2010 MX-5 / Miata Build

L

LumbermanSVO

Noob
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Today I picked up my new car. It looks great and I wouldn't be surprised to learn had it been garaged it's whole life. Everything at the dealer went super smooth, I was in and out in about 90 minutes, including the test drive. As soon as I let the clutch out I knew I was right in wanting one of these cars. What a wonderful piece of machinery to drive!


On the way home I plugged in my phone and turned on the stereo. At first I was like, "Ok, I can deal with this." It wasn't fantastic sounding, but wasn't absolute shit. Then a song with a little bit of bass came on, and at even a moderate volume, it didn't take much for everything to fall apart. The bass pulled enough power to destroy everything else.


I was going to leave it alone for awhile, but it's too terrible to do that. I don't want to get all crazy with it, mostly just drop in stuff. Lucky for me, it's not a Bose system, so it should be fairly easy to work on.


I have a bunch of gear laying around. Throwing my 800PRS in is a no-brainer. Perhaps running it in network mode off the internal amp is all I'll need to hold me over for awhile. If I need more power, I can easily add an amp.


There is pretty much no room for subs. Some people have put a single 8 in the passenger foots well, but I'm not looking to lose any passenger space. Like the rest of the car, the trunk is tiny. Even worse, it's pretty much sealed off from the rest of the car, so good luck getting any bass into the passenger area. That pretty much leaves sacrificing the storage bins behind the seats. There is a shop in Florida that made a box for 2 8's that went in the soft top storage area, and the top was still able to fully fold up, so that's an idea.


For the rest of the speakers, I have to mock it up, but it looks like horns will fit. The doors should fit 8's pretty easily. Perhaps something like the Silver Flutes could play from 50-ish all the way up to the horns and I could go without subs. I'm not looking for crazy loud, so that could work and it would be awfully nice to only have one amp to hide.


Any thoughts or suggestions?
 
You can do very deep beefy door speakers in those. The bose option put 8's in the doors. You might be able to get enough bass to be happy from there

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
 
tnaudio said:
You can do very deep beefy door speakers in those. The bose option put 8's in the doors. You might be able to get enough bass to be happy from there
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I was happy to see that in my research. The key is to find an 8 that can play well from at least 1200Hz and down, and do it fairly well. The other option would be to use a small speaker in the factory tweeter location and make it a 3-way setup. With the crossover limitations in the 800PRS, I'd need something that could easily reach 250Hz. That doesn't leave too many options, and the GB25 is at the top of that list, with maybe the Illusion 3 at the top of that list too. With the 3-way setup, I could run the horns off the deck and still keep it to a single 4-channel amp for simplicity.

slade1274 said:
Behind the passenger seat?
Click to expand...

There isn't much room behind the seats. A few people have cut up the panel behind the seats and fit 8's in there with some fiberglass work.

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It didn't take long to start ordering parts:


Metra Dash Kit
Metra Harness
Metra ASWC-1 Steering Wheel control adaptor
Pro-Clip Phone Mount
1 Foot long HDMI Cable
Used Steering Wheel
New Brake Switch


So, a few items need to be explained. I purposely got a no-option car because I'm just not a fan how hard it can be to replace failing electronic bits when a car gets old. The other problem is with they way the factory bundles options. Check one box to get a feature you want, and suddenly you wind up with a feature you don't want, and I don't want nanny features, like traction/stability control. So in my case, I looked for a car with as few options as I could find.


One feature I did want is cruise control. I did the research, and cruise control was a $500 option when the car was new. A 2009-1025 MX-5 has a Dive By Wire throttle body, all the wiring for cruise control, and every ECU is already programmed for Cruise Control. So to add Cruise Control, all you have to do is remove the blank trim pieces from the steering wheel and replace them with the trim pieces with switches, getting a used steering wheel is the easiest way to get the switches. I found one on Ebay for $50. The only other difference is the brake switch. The car with factory Cruise have a 4-pin switch, two high current for the brake lights, and two low current for the Cruise. The non-Cruise cars have a 2-pin switch. A new 4-pin switch is less than $20 and drops right in.


