Jay's 2015 Mazda 6i Touring build thread

J

JayinMI

Noob
OK, since the Kia is gone, I guess I'll start a build thread for the new car.

I'm not planning to use any of the old equipment in the new car.
Here's the current (evolving) plan...but I haven't bought anything yet.

Head Unit
Pioneer AVIC-4100NEX
PAC Audio SWI-RC for steering wheel controls.
May use an Arduino to integrate the knob in the center console.
If I don't use the SWI-RC, I will probably do an iDatalink Maestro RR
Axxess Interfaces AX-MAZCAM-6V to retain the factory backup camera
Microbypass Parking brake interface
Axxess Interfaces AX-USB-35-EXT USB/Aux plate (there is an issue with retaining the factory port in the center console)
Metra 95-7522B Dash kit

Front Stage

Illusion Audio C3CX 3" point source coaxes, likely on the a-pillar
Illusion Audio C8W 8" shallow midbass in the door. Not cutting the car up this time, or giving up my foot room. Besides, there's a fuse box in the
kick panel.

Subwoofer(s)

Acoustic Elegance IB12AU's (I have a 14 cu ft trunk, and the numbers say 2 of these give me a system Q of .702)

Signal Processing

Undecided, but leaning toward:

Mosconi 4to6 or 6to8v8
Mosconi RC Mini (so I can use an Arduino to interface my volume controls with the processor)

Power/Ground Distribution/Wire

I saved my Streetwires Distro block and ground block from the Rio.
Will probably pick up a 200A breaker for up by the battery.
Power/speaker wire will likely be from Knu Koncepts again. Second choice is Tspec (which I can get locally).

Probably going to run 14ga to all the speakers, and 12 or 10 to the subs.

There may or may not be some Techflex involved. lol

Amplification

Currently thinking about either (2) Alpine PDX-V9's, or a PDX-F4, and F6 and an M12.
I'm leaning toward these because I might build an amp rack that hangs from the rear deck and I could hide all the wires, and the controls would all face out for easy accessibilty.

This car ACTUALLY came with a spare tire, and I want to leave it in there, if I go with my second choice amps (2 Arc Audio KS300.4's and a KS1200.1) or 3rd choice (Mosconi) I'd have to put them down there.

Sound Control/NVH

Mainly Soundskins deadener and speaker rings (although FAST rings might make an appearance if Soundskins doesn't have an 8" ring)
MLV (at least in the front doors.)

RCA's

Probably Stinger 6000 series.

That's my current plan. I'm sure it will change some before I start tearing the car apart.

The Victim:



2015 Mazda 6i Touring, in Snowflake white pearl. Black Leather(ette) interior.
19" wheels, manually shiftable automatic transmission (no paddles), dual zone A/C, rear seat heat/A/C vents, push button start, etc.

It will be getting tinted with Panaflex heat rejection window film.

The current HU has HD Radio, USB, Aux, Pandora control, Bluetooth and hands free. And the implementation of just about all of it is horrible.
Since I don't have Bose, the radio doesn't control any of the car's options, so changing it won't present a problem.
However, cars with the Bose option have a 9" woofer in the door. And I've seen TheJesus' build thread on DIYMA and Mazda6club's forum, and he got Hybrid L8's in his, so the C8's should be easy. Haha.

Rear speakers will remain off the radio power, so that I can fade them off or on when there are rear passengers.

That's what I'm thinking anyway...lol

Jay
 
OK, not sure if anyone else is going to see this, but I'll see.

I'm looking for a small rectangular USB/3.5mm aux panel AND a MATCHING dual USB panel.

I can find round ones, or a rectangular of one, but not the other.

Any suggestions?

My coworker is probably going to sell me his 4100NEX since he won't be using it in his new (to him) Grand Cherokee.

