Objective The spatial resolution in MRI is predominantly limited by the available signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). To increase the S/N, a four coil phased array consisting of bilateral pairs of semioval coils was constructed for high resolution imaging of the temporal bone and brainstem. Materials and Methods Coil sizes of 10 x 6 and 6 x 4.5 cm were tested. The S/N values were measured in vivo and with homogeneous phantoms and compared to commercial 3 in receive and quadrature head coils. Results At a depth of 4–5 cm, phantom studies yielded S/N improvements of a factor of 1.26–1.37 with the large array compared to the 3 in coil and 2.33–1.74 compared to the head coil. Similar improvements (1.16 and 2.37) were obtained in inner ear images. No further improvement was achieved at this depth with the small array. At a depth of 8 cm, phantom studies yielded similar S/N for the quadrature head coil and two bilaterally placed large array coils, while a factor of 1.27 was obtained in brainstem images. Conclusion The use of phased array coils yields significantly increased S/N and is thus valuable for high resolution MRI.