Very happy after adding a sub to the Bose system

[surfwagon]

I'm sure that most of you have either done this or at least have checked out a how-to on it. I was happy with the highs and the mids from the Bose but was always disappointed with the bass response. Adding the sub completes the sound and it is much cheaper than replacing the whole system. It sounds amazing...

[yup24z]

what kind of sub did you get?

[numbnuts22715]

I would like to know too.
Also, did you have to run any new wires or anything like that? Is it still under the passenger side seat? or what

[surfwagon]

I bought Sony XS-LB10S Shallow-mount sealed truck enclosure with one 10" subwoofer at Crutchfield.com and Sony XM-1S Slim Series mono subwoofer amplifier 500 watts RMS x 1 at 2 ohms at Crutchfield.com
I bought them somewhere else for a lot cheaper. Crutchfield was selling this combo as a package so I knew it would work well.
I also bought a cheap amp wiring kit like this (the lower the gauge for the wire, the better (10 gauge)

Here we go:
First figure out where you're putting the amp (mine fits in the grove box) and the sub in the hatch.
Unplug negative battery terminal
Run your power wire from the battery through the grommet for the hood release and to the amp.
Unbolt driver's seat and tip it back and out of the way
See the wiring harness for the Bose amp below

The plug with 4 wires is where you tap into to get the music signal. Gently pull this plug out of the amp. Don't mess with the red or black. The other two wires (white with blue stripe and gray) you will tap and run wires from those to the high level input on your amp. (If you purchase an amp with a high level input, you won't need to buy a LOC) The high level input offers a less distorted signal too.
In order for the amp to know to power on/off when the car is turned on/off you need to tap into the "remote signal" you find this on the the wiring harness with the blue plastic tabs. Start by gently pulling this harness out of the amp. There is a series of wires in the top half of the harness and another series on the bottom of the harness. You are looking for the solid blue wire on the bottom half of the harness. Tap into this and run it to your amp.
Now run your speaker wire to your sub.
I'm pretty sure that's it. If you have any other questions or if anything was too vague let me know. - Marc

[08_HellRaiser]

Sweet!! Im doing this tonight or tommorrow! Thanks for the details.

[surfwagon]

Let me know if you need help with anything. It sounds fucking amazing.

[08_HellRaiser]

I did this on Sunday, it sound 10X better than the stock subwoofer.
It really feels alot more balanced.
I really had to play around with the sound settings on the amp and on the radio to get it clean and not to bassy.
Now its sounding great! Thanks for the instructions!

[killyoutoo]

Been considering this for a couple days. was thinking about going with the Kenwood KSC-SW1 or the Sony to save trunk space.

You have pics of it in your trunk?

[sweetpickles]

Where'd you buy your stuff Surf? I need to grab a sub and amp but not sure of a reputable place outside of Crutchfield for car audio really.

[surfwagon]

I bought the sub and amp off of eBay. I'll get a pic of the sub in the hatch for you guys. This setup will give you a shitload of bass if you want it. My car thump with the volume at 10 or less on the Bose stereo.

[surfwagon]

Pics as promised







And for good measure

[mrlilguy157]

i love the roof rack. sub looks good too.

[Sumosub]

I was thinking about getting a shallow mount 10 and putting it under the passenger side seat. I've got 2 12's and it eats up most of my hatch. i used to have a fusion 10" tube...but it didnt hit hard enough...lol. Good job!

[killyoutoo]

looks good.

[MadOzodi]

So what did you do with the stock sub, just disconnect it?

Do you guys think I could just disconnect the stock speakers and replace them with my Boston Pro separates w/o using new wires and the crossovers?

[ms3jake]

I have a sport Ms3 with the stock radio not the Bose. I would like to add a sub and amp. Do I have to change my head unit for this? Does the stock stereo have a 3rd output? I really want to do this but want to keep the look of my stock interior.

[surfwagon]

You don't need to change the stock stereo to do this. You can add an amp and sub to your stock stereo. Search on Mazda3forums for the non Bose Wiring Diagram. It's really easy to do.

[surfwagon]

Originally Posted by MadOzodi So what did you do with the stock sub, just disconnect it? Do you guys think I could just disconnect the stock speakers and replace them with my Boston Pro separates w/o using new wires and the crossovers?

I wanted to try to keep the stock sub. The only reason I would remove it is if you can't find a spot for your amp. Also I would NOT wire those Boston's into your factory deck. The stock stereo with an added sub sounds killer.

[aaronc7]

Yeah +1 to that. With a sub added I've been really happy with the Bose.

I tapped the INPUT wires into the bose amp and added RCA plugs to the other end of the wires to plug into the aftermarket (kicker) amp.

[Haltech]

Originally Posted by aaronc7 Yeah +1 to that. With a sub added I've been really happy with the Bose. I tapped the INPUT wires into the bose amp and added RCA plugs to the other end of the wires to plug into the aftermarket (kicker) amp.

I like that enclosure! did you make that yourself?

[MadOzodi]

Originally Posted by surfwagon I wanted to try to keep the stock sub. The only reason I would remove it is if you can't find a spot for your amp. Also I would NOT wire those Boston's into your factory deck. The stock stereo with an added sub sounds killer.

Aight, I'll give that a dance. Less work I gotta do, thanks.

