Okay, I'll admit it now . . . I bought my first MINI last month and loved to drive it but something was terribly wrong. I absolutely hated the stock (non HiFi) audio system. I listen to a wide range of music, especially female vocalists, but none of it sounded good. It was particularly evident at lower volumes where the midrange seemed to completely disappear Starting with a low budget, I went through several stabs at upgrading the front speakers but nothing was satisfactory, much less good or great. Yes, I read, reread and read again all the threads but finally went to Ultimate Electronics for advice. Ultimate is higher end than Best Buy or Circuit City but not a cu$$tom Mom & Pop shop. Here's what I finally ended up with and the difference is absolutely unbelievable.

Fronts: Diamond Hex S600S component system (large 2" silk tweeter) in the 3.5" spot with a custom mount. The 6.5" midbass in the lower.

Rears: Diamond D3 D392i 6X9 coax

Amp: Alpine PDX 4.100 "D" class amp (very compact and efficient. Very little heat.)

The amp is mounted in the boot where the toolbox goes. There is a line out converter attached to the rear speaker feeds then a small run of RCA to the amp. The output is bridged to deliver 2X200 watts to the Diamond crossovers. Fresh wiring was installed to all the speakers. The rear 6X9s are set up as "Rear Acoustic Fill" off of the Diamond crossovers with 5 dB attenuation. The crossovers are mounted in the cubby on the right side of the boot.

The installation took 2 full days but I was charged a standard installation price. What a deal!! I fully armed the very capable installer with prints from various threads. He became obsessed with the install and finally finished it tonight. I'll be going back tomorrow to fine-tune it to my preferences.

There is MORE than enough volume when desired, ample bass and incredible midrange and highs. I am hearing things I hadn't heard in my music before. The one element that was missing from my MINI experience is finally fixed.

I learned a lot by reading the threads, reading the how-to's on Crutchfield.com and talking with the installer. I would be glad to share any experience I gained.

poyzin

 

I can't wait to hear it Maybe Saturday, eh

Mark

 

Rock On!! Hope she sounds sweet.

 

Do you mind letting us know what your budget was for all of the parts? I'm thinking of upgrading the speakers first,then upgrading the amp in the future. Probably not doing any custom tweeter mounts.

Overall I would like to do what you have done but more on a budget. (ie getting good deals on the parts and possible doing some of the work myself).

Cheers

 

I paid approx $1400. There are a lot of variables in that price. The Diamond Hex speakers were $500 but can be had over the Internet for as low as $200. Keep in mind that they do not offer a warranty online but will double the warranty if you buy them from a dealer and have them installed by the dealer. The Alpine Amp was $450. The rear Diamond 6x9s were $170. The rest was the install ($90) and line converters plus a few other supplies. Sure I paid more than online for the speakers but I got a 3 day install for $90 and extended warranties on the speakers. Plus, if you would have seen all the disassembled MINI parts (neatly laid out) all over the shop, you would have freaked. In addition, I think I would have had a whole lot of difficulty getting the wires through the dash and rubber boot in the door.

One point that the installer brought up that I haven't seen addressed: He said that putting the crossovers in the door (as others have done) is a bad idea because the inside of the door gets wet. I don't know if that's necessarily true but he was willing to safely tuck them away in the boot so I didn't argue.

Good luck with your project. The difference in audio quality vs the stock system cannot be adequately described in words!

poyzin

 

I too ahve been seeking an "affordable" upgrade to the "stock" stereo. I have been getting prices in the same range you paid. I spoke with another guy I know who has been a very high end installer. He suggested (without seeing the car, and with that as a caveat) NO amplifier, but buying (extremely)higher efficiency speakers and applying dynomat? to the doors and area around the rears and maybe even the hatch. again, an estimated cost of $1500 (which really means $1750, he's never right!)

Any thoughts or ideas about this approach?

 

Really well made speakers demand an amplifier to do them justice. I put some high efficiency Alpines (~93dB) in without the amp and they were certainly better but not at all what you would call "great". Dynamat will decrease the road noise and help with the bass but won't do wonders. Besides, there really is no place to put Dynamat in the doors. Most of your opportunity is in the rear. I also heard that a lot of Dynamat can add significant weight to your car. I don't know this for sure but it's worth checking out. Good luck.

poyzin

 

Yes, I heard the same thing about the doors. He said he thought the install would add about 50#. If he got the mat on the doors.

