So my first post on here, I signed up only to see the pictures etc on this thread. Many thanks to everyone who has posted for the help and guidance.

I did the channel swap today on my 2013 MCSD and immediately heard an improvement in bass clarity and power. I know here has been some debate as to whether this mod help on the LCI cars, but I think it does.

One question I have though, and apologies if it's been covered before. I did read a large amount of the posts here but not all the pages

Why are the left and right speakers swapped when panning? Obviously front and rear on the fader will be reversed, but I'm struggling to understand why left and right are swapped too.

 

Left/Right shouldn't be affected. Recheck the pins you swapped or just fix what is reversed.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I double checked all my work before re connecting and everything seemed to be where it should be. I was working to the OP as well as the pictures on post #334.

I remember reading on here previously that someone else had noticed that L + R were swapped. Have I definitley done something wrong? I'm struggling to understand what it could be.

 

Which side has left/right reversed? is it only front or only back? if both are reversed and you dont care just leave it. if, say, front is correct and back is reversed just swap those. it's just wires so you can't really do anything "wrong". just be sure to keep everything in phase (don't swap pos and neg). so long as you're only swapping the speaker wires and not the others that BMW threw in that connector.

 

Defo didn't touch either of the brown wires or the white/brown. I've just ran out to check and it's both front and back that are reversed. It doesn't bother me to be honest, I was just curious as to why that might have happened.

Also if this isn't correct I'm worried that maybe the polarity is out too, but as I say, I definitely swapped the pins as per the instructions on here and I double checked before re connection. I know it can be hard to tell if the polarity is out just be listening.

 

Just to check I've definitley done things correctly, this is what I swapped.

Pin 2 and 6 out and swap.
Pin 3 and 7 out and swap
Pin 4 and 8 out and swap
Pin 5 and 10 out and swap.

 

there might have been a revision to the wire colors that affected your car.

polarity is relative so if all are the same then you should be okay. it is hard to tell by listening but you can try using the attached brown noise sample i made. fade it all the way back and to one side and play a bass heavy song/brown noise, then move the balance to the center and verify the bass gets stronger. then you know those speakers are in phase with each other. try the same procedure with only the front speakers, but since the fronts are now bass limited, due to the swap, it will be more difficult to tell if they are in phase with each other. just make sure the sound doesn't get thin and spacey when you move balance back to center. finally try fading it back to the center of the car so all speakers are playing and seeing if the sound is getting stronger/complimentary.

 

Thanks very much for that clip. I will try that ASAP.

What I did find whilst messing with the settings is that the front on their own or rear on their own sounds very poor. But as soon as I fade them together the sound comes together and sounds better than it did before the swap. Moving the fader by one or 2 points either front or back affects the sound quality quite a bit.

I can't say if the wiring has been updated, but Mike at New Mini Stuff who sells the pre wired connectors doesn't have an option listed for pre or post LCI, plus all the wire colours matched the guide on here.

 

My car is 2012 so i'm LCI and my colors matched and results were as expected. Just depends how much time you want to spend on it. I think you're in good shape if all 4 speakers compliment each other.

 

Here's a file with brown noise on the left channel only for testing purposes.

 

Thanks again for the help.

I tested the system using your file as well as some good old Black Crowes material which have the guitars panned hard left and right. My system had definitely switched the balance over as well as the fader. Left was coming from the right hand speakers.

Reading over this thread I realised there were a good few other's with the same issue. I pulled the trim out again to double check my work and all the pins were in the correct position for the swap. I moved them all back to the original position and the balance and fader swapped back again. I've just left the pins in OEM configuration for now as I don't want to mess with them too much. Also as I said earlier if the balance has moved unexpectedly then I can't be sure the polarity is out also.

I'll leave it as is just now. My aim is to buy the new Mini stuff tweeter upgrade which comes with a loom incorporating the channel swap. My mother in law also has a pre LCI model so I'll do the swap on her car and see if I get the same outcome.

 

I'd guess the polarities are alright. You can push the pins out on the connector one speaker at a time to see what is what so you can do the front/rear swap correctly. Or just leave it ;-) I'd be interested to see if the loom correctly does the swap and what the difference is from what you did manually.

Also, time alignment does wonders for sound quality but that is a whole nuther can of worms.

 

So I emailed Mike at NewMiniStuff asking if the channel swap would be a good thing to do for my 2013 R58 Coupe. Here's the conversation:

------------------------------------------------
Hi,

For the channel swap harness, you state the following on your website: "This gives a great result in R55 clubman & R56 hatch pre facelift & a lesser result in facelift versions of these cars. It is not recommended for the R57 cabriolet."

