, but the factory head-units today are far from trivial.

The RX-8's headunit uses speaker-level outputs to send the audio signal to the Bose amp (or actually power the speakers on the non-Bose autos). At first this might sound lame, but it is balanced differential signaling which is typically better than single-ended coax signals. Pro-audio almost exclusively uses balanced signaling (i.e. XLR connectors). While this is usually meant to increase output levels for driving speakers, BTL radios none the less use differiential signalling.

Yes, it is true that BTL radios of 10 years ago had piss-poor speaker output signal quality and if you didn't use pre-outs you were an idiot. But, those times have changed. The IC's that drive speaker-level outputs now are very clean and distortion free.

The real trick is trying to find a quality Line-Output-Converter that doesn't distort the signal due to its internal transformers. In the past I have had less than stellar success with some PAC converters (they might be better now)

Anyway, I plan to use the AudioLink PL2 which has the following speciifications:

FREQUENCY RESPONSE: + - 0.5dB, 20Hz to 20kHz
DISTORTION: Less than 0.02% at 1kHz, 1 Vrms output into 10k
INPUT: 30 watts per channel max. OUTPUT: Adjustable 0 to 2.14V (20 watts in)
SIZE: 4" L x 1 1.5" W x 1">

If those specifications are accurate then the RX-8's factory headunit should sound flawless. (If not I will have to make my own active level converter or possibly buy the Rane Pro-audio converter http://www.rane.com/pdf/bb22dat.pdf )

My advice, don't throw away the head-unit quite yet.

-Mr. Wigggles

Originally posted by mikeb
defently audiogod
have you seen what he is working on?

That subwoofer project? Yup, looks cool...

Mr Wiggles,

What experience have you had with the amps that take line or speaker level input (switchable)?

(I like the idea of avoiding extra "doo dads" and high level input acceptance seems to be available on some amps, eg, some JL's, some Alpines)

Kev.

Kev,

The only one that I am intimately famillar with is the speaker level inputs of the MTX amps. I got the 311D for the sub I have coming.

They don't use a transformer. They use differential input stage on the front end to sample the speaker level inputs. They also have a smart engage which means you don't have to run a remote turn-on signal.

To me MTX are the best bang for the buck when it comes to amps and their subs are pretty good too.

-Mr. Wigggles

Actually the system (non-Bose) in my 8 sounds pretty kick ass. It sounds way better than the Bose system in my Acura RSX type S. I may just swap out the speakers with some Infinities or something!

A custom face plate for DIN radios (btw. it means Deutsche Industrie Norm = German industry standardization) would be not a big problem.
The main problem besides keeping steering remote and display working is that also some other signals are digital via the CAN-bus system (e.g. speed pulse).
rgds
Tobi

If you swap speakers in front door do you also have to swap bose speakers out from the back?
I have the bose speaker set up and I'm asking do you have to swap all the speakers or can you just swap the front and still work?

Since each set is individually amped you can swap out only one set. I would suggest either swapping out both or none at all. You don't want to mess up the sound by having everything not work together in harmony.

My two bits. I was originally planning on using a Line Level Converter coupled with an Alpine amp (F540), but luckily a knowledgeable salesguy talked me out of it. His recommendation was to go with a JL Audio amp (300/4) and use the speaker level input instead.

I plan to breakout a pair of Monster XLN Y Cables to connect with the speaker wires and run the signal back to the trunk with quality 12 foot interconnects. I'm waiting on the parts, so an ear test should be along in < 2weeks.

Originally posted by rotarygod
Since each set is individually amped you can swap out only one set. I would suggest either swapping out both or none at all. You don't want to mess up the sound by having everything not work together in harmony.

Please clarify -- you sound like you're contradicting yourself! First you say you can swap out only one set, then you suggest swapping out both? :confused:

Originally posted by jtimbck2
Please clarify -- you sound like you're contradicting yourself! First you say you can swap out only one set, then you suggest swapping out both? :confused:

No contradiction there. It's simply said that technically you can swap out fronts and rears independently - but for the sake of sound quality you probably shouldn't.

Bingo!

I don't recall seeing any discussion about replacing the front-center speaker for the Bose system (behind the nav screen)--is this speaker part of the Bose stereo setup? If so, is it worth replacing if you upgrade the door and rear speakers?

Originally posted by CactusGeorge
I don't recall seeing any discussion about replacing the front-center speaker for the Bose system (behind the nav screen)--is this speaker part of the Bose stereo setup? If so, is it worth replacing if you upgrade the door and rear speakers?

The music you get from your source media is two channel, left and right.

Any "centre" channel that is created after the recording process can only be a blend of both channels, typically for the frequencies that are most directional ... the higher ones.

The centre speaker in the RX8 is positioned to radiate onto the windscreen.

Personally, I've never been a fan of centre speakers in a stereo environment, but creating the right soundstage in a car is a major effort ... but I feel the centre speaker is a bit of a short cut.

It's a different story if you're installing dolby surround sound, but I think that's a very different thread to ponder.

When the bose comes out of mine, the centre speaker will be going with it.