I had the HK system.... replaced the 5 1/4's with 6.5" Hertz Mille ML160's, and the Hertz Mille ML280's in the factory mid/tweet location. Took out the 6x9's in the back, and a 10 lives in the boot.

The system never really sounded right to me. I think the weakness is the midrange. I rather not try to put a 3 way setup in the door.

Anything better you can suggest for my doors? Oh, and every speaker has an amp channel, using electronic crossover in the head unit.

I was also thinking about trying other amps, and using a JL 13TW5 in the back instead of the 10 I have, since it's 1" shallower. Thanks.

 

Did you do any vibration/sound deadening in the doors? This can help midrange.

Can you adjust the crossover settings in the HU? If so, did you change the settings when you added the Hertz speakers?

 

Oh yeah..... doors are very dead..... and I have been playing with the crossover points for the last 2.5 years that I have had this setup.

Most people say it sounds great, but over time (heck, even 10 minutes for me) it is fatiguing..... maybe I am spoiled with a good setup at home (and several sets of speakers to swap around as I feel the desire to).....

I am planning on going to the closest Hybrid Audio dealer, when I get a chance, to listen to their top end, Legatia, speakers, including that ring radiator, which has pretty much flat response past 20k off axis. How are yours sounding? Do you have the image series? Do you have pics of them installed?

 

oh man, that would be frustrating.

I finally have a plan for putting my Imagines in, unfortunately only HU powered but this should still be way better than OEM.

There is a least one Hybrid shop (if they still are one) that did not have their HATs set up well. They were more interested in selling another brand. Depending on where you live, I can give you the names of HAT contacts. Contacting Scott B. by email is responsive too.

I've got the Imagine manual pdf I will send you. Just send me an email and I will respond.

Good luck.

 

To me, fatigue over time is usually a red flag for distortion.

 

Sounds like it might be a crossover point/slope mismatch. It might sound a lot better if you ran it through the passive crossover. Just my 2¢. Good luck.
Did you have to do any modifications to the door to fit them?

 

There is no passive crossover... I just spoke with the local Hybrid Audio dealer, and he was running the 4" Legatia's, without a tweeter in his A-pillar's ... hmmm... they are pretty much flat to 15k..... that would probably work, and he said he ran them down to 215 before crossing them over to mid bass .... that would be pretty amazing... But, speakers in the A-pillar on a Mini? Wouldn't that cause a problem with the air bags? Has anyone done that before?

 

Focals are pricey, but sound the best.

 

I have Focal's in the front and because it is a GP it has no rear speakers. I have the Focal's powered by an Audison amp. In the rear I added the JL sub powered by a JL amp. I can honestly say I have not heard another system that I like better.
Steve

 

So, Polk has a new 6x9 out, called the DXi690. Crutchfield says they won't fit my '06 hatchback, Polk thinks they will. I would like to know! Anyone?

 

Crutch' is not always right on their fitment specs... They said the Polk db690s wouldn't fit either. After successfully installing them without even the slightest hint of a clearance issue, I can't imagine how they came to that conclusion.

 

Interesting - good to know.

 

So OP, have you decided on a plan of action?

 

I have a pretty high end home system and just go by what sounds good to me. I put Pioneer A 1702C 6.75" speakers in the doors and TS A6964R in the back. With the stock head unit it sounds very nice with great bass. No Sub. Don't need one. All the speakers go down to 30 hz. The total cone area is greater than a 12" sub. Personally I have never heard a good auto sub.

Who really thinks they can make a decent enclosure with thin fiberglass and bondo? ( I am a composites engineer with Finite element expertise ).

I am putting in a 4 channel amp soon mostly to give the whole thing what can only be called " ***** ".

The HK unit makes it messy as it can't really drive aftermarket speakers and be happy. It wants dual voice coils to keep impedance down for max power transfer with class AB amping.

Pull all the electronics, put nice speakers in enjoy life.

 

Over the weekend I finished the install of a 300 watt amp in the back. I lost only a little blood. Cars always want a little blood.

So my system is now Pioneer speakers front and rear and a digital Pioneer amp. It sounds reeeeeeeeally good!

The stock alpine boost is not bad at all with all this help. Perhaps a newer Head unit with burr brown DACS and such would take it up a notch but I am happy so far.

The speakers respond down to an honest 30 hz which is hard for some subs to reach as they all seem to hover around 60hz which is often confused with bass, but I call that hum. So no Sub. I can still carry luggage and groceries.

The amp is the GM D9500F digital 4 channels at 75 watts peaking at 100 watts per channel. Digital means a minimal drag on the battery as it is very efficient compared to AB class amps. It is a small unit. It will actually fit in the tiny cubby hole in the boot where the HK amp goes. I tried it there, but decided that I would like to be able to change tail light bulbs. So I fabbed an aluminum plate that mounts about an inch from where the cubby hole cover door goes. Wiring was fun, and that's where the blood went.

Apparently some people fit it under the seat. Which is OK if you live in the desert. I found it rather wet under the carpet and foam as I was running the wires. Don't put it under the seat if you know what rain is.

