I have decided I am going to finally do something about the terrible sounding stock sound system on my 2006 MCS. I have gotten to the point where I don't listen to it at all because it just annoys me. I wanted to see if anyone could tell me the speaker depth limitations of the front and rear speakers? Also do 6.5" (diameter) speakers really fit in the doors?
I am leaning towards Focal brand speakers, they have high efficiency at 93db so I thought they may work well with the stock low power HU. They are 4 ohm speakers but I'm not really sure how much of an issue the impedance is.
I will begin by replacing the stock speakers and see if that is enough of an improvement. I'm not looking for anything amazing, just reasonably decent sound. My previous car was a Honda Civic that I had installed a mid-level Kenwood cassette deck in, along with some inexpensive Pioneer speakers. It sounded pretty good! The guy who bought it from me was quite impressed with the sound.

 

I just had some focal 165 K2P's (up graded version) installed in my GP. I got some speaker extension rings from "newministuff.com" (Mickey the MINI). The fit is pretty tight. The installer had to remove the stock grill covers and cut off the four mounting tabs (that the grill covers were held onto the door with) as the speaker was hitting these when reverberating. He then trimed the inside of the grill cover to allow clearance and then used super glue and hot glue stick to reapply the grill covers to the door permanately. It worked out pretty slick and is a very stealth install. I doubt that you will be happy with the sound with the stock power. These speakers really come alive with a good amp.
Steve

 

6.5"s will fit in the doors. you will need to either buy some rings like the guy said above me, or, like i did, make some. just go get like a 2x4 sheet of 3/4" MDF from home depot or lowes, and get a jig and cut out a ring.



i put clay behind mine to make it airtight...you dont have to, i just wanted to. i also got the XTC foam baffles, becuase ive heard water leaks thru the window a little, so i cut the baffles in half, and installed the top half, so water wont hit my speakers.



that will help with the depth issue. i have boston acoustic pro60 components in mine, and those focal's are prally the same depth as mine, so you shouldnt have an issue.

last, you're GOING to want an amp. its night and day difference from stock (or any headunit for that matter) power, VS an amp. get some power to those speakers and you'll be very happy. i also have JBL GTO936 6x9s as my rear speakers, and i love them. i turn them off and it sounds like somethings missing. some like rear fill, some dont. i do

i suggest getting a new headunit as well. i liked the factory look. this HU is the closest stock looking one i could find, and the sound quality is GREAT. the lights even match almost perfect with the stock amber lights. cost me 225 shipped used on ebay. Nakamichi CD-400.

cd's skip every now and then on big bumps, but i mostly use the AUX input for my ipod.

 

Did you have the upgraded HK system or the base one?

 

me? i had the HK system. i left all the stock wiring/harnesses in, and just took out the cd changer, HK amp, HK speakers, and the stock HU. i replaced all the speakers, ran new wires for all the speakers, RCAs, remote wire, and put the new HU in, as well as an amp. sub+amp coming soon (2500w rms, gonna be LOUD)

 

I have the base, non-HK system.I meant to cover that in my original post by writing "stock "system, but upon reading your question I realize the HK was a stock system also -sorry for the confusion.
Thanks everyone for the detailed replies, and to pimpedout97 for the photos -very helpful and I am going to check out that Nakamichi. I have installed many car stereos in the past, but only HUs and speakers. I never have installed an amp, so I guess thats why I was going to try to get away with just changing out the speakers. But several of you suggested that an amplifier is really necessary.
The main question I have about installing an amp is this: Is it difficult to tie into the stock speaker wires in the harness? I never see anyone say much about this when detaiing their installs.

 

ive heard that the base stock system isnt that hard to use the stock wiring, but the HK is VERY hard. i didnt want to risk messing anything else up electrically, so i just took 1 day and ran all new wires, and its clean, you cant tell any wires are ran.

id deff get an amp though if your buying higher end components (focal)

as well as replace the head unit.

and running new wires, id do that as well, becuase youll need to run the speaker wires from the front doors to the back where your amp is, not to the head unit like you've done in the past when not using an amp.

any other questions, just ask

 

Which Focal speakers?

 

I have the Focal K2 power 165 K2P's. These are the new upgraded version with the TN52 tweeters. I have them powered by an Audison LRx 2.4 (130W x 2 @ 4 ohms) and it sounds terrific.
Steve

 

I'll bet it does sound fantastic. A friend had K2s and loved them. And when he resold them on eBay, they went quick!

I'm still interested in which Focals Mahatma is looking at. My Focal Access 165a1 sound great too, and they're not even amped (yet).

 

Do you guys think those K2P's sound that much better than the Focal Poly's? I considering them but for almost twice the price I'd like to know they will really deliver.

I'm looking at the Alpine PDX-5 amp. It will give 75watts x 4.

 

Are the tweeters the only difference in the upgraded versions? I've been trying to find info on these (not just the Power series but in general) and search results have been vague at best. What exactly was upgraded?

 

I don't really know either. I ended up ordering Polys and not the K2's because I don't want to feed a lot of power. I purchased the Poly speakers for the fronts and I'm going to lightly run the rear factory speakers off the amp for slight fill at low gain. Then the 12" sub. Considering the amount of space were dealing with here I'm sure it's going to sound awesome.

 

lmao you guys do realize this thread is nearing 2.5 years old LOL

 

Still the same brand of speaker and good info without making a new thread though.

I hate posting stuff to get "use the search feature" as an answer. LOL

 

I have the same Nakamichi CD400 sitting in my basement. I was previously running it in my '90 Miata, where it looked even more at home (amber backlighting can be switch to green). I'm a big fan of this unit. I still think it looks great in the MINI as well. It's important to note however, that it WON'T work with the factory Alpine CD changer (you'd have to get a Nakamich changer...rare/expensive), and it WON'T work with the integrated Sirius or XM, if you have it. Furthermore, there is no Sirius/XM support for these non-mainstream units, meaning there is no way to integrate sirius/XM into it. You'd have to use a plug-n-play Sirius/XM tuner, via the aux input to have satellite radio. Nothing wrong with the sound this way, but not exactly ideal if you like clean-looking installs. The 24-bit CD player does tend to render such inconveniences as trivial and utterly forgivable though!