Jay
 
OK. I found out that Metra makes a piece that snaps into Ford factory knockouts that gives me 2 USB ports, an HDMI port and an 1/8" aux port.
It's called an AX-FDUSBAUX. I ordered on on Amazon so I could return it if it won't work, and it arrived yesterday. (Yay, Amazon Prime) and it looks like if I open the hole up in the car, I can put it right where the factory USB/aux port is.

Second, I bought the 4100NEX from said co-worker. Needs a little cleanup, but it came with a Microbypass, so I don't have to source that, at least.

Third, I may have a problem:



I'm listing a bunch of my gear for sale to help fund the new build. My C10XL, my BitOne.1, some budget Kenwood components (that if they don't sell will end up in my GF's Jeep, or in the garage), and all of my old school sony amps. I'm putting ads up in DIYMA's classified section, but if anyone's interested PM me.

Jay
 
The Helix DSP.2 seems to be the new forum boner. I work for an Arc Audio dealer, and can get a PS8 reasonably priced. The last time I'd seen the software was in Andy's GTI like 3 years ago, and it's come along way. I had been leaning toward a Mosconi 6to8v8 (because it gave me features I wanted and I've used the software, as well as the expandability), but I'm not sure.

I guess I'll go back through and see what Erin's using nowadays. lol

Jay
 
I like the Mosconi 4to6 and 6to8...but the software is a little clunky. For example (and the hardest thing for most people to understand) is that in order to get 24 (or 36 or 48dB/oct slope) you have to do multiple 12dB/oct slopes at the same frequency. It's not a GUI, it's more DOS-like. lol. I like how you can plug in modules to add BT streaming in HD, BT sync with your PC for tuning with no cables, etc, but it looks like Helix is doing that now as well. I work for a Focal dealer, and Focal/Mosconi/Gladen/Illusion all kind of fall under the same umbrella (Orca) I can get their stuff cheaper than stuff we don't sell, and since my former employer killed the car audio section, I don't know of a Helix dealer that will give me anything close to dealer pricing. AaMoF, I don't know of any other Helix dealers in my area.

From the looks of it, the DSP.2 would do everything *I* need.

The PS-8 left a bad taste in my mouth, after it took so long to actually come out, the commander was YEARS in actually showing up, the software was rather like the Mosconi software (more type in values, than GUI) and there were noise issues early on. But I got to do one the other day and use the newest software and was rather surprised to find it extremely flexible.

I think I'm between the 6to8v8, the DSP.2 and the PS-8. More research to come.

Jay
 
Well, I'd like to help make that decision easy if I can. Buy the Helix. Nothing else can touch it.

However, if you're interested the JL twk88 is a really nice unit as well.
 
I don't need the extra outputs of the Pro, so I'd be looking at the DSP.2...Thanks for the input.
Hope I can find a deal...it's hard to work in the industry and pay normal pricing. lol

Jay
 
A friend of mine has a little "out-of-his-garage" deal going and he said he would check on pricing on the Helix for me. He also offered to sign up with Soundskins...
But I am going to look at Focal's deadener too, since the shop I work at is already a Focal dealer. No point having his little venture have to sign up for something just for me. lol

Jay
 
Check to see what you get the Gladen Aerospace DSP for. I don't know much about it right now but I do know it looks pretty promising as far as specs go. If you guys are dealers for Focal/Mosconi then I imagine you can get a pretty good deal on the Gladen piece, even though I imagine it's not going to be cheaper than the Helix DSP.2.
 
Well, after running a tablet in my last car for a few years, I decided it really wasn't worth it. Especially after I put a Pioneer 4200NEX in my GF's Jeep.
My tablet runs on Android 4.4, and in order to run Android Auto you need at least 5.0. When it got cold, I'd have charging issues that usually required me to remove the tablet from the car and charge it in the house to knock some sense back in to it.

