I realize this has been posted in several threads a few times over the years but the questions and content are always the same and the specifics are usually never all in one place.

My Background:
I used to own a 2003 R53 with Harman Kardon audio, a 1999 Lexus LS 400 with pioneer audio, a 2004 acura tl with ELS audio, a 2010 acuras TL with tech audio, a 2001 Lexus RX 300 with pioneer sound, a 2004 Lexus LS 400 with Mark Levinson audio, and a 2012 Highlander with JBL synthesis audio

I have heard it all by now and always listen to music with cds or fabricate a auxiliary in hardwire into the head units of all these cars. I love music and will often sit for 3-4 hours in a car not going anywhere but just listening and relaxing. I do not listen to screaming loud music but I do want to rock out going 65 on the highway with the windows down for my *max* volume and hear things clearly. no louder than that. I do classical, rock, electronic music mostly.

The best car stock audio out of all these cars I listed were the 1999 LS 400 and the 2003 R53 with H/K

Present vehicle:
I bought a 2008 R56 with the 10 speaker hifi premium sound package

Harman Kardon audio was not offered on the R56 until 2010

The setup of our R56 with HiFi has:

2 soft dome tweeters each located in the A pillars using a small inline capacitor for crossover in the A pillar wiring itself.

1 Mid range door speaker per front door that handles majority of the frequency and content with no inline crossover. The only crossover this speaker has is built into the cars amplifier and that amplifier is located in the left boot of our cars. This speaker is positioned horribly as it is often blocked by me knee or a passengers.

1 Low frequency driver per front door that really is crossed fairly low and doesn't handle much if any mid range. This speaker has no in line crossover and is only filtered by internal crossovers at the amplifier

2 6X9 speakers in the rear of the car. No inline crossover exists for this and actually plays full range. No crossover at the amplifier for this speakers exists.

2 soft dome tweeters located in the grille of the rear speakers in the back of the car acting as a pseudo coaxial speaker setup with the 6X9s. This tweeter has a crossover built in to the amplifier

The specifications and sizes for these speakers and the amplifier are as follows:

There are 10 speakers: 1” tweeter in A-Pillar, 3.5” cone midrange, 6.5” door woofer, 1” tweeter in rear panel, 6”x 9” rear woofer

There is one 8-channel Harman Becker branded Amplifier:
Power ratings are as follows:
76W RMS Total:
24W front door woofer
5W midrange/tweeter
7W rear woofer
2W rear tweeter

RMS means continuous power and not the peak power that Mini sues in their advertising for our cars. Mini claims our cars have several hundreds (400) watts in the HiFi package and this is simply not true.

SO how does it sound?

On low volumes, it is okay, not bad but not great.... turn it up and you run out of power and run into distortion very quickly. The mid range speakers distort first and then the door bass speakers run out of power and ability to play low notes. The high end is not bad but it's not exactly smooth or clear unless you consider harsh to be clear. The sound stage is hollow and not full. There is no impact or even muddy big bass. Just fake boosted bass and tinny highs and harsh overblown mids.

The system sounds best with CDs and total **** on the radio and total **** with aux in sources.

I tried every combination of fader and tone controls to make this sound better. It seemed that if I wanted it at decent volume I had to dial the bass back to -4 or so to keep the power going and distortion out. This presented a very hollow sound. I also found that the rear tweeters were bothering me more than they should be heard. I did not care for this.

Having grown sick of this complete trash system I yearned for my old 2003 mini with Harman Kardon sound.

The first thing I did was install a small 8 inch powere sub in the boot of the car with my HiFi system. I tapped into the rear amplifier signal input for the front right door for this.

The wiring colors and codes for the R56 HiFi amp are as follows:
Power Input
(Pin - Wire Color - Function)

5 - Red/Gray (This is a 20A circuit that should provide power to a modest aftermarket amp without needing to run a seperate lead)

10 - Power Antenna lead (to turn on your aftermarket amp. I'll check the voltage/operation when I can).

