Hi everyone, my NC still has its original speakers (not Bose) and although the sound is ok I’m thinking about replacing them, probably because it’s something to do to it! 
My question is would it be worth spending the money or will I not really notice the difference?
As the originals are now nearly 16 years old I guess things have improved.
Thanks Mike
Depends entirely whether or not your also changing the head unit in my opinion.
(If original is still in place)
If the source is 16 years old, then the best speakers in the world will still only reproduce 16yr old quality.
DOH! Yes I forgot to mention that bit! I’ve changed to a Pioneer head unit
I’m leaning towards Alpine SXE-5725S speakers at the moment.
Sound’s like a good idea.ive heard good thing’s about the JVC set available from MX5 parts
I’ve pioneer head unit also ,
JBL GX 6x9 in the doors with In-Phase tweeters / crossovers.
In-Phase 4" speakers behind seats in modified housing.
Oh in my NC1 btw
My current ICE setup
Pioneer SPH-20 DAB unit it’s a single DIN unit with a built-in phone holder that slides out to let you use your phone as a screen for sat-nav etc.
JBL Stage3 8627 250 Watt 2-way speakers with adapter harnesses so they work with the stock MX5 wiring
JBL BassPro SL2 Underseat Active Subwoofer mounted to the plastic panel behind the passenger seat and the remote control mounted in the cubby under the single DIN head unit.
The speakers made a big difference to the sound quality in the car and I combined them with sound deadening material inside each door along with Road Kill fast rings 6x9 foam speaker enhancers to help acoustically seal the speakers and absorb and vibrations.
I also carefully removed the plastic covers from the rear of the old speakers and applied them to the backs of the new ones to help prevent water from getting into them.
The active subwoofer gives a healthy amount of “thump” without being too over the top, it’s not entirely necessary because the speakers have pretty good bass response but it;s nice to have.
I’d recommend disconnecting the stock tweeters while you’re fitting the new speakers because they’re pretty poor and just distort when used in combination with 2-way speakers.
You’re never going to get the world’s best sound quality because of the nature of a convertible but you can get a pretty darn good set-up for a pretty reasonable cost.
If I was to do anything differently I’d maybe go with a touchscreen double DIN head unit but tbh the single DIN/phone screen combination works pretty well and the pioneer app talks to my bluetooth OBD scanner letting me see various engine parameters at a glance while I’m driving.
I bought some JVC-CS-J6820 to go with an AtotoA6PF, I can definitely hear the improvement in sound.
I’d say it’s a no brainer to improve your speakers
I replaced mine a while back with a pair I bought from Halfords. Don’t recall the make/model, they were on offer, reduced from £50 to £24.99.
They have inbuilt tweeters, and I found the sound too shrill, so I ended up disconnecting the oem tweeters to tone it down.
Definitely better than the stock speakers, they carry a bit more punch.
Thanks everyone I’m just waiting for my Defender to come back from the garage and if the bill isn’t too big, which it shouldn’t be, I’ll treat myself to some.
Just been looking around the internet and it’s produced another question. I’m far from knowledgeable when it comes to car audio so can someone tell me if 3 way speakers would be a better option than 2 way please?
The reason I ask is because I found some Kenwood KFC-PS5796C 3 way 320w speakers.
Thanks
A 3 way speaker mounted low in the door will not give a good stereo image.
Far better is to use a component speaker ( separate woofer & tweeter ) - so the tweeter can be mounted higher up in the door.
There is no point in going for the headline grabbing 320w max speakers. ( The RMS value is much more relevant and for those speakers is 80w )
You probably have at best 50w per channel to drive them with most aftermarket head units.
The stock Mazda head unit is only 40w in to 4ohm per speaker.
There is room in the NC doors to mount an 8" woofer ( as mounted in the BOSE equipped cars )
The best speaker setup I have heard with an 8" woofer is the Focal ISU200 set
I think I’ll do the speaker upgrade too. I don’t normally use the radio with the hood down (which is whenever possible) but I’ve been doing more start/stop town driving recently and the drizzly rain is just a bit too much to drop the roof when I’m not moving.
ISTR a previous thread which mentions the door panel clips may get damaged during removal. How many would it be sensible to buy?
There’s two different types of clips in each door one has a gasket and the other doesn’t, each door has one gasket type and eight of the type without gaskets. when I did my speakers I bought This Kit but was I lucky enough not to need any of them. I’d recommend getting trim removal tools if you don’t already have them to make taking the clips out of the door a lot easier.
This is the cheapest place for vehicle clips.
OEM quality & fit too
Hmm, sounds like there is only one original left on each door!
The “gasket” on the white fastener is also a cushion stopping it from rattling and vibrating.
I went for these KENWOOD KFC-PS6896C
Make sure you have a decent trim removal tool and a bunch of new poppers to replace the ones that will break when you remove the door panels
My new speakers have arrived today so weather permitting I’ll be fitting them tomorrow which brings me to one more question is it easy to tell which wire is which?
If you’re using an adapter harness it’s dead easy, simply unplug the existing speaker, plug the adapter into the plug that was originally connected to the speaker and then connect the two wires to the new speaker. The terminal/spade connectors on the adapter are different sizes just like the terminals on the rear of the new speaker so they won’t fit if you get it wrong.
For my door speakers (JBL GX) I bought from flea bay
MK1 ford Focus speaker connectors.
Spade fitting onto speaker, block plugs directly into Mazda loom.
I’ve an NC1
I must say I diligently bought those adaptors, then found they were completely wrong once I got the door apart and just soldered the speakers like I had originally planned. It’s not like I’ll take them off very often.
Westo, if you already have a new headunit you will wonder why you didn’t do this sooner… 
