Hi all -

New to the audio forum. Randomly surfing; wound up on eBay typing "miata" and stumbled across "Clearwater" brand speakers.

Went to their [simple] web site and was favorably impressed by their miata-focus. I've got a '97 with headrest speakers.

Anyone tried Clearwaters? Thoughts? What others should I consider for general improvement of audio at speed with top down?

Thanks, Kevin

I put Clearwaters in my 97 back in 2000 or so, and it made all the difference in the world. Easy install. You can hear the stereo with the top down; sound quality is good.

Unfortunately, one of the speakers is blown or torn, I think. I'll be posting about how to fix that here shortly!

Anyway, I would recommend the Clearwaters. Along with the Oris windstop, it's the best mod I've made yet.

Bill

I put Clearwater speakers in the doors on my '90 model when they first came out to replace the OEM speakers and the sound was much better. I replaced the OEM headrest speakers with Kenwood speakers and several years later I replaced them with Clearwaters and the sound was the same. I sent the Clearwaters back. I then got Max5's and the sound was outstanding. Get Max5's.

The door speakers are awfully expensive @ $220/pair. True, they drop in, but with a sensitivity of only 89, you may want an amp to drive them, even with an aftermarket headunit. $120 for a set of 4 headrest speakers including the harness isn't that bad of a deal, though I haven't heard them.

I heard the max-5s in Jeff Anderson's car and they were excellent. I didn't seem to get the same effect out of my car with an aftermarket headunit. I don't have any headrest speakers now.

If you've got a little more money, an inexpensive amp of 50x2 watts rms and some new front speakers will do worlds for volume and clarity, even with the top down.