26 - Brown (Ground)

18 - Orange/Green (No idea, but it causes me concern as it's labeled "K_CAN_L")

19 - Green (No idea, but also causes me concern as it's labeled "K_CAN_H")

Audio Input (Speaker level input from headunit)
(Pin - WireColor - Polarity)

Front Left
38 - Black/Red (+)
30 - Black/Purple (-)

Front Right
9 - Yellow/Brown (+)
17 - Yellow/Black (-)

Rear Left
37 - Blue/Brown (+)
29 - Blue/Black (-)

Rear Right
8 - Brown/Orange (+)
16 - Yellow/Red (-)


Output (Speakers)

Front Left Woofer (6 1/2")
41 - Black/Red (+)
42 - Black/Purple (-)

Front Right Woofer (6 1/2")
39 - Yellow/Purple (+)
40 - Yellow/Gray (-)

Front Left Mid/Tweet*
33 - Blue/White (+)
34 - Blue/Brown (-)
this lead goes to the 3 1/2" mid, with the tweeter slaved off this lead with a capacitor
The colors for the tweeter wires should be Brown/Orange (+) and Blue/Red (-)

Front Right Mid/Tweet*
11 - Blue/Black (+)
12 - Blue/Brown (-)
*Need help here as well, as noted above. Colors for the tweet should be Brown/Orange (+) and Yellow/Black (-).

Rear Left Woofer (6x9)
4 - Red/White (+)
3 - Brown (-)

Rear Right Woofer (6x9)
23 - Red/White (+)
22 - Brown/White (-)

Rear Left Tweeter*
31 - Yellow/Black (+)
32 - Yellow/Brown (-)
*There are a couple of manufacturers of component 6x9's, but 5x7 or 6x8 components are more common. These leads aren't necessary if you use a coax or triax 6x9.

Rear Right Tweeter*
13 - Yellow (+)
21 - Brown (-)
*Same note as Rear Left Tweeter.

_____________________________________________
Long story short is that with an 8 inch sub installed I was somewhat happy. It cost me $100 for this powered sub and 2 hours of my time to install it.

This wasn't good enough for me though......... not at all.......

SO....
I found out that Harman Kardon was introduced on R56 models in 2010 and that every single speaker and even the amplifier is plug and play with the HiFi ONLY harness and pre wiring in the car. All the speakers mounts would match up and every wire was plug and play. No splicing or cutting or guessing or mixing.

I ordered 6 of the Harman Kardon speakers for a 2012 R56 from Parts.com

I neglected to buy the rear 6X9's or their respective tweeters

Total cost shipped for 6 of the front H/K speakers by themselves with no trim or extra bits came out to be $310 US dollars. This is brand new. It took 3 days to arrive.

The part numbers for the Harman Kardon speakers and amplifier that fit our R56 HiFi cars are as follows:


H/K Amplifier 0 Quantity (1): Part Number: 65129217877 AMPLIFIER HIFI HARMA $721.28

H/K front AND rear tweeters - Quantity (4): Part Number: 65139204492 HARMAN KARDON TWEETE $52.06

H/K Front door mid range - Quantity (2) Part Number: 65139169690 MIDRANGE SPEAKER HIF $35.28

H/K Front door lower Woofer Quantity (2): Part Number: 65139194841 MIDRANGE SPEAKER/WOO $71.05

H/K Rear 6X9 woofer Quantity (2): Part Number: 65139194842 WOOFER HARMAN KARDON $50.63

These are all prices from parts.com and they are the cheapest I found online that carry them in stock and don't have to order overseas

A note if you are ordering the rear 6X9s: Mini introduced a sound wave guide for the rear 6X9's that direct bass and sound into the cabin of the car and these are important to buy if you intend on replacing your rear HiFi speakers.

The part number for this is as follows:
Left soundwave guide for rear 6X9: 65139212070
Right soundwave guide for rear 6X9: 65139212071

They are about $25 each

I bought 6 of the speakers to have my fronts all converted to H/K

The new tweeters have silver metal domes instead of black soft plastic domes, the new mid range drivers use smaller neodymium magnets and have a silver cap in the center on the front, the new door woofers have much larger magnets and better plastic rigidity.

Now to install these front 6 speakers I read a few guides and the truth of the matter is it took me 45 minutes total to replace all 6 front speakers and I have never replaced.

The BEST guide for doing this is using the PDF install guide Integral Audio has prepared for installing their own speakers. We are not using their speakers or crossovers as they are too damn expensive.

The link for that guide is here:
http://www.integralaudio.com/install...SS630-USAM.pdf

Pages 12,13,14 show how to remove and install the front 6 H/K speakers on our R56 hifi minis. Ignore any instructions on Integral audio crossovers and extra wiring as everything we will install is plug and plug. You need a flathead screwdriver and a Torx set to remove the speakers.

