Applicable to: '90 - '97 1.6 liter 1.8 liter
Pioneer TS-G1641R 6.5 inch door speakers. Replacing the stocks that had some fuzziness at loud volume.
The holes didn't line up with the three stock holes, but hey, I can handle a cordless drill and a little metal shavings. The metal screws that came in the speaker box were useable with a little Locktite to keep them secure. I clipped the stock wires from the old speakers and soldered them on the new speakers. Took about 20 minutes time on each door from popping off the cover to snapping it back on.
The original speakers in my 93 Miata were Pioneer as well, so I didnt feel bad putting these $40/pair 80 watt/each puppies in as replacement. They make the system sound sooo much better than the originals. Purchased from partsexpress.com. Their showroom is local to me. Cheap but good sound!
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
Applicable to: '90 - '97
Pioneer Door Speakers
Pioneer speakers perform very well as a replacement for OEM speakers in my 91 Miata.
I picked these up from SoundDomain for about $90. I asked about the need for any adapter plate when I ordered these, and was assured that there was no need for them. Initially, when I removed the speaker cover panel in the door and then the speaker, I was frustrated to find that the holes in the speaker frame would not line up at all with the three mounting points. After a few minutes of playing with the speakers, I realized that by turning two of the screws in a couple turns, I could rotate the speaker so one of the four tabs on the flange of the speaker frame lined up with the third mounting hole perfectly. Simply fasten the third screw through the mounting flange on the speaker frame, and then tighten the first two screws the rest of the way so the head of the screw holds the outside edge of the frame. I'm not an installer by any means, but this suggestion may help some other audio novices. And I do think they sound good.
Not an installed item
Applicable to: '90 - '97 1.6 liter
Three way door speakers for an M!
Nice factory replacement for 90.00. Install was done by a professional who really said they were easy and the sound was great for this price range. Nice product for those who are just looking for a direct easy to install replacement.
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
Applicable to '90 - '97 1.8 liter
Pioneer model TS-1620II 6.5 inch 3-way door speakers.
These speakers are a direct replacement for the stock Miata whizzer cone speakers which had both gone bad in my 1995 model. These Pioneers are really simple to install, screw into the existing holes, and plug directly into the factory harness. The sound is very good. These speakers go for $70 to 80 from some of the discount audio places. I found mine (used) on eBay for half that.
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
Applicable to '90 - '97 1.8 liter
6-1/2 3 way door speakers (custom fit for Mazda)
Installation is straight forward. It improved the mid and high a lot. Now I can hear songs much better. But where is bass???!!! Compared with the factory speaker, which is just cheap paper, 1620 II's bass is much weaker for some reasons. If you look at the magnet and cone, they will make you believe that 1620II will provide much better bass, but NOT!
While I lost significant amount of bass, I am still happy about 1620II's mid and high performance. I am thinking about getting a player/tuner with such bass booster like Sony Megabass so that I can regain the lost bass.
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
BPioneer's Premier TS-C702 Component Speaker package, and TS-A6966 3-way 6x9's, Panasonic's Rebel Gear CQ-DPG500, and Best Kit's Miata trim installation package.
Total Cost= $209.00 TS-C702
$166.60 TS-A6966 and 6x9 box
$249.99 CQ-DPG500
$ 14.99 Best kits Miata installation package
These prices are converted to U.S. dollars....for you American Miata fans.
As all non-special-edition Miata owners know, we are not blessed with the best of stereo systems. My red '90 miata was the best testament to this statement. Two small 5 1/4" speakers just didn't do the car any justice, nor did the factory tape-deck. I needed a radical solution for my audio dilemma.
The Panasonic head cd head unit is one of the best bangs for the bucks: 40 watts x 4 channels, 3 second anti-shock memory, detachable face, 32x oversampling, and the all important green display to keep your Miata looking "factory". There is another Panasonic head unit, the CQ-DPG550 with remote-- lets not waste our time on a remote we'll never use, plus its an extra $40.00. The Pioneer Premier TS-C702 component package features 7" mid-bass driver made out of a sub-woofer fiber called ALCC, matched with 1" pure carbon dome tweeters passing through a passive crossover network (to split the frequencies). These amazing speakers will hit an astonishing high 30,000 hz and down to a sub-woofer low frequency of 30hz. Yeah, I know what you are all thinking--7" speakers will not fit in the door panel locations....yes they will if you have the factory locations cut larger to accomodate your new speakers. Your installer will attempt to install your passive crossover networks in the door panels--no, there is too much moisture, install them on the back wall inside of your glove compartment. This location is closer to the back of your stereo, as well making it easier to make those last minute connections. As for the location of you tweeters, once again your installer is going to try to locate them in the factory location on the door-- once again no, you'll get poor sound-staging this way. If you can figure our how to dismantle your factory vents by the doors you are set in getting the most incredible tweeter location ever out of the car. Once the plastic directional piece is taken out of the air vent assembly, you can slide in your tweeter flush and trick looking. The tweeters are directional so you can face them anywhere you need those direction-specific high frequencies....the low's being omni-directional, the mid-bass drivers are fine where they are.
When this is finished you have 7" mid-bass drivers in the doors putting out incredible lows, and flush factory-looking tweets mounted high in the car setting your sound stage. When you further want to impress the crowd, open your glove compartment and show them your passive crossover networks.
Now on to the stereo...remember, when taking the head unit out first you have to remove the center console, there are 5 main bolts to take out....but be careful....you still have to take off the boot for the gears (4 more tiny screws) and the ashtray light (1 more small screw). Once you get that off, you now have to take out the vents in the upper-center console, in behind these lay two of the three last bolts. The third will be on the bottom left. After you manage this, take off the emergency light/light pop-up switch. Then the rest in straight forward. On the back of the stereo mounting rack is a metal bar holding the factory head unit in place, it would be wise to try to get this off, believe me when I say it will get in the way. Once you get this done, you'll have a few options for installation depth of your head unit.