 

I ran my own independent shop installing custom stereos for a couple years '02-'04 and the Diamond Audio Hex speakers were hands-down one of my favorites to install. For slightly less $ I would recommend Eclipse or Alpine as good second choices. The silk domes are a bit warmer, not quite as bright as the other tweeters, but more to my liking.

I couldn't tell you how many $1500 stereos I installed with an Alpine or Eclipse $250 deck, $200 Eclipse 4-channel amp, $350 for a set of 4 Diamond audio speakers, $200 Memphis mono-block sub amp, and a single Diamond M-3 or M-6 sub-woofer in the $150 range. The rest went in my pocket and I never had anyone come back complaining. I actually stocked up on Diamond speakers before I got out of the business, have several sets sitting in storage to put in my own cars down the road.

For most of us I would recommend leaving the rear speakers alone, stock including wiring, and run a two channel amp and a quality set of front speakers as the first step in an upgrade. Tap into the lines heading out to the doors, convert it to line level, run to the amps, boost and clean it up a bit, then back to the front to drive some great speakers. On the head unit just bias the sound to the front a bit, the back is just fill anyway. Second step would be to step up to a 3-channel amp that will drive a sub-woofer as well, then add that in the back somewhere. That's the approach I plan on taking in my own car, after I get the car-puter up and running right.

 

In retrospect, I think I like your approach better than what I did. I seemed to get hung up on upgrading everything but in the end, the rear speakers don't really add anything anyway. They do slightly balance the "stage" but using the stocks would have done just as well. My installer did not charge extra to put them in and I'm driving them off of the RAF outputs on the crossovers so no channels were wasted on the amp. If it was ME having to tear apart the back of the MINI, I'm certain I would leave the stock speakers in.

poyzin

 

Hmmm, well that definitely makes me reconsider my approach. Was originally gonna replace the front and back speakers, but now I'm thinking it may be more cost efficient to do just the fronts. Especially since I won't be adding an aftermarket amp yet...

 

Been there, done that. The backs aren't worth changing.

 

Still researching my potential upgrade. Here are some things I've discovered and somethings I'm considering....
FYI. All data is in reference to a standard stereo not the MINI Hi FI--
1st.-- For Ipod use-BUY the connector that goes from the docking port to the Aux plug ~$15 on Amazon- instead of an earphone (1/8" jack) to Aux. (1/8" jack).--HUGE difference-midtones are much more full, no shrieky highs!
2nd-- The fader controls are backwards compared to every other car stereo I've adjusted in my 35 years of driving. turning the **** to the right fades to the front not the rear. Yes, the little arrow TELLS you this, but body memory told me otherwise. Once I faded it 3 clicks to the rear, I picked a totally different tone from the system. I've since adjusted it it to 1 click rear, 2 clicks right balance, 1 click up treble (yes UP!) and 2 clicks up bass. The overall sound is incredibly improved and overall volume does not have to be way up to hear an adequate performance.
That said, you can now hear the physical limitations of the speakers when you want to crank it up a good bit.
Maybe you guys noticed this all before, but until I had the "good connection" with my Ipod (16 gig Itouch, BTW), I didn't get much range at all from tweaking the settings without it. Well, learning which way is rear might've helped too!
Problem is now I don't know which is clipping... speakers, head unit, or whole system.
3. Now what I'm considering... Boston Acoustic sx60 components. They spec with a 2watt to 60 RMS. Seems pretty efficient. they are "component speaker package includes two copolymer 6-1/2"/6-3/4" woofers, two Type-S2 tweeters, two external crossover modules, woofer adapter rings, and tweeter mounting hardware. " from their web site. the tweeters are 3/4" kortec domes. ~ $250 from Crutchfield.
4. Just thinking of changing the front speakers out now, no amp, no rears at this time, maybe an amp later.
5. I talked with Best Buy about installing these speakers. Yes, they said they would install speakers bought elsewhere. They want $200 for the fronts, but only $75 for rears! I thought the rears were the tough ones? I hadn't researched buying rears because what everyone here was saying, but if they'll do it for $75??? what do you guys think?
6. Front Totalling out at $250 for speakers and $200 for install = $450
7. budgeting $200? for rear 6x9's and $75 install= $275 what do you think is it worth the $275, or would the money be better spent on the factory Ipod interface cable?

