I'm looking around for some new speakers but I don't know too much about car audio. I saw those kenwoods on the mazda website but I figured I could get a cheeper price somewhere else. I'm willing to spend about 300$, I don't want a "Sastem", just somthing that'll sound a little bit better than stock. My front right speaker is starting to rattle so I was going to replace it sooner or later. Could I get some suggestion please? I have a 2002 Protege DX.

 

Nice you have the same car i have. You gonna run an amp to the speakers? I would suggest a 6.5" component set or if your not wanting to do much work look into infinity 5x7's. If you want more info let me know.

 

Well I mean, do I need to amp the speakers if the front are 6 x 8's and the back ones are 6x9's? Or would it sound better if it would be amped? Would I have to replace my deck if I wanted to amp them? I appreciate your help since I don't know too much about car audio. More info would be greatly appreciated.

 

Well i would suggest you do an upgrade right the first time. If you go and swap speakers only im am sure you wont be happy. If you want to keep it all basic you can keep the stock head unit but it makes adding an amp a little more complicated. I would suggest a good 65x4 amp on a good set of speakers for front and back. You would be happy if you intergrade an aftermarket amp with the stock deck oppsed to using the stock deck power. If you need more help and wanna learn more about car audio, Come over to www.caraudioforum.com there you can learn quite abit about audio. I will come back later on to see if i can help more i cant really talk too long here right now im at work lol. Good luck man you can do it if there is will there is a chance your gonna make it happen.

 

Alright I'll check that link out, thanks for the help man. You wouldn't happen to have any pictures of your CD deck in the deck would you? I remember we bought my mom a CD deck for her car and when they installed it, it looked really ugly because it was a Ford Taures and they have that big audio panal and its a small CD deck. It looked out of place and we decided to take it back and I just gave her my CD-Tape adaptor. I'm just wondering how a CD deck would look like in the Protege. Kind of a weird question but its something that bothers me.

 

Sure here is a picture of my deck installed older pioneer but works just fine and i got a kinda cheap dash kit but works. Check out my www under my name for more pics.

 

deck - alpine - www.crutchfield.com
speakers - boston acoustics www.bostonacoustics.com

 

Yo squash,

It sounds like you are trying to find the most sound for your buck and not have to worry about any burdening expenses, right? Alright. First of all, practically anything will sound better than the paper plates, the Lord's company (that, being Mazda), calls factory-installed speakers. I checked all "brick and mortor" stores and listened for the absolute best sounding speakers that were 6.5" (rear speakers) and 6"x8" (front speakers) for my Protege5. I am specific about these sizes because no cutting out of your side doors is necessary. It ended up that I loved the sound of Kenwood Excelon speakers. They have great highs and excellent mids. At the b&m's, they sell for $260-$350. I then took notes and checked for these speakers online. An awesome site popped up called www.hookedontronics.com. This place probably has some of the best prices on everything electronics related. I ended up getting mine for $190. I really hate plugging places but this site is highly recommended. I bought them and they're awesome. Now, for the low-end sound, I found a great sounding amplifier + subwoofer combination from Infinity called a Basslink. It's got tight and deep bass without being boomy. I spent $200 for them. That's a total of only $390 spent. So, with my factory stereo, I have a full range of sound for under $400. It will sound better if or when I change the head unit, gain more power, get badder subwoofers, but I would be building and spending myself to get an expensive "systam". Of course, with shipping charges, applicable taxes, wires-and-cables along with my friend (who LOVES installing stereos) installing it for free, my total may be at $500. But that still makes me say, "Yeah boyee, I've got my seeyas'tayamn...cheap".

 

Yeah that is mainly what I was looking for. How did you get your sub and amp hooked up though? I thought you had to have pre-outs for that? Do you have the MP3 Protege5? I just have a regular protege DX.

 

If you're going to do it, dfo it reight and sace yourself the $ down the road. Take some sample music around and listne to as many speakers as you can. Usually the $500+ components are thatway for a reason. try it and see if you can justify it to yourself. I got 6x8's and wish I'da gotten nice components first. Granted I'm not exatly suffering with Kappa's, but I've heared better and I want it. As for amping, FORGET your rear speakers. run them off the deck for some mild fill if you wish, but spenfing money on them's pointless. they'll only throw noise at th back of your head and muddy up your soundstage. get nice stong front components and you'll be happy. CHeck the audio secton at protege5.com there's a very active and knowledgeable crew over there. this site is kinda dead.

 

my MA Audio's seem to work just fine for me...

 

Hey Squash,

Even though you have a PDX, the back of the stereo units are still the same. Neither one has RCA jacks built in the back of the unit. Therefore, for the Basslink, we needed an RCA converter unit that allowed the connection for RCA cables. Mazda does NOT make installing stereos easy to do, although it is pretty intricate stuff. I would pay a pro to install it for you. My friend had to call one to help him and he learned something new at the same time. All in all, it can be done and was luckily done for me. Good luck with your system.