Wave

Very cool! Now that I know what a pain in the *** it is I just may pay my local shop to do all this for me when I get mine. I just don't trust myself ripping apart a brand new car. I know I would screw something up.

Thanks for sharing!!

OverLOAD

Yup, the premium bose 6x9 is a 1-way... You can't quite see it on that picture, but the dustcap is just a round bump, with a Bose label on it. Not even an aux buzzer cone attached to the center of the speaker. There is a 2" tweeter next to it, attached to the decklid, see the picture back on page 1.

And as for the crossover for the speaker, I meant that in reference to the Infinity tweeter having it's own crossover, I wouldn't want to use the crossover for the 2" bose tweeter, just to aim for the correct frequency response tuning... Don't worry, I know what I'm up to.. I work at a large company (+1000 employees) that does OEM sound system integration.. Unfortunately, we didn't do the RX-8, nor to we do Mazda...

Tamas

iTrader: (1)

Hm... do you trust the local store not to screw it up?
I mean... the one who cares the most about your car is YOU. Unless the local shop is an excellent, reputable place who know the RX-8 already, you have a good chance that they will break something while doing the work since they don't care as much about YOUR car as you do. Nobody does. They just need to do the work and move on.

This, in fact, is my main fear when letting anyone else do interior work on my car. Maybe I have too much bad experience with car dealers fu(king up more things than what they fix.

Have to admit, I didn't have anything done by a dedicated car stereo shop yet... I did everything myself so far which will probably change once I'll get my RX-8 and need to get my stock radio modified to allow an AUX input. That I can't do myself :p

Wing

Man no wonder, if the speaker is a one way, are the ones in the door a one way as well? That means we have highs and lows but no mids! We need mid drivers!

ugh!

Last time I took out the stock 1 ways out of a car and replaced them with high quality three ways I felt I lost too much bass.

91vert

OK.....who is going to be brave and show pics of removing the door panels now to get to the 9" speakers?

Kev

I just took one step back

1stRX8

A compilation CD of all these pics would be better than a shop manual.

Tamas

iTrader: (1)

Just a word of caution for those who are replacing their rear speakers: the sheet metal screws that hold the factory speakers in place need a torx bit (I believe the size is T-20 but don't quote me on that). I didn't have the appropriate size but happened to have a bunch of hex keys and one of them (that is L shaped so it's pefect for the angle) was just the right size to remove those pesky screws.

Also, the wire colors are as follows (for the base stereo, might be the same for Bose as well):

Passenger side rear - Black with blue stripe: negative; white with blue stripe: positive
Driver's side rear - pink: negative; purple: positive

Other than that, the rear speaker replacement is a doddle. I wish the front replacement (with 6.5" components) were just that easy
Now I have my Focal 6x9 replacements installed. Yay! On to the front...

Gyro

Tamas....I have 6.5 Infinity Kappa components waiting to go in the front.......

You pulled your 6.5 focals to put in the 6x9s?

Also......what did you do to adapt the large opening to allow for the 6.5 speaker?


EDIT: - Ohh wait I reread your post.......you havent done the fronts yet.....oops

Tamas

iTrader: (1)

Nope... I pulled the crappy factory 6x9 speakers to install the Focals in the rear. I'm trying to figure out the best way to install the 6.5" Focal Polyglass 165V2 6.5" separates in the front doors. I have the door panels pulled and am working on the front install right now.
The base stereo has 6x8 paper speakers in the front, with tweeters in the sail panels. The 6x8 opening needs to be enlarged a little bit for the 6.5" speakers to fit - and also, I'll need some sort of a mounting plate to get them in properly. Once I'm done, I'll post some pictures (provided it doesn't look too ghetto)

Gyro

Another member..(KKManiac I believe)....made really nice adapter plated from aluminum. He had them plasma cut where he works. He posted saying he will email anyone the CAD file for the template.

I'm in the exact same boat. Stock audio system...replacing all speakers. I have them all here waiting to be installed once my Rx8 is out from hibernation. I also have the Infinity Basslink 10 along with the Kappa series speakers all around.

Seeing that I dont have a machine shop in my garage.....I will have to take a slighty different approach to making an adapter. I was thinking of heavyweight plastic....something I can cut with traditional tools....and easy to work with. Did you have any ideas?

how do your new 6x9's sound compared to the stock ones.....assuming you have no amp...?

