I just got a quote for this system what do you guys think?

Focal 165 K2P
JL Audio 450 4 channel amp
JL Audio 300/2v2
Focal 165 Vr
Wiring and Installetion
Custome Box for the Subs
2 10 inch subs forget the brand

For $4,200

What do you guys think?

 

What about a head unit?

 

K2ps are overrated, if you were on the east coast i could put something together at my shop that would blow that outta' the water! do JL ZR's in the front and TRs in the rear (rears dont need to be anything special they are just fill), a JL stealth box and a 500/5 with either a JL cleansweep or an audiocontrol LC7 (if you wanna keep your stock radio or nav).

***OR***

we cut out the rears to an 8" and drop a JL 8w0 in both sides, it sounds sick and keeps your trunk space open.

 

It would be the factory head unit

 

def look into a cleansweep or one of the audiocontrol LC's (i prefer audiocontrol)

 

what is a cleansweep or audio control

 

I never heard anything about jl speakers only their amps and subs but my first choice was boston acoustics but the shop where I took my car talked me into focal.

 

they are both "integration" units but esentially just uber fancy line out converters. cleansweep is made by JL audio and the LC's are made by audiocontrol.

the upside to the JL cleansweep is that to "calibrate" it you just need to pop in the supplied CD, the downside is that there is a seperate volume **** for it (the cleansweep), so you are juggling between your radios volume and the cleansweeps volume.

the back of your factory head unit has nowhere to plug in RCA's (the connection between the radio and amps). what a LOC (Line output converter) does is "taps" in off of one of your speakers to not only tell the amps when to turn on and off but also gives you somewhere to plug RCA's in.

Both the cleansweep and the LC series gives you a TON of adjustability, as opposed to a regular LOC which basically always sounds like ****.

 

The Cleansweep/LC6/LC8 are probably overkill for upgrading the stereo in a MINI. What they're really useful for are when you have a factory head unit that has crossovers and a non-adjustable equalizer built into it.

Picture this:

You have a factory head unit that has separate speaker-level outputs for the low and high frequencies, plus automatic equalization to "custom tune" the stereo to your car. You might not even be able to turn the equalization off. So how do you connect an aftermarket amp to it? You can't use either the high- or low-frequency outputs to feed the amplifier, because neither one is full range, and you may want to remove the equalization either because you want to add an aftermarket equalizer, or you just don't like the way the factory equalization sounds.

The AudioControl LC6 or LC8 just takes the multiple outputs from the head unit and recombines them into a single full-range output that you can then connect to your aftermarket amp. The JL Audio Cleansweep does the same thing, but can also remove the factory equalization.

But the output from the MINI's factory head unit is already full-range*, since all of the crossovers are downstream closer to the speakers, not integrated into the head unit. Also, there's no factory equalization in the MINI head unit (except for the basic BASS/TREBLE controls, which you can disable by setting them both to the middle position).

So, you can run the speaker-level outputs from the head unit directly to an aftermarket amp that accepts speaker-level inputs (like the JL Audio "Slash" series), without using a separate line-level converter. (like cmr076 pointed out, a lot of the standalone line-level converters are pretty crappy).


* Actually, some people have tested the frequency response of the speakers in the R56 and found that the rear speakers don't seem to be getting a full-range signal. In particular, the low frequencies don't seem to make it to the rear speakers. I don't know if this high-pass filtering is done in the head unit or by a simple filter at the rear speakers, but in any case, the *front* speaker outputs from the head unit are full-range, so you're in good shape. Just run the front speaker outputs from the head unit into both the front and rear inputs of a four-channel amp, and adjust the front-to-rear fading using the gain controls on the amp. You'll lose the ability to control fading from the head unit, but generally, once you have it set, there's no need to adjust it further.

 

^^ i guess if you wanna get technical

 

If you are going to invest serious cash in high-quality equipment (I consider $4,200 serious enough), I would recommend investing in an equalizer, since the acoustics in the MINI are not that great. Audiocontrol makes some great pieces that combine OEM integration with equalization capability. Might want to check it out.

 

For that kind of money, buy a system from www.reusaudio.com. They are the best in the business and have even done high end systems for a private Boeing Business Jet.

Cliff or Rick...tell them Ryan sent you.

 

All the talk of the cleansweep, I'd have to throw in my couple of coppers and say rockford 3sixty.2

 

forget the focals and get some Rainbow SLCs. Don, aka 6spdcoupe, over on DIYmobileaudio.com can get them to you for $240 shipped and they are excellent with a TON of flexibility in the passive xovers.