The Cruise switches also come with radio controls, so I got the adaptor to make them control the 800PRS. The only catch is, the Metra wiring harness doesn't come with a pin to connect the steering wheel controls, so I had to order a second harness so I have the extra pin I need.


I ordered the iPhone mount, but do really was to plug in two cables every time I get in the car, so I figured I could just use a Lightning to HDMI adaptor and Audio de-embedder that I have on the shelf. Then I can plug into the AUX in on the 800PRS. Of course, I then started wondering about the quality of the DAC in the $15 de-embedder when I realized I have a REALLY good DAC in the APL1 I'm currently not using.


So the plan is to go from the iPhone, to HIDMI, to digital coax into the APL1 and analog out into the 800PRS. It should be fun to see how it all works out.
 
I mocked up my current CD2 Comps on the big bodies today. The driver side almost fits and wouldn't need much work. The passenger side isn't even close. It's funny how big they look compared to the car.

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I've contacted Eric to see if he can make a straight entry body that might work. Even if he can, the driver needs to be less than 2.75 inches deep to fit between the blower motor and sheet metal.


On the plus side, all my wiring showed up and I can get to sorting that out. Also, my phone mount showed up:


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You'd also have to switch sides. So the horn that goes on the left with the driver facing up would now go on the right with the driver facing down and same for the other side.
 
Flipping the horns over, and swapping side doesn't effect the dispersion, I ran them motors down in Ol Smokey for quite some time. The problem with that is a few things, on the driver side, the dead pedal will be in the way, and it doesn't leave much room to operate the clutch. This car is comically small. The problem is worse on the passenger side. because of the blower motor the horn will have to be about an inch lower than the lip of the dash. With the motor compression driver hanging down it will take up a serious amount of foot room.

I did ask Eric about the straight entry full-size horns, and he can still make them. If they will work will just depend on how deep his current drivers are, and the mounting surface angle relative to the face of the horn.

I ddi just stumble upon this picture:

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Notice the two different angles on the mini horn bodies? If Eric still make the one with the mounting surface 90º to the face of the horn, then that might be the solution to my problems. I guess I need to ask about that. Then the only real problem might be the vertical mounting tabs, but again, that depends on the depth of the driver.
 
I second the idea of 8s. The tymphany tweeters that PE had for 15$ were very nice and smooth and played low. Just a thought.
 
I have a pair of JL 8IB4's. PM me if interested, check classifieds
 
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cadaver said:
I second the idea of 8s. The tymphany tweeters that PE had for 15$ were very nice and smooth and played low. Just a thought.
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Oh, there WILL be 8's, and I'm a horn guy through and through, so there WILL be horns too. The only real question is, will I have a 3-way with a more subwoofer like 8, or a 2-way with an 8 that can be a mid and a sub at the same time. I'd like to go the 2-way route if I can get good results that way.

Hic said:
I have a pair of JL 8IB4's. PM me if interested, check classifieds
Click to expand...

Those look interesting. Will they play well up to, 1500-ish?

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I talked to Eric today, and it looks like the CD2 Mini body is the way to go, so I'll be buying a set of those with his current drivers.


A bunch of stuff arrived today, so I got to work, but not before grabbing this picture and over editing it :p :


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I'm not sure if the Miata makes the Bronco look big, or if the Bronco makes the Miata look small. :D


The 800PRS mounted in the dash kit:


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Below it is a Voltage Gauge, USB charging ports and a 12V power outlet. The 12V power outlet will get constant power so that when I park for long periods of time I can throw one of my solar panels on the dash to maintain the battery.


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I made up the little textured ABS piece and used CA glue to mount it to the dash kit. I haven't used CA glue before, damn that stuff is impressive!


After getting the physical fit down, I fired up the soldering iron:


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Here we have the 800PRS, APL1, Steering wheel control interface, HDMI audio de-embedder and Lightning to HDMI dongle. I also have an extra 12V power outlet that has a Scosche dual USB plug in it, both ports are high current. One port to charge my phone, the other is to power the HDMI audio de-embedder.


And last, I reclaimed some old RCA connectors off of some older custom cables and made some new ones for this project. One is the digital for into the APL1, and the other two are for analog out the the APL1 and into the 800PRS.


