Upgrading the BOSE system.
#1
06-19-2020, 04:42 PM
Upgrading the BOSE system.
Hey guys, first post here. Recently bought a 2006 mazda 6 V6 and wanted to upgrade the audio. Stock BOSE system is OK if you use a CD, but the radio sucks and there's no aux. I know there is bluetooth / aux kits, but I'd rather just upgrade the whole system I think.
Here's what I was planning on buying.
2 ohm 75W RMS - Infinity kappa 6.5 in front - $150
2 ohm 100W RMS - Infinity Kappa 6.8 in rear - $150
Metra dash kit - $170
ATOTO A6 2 OHM capable - 29W RMS X4 head unit - $160
JBL GX-A604 2-ohm 85W RMS 4 channel amp - $108
I also have a kicker comp R 12" sub already, and a 500W RMS kenwood amp, but I don't know if I actually want to hook it up.
Basically I don't want to hook up two amps, which means I'll either be choosing between using an amp for the speakers or the sub. Do you think the headunit at 29W RMS will provide enough power for the infinity speakers? I do love bass, but not to the point that it overpowers the other notes in the songs, and if I hook up the sub than that means I'm also stuck with 29W RMS vs 85W RMS for the speakers. Thinking maybe the extra wattage going to the speakers would compensate for the lack of a sub, but I really have no idea. I don't have much experience with audio equipment at all. Is there a big difference between 29W and 85W?
Also, can you keep the stock sub that comes with the car? If that's possible then maybe powering the door speakers combined with the added bass from the stock sub would be enough. What do you guys think?
Anything else I should know about the car before doing this? Got any better suggestions on the parts?
Here's what I was planning on buying.
2 ohm 75W RMS - Infinity kappa 6.5 in front - $150
2 ohm 100W RMS - Infinity Kappa 6.8 in rear - $150
Metra dash kit - $170
ATOTO A6 2 OHM capable - 29W RMS X4 head unit - $160
JBL GX-A604 2-ohm 85W RMS 4 channel amp - $108
I also have a kicker comp R 12" sub already, and a 500W RMS kenwood amp, but I don't know if I actually want to hook it up.
Basically I don't want to hook up two amps, which means I'll either be choosing between using an amp for the speakers or the sub. Do you think the headunit at 29W RMS will provide enough power for the infinity speakers? I do love bass, but not to the point that it overpowers the other notes in the songs, and if I hook up the sub than that means I'm also stuck with 29W RMS vs 85W RMS for the speakers. Thinking maybe the extra wattage going to the speakers would compensate for the lack of a sub, but I really have no idea. I don't have much experience with audio equipment at all. Is there a big difference between 29W and 85W?
Also, can you keep the stock sub that comes with the car? If that's possible then maybe powering the door speakers combined with the added bass from the stock sub would be enough. What do you guys think?
Anything else I should know about the car before doing this? Got any better suggestions on the parts?
Last edited by Chrisguilday; 06-19-2020 at 04:46 PM.
#2
06-19-2020, 04:47 PM
You are all over the place for what your end sound reproduction is going to be.........honestly there is no sound balance to what you are thinking?
I will say when ever possible don't use the stock amp in the end it will only muddle the sound no matter which way you are going with your project?
I will say when ever possible don't use the stock amp in the end it will only muddle the sound no matter which way you are going with your project?
#3
06-19-2020, 07:54 PM
I never had any intentions of using the stock amp.
That's alright, if I've confused you no worries. I think I'm just going to hook up the speakers to JBL amp and leave the 12" sub out of it.
That's alright, if I've confused you no worries. I think I'm just going to hook up the speakers to JBL amp and leave the 12" sub out of it.
#4
06-19-2020, 09:18 PM
I am not one to play with words and tend to say what is on my mind or I would be word dancing all day and night on forums not to butt hurt some members feeling!.
You start with the choice of really missed matched parts ........and ..... yup did have me confused but even so that amp of choice is under powered for your choice of speakers and what you convey you want to accomplish. Not to mention installing all those new speakers and then even considering staying with and using the stock BOSE or any other stock sub- woofer while attempting to improve the overall sound is not going to be an improvement especially with the stock sub amp trying to keep up with the other speakers and their amp. You will likely make a lot of noise that I am not sure you could call good sounding music reproduction ! Sorry that is that best I can describe with what you are planning.?
