Is there any bolt in replacement speakers for the two rear ones? Ones that have the same electrical connection and same size? The 30 year old speakers have seen better days!

 

I believe any 5 1/4 inch speaker will work. You will probably need to remove the factory plug and crimp on a new female spade connector or desolder the connector from the factory speaker and solder it to the new speaker. Not a big job.

 

Sounds really straight forward, thanks!

 

3.5" round speakers in the front. Note that the speakers will have 2 spades and will be marked on the spades as '+' or '-' (stamped into the metal). This is to denote polarity of the speakers for best sound. They will work regardless of how you wire them, but they will sound far better if they're wired correctly in-phase.

The rear enclosures can be opened up to fit 6x9" speakers, but the grills won't look right - regardless, they will sound much better as 6x9's usually have tweeters built in. Personally, I went with a 100watt amplifier which powers a stand-alone Bazooka Tube for low-end base and that's all the car really needs.

 

I had trouble finding speakers rated to low enough wattage for the factory sound system - normal off-the-shelf speakers sounded like *****. Ended up putting a modern head unit in. I regret doing that now.

 

What is the factory wattage?

 

I cant remember exactly but it was like 5w or something

 

some of todays speakers are too thick. crutchfield.com product selector can point you to speakers that are direct plug ins. your OEM 30 year old plastic connectors will crumble. other than that, installation is super easy.

only thing I would do differently is choose with a digital media player, and not a CD player. a usb thumb drive will hold all the music you could ever listen too.

factory wattage? who cares! replace the head unit/cassette player with something modern, and jump a wire from the cigarette lighter.

 

I found the same thing. Many years ago, I decided to upgrade my rear speakers, so I bought a set of "better" coaxials from my local car stereo store. After I installed them, I noticed that the sound was worse. Since I knew the salesman wouldn't believe me without a comparison, I put one of the old ones back in the right side so I could use the balance **** to compare A to B.

I took my car back to the shop, and nobody there could believe it. The OEM speakers were significantly louder, had better bass extension, and clearer sound. Even when I matched volume levels, the OEM speakers still sounded better. (Got my money back and kept the OEM speakers.)

I didn't do any further research, but I think the OEM speakers are:

1) Very efficient (high SPL or dB/W) so they work well with the low power OEM amp.

2) Tuned to the enclosure. There's a steel channel behind the speaker that acts as a baffle. I suspect Mazda selected drivers that work well in that environment.

 

My guess for the difference in sound quality between OEM and some aftermarket speakers is the impedance. Some are 4 ohms and some are 8.

My factory stereo was having issues so I recently replaced it with a very low end XO Vision unit ( ). I have to say it works very well with the factory speakers. I removed the old factory headunit (AM-FM, cassette, eq) and left the amps in the back but unplugged the power and speaker connections. I then ran speaker wire to the bin area so I could connect to the factory speakers connectors. This worked very well. Didn't have to hack in to the factory wiring and I can put the factory unit back in if I want.