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Tomorrow my new steering wheel and brake switch should arrive. It should be a big day for the new ride. :)
 
Scott Buwalda used a pair of these in his front doors once. Not sure of top end on these for midbass
 
I would ask Eric what he has found that plays the frequencies not covered by his mini-horns , possibly a pro mid or a full range 8 inch crossed @ 1500 hZ .

The Eton 8-412/c8/32 Hex Symphony II woofer fills the bill in a 1.4 cu ft enclosure W/some acousti-fil , I used WinISD to model it *

Top end says 2000 hz on it !
 
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Hic said:
I would ask Eric what he has found that plays the frequencies not covered by his mini-horns , possibly a pro mid or a full range 8 inch crossed @ 1500 hZ .

The Eton 8-412/c8/32 Hex Symphony II woofer fills the bill in a 1.4 cu ft enclosure W/some acousti-fil , I used WinISD to model it *

Top end says 2000 hz on it !
Click to expand...

I spent a lot of time looking up old posts from Eric and others in the HLCD forum on DIYMA and every single one assumes that subs will be used, so people are looking to high pass around 70-80 on their midbass drivers. After opening up a door today I found that isolating a 2.5" mid from the midbass will be trivial, so I think a 3-way might be the way to go. How would your JL drivers do on 75 watts each?

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UPDATE:

Lets start with a look at the factory steering wheel and radio:


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The first thing I did was install the cruise control components. On the left is the non-cruise brake switch, and on the right is the cruise switch. If you don't mind laying with your back over the door sill, you can swap these parts without tools. All 2009-2015 cars have the same plugs and wiring, so the new switch plugs right in.


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Next up is the steering wheel. I started by removing the stock wheel:


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That is pretty straight forward. Next I needed to connect the horn to the new wheel, the plugs are different. I dipped into my weatherpack kit and used a single pin connector:


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Next is to torque down the new wheel and plug in the wiring. The plug you need is already installed and has all the proper wiring.


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Install the airbag/horn assembly and you are set. A quick test drive proved that the cruise and radio controls work! It took less than an hour, including test drive.


Next up is the radio. I spent an absurd amount of time trying to figure out where to stuff the APL1, I'm not used to having so little extra space. I wound up stuffing it under the carpet on the passenger side of the transmission tunnel. I hope it doesn't get too hot! In this pic you can just barely see the RCA connectors facing up, and the HDMI audio de-embedder on top of the transmission tunnel:


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I was able to stuff the bulk of the new wiring harness in a hole between the center stack and glove box then pop the head unit in place.


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Before buttoning everything up I tested it. The steering wheel controls worked right away, the gauges and power ports all work right. But the left door wasn't making any sound, grrr. I spent way too long poking around trying to find the problem only to eventually find that it was a pin on the Metra harness that was in the wrong hole. I fixed that and was good to go!


With that fixed I buttoned it up, tested everything again only to find that I had forgotten to plug the HVAC controls back in. I was chasing the sun at this point but took it apart again and putting it back together and I was good to go! Here is a crappy shot of it all lit up:


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I'll get a better shot tomorrow. And yes, I put the shift knob back on.


I was lucky that the voltage gauge matched the dash lighting perfectly, now I just need to figure out how to change the head unit color to match. Anyone know how to do this?


Without any tuning at all, just a 6db high pass at 50hz, it already sounds MUCH better than the factory radio, especially when turning it up. My only problem is that the APL1 is clipping the inputs on the 800PRS on some songs. I'll spend some time with REW and APL Workshop tomorrow to see what kind of tune I can get out of the stock speaker setup.


Somehow while climbing around in the car I managed to shatter my phone screen while it was in my pocket. I ordered a new screen from ifixit.com and should have it all fixed up on Tuesday. I'm glad it didn't happen while I was on the road! Unfortunately, that just took up a bunch of money I could have used on the new horns. :mad:


I'm only home for one more week before the golf season picks back up, and it starts with a complex show that I need to spend a few days next week prepping. I won't have more than a couple days off until March, I guess that gives me plenty of time to figure out what I'll do with the doors :p
 
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