>>i'd agree that pookyjr got a great upgrade at a great price. i'm currently trying to figure out how much i wanna go. originally i was looking at $3000 for eclipse/alpine hu, high end separates, pretty good rears and amp. possibly a simple sub setup. by the way, which JL stealthbox is that? is there one specific for mini's?
>>


$$$It does cost a pretty penny to upgrade any existing stereo set up, even for the MINI. But your choice for HU is a darn good one. And Yes, the JL Audio Stealthbox does make a MINI specific box with a ten inch sub built right in. It's around $500.00 but got mine discounted a bit. :smile: And the sound is unbelievable:

GOT BASS?

 

>>i'd agree that pookyjr got a great upgrade at a great price. i'm currently trying to figure out how much i wanna go. originally i was looking at $3000 for eclipse/alpine hu, high end separates, pretty good rears and amp. possibly a simple sub setup. by the way, which JL stealthbox is that? is there one specific for mini's?

The JL stealthbox is only for retail purchase, not available over the internet. It's for the MINI which is nice but you do give up a little space in the rear boot and as Pooky13 mentioned- it is harder to get at the battery after it is installed.

>>however, now i'm considering going a bit more extravagant. basically a custom sub and amp rack setup, while maintaining at least half the available boot space. this alone would probably add another $2000 along with a more powerful amp for the subs only and accessories.

You might try going by Island Sound or calling them to ask if the DS MCS they are working on is done with the audio upgrade and if you can hear what the custom woofers (two 12" with amp in a custom enclosure for the rear boot) sound like.

>>one reason why i like eclipse is that they have a security feature on their hu's. a preselected cd of your choice is inputted as the security disc. anytime the power is disconnected to the hu, ie. ripping it out of the dash, the security disc is needed in order for the hu to play again upon reconnection, ie. installed again. the user has 5 chances to get the security disc right. otherwise, the hu shuts down and must be sent to the company hq along with owner info/papers to work again. as far as i know, when i first got one back in '97, eclipse is the only company that has this feature. that plus a 3 year warranty. pretty good stuff.

Sounds like you've been to Security and Sound or Mobile audio. It's a good HU option.

>>the main reason why i'm so hooked on car audio is because i already got a $5000 system in my truck, which i couldn't bear to get rid of after getting the mini. but since i use the mini 5-6x/week for work, i've missed the sounds. it does help that i've got a lot more fun performance to make up for the lack of sounds, but i still miss it during the daily drive.

Well that explains it all. You have been tainted by good sounds. Oh well. Hopefully it will not be necessary to budget $5000 for the MINI's stereo upgrade.

You are welcome to reach me to hear what I have put together. No subwoofer yet. I'm too poor after doing my other upgrades:(

_________________
ALOHA

 

>>Whoohooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Pooky Jr.'s audio system is complete! It sound awesome, better than expected. I actually kept the head unit and the HK SPEAKERS but did not use the HK amp.
>>
Pooky,
Did the installers use any crossovers between the new amp and the HK speakers?

I am really p***ed with my new system put in by Tweeter last week and need some alternate options.

 

>>Pooky,
>>Did the installers use any crossovers between the new amp and the HK speakers?
>>
>>I am really p***ed with my new system put in by Tweeter last week and need some alternate options.
>>


As far as I know, the installer didn't need crossovers as he only ran new quality speaker wires throughout the HKs. He disabled the HK amp, but he used some special connectors and Hi-Low adaptors from the ZAPCO line to complete the amp to speaker routing.

Sorry they screwed up your set-up. :evil:

People come from far away to get their systems put together at my shop, DIGITAL CITY in Santa Clara, CA. Now I know why.

picpicpicpicpicpic

 

what is the address to digital city? maybe I'll check it out.

 

>>what is the address to digital city? maybe I'll check it out.

DIGITAL CITY:
2652 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95051
(408)615-8188
ask for Theo, he's the best audio advisor there. He planned my
system's set up three weeks before I got my MINI and listened to all
my ideas and was very informative. He'll tune my system this week to finalize everything. He's at the shop Mon, Wed, Fri, or Sat and Sun.


picpicpic

 

PookyJr has a nice install in the boot. With the carpet cover it looks really nice. very stealthy. My amp is bolted on the rear right seat back but hidden by the cargo cover. I like your JL stealthbox cover too. Neat job.

I went through all your pictures- very nice. You did great.

