# 2016 Mazda 6 - keeping it simple this time



## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Been a while. I last posted some iterations of my previous car (2004 Acura TSX) which included a lot of fabrication. Now, new car and less time and patience for fabrication, so planning to use factory speaker locations for the most part, and stock HU to retain infotainment functionality.

This will probably be a slow build since I don't have a lot of time. Plans are below:

HU: stock (non-Bose system)
Processing: RF 360.3 (carry-over from previous car)
Tweet amp: Zapco ST-2X
Mid and Midbass amp: Infinity Kappa Four
Sub amp: Infinity Kappa One
(amps replace my old Boston Acoustics GT's, which I would have kept except I want amps to fit under the front seats)

Tweets: Dayton ND20FB-4
Mids: Scan 10F
Midbass: Scan Discovery 7"
Sub: Boston Acoustics G3 10"
(all speakers are carried over from previous car)

As it turns out (pictures later), the mids and tweets are as close to a perfect fit for the stock dash location as I could get. Hopefully I am as lucky with the door locations for midbass.

The only fabrication I can see doing is mounting area for amps under front seats, fiberglass/MDF box for the sub in a corner of the trunk (to minimize space used and retain access to spare tire), and probably mounting adapters for the midbass.

Soundproofing is desperately needed in this car. I am trying to keep weight to a minimum so will try to isolate the offending area(s). The main problem is road noise, and it seems to be from the front of the vehicle.


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

New car pic (it's 1 week old now...)










My co-pilot










Transducers










Transducer movers (minus Zapco amp (don't have yet)). Note the 2 Infinity amps are about the same area as one of the BA GT amps. Love those BA amps though...










Here is where I got lucky - speaker fitment in dash



















Note the stock tweeter actually mounts to the grille portion, not the dash. And the hole in the dash for the tweeter is not round. There are several open places in the corners of the dash I need to cover up to avoid rear wave cancellation from the midrange.


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

BTW I am selling all 3 of those BA amps (GT-28 and two GT-42's) and some other old school gear.


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## maggie-g (Aug 20, 2014)

good choice on the non bose version. I was debating between the mazda 3 and the impreza last year but ultimately decided on the impreza because the leather version of the mazda only came with bose and bypassing that looked like a nightmare. Progress looks good so far. Keep the pictures coming!


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Thanks! There is an upgrade package for the Bose system and sunroof - well over $1000. Not worth it, especially that I used the sunroof in my previous car maybe 5 times in 11 years and I'd be retooling the stereo anyway


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Pretty much all the parts are in now. Updated plans below...

*Signal path:*

Stock infotainment -> RF 360.3
Zapco ST-2X -> Dayton ND20FB-4 in stock dash location @ 4kHz-up, with protective capacitor in line with the tweets
Infinity Kappa Four -> Scan 10F in stock dash location @ 300Hz-4KHz
Infinity Kappa Four -> Image Dynamics OEM 6.5 in front doors @ 70Hz-300Hz
(decided on ID, if they will fit, over Scan Discovery since they have better midbass capability)
Infinity Kappa One -> BA G310 in 1.2 cube ported @ 70Hz-down

I'll spend some time initially on soundproofing. The tires are a major source of road noise. I've got 1/8" MLV and 1/8" CCF along with leftover carpet padding to take care of that. Will also do some door treatment (Hushmat here and there and deflective foam or other material right behind the midbass). The stock dash speaker locations are great, but the surface is very irregular, with many openings (some of which the grille uses for attachment to the dash, and for the stock tweeter which actually mounts to the grille). I need to get those closed up to avoid cancellation from the midrange.

I bought some Seaboard to use for the midbass speaker mounts in the doors as it will be impervious to moisture and have butyl rope and a bunch Thomas and Betts duct seal handy where needed.

I'm torn between using a 2nd set of midbass in the rear doors to smooth out the midbass response as it's sure to be irregular from the front doors and have cancellation issues from the center console, versus removing the rear door speakers and covering the openings with Seaboard to further reduce road noise.

I'll make mini amp racks under the front seats. Kappa One and RF 360.3 under one seat and Kappa Four and Zapco ST-2X under the other. This should work nicely with the dimensions available under the seats.

