Mazda fixes MX-5 Miata's worst fault for 2016
Let’s start with some perspective. I live near Bose. Friends and neighbors of mine, mostly the smart hard-working ones, work for Bose. When I was in college getting an ME degree, the EEs aspired to work for Bose. I’ve owned the Wave radio, compact and over-the–ears headphones from Bose that were so much better than the competition it was just silly. Yet, the Bose audio in the outgoing, third-generation Miata was absolute crap. It was the single worst defect in that car. I know, I owned one for four years. Today Mazda promised in a press release that it has fixed that abomination. We’ll see.
Anyone with a convertible knows some audio tricks. Enabling the automatic sound level adjustment they all have is only part of the process. For top-down driving, you need to push up the bass and treble. When you favorite song comes on, you roll up the glass to get more depth of sound. And you replace that weak, terrible, ridiculous Bose system in your 2006.5 through 2015 Mazda Miata if you have any sense at all. Today Mazda vowed you won’t have to do that for the new generation starting with the 2016 MX-5 Miata about to drop late summer in the U.S. market.
Marc Mansell, vice president, Bose Automotive Systems Division is a person I don’t know, but who may be my neighbor (I live that close to Bose). He said, “So, we wanted to make the sound system for the new MX-5 better than it’s ever been. We improved audio quality, and for open-air driving, the experience is thrilling. You’ll feel and hear the difference the first time you listen.” Mazda says that the new Miata will be the very first car with a pair of 2-inch (50mm) Bose UltraNearfield speakers. They will work with Bose TrueSpace sound technology. Hopefully, this means the audio will be loud, clear, and have “soopa’bass.” One could barely hear the old system, which was at max volume if I remember correctly at setting 18 in my 2007 Grand Touring Miata. Above that it was just noise. Below that it was inaudible.
Feel free to write in below and tell us all how “the sound of the engine is the only sound-track you need.” Maybe. But when you’re on a long road trip, if you don’t have a craving for good tunes I submit to you respectfully that you may have no soul. If you had a Mazda Miata and found the sound lacking let us know if you took action, and what you put in.
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