So the stock sub effectively takes care of the low end of the mid range while the added sub fills in everything below? If so, that's perfect.

[surfwagon]

Originally Posted by MadOzodi Aight, I'll give that a dance. Less work I gotta do, thanks. So the stock sub effectively takes care of the low end of the mid range while the added sub fills in everything below? If so, that's perfect.

Pretty damn much. The Bose has nice highs and mids but nothing in the low range. You will be very happy after adding your sub. No doubt. Leave everything as is and just add the amp and sub.

[MadOzodi]

Thank God...I don't have to worry about where the heck I'd put my 4ch. Now all I have to do is see if my old 2ch 300W RF amp will fit in the glove box.

[aaronc7]

Haltech,

There's a guy on M3F that makes them...He also has a website somewhere. I sent my payment, and he made the thing and sent it to me and it was here within 2 days...awesome. I think it was 110 shipped. It's exactly what I was looking for though. The only drawback is it's for a 8" sub, you could probably put in some kind of space to accomodate a bigger or deeper sub if you needed that.

[Haltech]

Originally Posted by aaronc7 Haltech, There's a guy on M3F that makes them...He also has a website somewhere. I sent my payment, and he made the thing and sent it to me and it was here within 2 days...awesome. I think it was 110 shipped. It's exactly what I was looking for though. The only drawback is it's for a 8" sub, you could probably put in some kind of space to accomodate a bigger or deeper sub if you needed that.

if its not to much trouble, could you have him get a hold of me? I would like to have one.

[sweetpickles]

Originally Posted by Haltech if its not to much trouble, could you have him get a hold of me? I would like to have one.

Mazda 3 Stealth Box | Speaker Boxes | Subwoofer is his site. There were two group buys over at m3f for them @ $95. The fit isn't perfect and the specs aren't quite what he said (I think he said .65 cubic inche volume and 5/8" think fiberglass, both seem to be overly optimistic). There are also only a few 8" subs that actually fit in there (namely the kicker compvr 8").

Negatives aside, I'm happy enough with it for $95. Jack fits with the spare tire w/o any problems too and my amp under the rear plastic tray with a little dremelling so it helped me get what I wanted

[pidass]

very nice, is there any concern with the amp being in the glove box? i.e. little air flow for cooling

[surfwagon]

Originally Posted by pidass very nice, is there any concern with the amp being in the glove box? i.e. little air flow for cooling

Not really. There's no cross air ventilation but there's around 6-8 inches above the amp for air. No issues

[Super Unique]

I did mine with an amp and subs left over from my last vehicle. Out of pocket right now for the mod was a 10 spot for 22 feet of 4 gauge power wire.

[numbnuts22715]

Anybody know how much space is under the passenger seat if I were to remove the stock bose sub? Im thinking about just getting a small sub enclosure or something... I need more bump.
I wanna get something compact and smallt hat I can squeeze under the seat.

[eddelgado]

I cannot imagine that you are going to be able to install anything that will sound much better than the Bose sub under there. There is probably only 3-4" of usable space underneath that seat. There is also a flattened plastic pipe that must be used for air/heat for the back seats routed under there.

I removed the factory sub and installed my amp there. I put a 10" sub in the rear cargo area.


Ed.

[numbnuts22715]

bumping an old thread.

I had a sub and amp installed, but in a litlte different of an old way. anyway, my old amp fried and i dunno why. i hooked up a new amp but for some reason its not working. This amp actually has a high level input, so id like to install it that way. There are 4 wires needed for the high level input, R+ R- and L+ L-. The are only 2 wires the OP is saying to splice, so how would I go about doing that?

[eddelgado]

You will need 4 wires. You will need a signal and ground for both the right and left channels. I installed mine off the low level signals going into the amp under the drivers seat.

The OP probably installed of the signal sent to the subwoofer from the factory amp. At that point there would only be one set of wires. I do not know if you can just feed that to both sides of your amp since the factory system was feeding a mono circuit as opposed to stereo into the sub. Think of the wire that he is referring to as the output wires from your amp to the sub.

Ed

[TenaciousBoost]

I've always been a little disappointed with the stock bose stereo, It's nice to hear that it can be upgraded for fairly cheap.

[eddelgado]

I have been really happy with the stereo after removing the factory sub and adding in a 10" in the back. It fills in everything nicely and adds the deep bass that was missing with the factory system.

Ed

[flyrevs2]

website for mazda3stealthbox.com not working, or is it just my crap connection ?

[doubleflusher]

Shit be broke!

[mouse0330]

anybody try this site...some good info and product
Subthump.com— Custom Sub Enclosures for the Mobile Masses

http://www.subthump.com/pac.htm

[erod550]

Nice. I will likely be doing something similar to what the OP did. I used to have a pair of Kicker Solobaric 12's back in the day but that was too much bass for what I want now that I'm older. Plus I want to keep it as light as possible as I don't need a 100lb sub box slowing me down.

Thanks to the OP for the closeup pic of which wires to tap into.

[surfwagon]

I'm the OP. It's been a year and a half and I'm still happy with it. It's far from the 2 JL 12" subs that I had when I was 17 but it's a nice full sound with very respectable bass for what it is. Since that time I added a GROM ipod interface and I'm happy with it too.