I have a R58 (Coupe). Is the harness not recommended for the R58, or would it help the sound at all?

Thanks!
------------------------------------------

Hi
Very minor improvement in bass in the R58
Mike
------------------------------------------

Good to know - thanks!

One more question, if you don't mind:

Is the muddy sound that currently comes out of the rear speakers due to the speakers themselves, or is the signal being sent to them altered to be muddy?

I'm considering replacing them with 6x9 coaxials to improve the sound, but if the signal is muddy anyway it won't do much good.

Thanks for any info you can provide.
------------------------------------------

For the rears its a combination of both - poor sound to rear (lack of bass) & a poor quality paper cone speaker (lack of high frequency)

------------------------------------------


That last inquiry was nearly a week ago, so I don't know if I'll get a reply or not. EDIT: REPLY POSTED ABOVE IN RED. Thanks to Mike at NewMiniStuff for the info.

If anyone here has knowledge to share about any of my questions above, I'd appreciate it greatly.

 

Just to follow up on my previous posts in case it helps anyone else.

I managed to get the New Mini Stuff tweeter upgrade on eBay. This came with new A Pillar trim with Clarion tweeters as well as the channel swap loom.

On receiving the kit I checked the pins which had been swapped and it was totally different to what I had done following the guide on here P1. It didn't really match anything to what I did (outlined above).

I fitted the trims and plugged in the channel swap and as expected the front/rear was switched but the left/right stayed as expected. All seemed well, but after a day of messing with the settings I wasn't quite happy with the sound. The rears sounded even more muddy than before and I had to have the bass almost at full.

So I tried switching the pins on the channel swap loom back to OEM. I just matched all the pins so as they were passing straight through. Result is MUCH better. The sound is better than before, and even though the only thing that has changed is the addition of the tweeters, I'm sure the bass is even better now too. Finally I'm happy with the sound!

This was on my 2013 R56 with standard stereo/no nav. If I crank the volume right up I can start to hear the head unit struggle, but it goes loud enough for me for just now.

 

Just finished this swap. Thanks to post #213 in this thread. Everything worked as described. Be patient and the pins will pop out. Very noticeable difference, well worth the hour of playing around.

 

quick wiring summary

 

New to this forum. New to a Mini Cooper. I have an '09 Clubman S. Love it. Except the music. I used to install stereos on an amateur level back in the 90's. But with the channel swap adapter available, is it just easier to do that than to get tools. Also, are there any other places that sell that adapter? My card always acts funny about buying things overseas. Anyone sell those in the good ole US of A? Or should I just dive in and swap them myself? But I can't see the pictures on the first page.

 

Is anyone able to post the images of the process using either the male or female pins? The pictures on the OP seem to be broken. I've read all the descriptions but I'm struggling to visualize it!

 

 

I am guessing that most folks have found the newministuff channel swap harness? I did, and installed it. Very easy. Sounds better, much better! But, now that I have some bass, I want more. Was thinking of adding a powered subwoofer to my system. I have the sub, a slim underseat powered unit, 8 inch woofer. Was thinking of placing it in the right rear, secured with that cargo net. My question is simply this....has anyone done this yet with the newministuff harness? Is so, how did you do it? Like wiring and stuff. Where do you get the signal from? Power and ground? Turn-on? And where have you placed your powered sub? Any help/opinions/experiences are much welcomed. I hate wiring. I am a mechanic for a living, but electrical stuff scares me, especially with the new CAN systems.

 

I'm going a bit crazy here in that I can't for the life of me remove the pins! I've tried a T20, staples, ball point pen tube, needle nose pliers, and a paperclip but the only thing I've done is cut my thumb! I'd love to be able to do this without 'cheating' and ordering the adapter (plus I'm a bit too broke for that just now) so if anyone has any advice/videos/tutorials/picture/ANYTHING I would greatly appreciate it <3

EDIT: Wait so I think I may be an idiot. When you guys say you're playing around with the male end that would be the part that's connected to the black box thing?

That might explain why I was having so much trouble trying to take stuff out of the other connector -_-

EDIT2: Aaaand just tried everything on the other side and still nothing would budge ):

 

 

Having read through the post etc. I'm a little confused as to whether the filter is in the stereo or a box along the speaker wiring. Surely if its in the stereo then fitting an aftermarket unit would eliminate this issue and the channels don't need to be reversed.
im asking because i have an aftermarket fitted that i installed myself but its not the newest of stereos, its one i had lying around, its just that im getting issues with sound and was wondering if its this box affecting signals or if its my stereo on the way out

 

The filter is in the head unit

 

thanks for the confirmation.... time to buy me a new head unit then