If you not have already purchased all that I would wait.... start all over and do some planing about the speakers and the amps you are choosing!.
If you like "REAL" low bass and not simply a vibration (those cars that all you hear and burrrrrrr from the sub woofer monstrosity they have sliding around in their trunk or in the back seats with their house couch pillows keeping it on the seat ) and the licence plate vibrates as they drive by LOL then you need to plan your encloser for the music type you like not the frequency of the bass. Then you need to think about the location of all the speakers and how the sound will travel and reflec off glass or be absorbed by seat etc., and there position to your head. The most important person to create the sound system for is the driver.
Then...... look at your budget and go find speakers and a good amp to compliment the speakers that will meet your budget. Read the specification to match the speakers and not simply the total output of an amp>. No one play music all the time at 75% of the amps output. Well at least anyone that can still hear?
No matter how well you do your budgeting if you are into music you will be making additions or changes so have a little extra money or reduce the amount you spend form your allotted budget for additions.
You also want to strongly consider in that budget to add some sound control to the doors and maybe where you plan to install your sub-woofer.
You start with the choice of really missed matched parts ........and ..... yup did have me confused but even so that amp of choice is under powered for your choice of speakers and what you convey you want to accomplish. Not to mention installing all those new speakers and then even considering staying with and using the stock BOSE or any other stock sub- woofer while attempting to improve the overall sound is not going to be an improvement especially with the stock sub amp trying to keep up with the other speakers and their amp. You will likely make a lot of noise that I am not sure you could call good sounding music reproduction ! Sorry that is that best I can describe with what you are planning.?
If you not have already purchased all that I would wait.... start all over and do some planing about the speakers and the amps you are choosing!.
If you like "REAL" low bass and not simply a vibration (those cars that all you hear and burrrrrrr from the sub woofer monstrosity they have sliding around in their trunk or in the back seats with their house couch pillows keeping it on the seat ) and the licence plate vibrates as they drive by LOL then you need to plan your encloser for the music type you like not the frequency of the bass. Then you need to think about the location of all the speakers and how the sound will travel and reflec off glass or be absorbed by seat etc., and there position to your head. The most important person to create the sound system for is the driver.
Then...... look at your budget and go find speakers and a good amp to compliment the speakers that will meet your budget. Read the specification to match the speakers and not simply the total output of an amp>. No one play music all the time at 75% of the amps output. Well at least anyone that can still hear?
No matter how well you do your budgeting if you are into music you will be making additions or changes so have a little extra money or reduce the amount you spend form your allotted budget for additions.
You also want to strongly consider in that budget to add some sound control to the doors and maybe where you plan to install your sub-woofer.
#5
06-20-2020, 08:07 AM
I am not one to play with words and tend to say what is on my mind or I would be word dancing all day and night on forums not to butt hurt some members feeling!.
You start with the choice of really missed matched parts ........and ..... yup did have me confused but even so that amp of choice is under powered for your choice of speakers and what you convey you want to accomplish. Not to mention installing all those new speakers and then even considering staying with and using the stock BOSE or any other stock sub- woofer while attempting to improve the overall sound is not going to be an improvement especially with the stock sub amp trying to keep up with the other speakers and their amp. You will likely make a lot of noise that I am not sure you could call good sounding music reproduction ! Sorry that is that best I can describe with what you are planning.?
If you not have already purchased all that I would wait.... start all over and do some planing about the speakers and the amps you are choosing!.
If you like "REAL" low bass and not simply a vibration (those cars that all you hear and burrrrrrr from the sub woofer monstrosity they have sliding around in their trunk or in the back seats with their house couch pillows keeping it on the seat ) and the licence plate vibrates as they drive by LOL then you need to plan your encloser for the music type you like not the frequency of the bass. Then you need to think about the location of all the speakers and how the sound will travel and reflec off glass or be absorbed by seat etc., and there position to your head. The most important person to create the sound system for is the driver.
Then...... look at your budget and go find speakers and a good amp to compliment the speakers that will meet your budget. Read the specification to match the speakers and not simply the total output of an amp>. No one play music all the time at 75% of the amps output. Well at least anyone that can still hear?
No matter how well you do your budgeting if you are into music you will be making additions or changes so have a little extra money or reduce the amount you spend form your allotted budget for additions.