This is a nice amp. It takes speaker level inputs or preamp level automatically. Best trick is it turns on when it detects sound coming in, so you only have to wire input, output, power, and ground. Very neat.

I only have 6.75 inch fronts, 6x9 rears and No sub. Thats all I need.

I like all kinds of music from classical to rock to country. I have listened to Bach, Mozart, Puccini, today and thought this is not what a car sounds like. I tried Carl Orffs Carmina Burana. ( If that does not mean anything to you it is like Conan the Barbarians theme song.) The first cut "Fortuna" has bass that hits you in the Chest like a fist. No hum diddly dum hum. FN BASS! When you feel it before you hear it that is BASS.

Clear highs probably limited by the source music. I have to try one of my audiophile CDs. I wonder if my Iphone 4 does losseless?

Sarah Evans "Born to Fly" spooky real vocals and sounds I never heard in the car before. Lenny Kravits rocks. The nice thing about power is clarity. It is called dynamic range. The average signal is reasonable, but only gets clear when you have power available that is ten times the average. So the stock boost radio has a few watts and could get loud enough to hurt my ears. Back up each channel up with 75 to 100 watts and now your talking. Any more is only to win parking lot contests that need ear plugs. Ear plugs mean your not listening!

This is getting close to my home system which is pretty damn good. I get to review my music collection now. fun.

Neat compact efficient.

 

hi guy, total newb here, i've only had my mini for 3 months, and i've managed to blow my passenger tweeter. was thinking about putting an infinnity kappa perfect component sys in to replace them, but i can't find a spec for how much clearance i have in the door. could one of you that has had the speakers out of your doors tell me aproximatly how much room there is for a mid woofer? i would greatly apprieciate any info. thx!

 

any pics of the fabbed aluminum plate that your amp is mounted on? I have the same amp and that's where I plan on put it. Mine is going to run my rear 6x9's. I have a genesis amp to run my front components and that is going in the other cubby hole in the boot.

 

Max size depends on the brand. I fit 6.75" pioneers. Crutchfield has a nifty fit program that will tell you what fits for a given brand.

 

I was going to take photos while I had the car apart, but then I got frustrated, and was bleeding and decided to not. I need to dress some wires, and I will take a picture and post it.

 

I completely understand

 

iTunes does have an Apple lossless option for CD input but I only use it on really well recorded CDs where you can appreciate the difference (1 in 20 CDs if you're lucky). They are big files though, half that of the CD itself.

You have sparked my interest though. A car audio setup good enough to make you consider lossless ... Hmmm

 

Two pictures of my install. The amp is bolted to an aluminum plate cut to fit the opening shape. The plate has a ledge and a hook that rests on the plastic trim panel and hooks around the panel lip just like the stock cover. The top is held by an angle bracket bolted to the wheel arch. The mount plate screws to the angle bracket. Remove the screws and the whole panel pops out.

The plate is wrapped in a black textured material I had, and I backed it up with vibration absorbing mat.

I can still carry luggage and groceries and change my tail light bulbs. I still haven't dressed the wires.

A further week or so of listening has been fun. It plays much louder than my ears can take. Even at that level it is very clear and clean sound. I have a couple of Telarc CDs and some other "good ones". I am going to try to remember to take them out to the car. Kinda hard in the morning when the coffee hasn't kicked in.

I have a Capacitor yet to install, I may not bother. I am very pleased.

 

Generally the system sounds great. But I did find a recording that brought out all the flaws.

At home I have what I consider an audiophile system. I built much of it. By that I mean I built the Amplifier, speakers and crossovers. I also modified much of the rest. I also have a decent collection of vinyl records and "good" CDs. I have source material and a good reference system.

So I have listened to classical, jazz, pop, country, rock, just about everything in the mini. It all sounded really good. When you hear things you did not hear before that is a good thing.

So I found my car's audio kryptonite. Perhaps some of you may have heard of sheffield labs. They made recordings of extreme quality of interesting and strange things. The made their reputation on direct cut vinyl albums, but also made CDs.

So I have this CD. It is high end audiophile, and I put a lossless version on the IPhone as a test. The recording is "Kodo Heartbeat Drummers of Japan" and is high dynamic range recording of Japanese Taiko drummers. The drums they use range from small high pitched ones the size of bongos to a huge drum that is actually bigger than the mini. So it was quite the experience to fire it up. Awful actually.

The recording is mostly very quite as it has no sound compression. Turning it up to clearly hear the quite parts of the performance and the volume is actually very loud for the loudest bits. Well it was fine until the number where the started to use that big drum.

You may have seen pictures of these drums. I dont think the mini could park inside one, but there simply is not enough air in the mini to hold the sound of that drum. Everything was shaking, the doors were rattling, and the sound became mud. I have played this at home and my home system is tuned to 18 hz. I was driving the body of the car into sonic hell.

Before you start dynamating me I put sound mat on every interior metal surface under all the panels that would come off. I also put the sound mat on the back side of those panels. The doors have it on the inside and the inner face of the outside sheet metal. I was thorough.

There are limits to what you can do I guess.

I wonder if I can track down and kill those rattles?