To utilize the rear channels of the rebel gear head unit, I took a mobile solution for speaker installs. Install your 6x9's speakers in a 6x9 speaker box....keep it sealed (you'll get a clearer tighter bass).... and run your wires under your center console, up underneath the carpet and out the sides (this will keep your install looking professional--remember never show your wires). This solution will give you the mobility and flexiblity of adding two more speakers when the top is up or down. Most 6x9's have a higher spl (loudness) capacity than round speakers so make sure you make use of that fader.
All in all, when it comes down to it, I have a red '90 Miata with a custom 6 speaker sound system that hits a subwoofer low 30 hz, up to a classical music 30,000 hz, topping out at 94 db. With all this I have the option of easily taking out the rear speakers.....I have gotten many compliments from well respected car audio installers on this trick Miata install I did.
My advice....the equipment has surpassed my expectations, the install took a lot of thought....let my install be an example of what a Miata owner's love for his car can do.
Applicable to: '90 - '97 '99 +
6 1/2" woofer and a 7/8" tweeter rated power 150W max.
When I first got the speakers in the mail, I couldnt wait to put them in. However, when I opened the box, no instruction book came out. Then I looked at the box. The "instructions" consisted of poorly drawn pictures and one word descriptions such as "cut" or "push." This was rather agravating, but I managed to figure it out with out paying much attention to the box. I put the woofers in the door and mounted the tweeters behind the outter A/C vents. At first I thought the wire would be hard to run, but it wasnt that bad. I simply ran a coat hanger from the vent, thru the dash and down to the floor. Then I wrapped the wire around the hanger and simply pulled it back thru. I put the included crossovers underneath my CD player in the dash. I simply screwed them to a piece of plywood and mounted it to the bottom of the opening where the head unit goes.
These speakers sound excellent. Far better than the stock ones. They are a bit underpowered, as I only have them run off of the head unit, but they still sound awesome. The staging is great with the tweeters mounted in the vents. Security is not a problem, as you can not even tell they are there
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
5x7 direct replacement speakers for M2, lower door speaker location
The '99 doors have a 7" round cut out in the metal of the door. Mazda (or Ford) installed an adapter bracket that converts the round hole to a 5x7 speaker mount. The speakers are glued with silicone to the mounting bracket, but can be easily separated with a utility knife. The 5x7 speakers can be directly replaced with other 5x7 speakers. I used Pioneer TS-A5713's which have a poly cone with a rubber surround. Crutchfield gives you some misleading information. Maybe they will correct it soon. For some reason, they thought there wasn't enough depth to mount the Pioneers, but they worked fine, without cutting anything, not even the water shield.
My stereo is still powered with the factory radio, but it gives enough power to produce decent bass and the new speakers give a much cleaner sound, better base and more dynamic range. The muddy, thumping sound of the factory speakers is gone. Maybe when Clearwater comes out with their subwoofer for the '99, I'll add an amp and the subwoofer... Until then, I'm satisfied.
6.5" Custom Fit 3-way speakers for doors
The reason I went with these speakers was the fact that they were custom fit for several makes of Japanese cars, including the Miata. As promised, they went in with existing hole pattern and with existing speaker wire plug. It really couldn't have been much easier.
Sound is very good, about as good as it gets in this price range I would think (I got them for about $75 per pair thru mail order). Good bass reponse. . . will rattle the doors on some CD's.
There might be other speakers that sound better (I don't know), but these sound quite good to me and ease-of-installation was really a plus.
3 way 6.5" speakers
These speakers were purchased to replace the stock speakers on a 97 Miata. They are a direct replacement, no drilling or modifications required and the stock connector fits directly on the speaker. Time required to install is a matter of minutes.
I was very disappointed with these speakers and will be returning or exchanging them for something else. Although their construction is much better than the stock paper, whizzer cone speakers, their low frequency output was much worse.
This prompted me to actually measure the frequency response of the Pioneers and the stock speakers. I mounted each speaker on a 4' by 3' baffle and using a test CD and a Radio Shack digital SPL meter, measured the frequency response for both speakers.
After a slight level adjustment the curves were within +-2dB of each other from 100 to 1000 Hz. However the Pioneers were 8 dB below the stock speakers at 50 Hz. The diminished output from the Pioneers compared to the stock speakers continued on down to 20 Hz with the Pioneers being, at best, 5 db below the stock speakers from 70 to 20 Hz. The Pioneers are significantly lacking in bass, much worse than the stock speakers in a 97 Miata!! The stock speakers measured +- 2dB from 45 to ~ 1200 Hz, pretty flat through the midbass and lower midrange. Both speakers exhibited a somewhat uneven high freqency response although the Pioneer was considerably better in this area. The stock speakers had large peaks (I would guess due to whizzer cone resonances) and generally diminshed output at the high frequency extreme.
3-way 6 1/2 inch speakers. Poly-coated woofer, cone midrange, titanium dome tweeter, fabric surround. Frequency response is 30-20,000Hz.
These are maybe the only drop-in 6 1/2s for the Miata. No drilling required, the holes on these line up perfectly with the stock holes. Just pull off the door panel, unscrew the old speakers, unplug them, pull the end off of the plug, plug in the Pioneers (no wiring harness needed), screw them in, put on the door panel. That's it. The factory speakers in my 91 had no surrounds left and buzzed badly.
These sound much better than the stock weezer cone, paper surround 5 1/4s. Good bass response...the doors really shake now. I would definitely recommend these speakers to anyone fed up with the horrible stock speakers. I believe Pete at Performance Buyers Club is going to order some of these so give him a call.
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