You also want to strongly consider in that budget to add some sound control to the doors and maybe where you plan to install your sub-woofer.
You start with the choice of really missed matched parts ........and ..... yup did have me confused but even so that amp of choice is under powered for your choice of speakers and what you convey you want to accomplish. Not to mention installing all those new speakers and then even considering staying with and using the stock BOSE or any other stock sub- woofer while attempting to improve the overall sound is not going to be an improvement especially with the stock sub amp trying to keep up with the other speakers and their amp. You will likely make a lot of noise that I am not sure you could call good sounding music reproduction ! Sorry that is that best I can describe with what you are planning.?
If you not have already purchased all that I would wait.... start all over and do some planing about the speakers and the amps you are choosing!.
If you like "REAL" low bass and not simply a vibration (those cars that all you hear and burrrrrrr from the sub woofer monstrosity they have sliding around in their trunk or in the back seats with their house couch pillows keeping it on the seat ) and the licence plate vibrates as they drive by LOL then you need to plan your encloser for the music type you like not the frequency of the bass. Then you need to think about the location of all the speakers and how the sound will travel and reflec off glass or be absorbed by seat etc., and there position to your head. The most important person to create the sound system for is the driver.
Then...... look at your budget and go find speakers and a good amp to compliment the speakers that will meet your budget. Read the specification to match the speakers and not simply the total output of an amp>. No one play music all the time at 75% of the amps output. Well at least anyone that can still hear?
No matter how well you do your budgeting if you are into music you will be making additions or changes so have a little extra money or reduce the amount you spend form your allotted budget for additions.
You also want to strongly consider in that budget to add some sound control to the doors and maybe where you plan to install your sub-woofer.
How is the JBL amp not powerful enough? It puts out 85W RMS x4, the infinity speakers are only 75W front and 100W rear.
What's wrong with the speakers? They were recommended all over the internet as essentially the best speakers you can buy for around $150.
Like I said I don't know much about audio at all. I know how to install it, and I know RMS wattage vs total, and a little about OHMS, but that's about it.
I'm not looking for "Professional" sound quality. Just something that will sound good to replace the stock bose system. The location and direction of sound, frequency, all that jazz, it's too far above my head to wrap around at the moment. Just need some direction I guess.
Last edited by Chrisguilday; 06-20-2020 at 08:11 AM.
#6
06-20-2020, 08:52 AM
I do not care to have bass shaking the whole car.
They were recommended all over the internet as essentially the best speakers you can buy for around $150.
Like I said I don't know much about audio at all.
Just something that will sound good to replace the stock bose system. .
They were recommended all over the internet as essentially the best speakers you can buy for around $150.
Like I said I don't know much about audio at all.
Just something that will sound good to replace the stock bose system. .
A good sub-woofer is entail to fill a true sounding environment.
The recommendation you found....are they from people with your same or close to year ,make and model of your car? If not then it is not recommendation but what people thought sounded to them good to them in their car.
As for the last you can duplicate the sound quality of BOSE with the way your are going. Bose spent million developing their system for cars to sound FANTASTIC. Unless your BOSE system is damaged your choices are actauly only going to produce louder sounds with less quality. In order to exceed BOSE it really does take a lot of trial and error and spending a few hundred more like few thousand dollars.
So I guess maybe you should just do what you plan from the start and learn from it!
Good Luck! It is a fun hobby and ion the end you will learn a lot doing it!
BTW my 2018 Mazda 3 came with a BOSE system....I am an Audiophile, enjoy the best quality music in my Mazda I could get and it took a year to finally come up with a system that I am satisfied with.
You can see the build on my thread.
#7
06-20-2020, 12:21 PM
Those are the key information ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A good sub-woofer is entail to fill a true sounding environment.
The recommendation you found....are they from people with your same or close to year ,make and model of your car? If not then it is not recommendation but what people thought sounded to them good to them in their car.
As for the last you can duplicate the sound quality of BOSE with the way your are going. Bose spent million developing their system for cars to sound FANTASTIC. Unless your BOSE system is damaged your choices are actauly only going to produce louder sounds with less quality. In order to exceed BOSE it really does take a lot of trial and error and spending a few hundred more like few thousand dollars.
https://www.mazda6club.com/threads/m...ptions.175533/
So I guess maybe you should just do what you plan from the start and learn from it!
Good Luck! It is a fun hobby and ion the end you will learn a lot doing it!