Iancull- I might take your story to my installers and ask them what happened and maybe try to get some suggestions on what to do next. They don't sell MB Quarts but they do have the BA amps.

 

>>PookyJr has a nice install in the boot. With the carpet cover it looks really nice. very stealthy. My amp is bolted on the rear right seat back but hidden by the cargo cover. I like your JL stealthbox cover too. Neat job.
>>
>>I went through all your pictures- very nice. You did great.

Thanks Minihune!

 

>>I am really p***ed with my new system put in by Tweeter last week and need some alternate options.
>>

Ian, is your Tweeter installation described in another thread? I hadn't read about it anywhere. How did they screw it up?

 

Here's a quick photo post:

 

Scooter,
I have been in stealth mode on my install which was done last week. Partly because it was so dreadful. Partly because I was at MINIs On Top.

Anyway.
The story so far:
I am AMAZINGLY UNIMPRESSED with Tweeter of Nashua - although other Tweeter stores recommended them, they screwed up so many things I cannot believe it. I used Tweeter to do the amp & speakers because I was unsure about getting it right if I did it myself - boy was that a mistake!

The amp install *looks* nice. So long as you don't try listening:


When I returned to collect my car, there was ZERO bass. I quickly discovered that they had set the high pass filters on the head unit to cut below 200Hz, and also enabled the amp filtering (why they thought it necessary to have filtering on top of filtering I do not know).
Hardly surprising there was no bass.
We turned off the HU filters which gave some bass - I did not realize the amp filtering was active till I got home later.

When I drove away, I noticed "alternator whine" at the first bit of quiet music. So back to Tweeter.
I don't know exactly what this noise is, if it is really from the alternator, or from the ignition system or what. But it "whistles" at a pitch which follows engine revs, peaking around 2500-3000rpm.
Hard to hear when the doors are open - sounds like the supercharger. And drowned out if the volume is loud enough.
But present when the HU volume is zero, or even when the RCAs from the HU are disconnected.
So it appears to be amp related - injection through the supplies? I would expect the BA GT42 to be better but maybe I am wrong.


Really big disappointment was how bad it all sounded; poor bass, very muddy generally so it was difficult to hear vocals in "70s/80s pop" type music. So bad I just left it turned off on the 300 mile round trip to MINIs On Top (and I had planned to be showing it off).


Went back to Tweeter today (1 hour haul through commuter filled roads each way). Complained bitterly and went for lunch.

Incredibly, the installer says he found two sets of speakers wired out of phase. Why the !*!*! did he not catch that last week ... answer - because he did not check the system?
He experimented with moving the amp ground and running the RCAs differently (but I bought $100 Monster RCAs so they had better not pick up noise). Anyway he could not fix the "alternator whine".

I now have bass!
Good? I think so. Better than last weeks HK? Not sure, but I don't think so.
And the midrange is much cleaner than when the speakers were wired wrong.

My opinion of HK has gone up dramatically this last week!
What I now know is that the HK really makes music clean and clear in the car. I am guessing that the DSP amp has some sort of model of the car and ensures that all frequencies are coming out clear, correcting for reflections etc.
The limited adjustments on my Kenwood HU (reasonably high end with "System Q" facilities) cannot allow me to get the sound correct for all music - if it is right for Phil Collins in Genesis, it is wrong for someone else.


(Sorry - very long post).



Minihune,
If your install friends have *any* ideas where the engine whine might come from and / or how to kill it off, I will be extremely happy to hear them.


Any other ideas also welcome at the moment - I do not hold out much hope that Tweeter will suddenly learn how to do MINI Cooper installs.

 

Iancull-
OK that sounds right-speaker wires out of phase. Funny how they were too busy to do some rudimentary quality control testing of the system to make sure that it worked before giving it back to you. I don't think you can trust these fellows with a 12 foot pole. Do the quality checks yourself and make them do it right. They charge enough for the installation.

I have the same whine sound as you. It is the amp. The power wire needs to be connected directly to the battery and grounded correctly. I having my shop work on it this friday. They said no problem and have a person that has the most experienced to work on it that day. I'm not too worried about them. Before they turned over the car back to me the sales manager did the tuning of the amp settings as a quality check and let me hear everything before I paid them.

The noise is high pitched and absent until the car is going and it varies with the speed of the car. More noise with higher speeds. It is faint and I heard it the first day and did complain. They said to check it with all the different modes such as radio, aux, CD. I got the noise with every setting so I reported it.