Under the hood, the battery has a handy spare fused outlet/connector. It's only got a 30A fuse so I'll replace with a larger value.


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## so cal eddie (Oct 1, 2008)

Nice choice in car. I'm considering one of these now. I like that there is a decent amount of space in the dash for speakers. How does it sound with the Scans up there?


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Nothing is hooked up yet. I'm setting aside a couple days next week to get as much done as I possibly can.


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## bigaudiofanatic (Mar 1, 2009)

I am looking at the 6's how are you liking yours? 
How is the rear leg room?


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Really like the way it drives. Reminds me of my '04 TSX but even tighter.
Rear legroom is generous. More room than my TSX for my 3 (turning 4) yr old son to stretch out his legs in his child seat.

I made some good progress on sound deadening...more on that later.


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Ok folks, I have done some work on my 2016 passenger's front side and had some revelations along the way.



















The above pics are of the B pillar. There are two large openings into the pillar; one mid-pillar which just has wiring coming out from the rear door, and one at the bottom which partially houses the seat belt assembly. There is some foam at the very bottom of the seat belt opening but aside from that, no sound deadening of any kind.

Pulling out the trim and lifting up the carpet, I find this:










On closer inspection, it is a thick piece of styrofoam, held in by a plastic screw. It is probably over 2" thick in some places. Aside from lessening legroom, it also resonates loudly when tapped on. Behind this piece, further up in the firewall and part of the wheel well is some cheap packed fabric material. Interestingly, the rectangle that is not covered by asphalt(?) deadener has inscribed the vehicle's VIN, and equally as interesting is there is a plastic piece stuck into the carpet (under floor mat) which when removed exposes the VIN below. Unfortunately, this area of the metal is very tinny sounding, so I applied a good amount of Hushmat.










Unfortunately, the underside plastic piece of one of the "buttons" that holds the floor mat in place on the carpet comes in direct contact with the plastic ducting that goes under the front seats. If this is the same on the drivers' side, it (and perhaps the cheap-o cardboard carpet) may explain why I feel the grooves it the road.










So...I glued some carpet on top of the plastic duct to isolate it from the "button".

I removed the large styrofoam insert and cut some spare home carpet pad I had laying around to fill the space immediately forward of the front seat beam to the firewall under the dash (I doubled up the pad in the area where the styrofoam was).
On top of that, I placed 1/8" MLV, then the factory carpet.

I also covered up the open areas of the B pillar as much as possible with closed cell foam and Hushmat, but not coming in contact with the seat belt mechanism.

Still need to put some vertical MLV around the kickpanel area. I hope these steps will help reduce the road noise; I'll repeat on the driver's side.

BTW the wiring harness that is attached under the passenger seat is interesting. First, unbolt the seat then tilt it back to access the metal "arm" that the harness attaches to, and slide off the harness. In the back of the harness are 3 mini harnesses that can be slid off by using a tiny straight screwdriver in their latch mechanisms.










I didn't take any pics of the carpet pad I added, but it's in there, under the MLV.

With the factory carpet and floor mat on top of everything, it now has a soft/cushy feel when stepped on and the carpet was able to fit back on reasonably well. I may need to do some tweaking to get the kickpanel trim piece in once I add MLV there.


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Next I worked on the driver's side. Pretty much a similar deal as the passenger's side - styrofoam "deadener" against the firewall/wheel well. The styrofoam also supports the "dead pedal" which was a bit of a shocker to me as my old Acura actually has a sturdy steel mount under the rubber dead pedal which bolts to the chassis in 3 places. I tripled up the carpet pad in the area of the "dead" pedal in place of the styrofoam, and a layer of MLV above all.

I also found a "bare" spot on the firewall just left of where the steering wheel rod goes thru. Turns out it exits near the edge of deadening material on the engine side of the firewall, close to the wheel well - and is not close to any wires or hoses. So I drilled a hole and ran 4-ga power wire thru that spot and put a grommet in. I cut, test fit and upholstered the "amp boards" for under the front seats.

