Miata Mailing List: March 1993, Message #136
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   From: (none)
Subject: Re: Headrest Speakers?
   Date: (none)

> Has anyone succeeded in installing headrest speakers on their own  
> (i.e. without having a dealer do it)?  I undid the zipper, and found  
> the "slots" for the speakers, but I don't know what kind of speakers  
> fit, nor where the wiring is.

Geoff,

I installed the Mazda headrest speakers in two different cars.  It's not
difficult, although you should probably allow a couple of hours if it's
your first time pulling the dash console and the shift console.  The 
factory speakers are rectangular and are an exact fit into the little 
wells in the head rest.  Other mail order companies sell Sony speakers, 
etc. that are round and require some alteration to the foam in the headrest.  
This may or may not be a consideration.

The factory speakers simply screw into place - the headrest is tapped to 
accept them.  You will probably have to create or enlarge a hole to run the 
speaker wires through the foam in the headrest to the back of the seat.  
On the seat back you can feel a groove in the foam which is designed to 
cradle the speaker wire where it drops down from the headrest to the floor.  

The factory headrest speakers come with a wiring harness that plugs into
the back of the factory stereo, routes under the stereo console, under
the shift console tunnel and back behind the seats.

The Mazda headrest speakers came with fairly complete instructions for
installation, including the trickiest part - popping out the eyeball vents
in the dash console (use a piece of strong cord looped through the vanes of
the vent and pull straight out sharply).  The only other thing worth noting
is that some of the wiring harnesses initially came with the polarity
reversed.  One of the Miata magazines described the procedure for fixing this.
If your headrest speakers play very softly you may want to try reversing
the polarity.  This is done by locating the two female connectors that
terminate the wiring harness to the stereo (behind the seats), and using
a pair of needlenose pliers to swap the terminals in each.  The result
should be an improvement in the loudness of the headrest speakers.  My guess
is that Mazda has addressed this problem so you shouldn't need to mess with
it.

In any case the factory headrest speakers don't play particularly loud.  I
do think that they are worthwhile since they enhance the sound when the top
is down.  I suspect that Mazda were concerned about placing potentially 
loud speakers right next to the passengers' heads, both from a safety and
a hearing damage standpoint.


good luck,
jdm
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            /        Jeff Maurer, Sr. Analyst
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