When I recently upgraded to my '15 Mazda 6i Touring, I was quite happy with everything about the car except the audio system. It had a lot of features I wanted (BT hands free, read/send SMS messages, Pandora integration, etc) but they were all integrated very badly. One thing I never liked about having a tablet was that with a Samsung Tablet and Motorola phone, there was no simple way to allow me to make and answer calls from the tablet...so I decided to go with a Pioneer 4100NEX for myself. I picked it up pretty reasonably from a co-worker who also got a new vehicle, and he isn't changing his radio, so he didn't need this anymore. With a firmware update, it's essentially the same as a 4200NEX.

Now, The last few years, my GF and I do some roadtrips...and this radio can do Apple Car Play and Android Auto. You have to use specific USB ports for each, however. I'm really into factory integration...but this car only had one USB and an AUX port in the center console, and there is some issue using any of the few pieces that are supposed to retain the factory USB port. So, I did a little research and found out the Axxess Interfaces (Metra) makes a piece called the AX-FDUSBAUX. It is intended to replace a knockout on Ford vehicles, and gives you 2 separate USB ports, an AUX AND an HDMI. I picked on up on Amazon. I opened up the hole in the center console where the factory ports were, and put this in it's place. Let's start there...

Here's my collection of parts:



Factory USB/Aux



Measured, and marked for cutting.



Hole cut.



New panel in place.



Harness Tesa taped, and run along the passenger side of the console.







One snafu, tho. I ordered an 18" extension for the HDMI cable, and 3 foot USB extensions...The HDMI came up about 8" short. I don't plan to ever use the feature, but I'll probably order a 3' extension just because.

The reason I wanted to have both USB ports accessible, is because I use an Android phone and she has an iPhone. This way whoever is driving can just plug their phone in and go. She's used to Car Play from her Jeep anyway.

I guess this is the first official "build" post in the thread. lol

Jay
 
The HU came with a Microbypass which lets me avoid having to trigger the parking brake before I can get into certain menus and/or set destinations for Nav, etc.
I picked up the Dash kit, wiring harness and antenna adapter for $20 on eBay, and also got a Metra (Axxess) AX-MAZCAM-6V which allows me to retain the factory camera, and comes with a piece so I can feed it 6V like it wants to see. I also got 2 3' USB extensions, 1 18" HDMI extension and used one of my leftover 3' RCA's for Aux. No idea why the pic in the above post is upside down.

I picked up the PAC SWI-RC from work, even tho it doesn't officially support this car, it works with some others that use the same radio. It's also easier to manually program than the Metra (Axxess) ASWC-1. That might come into play later if I attempt to integrate the i-Drive style knob in the center console.

Anyway, here's the obligitory "Installed" pics of the radio.





Get to try it out more tomorrow. The lack of steering wheel controls will suck for now, but at least it came with a wireless remote.

Jay
 
Well, the SWI-RC didn't work properly. I think I'm going to return it and pick up a Maestro SW.

Edit: Ordered. lol
 
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Jay, do you have a link for that dual usb/hdmi? My reason for wanting that is the same. I have an android and my wife has the iphone. I did a quick search but, couldn't find it. However, I'll search again later. Thanks
 
They also have an AX-GMUSBAUX that is shaped a little differently. Depending on you application, it might fit better.
Also, I saw in one of the reviews someone said it didn't work with CarPlay...I'm going to check it when my GF and I go to breakfast in a
little while, but it worked fine with Android Auto.

https://www.amazon.com/Axxess-AX-GMUSBAUX-3-Replacement-2014-UP-Vehicles/dp/B01MU5CXK1/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493558194&sr=8-1&keywords=ax-gmusbaux-3

I love that the seller outright stole the pic from SonicElectronix. lol...also the GM one is available in a -3, and -6 (3' cables and 6' cables, respectively) Something I didn't find with the one I used. I got an 18" HDMI extension and it came up short but fit fine.

https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Extension-Extender-Supports-Television-Xbox360/dp/B00QV3THB8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493558318&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=hdmi+extension+cable&psc=1

Jay

Edit: CarPlay worked, but I had to go into phone settings and switch the USB input back to USB1.
 
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