I forgot to mention I had also bought a set of external torx sockets to remove the front seat bolts - and they were screwed on super tight. Ridiculous that the torx sockets cost $40 but they're really needed to avoid stripping the bolt heads.

Next I'll finish the deadening and wiring for my amps and DSP and put the front seats back in. That's 9 runs of speaker wire, 4 runs of RCA wire, and power/ground for 3 amps and DSP.

I'll tackle the front doors another day - they should be a relatively small project compared to the front floor.


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

I put the carpet and trim pieces back in.
I need to work on the driver's side kick panel still since the fuse door is a bit tricky to apply sound deadening. I may remove the fuse panel and deaden behind it.

I took a long test drive on the highway last night. There is notably less road noise, though coarse pavement still causes vibration in the car's frame and road noise. However, I was able to carry on a conversation with my 4-year-old in the back seat when on the pavement highway - something that was difficult to do in the past. Now I am hearing some wind noise from the driver's side door which I guess the road noise had been masking. There is also high frequency road noise that sounds like it's coming from the upper dash - that may be partly because I removed the midrange speaker "plates" and tweeters from the dash. I'll tape some foam and MLV over top of the dash grilles as an experiment. There is some type of deadener material in the engine bay, below the windshield wipers. I wouldn't be surprised if noise is entering the cabin there.

So far, a good improvement in road noise but still not as quiet as my 2004 TSX on rough road surfaces. I don't hear a lot of noise from the rear of the 6, so I am on the fence about treating that part of the car. I will be treating the front doors for aftermarket midbass installation. As another poster mentioned, simply replacing the OEM tires should provide further improvements in road noise...I'll have to wait until the Dunlops wear out.


MLV/CCF sandwich:





























Putting trim and carpet back in. Everything fit without much fuss. The raised carpet made it a little difficult to put the round carpet clips back in though.
I needed to cut some carpet pad and MLV around where the gas pedal mounts to the floor, for a secure mount.



















Now that I think about the seatbelt opening in the B-pillar and the openings in the kickpanel metal for CPU (passenger side) and fuse box (driver side), I may remove them and build an MLV "cup" behind them to block noise better.
For another day...


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Update:

Putting MLV over the dash speaker grilles cut down on that high frequency road noise mentioned above...so it is getting inside the dash. Another thing to tackle...I will see if I can remove the flimsy/uneven speaker mounting locations in the corners of the dash and replace them with proper baffles and acoustic grille cloth.

At this point the sound treatment is almost enough to where the noise level is acceptable, and all signal and power wires have been run.


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## carlr (Feb 27, 2011)

Solid piece of work right there!


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## TheJesus (Oct 10, 2012)

jsun_g said:


> Update:
> 
> Putting MLV over the dash speaker grilles cut down on that high frequency road noise mentioned above...so it is getting inside the dash. Another thing to tackle...I will see if I can remove the flimsy/uneven speaker mounting locations in the corners of the dash and replace them with proper baffles and acoustic grille cloth.
> 
> At this point the sound treatment is almost enough to where the noise level is acceptable, and all signal and power wires have been run.


Any more updates to this build?


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Some updates, though progress is slow.

I treated the doors with some Dynamat Extreme and closed cell foam blocks inside the door. This helped cut the upper bass boominess. I also fabricated mounts from HDPE and birch for Dayton RS 8" midbasses in the front doors. They BARELY fit. Though they modeled well in WinISD in a large sealed enclosure, I wasn't impressed with their performance in the doors. The stock 4 6-1/2" mids are actually punchier in the midbass and much more efficient than the pair of Dayton 8's. The Dayton's do dig lower but I'll be using a dedicated sub so not important. For now, I've left the stock mids in the doors and am seriously considering keeping them for midbass duty (if they can handle more power). Having midbass in both front and rear doors intrigues me as I might be able to get by with smaller drivers without them rattling the heck out of the doors and acting as an array to smooth out frequency response anomalies that door mounted midbass are infamous for.

The amps and 360.3 are wired up and in place under the front seats. 3 amps, processor, and power distribution = a tight fit.

I am planning a different approach for the sub after checking available volume in the rear driver's side of the trunk. Removing the plastic storage cubby in the floor should get me around 1 cuft gross volume and after hearing an SI MKIV 12" in 0.6 cubes net sealed, I'm planning on using that driver or something similar for that space.