Tip for the drivers side mid range speaker. When you pry out the mirror control pod do NOT disconnect it , just move the speaker grille to the side while you unscrew the old speaker and rescrew the new one and then pop the grill back on and pop the control pod back in!

After I installed these 6 and popped on all the plastic clips. I fired up some music with my tone controls FLAT and the fader normal and the balance normal and the S vol at 3. Note: I am using the HiFi amp still!!!

Initial impressions: Using a cd with enya on it and flat EQ, holy ****ing ****. So smooth and so clear. I played with the eq and settled at +1 treble and the bass control was changed between -1 to +1 depending on the song.

I have my fader control set to +6 for the fronts as my rear speakers sound bad since I didn't change them out.

Bass is so much more powerful and defined. my highs are smooth as can be as the thing I noticed was the super present mids are calmed down a little bit and get much louder with less distortion at volume.

The speakers since they are brand new still need to be broken in.

Is it as good as my R53 Harman kardon? No. But it is WELL worth the $300 and hour of my labor. I now sit in my car again and listen to music and nothing else. Whereas before I turned my radio off because it was so bad...

My thoughts:

I want to get the Harman Kardon amp to give my speakers more power. My HiFi amp is actually pretty loud with these speakers and sounds good doing it. but the H/K amp is rated twice as high power wise and once I see one on ebay I will snag one to put in my car.... if not I will use line output converts on the front speakers and add an amp myself in the boot to power the front 6 speakers.

I would also like to install a crossover for the H/K mids to cut off highs at 8 khz and a crossover for my front door woofers to cut off below 60-80 hz and add a SMALL sub to cover 60 Hz and down

I will also install the H/K rears plus waveguides in the future but I will not buy the rear tweeters. I do not like the soundstage with the rear tweeters, I just want the extra mid and bass from the rear.

My cd's and ipod and radio all sound pretty great now.

Any questions? Let me know

I am enjoying my stereo again in my mini for $300 plus 1 hour of my time

NONE OF THIS WORKS FOR MINIS WITH THE BOOST ONLY RADIO

This ONLY applies to R56 cars with the HiFi 10 speaker package that is evidenced by black speakers pods in the a pillars near the windshield. If you do not have these. This information is not for you.

I looked at so many aftermarket options. This was the cheapest and easier for me and I am happy with it. You COULD buy aftermarket 2 or 3 ways for the front with external x overs and amps or you COULD buy the crazy expensive integral audio system that they try to sell on here so much....

I recommend you find a good deal on R56 H/K speakers used or new and drop them in place of your HiFi speakers for a real treat for pretty cheap and minimal effort.

 

Wow. While I already have an HK system I feel obligated to say thank you for taking the time to post this.

 

I read thru this just cause it's such a good DIY.

I just have standard system on a 2009 S. Tho it is substantially better than I remember from when I drove my dad's 2010 base.

 

This makes me seriously consider looking into doing the same thing as you. It's a shame the Alpine upgrade that MINI sells (or used to) only applies to cars that don't have HK or the HiFi system.

 

This makes ME seriously consider how LAZY I am, as I have just purchased the Integral Audio Soundstage system for my POS 6 speaker Boost system...

BIG props to YOU sir for sharing such detail with the community! Many moons ago I surely wood have attempted such a feat in your footsteps ~

 

This sounds great, and I think I'll give it a try. Did you ever go back and replace the rears?

 

Hate to resurrect such an old thread but I have researched quite a bit across the internet and can't find a definitive answer anywhere. I have a 2010 MCS and it had the H/K system installed aftermarket by a previous owner by the MINI dealer. The system has 0 bass to it and sounds extremely weak. I turn up the volume and place my hand over the speakers and tweeters and can only really feel any vibration from the mid-range speaker in the front and the 6x9 in the rear. Should I just have the dealer take a look at this when I take it in for service the first time? Or is there something I can check before taking it up there? I have scheduled service in October and would like to get some decent sound as I had the H/K system in my '05 MCS and it sounded great, solid bass, great sound. I just don't know where any of the parts or wiring is for the audio system in this car to check it out.

In a nut shell: 2010 MCS H/K audio system that seems to only have 4? speakers that are working and even with the bass turned to +6 there is absolutely NO BASS in it.