Miata Mailing List: January 1993, Message #120
sponsored by



     


   From: (none)
Subject: Re: Increasing volume of headrest speakers
   Date: (none)

> I know I can increase the volume of the main speakers using the Clearwater or
> some other amp as discussed here recently, but does anyone know a way to
> increase the volume of the headrest speakers ?  I assume the Clearwater amp
> doesn't affect the headrest speakers - but then again, maybe once the main
> speakers are louder, I wouldn't care about the headrest speakers.  Does anyone
> have any comments on this ?


you're right, the Clearwater amp bypasses the headrest speakers.
and that tends to make sense, anyway, since they probably couldn't
handler much more power anyway.

IMHO, the headrest speakers sort of serve as tweeters, providing a
little bit of fill-in where needed.  even if you had better quality
speakers there, i don't think you'd want a lot more volume out of
them, given their placement.

however, the Clearwater speakers and amp make the headrest speakers
pretty much irrelevant, except at lower volumes.  i'd put your money
into making the main speakers do more for you, rather than by trying
to get the headrest speakers to do more than they were really intended
to do.  i tried some informal tests after i got the new speakers and amp,
by fading the headrest speakers completely out, and i can't say it made
much of a difference when the headrests were cut out completely.
that _wasn't_ the case before i installed the better speakers and amp,
though.

in the stepwise progression that i installed things:
- i definitely noticed an improvement with the Sony triax's over
  the stock door speakers
- adding the headrest speakers was another noticeable improvement,
  especially at speed with the top down
- adding the clearwater speakers was another noticeable step up
- adding the amp was another big step up
if they'd been available at the time, i'd have gotten the clearwater
speakers to start with, but they didn't come out until after i already
had the Sony's.  if you don't already have the headrest speakers,
you might consider skipping them, and just going directly to better
speakers and an amp.

Clearwater doesn't recommend using their amp with the stock speakers,
and in fact, i think it'd be a mistake to use it with anything less
than their own speakers, since an amp will help show up any limitations
of your speakers.

hope this helps a little.