 

I think best buy has never installed speakers in the back of a MINI.

but hey - let em do it for 90 - just get the quote in writing before hand. Then do the fronts yourself.

 

I don't think I'd let Best Buy do the rear speakers unless they absolutely know what is involved and have done it before. I doubt they do since they only quoted you $75.

 

fo sho!!!!! NO way in Heck would I let them touch my car. I think they have no clue about the rear install. Stick with a pro audio shop who only does car audio. A little research on this site will prove rear install is no easy task, took me 4 hrs for mine.

 

Well, I just came back from a visit to another car stereo installer. These guys said they had done MINI's and looked the car over and their install prices were crazy! I mean crazy cheap. $30. $30 for the component fronts and another $30 for the rear 6 x 9's. They acknowledged they would have to take the whole rear apart. $60 Total! Yes, I'm skeptical, but I got it in writing. Now that was with their speakers, not the BA SX60's I had planned on, SOOOO...
What do you guys know/ think about JL Audio VR 650 CSi's ? for front components? ~$300 for the set. and a pair of JL Audio 6x9 Triaxial's in rear $169. They suggested another $80 worth of Dynamat. I have a total (before tax) quote of $609.
What do you guys think? The shop has been around under the same ownership since before I moved up here 8 years ago!
They also said that even though this would help quite a bit, the best sound will only come with an amp, and because of the line out situation from the head unit, (and probably what their product line is) I would need a Rockford Fosgate RF360 ? AND an amp, another $550 for the two units plus another $170 for the install on that, or $720 total more, bringing us up to $1339.
Thoughts?

 

Look's like someone has the bug. Face it . . . you're infected.

There is no free lunch. They are making their profit on the markup of the components, not the labor to put them in. For example, the JL Audio VR 650 CSis can be obtained online for less than $180. The 6X9 triaxials go for ~$100.
The Rockford Fosgate 3SIXTY.? signal processor starts to get into Cadillac territory. You can pick up the signal for your amplifier off of the rear speaker feeds and use a line converter instead. I have never heard a system with a signal processor in it so it's hard to comment on. With the JL Audio speakers, you probably need to get an amplifier. They are not known for their efficiency and will really shine when fed more power. Where are they putting the dynamat? There is little to no room in the front doors for it.

I've become a believer in putting your money into the front speakers coupled with a good amplifier. Use the stock rears for fill and even consider running them off the Head Unit amp. That said, I'll bet that I would regret not getting a signal processor if I heard one. (that's the disease working).

Have fun but definitely do SOMETHING. Upgrading the audio system from the standard junk was the best thing I've done to my MINI.

poyzin

 

DON'T get the signal from the rears - they don't get full range. See the sticky for more details.

 

I hope I'm not wrong on this but I thought the rears only got the narrower range in the HiFi system (coming from the HiFi amp). I was under the impression that the rears got FULL range in the stock (non-HiFi) system. My installer claimed he verified this.

poyzin

 

Hi MotorMouth,
I read the whole sticky on speaker replacement, you put a lot of effort into a sweet system. I don't want to go to deep..Hah Hah ..into this, but I probably will.
Poyzin:
You're right I guess I DO have the bug.
I just called the installer I posted about above, he says ~ $120 to install both front and rear speakers that I supply.

So, question for everyone listening is now, Will the Boston Acoustics SX60's be better than the JL's they sell WITHOUT adding an amp? If you think so, how much? Both sets of speakers leave the door open for adding an amp later.
Next question is, if indeed the cost for adding rears is what they say,~ $60, is it worth buying the matching Boston Acoustics 6x9's @ $199 and having them installed too? So going from ~ $310 for just the fronts to $570 for front and back?

 

might be true - I think the person who measured the signals had the hifi system.

 

It is a great deal more work to install the rears than the speakers in the doors. You have to remove the rear seats and then all the side panels.

Not this bad, but close:


So, $60 doesn't sound realisitc to me.

However, it is good to have the speakers matched. In the HIFI system, the rears provide a lot of the mid-range.