Headrest speakers

[Biff]

Hi Gazza,
Well it all got a bit hard, I did the ply trick, and it made the front
covers on the headrests look bad, so I did the plastic can trick.
I went into Payless Plastics with the speakers, volia, found one that fits,
just tossed the lids.
It sounded ok, but a bit muffled, so I pulled them again and just jammed
them in solo, zipped up the seats and they sound ok.
I'm not an audiophile, but they seem ok?
Cheers
Biff

PS I will give them a week and try the plastic containers again.

[Grant]

Interesting comment about the speakers, Biff.
When I installed rep[lacement speakers in my headrests a couple of years
ago, I used the 100mm ones from The Warehouse. These just fitted without any
modification, just allowing the headrest to zip up again. I didn't add any
form of extra enclosure or baffle as there simply wasn't the room. The
improvemnet in sound quality was well worth the effort when compared to the
original factory speakers in their very small plastic enclosures.
I'm no accoustic engineer, but it seemed to me that any benefit gained by
adding some sort of small plastic enclosure (if it could be made to fit)
would be lost due to the very small capacity of the enclosure. The small
capacity of the enclosure would mean the bass performance would be extremely
limited anyway so probably no improvement over the effect of the foam around
the speakers. The baffle formed by the front plastic perforated sheet
already in the seats, although not ideal, was left as is too because of the
difficulty of adding anything better in the very limited space.
I couldn't see the plastic tub idea working too well as I thought, due to
the lack of rigidity of the plastic, the accoustic performance would be very
poor anyway as afar as working as an effective enclosure.
I am very happy with the results. There isn't much bass from the headrest
speakers, but they are so much better than the originals. I was more
interested in being able to hear speech clearer anyway, and when listening
to music, the front door speakers can be turned up to add some extra bass
anyway, using the front / rear fader control on my JVC radio cd player.
The accoustic engineers out there might disagree, but I think adding the
plastic tubs is probably not worth the effort. Maybe the leather seats in
BRG Vspec cars act a little different to the black cloth in the non leather
seats as well.

Grant.

[carl.halvorsen]

I fitted HR speakers to my first MX5, a NZ new 1990. I bought them from MM
marketing in the US. Their instructions at the time did not include
enclosures. The improvement in the sound quality was impressive. Since then
I recently fitted HR speakers to my 91 BRG again without enclosures. The
speakers are a huge improvement over the set I fitted years ago and vastly
superior to the OEM set I removed. I dobt very much if anyone could tell the
difference between a set with some sort of enclosure and without.

Carlos

[Bill Rehm]

Biff, I suspect you have heard of the "law of diminishing returns"?

The OEMs had their own plastic casing as you no doubt know. I tried
various "plastic container" options until I was informed by an
audiophile that:
1. There is a real science to designing a speaker enclosure.
2. The headrest foam is pretty dense stuff
3. The actual space for a speaker is not that large
4. Installing a 3 or 3.5 inch speaker (I and Colin have 3.5 Clarions
from the US) takes up a considerable amount (proportionately speaking)
of the available space

Bottom-line: I suggest you channel your energies and money elsewhere and
simply install a decent speaker in the headrest and it will be
proportionately higher on the "quality of sound scale" (especially when
compared to the quality of sound from the OMEs).

BTW, also I had considered spraying the foam in the headrests to "seal
the foam pores" then decided to listen to my audiophile friend and "get
real".

Regards
Bill

[Biff]

Hi Bill,

I used the rule, "ya gotta be kiddin", I cant squeeze all that in there!

And opted for the easiest method, I guess it worked this time.

Gazza has always been helpful and has great ideas, I just couldn't get an
enclosure to fit without cutting away a bunch of foam, so I left it.

Cheers

Biff

ZOOM1N


_____

From: e-admin@mx5club.org.nz [mailto:e-admin@mx5club.org.nz] On Behalf Of
Bill Rehm
Sent: Thursday, 27 January 2005 5:26 p.m.
To: MX5 List (Mx5List)
Subject: Headrest Speakers


Biff, I suspect you have heard of the "law of diminishing returns"?


The OEMs had their own plastic casing as you no doubt know. I tried various
"plastic container" options until I was informed by an audiophile that:

1. There is a real science to designing a speaker enclosure.

2. The headrest foam is pretty dense stuff

3. The actual space for a speaker is not that large

4. Installing a 3 or 3.5 inch speaker (I and Colin have 3.5 Clarions from
the US) takes up a considerable amount (proportionately speaking) of the
available space


Bottom-line: I suggest you channel your energies and money elsewhere and
simply install a decent speaker in the headrest and it will be
proportionately higher on the "quality of sound scale" (especially when
compared to the quality of sound from the OMEs).


BTW, also I had considered spraying the foam in the headrests to "seal the
foam pores" then decided to listen to my audiophile friend and "get real".


Regards

Bill


Creating Great Places To Work!


KASE Consulting Group Ltd.

www.kase.co.nz

bill@kase.co.nz

T: 64 9 523 5238

M: 64 21 366 999

F: 64 9 523 2619

[poison]

I'm surprised, but I must admit it may have only been at high volumes I
noticed a difference, without the enclosure they would crash and sound tinny.
But at normal volumes I guess they are fine without. Plus it is a fair effort
to make the bloody enclosures too. Glad it worked out for you, but sorry if I
created some extra effort and work on the way there, the limiting space sure
is hard to find a decent enclosure.

Cheers

Gazza

[Bill Rehm]

Clearwater is regarded in the US as the most over-priced speakers. I
brought some great 3 1/2" clarions back from the US 6 months ago,
however there has been a mention of some locally available speakers for
the headrest.

What ever you do NOT piss away your hard earned money on the
Clearwater's. It is not that they are bad, far from it. You simply don't
get value for money compared to other options,

Regards
William

[Graeme H]

I bought some speakers from the warehouse, and they're just fine. 10cm or 4 inch at 20 bucks a seat. The wiring harness was already fitted under the seats. I had to manipulate a few things and cut some foam, but they fit, and do the job for my bogstandard import stereo :0D

Graeme h

From: Mike McCready <m.mccready@gmail.com>
Date: 2005/04/14 Thu PM 02:02:12 GMT+12:00
To: mx5list@mx5club.org.nz
Subject: Headrest speakers

Hi,
Just wondering if anyone has put headrest speakers into a mk1
mx-5, i can see that the headrest has the space for them, but not sure
what speakers to get, and from where. I did find this site:
http://www.clearwateraudio.com/headrest.htm which makes the speakers
specifically for the mx-5 but they are based in the states. Any help
would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

http://miata.cardomain.com/id/britracinggreen

[Grant Gunning]

Hi
I fitted a set of 4 inch Sony Xplode speakers from Supercheap Auto. Sound
much better than the originals...much, much better. Pretty cheap option
too, under $50 from memory.
Cheers
Grant