Hi there just curious if anyone has installed aftermarket speakers in both front and rear on the stock audio system (no HK) without an amp to power them?? I am thinking of changing all my speakers but not sure if the stock headunit is strong enough to power them all.. I would like to install an aftermarket HU but i dont think that is possible.. any suggestions?

 

Read the sticky at the top of the page and the New Speakers? thread. Lots of good info there.

 

reason i ask is because i was talking to an audio installer and he told me that even if i replaced all stock speakers and added an amp there will still be distortion if i raised the volume fairly loud on the HU. He said if i dont want distortion when playin music loud i will have to change the HU.. not sure if that makes sense cause cant you just raise the gain on the amp?

 

That makes very little sense to me. Distortion specs on HUs are probably very similar. If you add an amp and better speakers it should sound better and not distort unless you clip the amp.

 

I'm planning to replace just the rear 6x9's for my HiFi system similar to what I did for our Honda Accord's. For the Honda, I replaced the cheapo factory rear 6x9's with a pair of Infinity Kappas and the sound improved substantially. In fact my wife commented that the Honda's sound now is even better than our BMW's Harman Kardon system (with 2 rear subwoofers)!

 

Just be aware that the HiFi runs two sets of independent leads from the amp to the rear speakers. One set to the woofers, and one set to the tweeters. Don't know if the highs are filtered out of the woofer, but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that the lows are filtered out of the tweeter leads.

You can get component 6x9's, but there's only a couple of brands. Lots of component 5x7/6x8, Infinity being one if you're partial to that brand.

 

find a new installer. He's just trying to sell you more equipment that you don't need. It's either a total lie or if he truly believes it (and he's still wrong) then I wouldn't want him to touch my system. I assume you have a pre-07 or a convertible else you couldn't change the HU even if you wanted to.

You could feed a big enough system straight from an Ipod and get "The Who" concert levels (assuming the same amps and speakers the who used)

I've added an amp and changed the speakers and still use the stock HU. It goes hella loud without distortion.

If you don't add an amp you probably won't get very loud without distortion.

 

ya i figured he was a complete retard.. i have an 07 so unfortunately i cannot change the HU.. which sucks cause the stupid player wont resume from long track mp3s.. so i guess prob best to run an amp. just curious where did you mount your amp motormouth? if u mounted it at the back did you have to run new wire for all speakers to the back.. or is there an easier way using the stock wires? btw i have the base audio system.

 

read the sticky young padawan =) all shall be revealed. (including where I mounted my amp)

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=95211

tells you pretty much everything you'd like to know about putting amps and speakers into your MINI.


The sticky thread is kinda sad actually... now there isn't as much reason to be talking about stereo stuff as there was when the sticky first started.
Kinda like reading the last chapter of a book before reading the book. You don't get to experiment and have those "oh crap" moments as you let the magic smoke out of some random wires.