hihoslva

Ok, so I installed my new deck last night (Kenwood 8017) and a sub and absolutely love it. A HUGE improvemet over stock!

I also installed 6.5" Kenwood speakers in all the doors, and separate tweeters up front. I was a bit dismayed to see the dental-floss-gauge speaker wire Mazda uses, but I went ahead with the install.

I'm getting a bit of distortion at high volume, and I know the speakers can handle the power, even though they are not the most expensive in the world. We're really only talking a MAX of 47 watts from that head unit anyway.

I'm thinking that changing all of the speaker wires will make a big difference in the sound and the power. My buddy experienced this with a DJ setup one time - good quality speakers, excellent quality amp, crappy sound. Culprit: dental floss. Changing to better speaker wire tripled the size of his smile. I'm wondering if I could get the same result. Not to 8 gauge, or anything, just to 16 or maybe 12 - a big step up from what looks like 20 or 22 gauge stock.

Anyone done this yet? Was it extremely difficult? Did it provide the changes you were looking for? I'm finding it hard to belive that these little hair wires can handle the juice from the amps some of you guys are running to the door speakers without sounding like crap.

hiredgoon

I don't think you need anymore than 16-18 AWG wire to run speakers off deck power...12 gauge is just a waste in my opinion unless you are planning on later feeding mega power to those speakers.
Don't think you will notice much of an improvement though...it might prevent your wires from melting

douggie

Besides, it's going to be a pain in the @ss to get those wires changed.

mazdaspeedwest

true, 12awg is overkill, 16 or 14awg will do just fine, i push about 100 watts to my fronts and i used 14awg. You don't mention what gen Pro you have, but if it's a first gen, you can get ONE set through the driver door boot plug, other than that, you need to drill new holes and add a rubber boot. I actually have 5 sets of 14awg going into my driver door, so needless to say i drilled new holes...

as for the difference in SQ, i kinda doubt you'll hear a difference. and that 47watts max you mention, some of that is distortion. Even with a mosfet output, it will only give you a true 25-28watts RMS.

hihoslva

Ive got a P5 and the wires are hella thin.

I know that pushing the 47 watt max includes distortion, but I don't think I'm even pushing it to that limit.

I'm not sure what the max volume level is (don't want to blow my stuff up, now) but I'm putting the volume up to around 28 - after that, it starts to get a little crappy, even with the bass turned down some.

I was just thinking I could get a few more clicks up in volume with better wires. I know 12 gauge would be overdoing it, but every car I ever upgraded had what looked like 16. I swear, this stuff looks like 22 - real cost-cutting crap.

I'm still wondering if anyone has amped the speakers through this skinny wire, and if the sound seems to suffer. Particularly P5 or similar owners who I know have this crap stock wiring.

azrakain

Holy ****! That is a high volume level. I have the same dick and turn it up to 22 max. Your exhaust must be loud.

1phtwagn

The stock speaker wire in a P5, while thin, is fine. I had an Eclipse amp (120x4) running speakers and was using the factory wire. It was fine. Now I've got a JL Audio 500/5 running the same thing. I had put the Diamond crossovers in the doors and just used the factory "floss" for the input from my amp. Sounded fine. The Kenwood deck is fine, but their speakers are usually kinda week....as are Sony, JVC, and Pioneer. You can't expect too much from companies like that that do a lot more than just car stereo. While your radio is putting out the power, it may not be clean power. Put a small amp on there...that's where you'll notice the largest difference.

hihoslva

azrakain, I responded in the other thread about this - but now I see you're only turning the deck up to 22??

Are you amping all the speakers, or do they run on deck power? I must admit, I like to try to make my ears bleed occasionally , and I'm almost there with what I've got, but I'd just like it to be a bit cleaner and a little louder.

Thanks for all the comments - I think my first experimentation with putting together a modestly priced system is teaching me things - I've got a modest system! If you want premium sound, gotta pay a premium price - the shortcuts aren't working.

While the system is really very nice, I guess I'm realizing that I want more. I thought I'd be satisfied, but I'm not.

Guess I'll be putting in some OT to save for some better equipment.

Live and learn....

azrakain

That is the truth. The speakers in the door are not amped yet, but I plan on having some better music coming from the engine soon....so i need more power.

conton

I put a good set of 6x9's in the back, put some 6-1/2's in the rear doors, a good set of 5x7's in the front doors, tweeters mounted on the front doors and a set of 6-1/2's in custom kick panel enclosures. My next step is to put a small sub in the trunk.

At first I went with the stock wires, but I ran into the same problem. It would distort at a pretty low volume. Way lower than I thought the speakers should distort at. So I went and re-wired the whole system.

I am running the whole front end off of a 4 channel amp, and the rear deck and doors are running off of the deck.

I ran new wires into the front doors, rear doors, and back deck. It made a big difference in sound quality! I was very pleased. Halfway through the project I began to think I was loosing it and questioned why I took on such a task in the first place. But It was well worth it. The stock wires are a joke! Mazda really cheaped out big time. I work on a cost reduction team for an engineering company. From my expirience the protege smacks of a high level of cost reduction. Things like the tiny speaker wires, minimal sound dampening material, only one door with a lock switch, etc...I still think it's a well built car, but it's design was definatly influenced heavely by the accounting department!

But hey. The car comes with alot of good stuff for $16,000.

hihoslva

I'm glad to hear that someone with some practical experience agrees that the wires are just too damn thin.

conton, do you have a P5? Where'd you put 6x9s? In the hatch cover?

Also, I'm guessing that you ran the new wires more conveniently for the amp, rather than follow the stock routings. How hard was it to thread the wires into the doors? I'm considering a similar setup to yours - I'm still looking into the practicality of placing 6x9s in the rear headliner, where it dips down over the rear seatbacks. If there is room in there, and I do put some speakers in, I'll run those and the front doors from an amp, and let the deck handle the tweeters in front and the rear doors.

Thanks for the info about the wires - it was only my assumption until now.

1phtwagn

I'll tell you, it's a royal B*$ch running wires into the doors. There are these stupid Molex connectors there that connect the wiring from the door to the wiring in the car. I took them out and took a small drill bit...one big enough to fit 16 ga speaker wire, but not big enough to ruin the plug...and drilled out a couple of the empty holes and ran the wires through there. Not bad once you've done one, but still a pain in the a$$.

conton

Sorry. I should have been more clear. I have a sedan, hence the 6x9's.

For the amp I ran the power wire through the grommet on the drivers side, down along the rocker panels on the drivers side, to the back seat, under the back seat, then under the rug to under the passengers seat. There's a cutout in the rug already for the rear heating ducts(at least in my car). I ran all the wires through that. I hooked the ground to a location near the seatbelt.

I ran the speaker wires through the cutout in the rug, and up under the rug to the front of the car on the passengers side.

It's a mild pain to run the new wires through the grommet/connector in the doors. But once you do one it gets easier. The back doors weren't bad at all. Like the other guy said, you have to find the unused spaces in the connector and drill it out for the new wires.