another update on my project. ive completed the sound system.
currently running 6.5" audiobahn speakers in the rear towers with offboard tweeters, and 5 1/4" audiobahn CF cones in the doors. i have an 86 base, so speakers were origionally in the dash and i dont know what the f*ck mazda was thinking with that.
running off of a 250watt pioneer head unit, the seats shake.. no sub required.

the concept for this project was more sound at less weight/cost. i went with a pioneer mosfet head unit, and had to fab custom mounts for the doors. the system is partially dynamatted (i.e. around the speakers with strips along bodypanels)
all i have left is to fab some rotor shaped speaker covers (trust me its gonna rock)

if anyones interested i have the templates for the door speaker mounts handy, and i can actually make the mount for you if interested. pm away! lol.

personally im shocked at how good this sounds. all i have left.. if i really want to is to put some good front tweeters in for imaging. the whole project cost about 500$

keep an eye out for future socal meets. pics to come soon.

 

Don't believe that "250W" BS. That's peak power, which is meaningless. Look at the specs in the manual for the "RMS" power, which will probably be only 15-25W per channel. Once you've heard the difference a 4x50WRMS (or more) amp makes, you'll never bother with internal amps again.

 

I have been internal amp-less for 4 years now

100x2 front, 100x2 rear, 200x2 for 10" subs

I chose the same size speakers that you did. 5.25" fronts in the doors and 6.5" components in the shock tower w/ tweeters mounted above and behind your head, near the clothes hook.

 

The shock tower speakers are 6.5"? I'm looking into setting up a 12" or two 10" subs in the very back of the trunk.

 

There is no need for large speakers or components in the rear. Most SQ competitors don't run a rear stage at all.

I suggest spending the most cash getting the best sounding speakers up front, don't bother with rear fill and get an external amp for the front stage.

50wrms x 2 from an external amp will be much better than the 25% THD 250watt head unit power.

 

^what he said...any good SQ setup has the stage coming from the front...with maybe rear fill speakers in the back. Bringing the tweets up some will "raise the stage" so that the sound doesn't sound as if it's coming from your feet

 

^^ yeah exactly what these guys said. Don't even bother with rears, just get good quality front speakers (as much as you can afford) 3 way components if you wanna be really **** about your sound. And then throw subs in the back. Btw if you wanna also be really **** about sound again get a deck that has digital time correction like ^^ guys said so the "stage" doesn't sound like it's coming from your feet. Here's the argument my friend gave me (who won best sounding car in northern california in a comp) "You go to a concert?" ".....yeah" "the band ever play behind you at any point?" ".....no" "well there ya go.... no sound behind you in a car either dope!"