I'll post up some more pics later.


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## TheJesus (Oct 10, 2012)

Definitely interested to see more pics  And you need to get rid of the 666 posts, lol.


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

I ended up going with Dynaudio MW172's instead of the Dayton RS8's. The Stereo Integrity sub was hard to find without jacked up price, so I bought an Infinity Kappa 120.9W.

Baffles for the midbass are finished.



















The sub should work well in around 1cuft net. I just need to wait until the weather warms up to start glassing.


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

The MW172's are in. Still running off stock HU power for now.
The Dyns have more pronounced midrange than the stock door speakers and better low end extension, while not so bad of an upper bass peak. They work well with the 10F's in the dash and are much better suited for this application than the Dayton RS225s though they model similarly in WinISD. Running tweeterless still, but with many songs you'd never know it.



















Next tasks:
- route stock HU signal to 360.3
- add Dayton tweets in dash
- sound deadening/damping in dash speaker areas
- sound deaden wheel wells in trunk and maybe trunk floor
- sub enclosure for the Infinity 120.9W - sealed box 1cuft net molded behind rear wheel well
- 360.3 control knob installation
- tweaking!


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)




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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Dealing with the dreaded Mazda Molex door connectors. Luckily, there is a small opening to route thin "Home Depot" 16-ga wire through. No cutting needed, just used pick set from Home Depot to push in the 4 tabs on the connector to pop it out from the door so I could pull the rubber boot back over it.










And here is where I tapped into the OEM HU output (tweeter location in dash). Sending the outputs to 360.3 high level inputs. Note the part number from Fry's Electronics - the small end of the PC fan connector slides right into the OEM tweeter wire connectors - just clip the 3rd (unused) pin off to make sure it slides in all the way and tape or heat shrink to hold in place.

The Dayton tweets are a near-perfect fit for the stock tweeter location, just a little Dynamat Extreme or other adhesive to hold them in place.


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

When I ran the 360.3 calibration, I was a little surprised to see the anomalies in the OEM HU frequency response (there were some variations between R and L side and a little equalization even with bass/treble controls flat on HU. What was more alarming is the low bass dropped off a cliff 

I let the 360.3 calibration do its thing on the stock HU signal but in the end flattened the EQ after level matching since I felt that the equalization that was applied thru the OEM HU actually mated better with the car! The sub-bass drop off is a real issue, though.

Also, I had a horrible/loud "pop" when turning off the car. Since the 360.3 auto-senses the HU signal, and the infotainment system is always "on", it only shuts off when the car is off. Turns out setting the turn-off delay in the 360.3 menu to 2 seconds solved the issue. The only noise is a faint "hiss" that I only notice during silence. I can probably knock that down by playing with gains.

For now, I'm doing tweaking without sub and have adjusted xover points:

Dyn's: 700-down @ 12dB/oct
10f's: 700-10k @ 12dB/oct
Dayton tweets: 10k @ 12dB/oct

To me, the 10f's just sound more full/cohesive when crossed high (it may be that the little Dayton's just aren't so good down to 5-6k). I cut a couple dB off the 10f's in the 3-4k range and boosted the Dyn's a couple dB around 80-90. No T/A yet.

Sound is very pleasing. Stage is deep. I decided to leave the rear door speakers wired off HU power, just attenuated a bit compared to the fronts. I feel it actually adds to the depth (and I kept them wired since my son likes to listen to music in the back seat), but I will either put a small inductor on the rear speakers or direct the sound a bit with a physical barrier so the highs don't reach my ears.

One issue - the recessed mount of the tweeters in the dash grilles combined with the recessed dome of the Dayton tweets seems to create a very directional top end that is hit or miss as it fires into the windshield. Sitting in the driver's seat, the passenger side top end is brighter than the driver side. I may end up trying the tweeters in the sails.

I'll run the 360.3 cal again when I try a sub in the car and post up a screenshot to show how uneven the OEM HU response is.


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

Cool. I figured I could probably fit 8's in the doors. Nice to see that someone did it already.

