I've got a few things not working right on my S5's radio. It has an aftermarket crappy dual radio and it HAD all stock speakers. I bought some pioner 6" 3 way speakers for the rear towers and it made somewhat of an improvement. But they still sound bad because the towers aren't good enclosures.

I replaced the crappy stereo with a nicer pioneer HD radio today and it was an improvement, but still not what I wanted.

One other thing I've noticed, the door speakers don't work at all...? Never have since I owned the car. Anyone have a good idea why?

 

I'm assuming these amplifiers are causing problems?

 

I've never tried to tap into the existing system with my aftermarket setups. I've always run fresh speaker wire from my amps. The general advice you'll get is that the OEM amps are crappy and you're better off using the amp in your headunit...well provided your headunit is powered.

 

Head unit is powered. Looks like I'll be running some new wires.

What do people do to make the tower speakers sound better? I was thinking of taking them out and using little wood enclosures instead...

 

Separates (speakers) or a powered sub woofer.

 

Remove the factory amps and it will sound better. I think the clips might even clip together making it painless to remove/bypass the amp (I could be wrong it's been a while). There is one behind each speaker in the rear, and one below the glove box next to the 3.5" speaker.

It's a lot easier to use the existing wires when possible. Fishing wire through the factory door boots is never enjoyable, if you end up running wire, I would splice into the factory wiring harness inside the kickpanels.

Make sure your aftermarket radio has a clean ground (ex: directly to the firewall, etc.
A good quality 4 channel amplifier with built in crossovers are definately the way to go. Mid priced name brand midrange speakers and a good amp will yeild better results than expensive components powered by a cheaper amp or worst the head unit. High quality wiring for the amp is essential also (don't skimp on the RCA's for sure).

 

Where in the rear specifically are the amps? I didn't see them in the strut towers...

 

The speakers are mounted on top of a black plastic tub and inside the tub is where the amplifier is located. This is how it came from the factory.

 

Actually, I don't think S5 cars had the rear speaker amps. My GTU definitely did not.

 

I've got a vert, so I've never messed with rear speakers. As far as sounding better upgrade them. I've got all Boston Acoustic Pros 6in mids in the doors, seperate tweets on the doors, 4in mids under the dash and 8in sub under the vert rear windbreaker.

I've got everything sound deadened with generic dynamat. On the doors and in the rear area on either side of the tranny hump and on the underside of the windbreaker. Oh and on the trunk lid also.

 

There are definitely not any black plastic tubs in the towers that the speakers are mounted in.. ??

I bought nice pioneer three ways, but the problem is that the towers aren't sealed. So the lower frequencies sound like poo.

I need to figure out why the door speakers don't work though.... I'll have to see if I can find the amplifier and see if its toast.

 

The door speaker amp is the one under the glovebox. Your aftermarket radio is not supplying a remote lead to turn the amp on, that's why it's not working. Just remove it & bypass it. My old S4 had amps under the rear speakers, my S5 did not (I wasn't sure if they had been removed by previous owner).

 

I've never looked at the speaker setup in the towers, but I'm betting you could use some resin fiberglass and make some sort of sealed enclosure for them. Again not having looked at one, I'm assuming you'd need to be able to access the shocks through those towers so you can't just seal them in.

 

6.5" speakers do not reproduce low frequencies very well, that job is best reserved for a subwoofer. I wouldn't spend much time/money/effort into trying to convert those towers into speaker boxes. my $0.02

Definately do NOT epoxy the insides of those towers. Your rear shock mounts are in those towers!

Do you have the insulation in the towers that came in there? If not stuff them with polyfill and it will help slow the air speeds in the towers down making them react as though they are in a larger "box".

 

Well most likely I'll just build small wooden boxes for the rear tower speakers. They rattle the hell out of the plastic on the speaker surround anyway, and the sun is already starting to cause damage to them.

