It's constructive criticism - perhaps you should be my financial advisor!
Acting in the capacity of your new financial advisor then my first recommendation would be that you start saving up for unplanned for oil changes which still appear to be a bit of a bane even with the later models. Yet another firmware update is due in the near future I gather.
In the first part I'm obviously joking; in the second, not so sadly.
You're doing a terrible job as my financial advisor Deeps - I've been that oil change spending money again!
This time it's speakers! I've been overall pretty impressed with the stock Bose sound system, but have read lots online about changing the cheap paper cone speakers to further improve the sound quality. This weekend I decided to tackle the dashboard speakers. The stock speakers aren't bad by my ear, but a lack of tweeters in the CX-5's speakers means there's a lack of high-end sound, so I decided to start there.
Here's a comparison of the stock Bose speaker and the JBL I bought to replace it. I'd rather have bought the Polk Audio or Kicker 3.5 inch speakers that are raved about over the pond but I couldn't source them without doubling the cost in delivery charges. The JBL speaker has a much larger cone and magnet, and has a built-in tweeter.
I'm sure this picture might make any audiophiles amongst us cringe! I desoldered the connector from the stock speaker as I didn't want to have to cut or splice any car wiring looms, and made connections to standard spade terminals using speaker cable. Nothing too complicated really, even for someone as ham-fisted as me!
And here we are ready to go! The speaker fitted with no drama, save for having to be mounted 'upside-down'. The difference is sound quality is huge even with these relatively inexpensive speakers, with much more clarity than the stock sound system.
At some point I might change the centre speaker, along with the D-pillar and rear doors but this is a nice upgrade for now.
