Hey all. I'm a newb to the whole Protege thing but I'm already not too thrilled with the stock stereo setup (which seems to be a common feeling here ) and I'm wanting to do some minor upgrades.

I did search the forums for answers to my questions, but I couldn't find specific enough information. Basically, my question is this: Is the stock 6-speaker setup in an '03 ES a component system?

The reason I'm wondering is because of the seperate tweeters in the upper door. (That little triangle piece.) If it's NOT a component system, which of the other speakers is 2-way/3-way? Seems kinda odd to me that they would use a 2-way in the door and then stick a seperate tweeter in it too.

Sorry for the newbie-style questions, but I'm just not much of a car audio person when it comes to replacments and/or mods.

Thanks guys.


Old Man Wiggins

 

A lot of car manufacturers say 6 way speaker system which includes the tweeters in the vehicle. My ex had a '94 Toyota Celica with an eight speaker system, which were 2 tweeters, 2 4inch mids, 2 8 inch bass, and 2 6 1/2 rear speakers. Also, it sounds like it may be a component set up using passive crossovers (i.e. bass blockers). I am not certain. I know in my 2001 Protege, it has 6x8's in the door and 6x9's in the rear. Maybe Mazda changed the speaker set ups in the 2003s. You can check on Crutchfield or SoundDomain on "what fits my car" to make sure though. Did you buy it new or used?

Mister T

 

The stock system is indeed considered six way- in the front 5x7 midrange speakers and a seperate tweeter, and in the rear 6x9 speakers. Manufacturers always seem to want to count the tweeters of components as seperate drivers. One of the big reasons you see 12 channel systems listed on some cars these days!!
The fronts are an effective but simple seperate set up- there is not much of a cross over, but this is far superior to the older third generation fronts which were dual cone-UGH!
What are you thinking about doing?

 

The stock speakers are paper with what is known as "whizzer" tweeters.

At least in the front doors, they could not really be considered "coaxial". They do not have a separate tweeter in the speaker per se, but they do reproduce "tweeter-like" frequencies.

I can't imagine Mazda changed speaker design simply to accomodate the new sail-panel tweeters.

So to answer your question, my guess would be that it is not a "component system", but rather the same stock paper speaker in the door (complete with the whizzer), and an add-on tweeter wired in along with it for the sail panel (similar to any add-on type tweeter you could buy).

Stick your ear down by the door speaker, and see if you can hear hi-hats and other cymbals in your music. I would think the answer is yes.

~HH

 

You're right hiho, I just looked at the speakers I took out of the front and they still have the paper "tweeter", if you can call it that.

 

Thanks for the input, guys. I bought the car new, MisterT (695 miles on it now) and yeah, I've been looking at speakers on Crutchfield's website. Most of the ones in the "what fits my car" list are 2-way.

As far as why I'm asking... well, once upon a time I had an '86 VW Scirocco 16V with a kick-*** "boom" system... two MTX amps, MTX crossover, monster cable, etc,... hooked to a fully matched set of eight Kicker Pro Series speakers... two 12" subs in a sealed box, two 6.5 mid-bass drivers and two 2" tweeters mounted in the hatch deck, two 4" mid-range and another pair of 2" tweets in the doors. Total wattage was 500+ wired at 2 ohms... err, maybe it was 4 ohms. (Damn, that was so long ago... I hardly remember any of that stereo stuff anymore. Old age, ya know.)

A buddy of mine who was a certified installer did most of the installation and got me most of the equipment at cost through the stereo shop he worked at. (I still have the 4" drivers and 1 pair of the tweeters... in a box... somewhere.)

Trust me... the setup was tight. It was designed primarily for clarity, but it ended up having copious amounts of punch too.

Having something like that in the Pro would rock... but I'm looking to just get some good clean audio in the car for now. Perhaps a little help from an external amp, but nothing crazy. I guess I wanted to know the layout of the stock system so I would know how much flexibility I would have in regards to swapping out the stock speakers for new ones.

I don't know if I want to go to the trouble of having a new crossover and a bunch of new wires strung through the whole thing. But, if just replacing the speakers isn't going to make much difference... well... then perhaps I need to look at something more. My goal here is clarity over power, but if I need to add a little power (I dunno... 50... 75... 100 watts?), to get the clarity... well then I guess I'll do that.

Make any sense?

Okay, well, I need another excuse to drive the Pro, so I think I'm gonna buy groceries tonight.

Thanks again, guys!

Old Man Wiggins