Conveniently enough, Mazda actually put mate-able plugs on the factory amp in the dash. So all I had to do was unplug it, and plug the two clips together. Unfortunately, it sounds like both door speakers are on the way out. So what should I replace them with? More woofers? Should I run the "remote" wire on the pioneer deck I bought to the remote wire on the factory amp so it powers the door speakers and behaves as a crossover should? Or will the pioneer head unit be ok run two speakers on each front channel?

I'm not looking for crazy great audio quality, just something nice that doesn't fart and such. And no subs for me.

 

I just put regular coaxial speakers in the doors of my S5 coupe. One problem I had was that low frequencies tended to make the door cards and various pieces of door trim vibrate audibly. It was worse on the driver's side, probably because that door got opened and closed a lot more than the passenger side. I put some sound absorbing material and polyester fiberfill back there but the problem never completely went away.

 

Kenwood makes a superb sounding powered subwoofer and it is more than slim enough to be mounted up against the wall right behind the seat so it is out of sight but worth its weight in gold with respect to the impact it will have on the quality and fullness of sound.

 

What size are the door speakers?

Satch, do you know what sub it is? And what type of wattage amp would I need to run? I'm hesitant to put subs in.... draws more attention.

 

Best Results - High quality 4 or 5 channel amp (5 if you decide to run a sub)

Cheap "fail-safe" Option - Go to Radio Shack and tell them you want a "bass blocker" and they'll sell you a resistor to filter out low frequencies to your coaxial speakers.

Free - If your head unit has crossovers that will work with the factory outs then you're probably okay as long as you can figure out how to properly set up your radio.

Most of the newer pioneer radios that I have seen do have pretty good built in crossovers.

Just remember when you unhook your battery that you need to set them back before you blow up your midrange speakers.

As for adding a subwoofer:
I have seen some clean installs including a stealth install inside one of the cargo bays.

Bazooka makes some really clean sounding amplified bazooka tubes. Even the 6.5" one's are pretty rowdy considering their size. Of course when it comes to subwoofers size & enclosure size play a crucial role in which frequency you want to reproduce (what type of music you wish to recreate).

My car is sort of extreme. (click to enlarge)

 

It's a powered sub so it doesn't require an external amplifier as it is internally driven. It's not going to vibrate your car like a decked out vintage Cadillac so you don't really need to worry about the attention unless your friends are rather untrustworthy.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-E5qLKwR...-KSC-SW10.html

 

That sub looks pretty interesting...compact and small. And probably gives just enough of what I need. Then I can cut the lows out of the other speakers so they don't fart like crazy, and I wont have to enclose the rear tower speakers... Think one of these would fit behind one of the seats? It could even go in the back since I still have my rear tray...

 

Or, I could get new door speakers with crossovers.... hmm....

 

Going back to the OP's original issue of no sound from the doors, it would be a failed (or unplugged, but that's not likely) door speaker amp, found by the lower dash speaker on the driver's side - it's fairly easy to get at. I replaced my factory door speakers with some Pioneer 6.5" coaxials, rear towers with Infiniti coax's - both helped give clearer, less muddy sound, even though I still have the factory head unit and amp/equalizer. S5's don't have amps or plastic boxes for the rear tower speakers, but there should be some wooly mat material that goes in the bottom of the towers that at least helps with a little fuller sound.

 

Yeah, I fixed the door speakers by just bypassing the amp

 

It should fit right behind one of the seats. I have the version by JVC which is two inches smaller and it fits cozily behind the passenger seat mounted up against the wall so it faces towards the front of the car and directs the sound toward the passengers, driver and non-driver. I chose the passenger side in case I didn't always want to feel the sound of the resonating base coarsing through my seat. It turns a thin paper sounding car system into one that is similar to a home unit as the difference is night and day as it allows you to rely on the other speakers to focus on providing the mid and high frequencies. Your head unit should have controls/features which allows you to drive the other speakers as you like without having to worry about putting too much "low" through them while at the same time controlling your sub independently.