Mazda MX-5 Miatas and Bose have gone together like Bud Light and hot dogs since 1993, when the audio brand was applied to a sound system for a special-edition version of the iconic roadster. That car, the rare Miata LE, came with sweet BBS mesh wheels, a blood-red leather interior, black paint, and a Bose system with a unique silver-faced head unit and bright metal door-speaker grilles. Since then, each generation of Miata has offered some form of a Bose-designed audio upgrade, and now Mazda is showing off the all-new fourth-generation Miata‘s Bose setup.
The headrest speakers offered in the first-generation Miata actually worked, delivering better sound with the top down than you’d expect.
The big news, at least to Miata aficionados, is the return of headrest-mounted speakers. If you’ve never experienced a first-generation Miata, then you likely don’t know what we’re on about here. (See the picture above, they’re located behind those perforated holes in the headrest.) Those cars offered sound systems (separate from the ’93’s optional Bose bits) with a pair of speakers in each seat’s headrest; the idea was to deliver sound directly to the occupants’ ears, thus reducing sound degradation with the top down. The speakers were relocated to the rear parcel shelf in the second-generation Miata, while the outgoing, third-gen model sported speakers in the vertical panel between the seats.
The 2016 MX-5’s Bose system cuts it classic, however, and includes a pair of 2-inch speakers in the driver- and passenger-seat headrests, as well as one 6.5-inch speaker in each door, a 1-inch tweeter in each A-pillar, and a 5.25-inch woofer that lives in a cavity beneath the passenger-side footwell. Bose supplies a seven-channel amplifier that’s fitted beneath the softtop’s cubby behind the seats, and the system boasts two equalizer settings that automatically adjust based on the status of the roof. If it’s up, you’re delivered sound optimized for a closed environment; if the top is down—and let’s be real, it should be, as much as possible—the equalizer compensates for higher levels of ambient noise. (Read: Wind buffeting.)
According to Mazda’s option structure for the 2016 Miata, you’ll need to skip the base MX-5 Sport and order the mid-level MX-5 Miata Club model in order to get the Bose system. The audio setup also comes standard on the top-of-the-line Grand Touring trim level. We’d say it’s worth it, if only because the headrest speakers are back!
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