New Mazda 6

C-Man

Wow, been a while!
Anywho, i just bought a new Mazda 6 and would like to throw my system in there. Unfortunately if any of you have ever seen the dash on these things, it takes quite a bit of fabrication to put an aftermarket HU into one. So I've decided to leave the factory HU and hook my two Zapco amps up to that. Now I realize there's gonna be a HUGE loss of control over my system doing it this way, but the overall asthetics of the car are more important to me in my ripe ol' age (23).
So I'm gonna use a couple line output converters to hook up my Zapco 200 and 750 to the system. I guess my real question is just how bad do we think this will sound? Will I be able to compensate somewhat for the loss of HU sound quality with the controls on the amp? I've never used these and I understand they will increase the signal running to the amp somewhat......

Anywho, lemme know what you think.

exalted512

if you are going to run a line out converter, www.davenavone.com. Metra doesnt make a kit for your car so you wont have to modify the dash? If not, then thats strange...The Pioneer Premier p-8 or the 860 mp are both very nice head units that might better match your interior than most of the radios out there. That or if you can find a nakamichi.

Zapcos are extremely nice amps, but paired with your stock radio, they can only do so much. Id personally look around more before i give up and use the stock radio, but thats me. Youll be able to set all the crossovers and stuff on your amps, but tweaking is going to be out of the question...
-Cody

C-Man

Yeah exactly.
I would use my cd player, as long as it looks good, but the cd player controls on the dash are all lumped in with the with the climate controls. I've tried looking up how to take it out but it requires fabrication to separate the two.
I guess another option would be an equalizer up front, but we'll see, I'm gonna check Metra right now and make sure. And there is one... unfortunately it's grey and I have the chrome dash kit. It would probably look alright but with the chrome cluster and everything it might look a little funny. And it's a little hard to find one online. Anyway, I'll keep searching.


Chris

C-Man

OMG! I just found one on ebay for $209! I figured it'd be like $30 or whatever, but $209... Ok that answers that question. At least for now.

1996blackmax

The Pioneer DEH-P8600MP is also a very nice unit.

exalted512

what was $209??

C-Man

$209 for the dash kit! And it doesn't even match my interior. I'd love to just put my Pioneer HU in there but I'm not gonna wanna spend that much money for something that's not gonna look right.

audiobliss

Ouch, man; that's steep!

:eek:

neomagus00

steep like K2 steep, jeez... i believe that zapco has a proprietary line driver connection, and that the recieving end is built in to all of their amps, all you need is the sender, which would probably help quite a bit on noise...

exalted512

that thing better suck me and **** me for $209...

youve tried cc/bb? they dont have the black metra kits?
-Cody

C-Man

They can order them, but they're just as expensive. It's basically like actually replacing the entire panel on the dash... It's cool though, I'll pay 25 bucks for a line out for now, then if I hate it, and I know I will I'll replace it down the road sometime... after the new car smell is gone.

Chris

cricket1977

I know this thread is a little older, but I'll throw out a suggestion. If you would like to keep your factory head unit, much like me since i have a new Mazda 3, and do not want to trust the zapco converters, which I also have zapco amps, check out the JL Audio Cleansweep, it is pricey, but looks well worth the money.
http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_cleansweep_pages.php?page_id=79

bknauss

1. The dash kit is so much since the HVAC controls are included. You can't take off the OEM dash without taking both the CD and HVAC.
2. Don't worry about a LOC or whatever. If your amp has high level inputs, use em.
3. The Mazda6 head unit output is a flat EQ. The EQ is done at the Bose amp.

PoweredByDodge

we're gonna do my buddy's RX-8 sooner or later... we're going to take the factory cluster, gut it - keep what electronics are necessary for the climate control, etc, and then cut our hole for a deck as needed, and bondo the thing up - sand it smooth - paint gloss black and call it a day. cost = 0, risk = huge if we screw it up, do we care? no.

also - take a look at the other thread i posted in regarding a "better line out converter" which should yield roughly 3 to 4 volts for most decks.

however, now that i think of it - you should put a 60 hertz test tone cd into your factory deck - then check the voltage with a multimeter at the terminals going INTO one of those Bose amps that bknauss mentioned... see how high it is - if its 1 or 2 volts (or higher), then you're better off putting RCA ends onto the speaker leads and wiring that intoyour amps rather than using any kind of LOC of high level input. most LOC's yield 0.25 volts.