Jay


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## Driver of 102080 (Sep 19, 2016)

Good stuff!

Sent from my LGL52VL using Tapatalk


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

*Catching up this thread on some changes (details and more pics to follow)*

Recap of build:

Tweets: Polk DB
_Changed from Dayton neo's since they are cleaner on lower end and and don't have a horn-like baffle in front_
Mids: Scan 10F
_No change in mids, but I discovered the factory dash grilles have bad effects on the sound. So I bought a set of OEM dash grilles, cut them up and stretched grille cloth over 'em. I also used liberal amounts of Thomas and Betts duct putty and Dynamat extreme in the dash speaker area to close holes, reduce resonance, and make an even surface._
Midbass: Dyn MW172
_No change in drivers but modified how they mate up with the plastic door panel (the protruding mount effectively uses the door panel AS ITS BAFFLE)_
Sub: Boston G3 10
_I'd tried a couple combinations of sealed and ported for an Infinity sub, but ended up coming back to the Boston. I made box that angles into the rear quarter panel to minimize space it takes up, and relocated the spare tire tools from the quarter panel well to the spare tire compartment._
Source unit: Stock
_Since 2016, the HU is not replaceable (at least none I have found). My main complaint is the low-end rolloff. I spent many a day working on a Raspberry Pi with Volumio and driving it via the OEM infotainment system. In the end the old Opera browser in the Mazda infotainment system just doesn't seem compatible, so this is on hold for now._

I adjusted the xover points as well:
Sub: [email protected]
Midbass: 65/[email protected]
Mid: 700/[email protected]
Tweet: [email protected]

*Next steps*
- Further tweaking
- Remove rear deck speaker covers (hoping this will allow the sub to "breathe" better and remove the upper bass dip in response
- Finish fabricating rear foot mats (the stock mats are very long and cover the back/top of the amps under the seats - not good for Texas summers
- Find a nice mounting location for 360.3 remote and USB


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Dash grilles:


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Infinity in modified pre-fab box and Boston in my box:


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Partially working Volumio on Raspberry Pi from head unit:










Current binarural mic measurements (left and right ear, 1/12 oct):


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

jsun_g said:


> _Since 2016, the HU is not replaceable (at least none I have found). My main complaint is the low-end rolloff. I spent many a day working on a Raspberry Pi with Volumio and driving it via the OEM infotainment system. In the end the old Opera browser in the Mazda infotainment system just doesn't seem compatible, so this is on hold for now._


So, are you basically hacking the browser to access an "app" that's stored (and works with) the Raspberry Pi? I picked up a Mosconi 8to12 Aerospace and an RC Mini (because it can be programmed to work with IR remotes) and want to use the factory "I-drive style" controller in the center console to control it. I'll probably use an Arduino and hack up my Pioneer wireless remote.

I'd love to hear more about how you did this. I have a '15 (specifically didn't want a '16, because of the change in the radio.)

Jay


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

JayinMI said:


> So, are you basically hacking the browser to access an "app" that's stored (and works with) the Raspberry Pi? I picked up a Mosconi 8to12 Aerospace and an RC Mini (because it can be programmed to work with IR remotes) and want to use the factory "I-drive style" controller in the center console to control it. I'll probably use an Arduino and hack up my Pioneer wireless remote.
> 
> I'd love to hear more about how you did this. I have a '15 (specifically didn't want a '16, because of the change in the radio.)
> 
> Jay


Yeah that's basically it.
The Volumio service runs on the Raspberry Pi and is accessible (controllable) via any compatible web browser. I installed a DAC on top of my RPi but later found out there is another option - a Digital board, which I can output directly to my 360.3 and avoid an extra DAC-ADC step.

There were some hiccups in getting Volumio working with my RPi and getting the RPi on my home Wifi, but nothing major.