Tamas

iTrader: (1)

Some sort of heavyweight plastic would work OK for a mounting plate I guess. Just be careful not to use something that is too thick because I don't know how the door panel will fit then (it still might, just did't check that).
Me, I'm hoping that the stock plastic plate behind the door trim will hold the 6.5 speaker well enough and just have to fill the gaps left and right with something (probably some plastic so that it's more or less airtight).
I want to see it first how these speakers work with just the stock head unit. If it is not good enough, I can still add an amp anytime. It will definitely not be some audiophile solution, but I just need better sound than with the factory speakers - I'm no perfectionist... :D

As for the sound of the Focal 6x9 vs. the stock paper crap - it's night and day. But I didn't expect anything else. The immediately noticeable difference is the presence of highs. There were none with the stock speakers... they don't even have whizzer cones.

spdspappy

Tamas: so you have the set installed now? A stereo place in town was talking about an install w/ the same 165V2's. I'm still debating about going Focal's or Kappa's...

OverLOAD

I used a pair of Infinity Reference 6x9 3-way speakers, and though they didn't fit on the top of the deck-lid (Too tall with the tweeters and slightly atoo small an opening), I was able to screw them in from the bottom to prevent them from being too high, and it also made them fit the stock hole.

The sound difference is pretty dramatic, and the Infinity Kappa 6x9 3-way speakers are even better sounding than the reference series (a lot brighter). I like my sound to have the majority of the brightness in the front, so I didn't want the kappas for the rears, since I thought it would be too much.

But, If I were replacing the fronts with 6x9's, I'd consider the 6x9 kappas, but in that situation, where you can replace the tweeters too, you're definately better off going with a component system and using a matched pair of round 6.5"'s for the door, and an appropriately matched tweeter. The Infinity Kappa 6.5" (1-way) and the Infinity 10.5t (tweeter) would work well to replace the fronts, and you will do far better to add a real sub-woofer at this stage too.

The only problem with using those speakers in this application, is that the impedance of the speakers doesn't match factory speaker impedance, so you could put some stress on the amp, or have abnormal gain levels that need to be removed with the fader. An additional Amp in line could fix that up properly though.

Good luck,

OverLOAD

spdspappy

Yeah, I was going to go w/ component 6.5's. I'll probably end up putting a 5-channel amp in there, so i shouldn't have to worry about impedence problems.

Gyro

Are you referring to the Bose system? I have the Base stereo and are replacing all the speakers....I assumed the impedance was 8 ohms.....

Tamas

iTrader: (1)

No, the fronts are not in yet. Only the rears.

I had no such problems with the Focal 690 CA speakers. They went in fine from the top. First I was also concerned that they might be too tall since their edge seemed to be a bit thick compared with the stock speakers - but they fit and the stock grille is OK with them too.

I thought the same thing about the brightness being more in the front and since the rear is there to give a decent fill, I went with the Access line which is Focal's cheapest speakers (one below Polyglass, but they are still quite nice). My thought is that the Polyglass components in the front will produce the most important sound and these rear 6x9s will complement them well enough. I'm sure rotarygod and other audiophiles are rolling their eyes now :p
The only concern I have now is how these speakers will sound with the rather wimpy stock head unit (as the first step). All the speakers I chose are able to handle about 75W nominal, 150 W peak. The stock base stereo is 100W total (I assume that's the peak), so then nominal power per channel is probably not more than 15W... I'm hoping that this will be not TOO weak for the speakers so that they would distort...
Well, if I have any problem, I will go the separate amp route for sure. That'll probably happen sooner or later anyways...

There's no such problem with the base stereo. All the stock speakers are 4 ohm impedance just like the replacements I use.

Gyro

I wanted to do that also.....but the lack of line level outputs from the head unit leave me wondering. I really dont want to have to use speaker level......but if I have to I guess.

livitup

Hey Gyro,

This thread says that the stock bose system has low level outputs that can be tapped at the amp in the trunk.
I know you only have the base system, and that's what I'm planning on getting too. Can you check if the cable for the bose amp is in your car? Some manufacturers wire all the cars the same way and then just leave the amp out of the cars with the stock stereo.
The other thing you can try if the cable isn't there, is tapping into the headunit. The headunits should all be the same, so there should be a line output coming out of the headunit. I know that the wiring diagrams have been posted on this board somewhere before. Let me know if the cable isn't there for the amp and I'll search for the diagrams.
In case you can't tell I'm excited about the stereo prospects in this car too.

--A

Jeff_pap31s

Shiza! I'll just pay someone to do it!

Tamas

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, do that - and pray that they will care (not!) and won't break too many fasteners when they take apart your interior :p

cLLcLe

Ah! The pictures don't show up and I'm hoping to replace my 6x9s extremely soon. Can someone help me with the pictures? I dunno how complicated it actually is... but I'm sure pictures would be of great help.

Oh, and has anyone made a D.I.Y. for the front speakers yet? I'm nervous about recklessly taking apart the door panel...

OverLOAD

re-upload Pictures pt1

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re-upload Pictures pt2

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re-upload Pictures pt3