I will let you know what is the fix I find and I hope your audio upgrade can get back on track. From a parts standpoint there is no reason why you cannot have good sound. Just goes to show you that mistakes can happen and even a relatively straight forward job can go awry. :evil:

 

>>Before they turned over the car back to me the sales manager did the tuning of the amp settings as a quality check and let me hear everything before I paid them.

That would be nice.
Apart from the obvious total lack of tuning or testing, Tweeter also operated a policy of having me pay for everything BEFORE the work began!
Which is actually pretty stupid since I then had to pay a little more for the extra stuff they had forgotten they would need ...

I look forward to hearing about your (hopefully) engine noise elimination.

 

I see somebody else is going with McIntosh power on here. I'll bet you don't have as much trouble as I do putting your amp/s in your MINI... I have the unenviable task of shoehorning the Biggest Mc they've made in the trunk on mine. 6 channels of MC4000M power the beast is 36"x12"x3" makes 1000 watts into 4ohms and just plain reeks of class.
Got a Brahma 10" going back there, a Behringer DEQ2496 studio eq and a changer to find homes for. Should be interesting, I'll post pics when done. Might be a while though.

And yeah, alternator whine is VERY common in rear battery cars. Grounding your amps directly to the battery is not a very good idea as the charging currents run right to that very spot and any groundloops are going to referenced there. Ground to a solid place away from the grounding lug for the battery.

Scott.

_________________
'03 MCS DS/B w/stripes, Prem,Sport,Cold paks on order...Nice Christmas Present to me

 

Check this out!

http://www.phase-linear.com/html/mini_cooper.html

Cabbage

 

Interesting thread. Was thinking of installing the amps out of my old T-bird into the mini, 2 Yamaha YPA-1000's along with Audio Control Epicenter and EQ. I know, I know,,, Yamaha does not make car amps anymore, but these are some of the best amps I have ever heard and bought them quite a few years ago. Far underated power wise (listed by continuous power vice peak that is common today). Anyways, looking for a good subwoofer for the small fit in the mini, any links to the JL stealthbox I have seen several comments on. Thanks in advance!

 

Sounds like you found a great solution, can't wait to see the pics!

 

>>>>Before they turned over the car back to me the sales manager did the tuning of the amp settings as a quality check and let me hear everything before I paid them.
>>
>>That would be nice.
>>Apart from the obvious total lack of tuning or testing, Tweeter also operated a policy of having me pay for everything BEFORE the work began!
>>Which is actually pretty stupid since I then had to pay a little more for the extra stuff they had forgotten they would need ...
>>
>>I look forward to hearing about your (hopefully) engine noise elimination.

Iancull-
Ok I spent about 2 hours at the audio shop today getting my high pitched whiny noise problem solved. As tacotim mentioned in another email to me-it is not good enough to just get shielded monster audio cables (I have streetsmart 4 channel "zero noise" (right!) cable) but the foil shields must also be connected to the radio chassis which I had done.

I showed an email account of your "tweeter" install and my shop manager just shook his head. "Speaker wires out of phase" he said. So hopefully some of these things they did for me should point you in the right direction. So we have the same noise problem. My shop says- first got to find out where the source of the noise is. They try this first. Get another brand of cable and wire the radio to the amp OUTSIDE the car and away from sources of interference/noise.
Noise is still there- indicates that the cable itself inside the car is not a large source of the noise.

Next they look for other sources of noise and test the system with the Air conditioning on, the headlights, any other electrical devices such as Aux out, fog lamps and finally the Xenon lights. Bingo. The Xenon lights tigger the most noise. They also try filters on various wires and cables to test if the noise is lessened. They ground the amp securely and check the noise. Then the RCA cable's foil shields are connected to the radio chassis.

Now. I cannot get any high pitched whiny noise out of my audio system at all. I tried really hard but there is none I can detect. All is quiet and the shop tells me it is hard sometimes to ensure that any make or model of car will be free of this sort of problem given the many variables in aftermarket car audio. Pick a different Head unit or amp, have different other electrical options in your car and the equation is different. He did say that the BMW 5 series is notorious for noise almost every time while the 3 series is much much better.

They solve noise issues on a case by case basis. I didn't get charged for the extra time or for the filters that needed to be installed. I had them retune my amp to balance the fader a tad more to the rear. The manager said he thought the front speaker bass got a little more quickness since he last adjusted my amp.