With some help of Mazda 3 Revolution forums, I upgraded the infotainment unit firmware (some more recent versions restrict "hacks" though). With a specific USB/Ethernet adapter, can get the OEM infotainment unit communicating with the RPi, but there are some other gotchas, like the OEM unit's OS (Linux) has networking restrictions. I altered the network config to allow the OEM browser to talk to Volumio on the RPi (port 3000) but had to play with browser configuration to get the URL working. Where I left off, the "app" I created was loading the Volumio UI in the OEM browser but not fully - there were placeholders for buttons that didn't show up for instance. I was going to connect a hub and laptop and use Wireshark to sniff packets to check what is going on.
In contrast, using a recent browser like Chrome on a laptop to connect to the Volumio service on the RPi is no problem.

The Opera browser on the OEM Mazda infotainment system is circa 2012 and appears to be a special embedded version. It is very configurable but outdated. And it is very integrated into the OEM unit functions so I am not messing with trying to update it.

The RPi setup would be limited to replay of digital media, so for listening to radio, I'd have to switch back to the OEM setup (for e.g. using one set of 360.3 inputs from OEM unit and one set from RPi).
One cool thing about the RPi setup (and probably achievable with the OEM setup as well, since Wifi can be enabled) is ability to sync media from your home with a little effort (I haven't done this yet).

There are a couple other things I haven't fully tackled yet:

- intercepting controller events from the OEM system and sending them to the Volumio service. I started on this, but I needed to install a websocket javascript library and it isn't working right. The Volumio service communicates via websockets. The master volume control is a different interface from the multicontroller events, which I also haven't tackled. However, the Volumio service works via the touchscreen which maybe is enough as an initial attempt
- a special circuit is needed to auto-shutdown the RPi when the car is off. A long enough delay is needed to allow the RPi to shutdown cleanly.

In a nutshell, this was a lot more work than I was anticipating, and I didn't have enough time (or patience) to finish it.

If you are interested in any of it I'd be happy to share what I have.


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

I decided to pick up some Roxul and try it out. Made a kind of bass trap for the rear quarterpanel of the trunk by wrapping it with grille cloth. Call it a "bass pillow" 

Removed the rear deck speaker covers (the non-Bose system doesn't have speakers in the rear deck, just plastic plates covering the holes) to help the bass breathe a little better into the cabin.


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

I tried RuneAudio in place of Volumio on my Raspberry Pi with much better success and few changes. UI loading is faster. Most of the screen/images are rendered and I am able to map multicontroller events to media player actions. OEM touch-screen works well too.
I'll see if there is anything I can do to squeeze the full GUI on the OEM touch-screen to eliminate the vertical scrollbar.

Video of multicontroller operation

Video of touch-screen operation


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## Gage.flick (Oct 27, 2017)

Hey I've been following your thread for some time now since we have the same car and somewhat similar hardware. My current set up is as follows:

Front speakers: JL audio c2-650 (component)
Rear speakers: JL audio c2-650x(coaxial)
Subwoofer: Two JL audio 13.5w3v3-4 
Sound processor: Rockford fosgate 3sixty.3
Sub amp: JL audio xd 100/1v2
Speaker amp: JL audio jx400/4d 

I actually just purchased my RF 3sixty.3 in hopes that it would get rid of this horrible speaker hiss I'm hearing. I assumed it was caused by the cheap Line out converter I was using but i guess not. The hissing sounds a lot like white noise and is present whenever there's a pause in the audio. It also gets louder when the audio is paused and the volume is turned up. Did you happen to run into this issue? 

Also, because there was no space to run a second set of speaker wire from the original factory signal in the door through the boot, I tapped the signal from the front tweeters assuming they were receiving a full range signal and fed that to my 3sixty3 as Front1. My question is could this be causing the noise? and how do you have your 3sixty3 signal set up? Thanks for the help!


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Gage.flick said:


> Hey I've been following your thread for some time now since we have the same car and somewhat similar hardware. My current set up is as follows:
> 
> Front speakers: JL audio c2-650 (component)
> Rear speakers: JL audio c2-650x(coaxial)
> ...


