I auditioned the H/K sound system and was quite impressed. Rarely do I hear manufacturer systems sound this good. I also really liked the ability to fine-tune the sound for the driver - Fantastic!

That said, there definitely could be improvements. I'm leaning towards keeping the H/K system, because it's probably the best bang for the buck, it's easy (comes preinstalled!), and maintains the "stock" status of the interior. It also says "Harman/Kardon" on the speaker grills..

The main thing that concerned me was a little bit of boominess in the bass and lack of low end extension. It sounded like an 80-150 hz bump was masking any sub-80hz sound and coloring the midrange.

As best I could tell this was coming from the rear 6x9 "subwoofers".

I'm wondering if simply putting a little dynamat (yes, I've read all the posts - they seem focused on getting rid of the buzz on the passenger door) and/or some acoustic stuffing behind the 6x9's would tighten up the bass and improve the extension a bit. Generally speaking, acoustic stuffing is somewhat equivalent to increasing the "volume" of the sound chamber, at the expense of SPL output (I don't need my system rediculously loud).

My hope is that this would reduce the 80-150hz bump, smoothing out the bass a bit and allowing the low bass and midrange to shine through more clearly.

Has anybody experimented with this? Also, in all these posts I see people tearing abou the rear of the car to get to those 6x9's.. is it possible to just pull off the grill covers and the speakers and have access to the chamber behind, or do I need to remove all the paneling (and seats??!)


Thanks!

 

GBMINI#2 never had the heavy / deep bass thud that people report with the H/K system - and I've heard H/K in newer MINIs and those do have the heavy sound.
I wonder if GBMINI#2 didn't have it because it was an early H/K (first month of availability I think) - or was it because of the dynamat in the car from the abortive Tweeter install?

Sorry that wasn't much help!


You need to remove the rear seats and panels to access the speakers, then remove the speakers - but in the H/K you'll find a plastic baffle and very little space to get the dynamat in there.
You can *see* the rear speaker if you peel away from front of the panels (at the seat belt position) but you can't get enough access to do any useful work in there.
However, removing the seats/panels is not a major job - be sure to get some replacement plastic clips for when you re-fasten the panels, because there are always broken ones!

 

annoying (having to take out seats & panels just to get to the speaker).

if you remove the plastic grill covers, are the screws mounting the speakers still hidden behind the panels? If I can just pull the speaker out then I can shove some acoustic batting down in there..

 

I don't believe you can remove the speaker covers - I think they are "welded" on with melted plastic rivets.