I also got to listen to my system in the showroom with and without a 10" subwoofer/amp. Very nice with the sub.
I haven't commited- it would be a JL steathbox and install with cables for about $650.

 

>>I also got to listen to my system in the showroom with and without a 10" subwoofer/amp. Very nice with the sub.
>>I haven't commited- it would be a JL steathbox and install with cables for about $650.
>>

I'm glad you're considering the JL Audio stealthbox afterall Minihune.
:smile:

Take pics when you've completed the installation!

 

I'm influenced by you Pooky13!

What? No high pitched whiny noise from your system? That's cause you have great luck or great installers or both!

Certainly a sub is worth a look and my options are definitely open. Got the sound upgrade for Father's day, got a birthday coming up in December. 1+1=2. Hmm I wonder what I should do??? Tick tock Tick tock.

The only problem is surveilance by the "upgrade police".
Here they come!

 

Just listened to Gavins install today - he did his own and put in Infinity Kappa speakers and a Blaupunkt amp, with the stock HU and hilo converters.

His speakers totally blew my MINI away - rich bass and clear sound (and no subs). I really hope Tweeter can get their act together and make my MINI sound good.

On the downside, Gavin has terrible noise pickup ... not only does he have engine revs but he has this nasty pulsing noise when his interior lights dim. I have not noticed that on my car - at least not everything on my stereo is wrong!

Minihune,
I will give a printout of your message to Tweeter when I give them the car Monday. If they fix it, I will report what they did. I am lacking confidence at the moment.

 

>>Just listened to Gavins install today - he did his own and put in Infinity Kappa speakers and a Blaupunkt amp, with the stock HU and hilo converters.
>>
>>His speakers totally blew my MINI away - rich bass and clear sound (and no subs). I really hope Tweeter can get their act together and make my MINI sound good.
>>
>>On the downside, Gavin has terrible noise pickup ... not only does he have engine revs but he has this nasty pulsing noise when his interior lights dim. I have not noticed that on my car - at least not everything on my stereo is wrong!

Ian,

Sorry to hear about your Tweeter install - I hope they make it right for you.

I'm expecting my car to show up this week. If it does, I'll be installing my audio system by or on the weekend. I'm putting Infinity Kappas in front and back and 2 Blaupunkt amps - it will be interesting to see if I see the same results as Gavin did. Note that mine is a Cooper not an MCS, so perhaps the battery location will make a difference. Who knows? Hoping for a whine-free install - will keep you posted.

 

>>>I'm expecting my car to show up this week. If it does, I'll be installing my audio system by or on the weekend. I'm putting Infinity Kappas in front and back and 2 Blaupunkt amps - it will be interesting to see if I see the same results as Gavin did.

Scooterboy,

You'll be very happy with the Infinity Kappas in the front and back of your MINI w/ your decent amps. I too was going to go with the Kappas, but since I couldn't sell my current HK speakers...I decided to use them and upgrade in the future. The Kappas are very crisp and clean in their sound quality and aren't over-bassed like the HK. I added the ZAPCOs to control much of the excess bass from the HK speakers and they sound great now. Good luck and let us know how it goes after installation. :smile:

 

Todays update on the Tweeter experience:

Delivered my MINI for them to eliminate the engine noise and make the sound better than it was before they started.
"Dan" kindly came to Tweeter so they could hear a stock HK system for reference.

They claimed that you can hear engine noise on the HK system - news to me! I hope this does not mean they are going to fail and claim it is as good as it can be in a MINI ...
Two weeks vacation to forget about it - see what they have done when I return.

 

>>Todays update on the Tweeter experience:
>>
>>Delivered my MINI for them to eliminate the engine noise and make the sound better than it was before they started.
>>"Dan" kindly came to Tweeter so they could hear a stock HK system for reference.
>>
>>They claimed that you can hear engine noise on the HK system - news to me! I hope this does not mean they are going to fail and claim it is as good as it can be in a MINI ...
>>Two weeks vacation to forget about it - see what they have done when I return.
Noise from the HK system? Maybe. I will have to try to listen.
I cannot hear any noise on my system no matter what I do. Every system is different.
It doesn't matter if the stock system gives noise. If you do a custom audio system install then the pro audio shop must troubleshoot sources of noise and eliminate them. Your final results should be better than the HK. You deserve to have it that way. No ifs ands or buts. Period