Hi there,

Do you have the stock (i.e. not Bose) system?
I have non-Bose and from what I could tell from the car's wiring schematics, the front door and dash speaker wires are connected together inside the dash, i.e. both receive a full-range signal.
I am also tapping the signal from the front tweeters/dash, into the 360.3's high-level inputs.
Did you do all the setup steps for the 360.3 (select those high level channels as inputs, select your connected output channels, adjust the gains, etc.)? I had a bit of hiss, not sure if the culprit was processor or amp - I went back and increased the output levels of the 360.3 to around -5dB from max and lowered my amps' gains so I have a pretty jamming system at OEM HU volume 30 to 32. No noise/hiss issues.
As an aside, I am using the 360.3's built-in auto-sense of audio signal for amp turn-on, but had to increase the turn-off delay in the 360.3 to avoid a massive pop (good thing I had caps on my tweeters!). The pop was greatly reduced after this, but what helped remove it completely was to connect the 360.3's turn-on lead to the ignition.

Do you also have hiss when playing thru just the stock system?
If not...
Try adjusting gains (360.3 gains up, amp gains down).
Try different RCAs (turn everything off before swapping )
Try swapping amp with another amp.
Try different grounding point for amp/processor.


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

I did the 360.3 setup again with the Mazda non-Bose OEM HU. This time I snapped pics of the 360.3's reported electrical (not acoustic) measurements with the HU volume at 53 and again at 25. Definitely not linear.

HU at 25:








HU at 53:











So I opted to let the 360.3 auto-equalize the curve from the 25 volume setting on the OEM HU (a typical volume I use for listening), but set the tweeter, midrange, and midbass to flat - only opting to keep the sub auto-EQ'd for the massive low-end dropout.
It's times like this when I realize my tweaking over time has killed some life from the music  So I'll start again


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## Gage.flick (Oct 27, 2017)

I have the non bose system. After some playing with the 3sixty.3 and my amps, I'm pretty sure the problems the headunit signal. There's no hiss when I stream music to the 3sixty's bluetooth receiver or when I play from my phone straight to the auxilary input on the 3sixty. The hiss is very loud and the only way to completely get rid of it is to knock the gains down to -24db on the 4k-20k hz range. Any ideas why this could be happening? Could it be caused by running the speaker wires next to my power wire?


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Gage.flick said:


> I have the non bose system. After some playing with the 3sixty.3 and my amps, I'm pretty sure the problems the headunit signal. There's no hiss when I stream music to the 3sixty's bluetooth receiver or when I play from my phone straight to the auxilary input on the 3sixty. The hiss is very loud and the only way to completely get rid of it is to knock the gains down to -24db on the 4k-20k hz range. Any ideas why this could be happening? Could it be caused by running the speaker wires next to my power wire?


You can try wiring the HU speaker outputs that you're using to feed the 360.3 directly to speakers on the dash and check for hiss. If no hiss, wire to speakers where the HU speaker outputs connect to the 360.3.
Also, I'm not familiar with the 360.3 when it comes to switching between sources. There may be separate settings for each source in the 360.3. What do you need to turn your HU volume up to for fairly loud music? If it's less than 30, your gains may be set too high.


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## Grenadineflaps$ (Jul 1, 2017)

so clean!


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Searching, I found a DAP which outputs digital via optic: iBasso DX80.
I wired it up to my 360.3 to try today - much more "crisp" than using the OEM stereo...detail and stage placement much better and that is without changing EQ yet 
And low-bass extension is back!

However, I can't seem to control the volume of the optical out via the iBasso volume buttons...I've asked iBasso about this.


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

Ibasso said the optical/digital signal can't be volume controlled from the DX80, so I'll have to rely on the RF 360.6's wired remote as volume control.

One of many things I like about the 360.3 is with the click of a knob I can switch between the OEM unit (with its own tuning presets) and the Ibasso (with another tuning preset that I haven't done yet  ). The source toggle takes a couple seconds.

I had a little time this weekend and did some wire routing and fabricated an ABS panel after squishing a sheet of paper into the cupholder area to get the shape and xfer it to the ABS plastic. I made it as non-car-altering as possible - just drilled a hole at the bottom of one of the cup holders in the center console - which is under a rubber thing that Mazda glued into place.
3 wires are routed from from the 360.3 to this place - Ethernet (for wired remote control), TOSlink optical, and USB (which I can pull out and connect to laptop for tuning). The center console cover conceals all.

Next step: tune for the new setup. Kinda hard to do right now b/c of an ear infection


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