We bought our Arctic 1.5 mx5 new in 2017. Lovely car (I had an NA years ago). However the stock stereo was rubbish - no bass, and woolly, and hopeless much above 50 mph. Appreciating that audio quality is always limited in a soft top, we still wanted an improvement, especially as we use the car for long tours.
We took the car to Ultimate Audio in Bromsgrove, Worcs., and the guy there (Karl) recommended binning the stock door and A pillar speakers for premium kit, and fitting proper sound deadening in the doors. No need for extra amplification - the stock head unit is adequate.
The job was done yesterday, and the sound is transformed - not much louder, but far better bass, detail and fidelity. Total cost ÂŁ500 including fitting. Well worth it. Karl was a very professional installer.
Also, if you play music through a USB stick it is worth saving the music files at a high bit rate. I re-saved our music in MP4 format at 256 kbits, which improved the playback over the previous MP3 at 128 kbits.
I have my music on a USB stick, I rip my CDs using the Asunder software. I use the highest bitrate it allows for MP3 which is 320 Kbps. Always worth using a top quality stick, some I have tried give poor reproduction and suffer file damage after a while.
Thanks
Speaker are always of the biggest influence on sound, given that your source material is ok obviously. With all dsp options on nowadays radios a better head unit will always be my second step. Alternatively the are dspâs that can be connected to the stock head unit but those always have to be combined with external amplifiers. Some brands offer combined dspâs with amplifiers, ranging from very compact to high power.
Hi. Well we are now really happy with the result. The speakers we chose are Audisson Prima, which are a high quality product. The stock head unit drives them ok without distortion. The other key improvement was full sound deadening in the doors especially the outer panel. Whilst this adds a little weight, it has really helped bass response.
Audison 
Nice. Yes dampening is really efficient. If you do it strategically the need for a subwoofer decreases significantly while a bit of dampening is lighter (and doesnât need space).
The nice thing of a dsp is that it doesnât make your sound go louder (some settings can help though), it can primarily increase the sound quality even more.
Hi. Sorry to ask, but what is a dsp?
Hi S,
It appears it is âDidgital Signal Processingâ. Obviously it is of enormous importance and should not be underestimated!!!
Have fun, stay safe and take comfort in the knowledge that you too have some DSP going on in your life.
Hi Malc
Whatever it is it must be good! We are not tech heads, just love good music, and even better, good music in an mx5!
A DSP is certainly not mandatory of some sorts, itâs just a really nice upgrade that is clearly audible.
A DSP takes an input signal and modifies the signal digitally. Bassheads wil obviously pump up bass and that can be done with much bigger granularity than the bass adjustment on your head unit. Lovers of pure sound will use it to improve on natural sound reproduction. The acoustics of your car cause the sound from your speakers to be less true to the original sounds. A DSP compensates for those effects (equalization). Besides that they can also compensate for difference in speaker distance between all the different speakers (time alignment). This might sound like detail nonsense but the difference is very audible when you adjust it. Then there is the possibility to filter signals (filtering). For example, cut out bass from your front speakers and send them to a subwoofer with different slopes of filtering.
/short version
Some more possibilities:
- Some DSPâs have the possibility to do automatic adjustment with a mic. This often works really good, some need a bit of extra adjustment and every now and then a product getâs it totally wrong.
- A lot of cars modify the sound of a car to sound more âimpressiveâ but get tiresome to listen to for longer period because of over pronounced bass or treble. A DSP can cancel this modification.
- More advanced head units also have a built-in DSP. But that requires you to buy and install an after market head unit. A seperate DSP give you the possibilities while keeping a stock system and therefor stock appearance.
Hi Nippan
Thanks for the explanation. Sounds like a modern version of a graphic equaliser of the 1980s!
I think we will stick with what we have. The speakers have bedded in a bit after a few hours of music, and now sound superb. I took the car out at the weekend for food shopping, and on the move it sounds great too, with less road noise, probably due to the sound deadening.
You can turn the volume up and get good sound, not a mushy boom we had before, and the reproduction is very clear and articulate.
I played a bit of Florence & Machine, which is tricky on poor sound systems, and it sounded great. Roll on the time when we can all go for a proper drive, hopefully before the end of summer!
Hi Guys, which audio system did your ND come with? I have the poverty spec SE+ with just a speaker in each door and a little tweeter in the pillar. The sound is truly terrible, if you are doing any more than about 40 (20 if you have the roof down). Iâm looking to do an upgrade to the speakers but everything I have found so far seems to be for cars with the higher spec speaker system and MZD system (the ones with the touch screen) so wasnât sure if I have finally found some with the same original spec as mine who has done an upgrade!
Max
Hi Max
Our mx5 is a mk4 artic which came with the same rubbish door speakers and A pillar tweeters, and yes the sound was truly awful.
We took the car to an expert (Ultimate Audio Bromsgrove). He fitted high end speakers (Audisson) to directly replace the stock units. We are still using the stock amplifier - it has just enough power to drive the new speakers, but you could add a booster if you needed more power.
The real key to good sound though was the fitting of proper sound deadening in the doors. The mk4 doors have none as stock, which means mist of the sound from the speakers just bounces around the doors and makes the sound awful. We had the doors lined, the new speakers had baffles fitted egg, so the sound is not corrupted, and there is less road noise.
It is not super loud, but vastly better sound. Cost ÂŁ500 fitted.
Excuse the typos, I hate autocorrect on the phone! If you need more info please get in touch. Sue Bevan
Ps, our car has the touchscreen, but I think the amp and speakers are the same as those in your car.
Thanks - when lockdown is over I am hoping our local audio specialist will be back and I can get them to do a similar thing with mine!
Max