BTW my 2018 Mazda 3 came with a BOSE system....I am an Audiophile, enjoy the best quality music in my Mazda I could get and it took a year to finally come up with a system that I am satisfied with.
You can see the build on my thread.
A good sub-woofer is entail to fill a true sounding environment.
The recommendation you found....are they from people with your same or close to year ,make and model of your car? If not then it is not recommendation but what people thought sounded to them good to them in their car.
As for the last you can duplicate the sound quality of BOSE with the way your are going. Bose spent million developing their system for cars to sound FANTASTIC. Unless your BOSE system is damaged your choices are actauly only going to produce louder sounds with less quality. In order to exceed BOSE it really does take a lot of trial and error and spending a few hundred more like few thousand dollars.
https://www.mazda6club.com/threads/m...ptions.175533/
So I guess maybe you should just do what you plan from the start and learn from it!
Good Luck! It is a fun hobby and ion the end you will learn a lot doing it!
BTW my 2018 Mazda 3 came with a BOSE system....I am an Audiophile, enjoy the best quality music in my Mazda I could get and it took a year to finally come up with a system that I am satisfied with.
You can see the build on my thread.
If bose spent millions developing their sound system in my car, I could have saved them $2,999,700.00.
My $300 car audio setup on my last car sounded far better. I don't think the BOSE system is that great in a 2006 mazda 6, it's 14 years old.
However I will say that I owned a 2003 BMW 330CI with the harmon khardon system, and that one sounded absolutely amazing. I wouldn't dare to mess with it, it didn't have bass like a 12" sub did, but the clarity and notes were actually unbelievable. I don't think I could say the same for the BOSE system in the mazda, I just don't think it's that great.
Not trying to be argumentative, but have you listened to the bose system in a 2002-2008 mazda 6? I can't imagine I couldn't create a better sound system then theirs, it honestly sucks. If you go to mazda6club.com and read the audio threads everyone thinks the stock BOSE system absolutely sucks. Again, I don't think it sounded THAT bad with a CD, but it's very very mediocre. I posted here because it's more active.
Last edited by Chrisguilday; 06-20-2020 at 12:36 PM.
#8
06-20-2020, 12:35 PM
Harman Kardon like BOSE has some good and bad systems. I own a car with an HK but added a sub-woofer and amp
No you can't build a better BOSE system on a $300 budget lol
No I have not experienced a BOSE system in specifically a 2006 Mazda 6 however the interior volume is very much the same in that model as newer Mazda's that I have listened to BOSE system .
Unfortunately most every one that listens to music in their car do not listen to what is suppose to be close to actual sound reproduced and recorded by the musicians. This often makes it hard to help these semi tone def people in building a better sound system in their vehicles. LOL
No you can't build a better BOSE system on a $300 budget lol
No I have not experienced a BOSE system in specifically a 2006 Mazda 6 however the interior volume is very much the same in that model as newer Mazda's that I have listened to BOSE system .
Unfortunately most every one that listens to music in their car do not listen to what is suppose to be close to actual sound reproduced and recorded by the musicians. This often makes it hard to help these semi tone def people in building a better sound system in their vehicles. LOL
Last edited by Callisto; 06-20-2020 at 12:42 PM.
#9
06-20-2020, 12:40 PM
Harman Kardon like BOSE has some good and bad systems. I own a car with an HK but added a sub-woofer and amp
No you can't [size=13px]do[/size] better then BOSE....on $300 lol
NO I have not [size=13px]experienced[/size] a BOSE system in specifically a 2006 mazda 6 however the interior volume is very much the same in that model as newer Mazda's that I have listened to BOSE system in.
No you can't [size=13px]do[/size] better then BOSE....on $300 lol
NO I have not [size=13px]experienced[/size] a BOSE system in specifically a 2006 mazda 6 however the interior volume is very much the same in that model as newer Mazda's that I have listened to BOSE system in.
https://www.mazda6club.com/threads/m...ptions.175533/
#10
06-20-2020, 12:49 PM
I didn't get my edit response before you quoted it LOL
really at this point your are not listening to my help...
As I said enjoy the adventure and learning experience .
Post up what you end up with and picture!
Cheers
really at this point your are not listening to my help...
As I said enjoy the adventure and learning experience .
Post up what you end up with and picture!
Cheers