As Mx5′s are tiddly little motors Mazda has been very clever at fitting all the gizmos we want into a very conservative space. It took me five minutes when I first got Maurice to work out where the sound was coming from behind me – I  still think it’s a very simple but clever idea to use vacant space in the seat as part of the sound system. Plus you can have the music on loud enough to make your ears bleed, providing your headrest speakers are working well – which mine weren’t.

I bought these luvly puppies from MX5 Parts – these aren’t the stock version but an upgrade, as the price was the same as the regular MX5 headrest speakers it seemed daft not to buy them.  When I opened the box I thought no way would they fit, but the clever peeps at MX5 Parts have obviously met people like me before and put a printed sheet in the box saying they do and pictures to show how to fit them. The front grill of the speaker doesn’t need to go in, so they are actually smaller than they look.

To change them to this version is a quick and easy job – it really was, it took me ten minutes to do each seat! Something actually went as planned for a change Unzip the top of the headrest – the zip runs over the top and is covered by a seam of fabric – pull the front down to expose the speakers. Remove the four screws on the front and the three larger screws that fasten the speaker to the actual seat. Grab the unit firmly and pull it away from the seat. Stick a screwdriver through the front to pull the speaker out of it’s casing and expose the connectors on the wires. Pull these off their fittings – they just slide off.

The two wires, once disconnected need to be pulled through the side of the casing. There’s a rubber grommet in the casing wall; use a screwdriver to prise it loose and pull the grommet – NOT the wires to free them from the casing. Once the grommet’s out, you can slide the wires and their connectors through the hole.

On the back of the speaker box is a template to use to mark where you need to cut parts of the foam away for the new speakers to fit. Don’t be fussy or bother about being too neat, I used a steak knife to cut the semi-circles right back to the metal frame of the headrest.

Once the circle was cut I just grabbed the side of foam, dug my fingers in and pulled – it came away neatly from the metal and in one big chunk. It also makes much less mess than trimming trying to get a neat edge. Fit the connectors onto the new speakers – there is a wide and a narrow connector so you can’t fit them to the wrong terminals - just slide them on.

The nifty thing about these speakers is the backs are magnetic, so once the connectors are on, just position them and they click into place onto the metal frame of the seat and stay there! No fitting required! They’re really smart looking so it’s almost a shame to cover them up, but just pull up the front of the cover, zip the headrest back up and that’s it – jobs a goodun’

Is the sound any better? Oh yeh, noticably – well worth hacking a bit off foam for! Door speakers next, to complete the surround sound, ear bleeding experience

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