tacotim, there is something that is puzzling me. Are the 6x9's in the back woofers? are they dual coil? what is the impidence per coil? And if they are woofers, isnt it safe to say that the H/K amp is putting out low frequencies to the back speakers? If this is the case, dont you think i can use the rear outputs to drive a couple of subs(perhaps 8" woofers) in an enclosure with the correct impidence? this way ill get a better bass response. PLease let me know.
Also i have found a way to get into the HU main menu and turn up the output level, but i think i need to reset it. I dont want to mess it up. What do you think?

George

 

>>tacotim, there is something that is puzzling me. Are the 6x9's in the back woofers? are they dual coil? what is the impidence per coil? And if they are woofers, isnt it safe to say that the H/K amp is putting out low frequencies to the back speakers? If this is the case, dont you think i can use the rear outputs to drive a couple of subs(perhaps 8" woofers) in an enclosure with the correct impidence? this way ill get a better bass response. PLease let me know.
>> Also i have found a way to get into the HU main menu and turn up the output level, but i think i need to reset it. I dont want to mess it up. What do you think?
>>
>>George
gmed-
Aloha and welcome to MCO-
Great to hear from you for the first time!!!
I will forward your exact message to tacotim (he must be sleeping- he works long hours).
The rear 6x9 speakers are dual voice coil woofers. Depending on H/K settings these speakers are working like subwoofers already (people often complain that the music from them is too soft). Yes you can change out these for whatever size woofers you want (that fit or can be fitted with a custom enclosure) and add a crossover or power the subs from a dedicated powerful amp with built in crossovers/filters and output controls. If you add subs in the rear panels you will need very efficient ones because the H/K amp has not an over abundance of clean power.

Or leave the H/K speakers alone and just add an amp and separate subwoofer to the boot- either JL steathbox (takes up 20-25% of the left of the boot) or a custom box for amp and sub.

I have exchanged alot of info with tacotim. He has done analysis on both front and rear stock speakers. And H/K analysis, since he has H/K in his MCS.

This applies to front stock speakers- (for interest sake)
Tacotim wrote:
I got data on the front woofer and the tweeter today. The woofer was about as expected. Good sensitivity: 89 dB.

The frequency response has a hole at 1Khz, though its not worse than some aftermarket drivers. It may be possible to fix with a damping treatment.

The excursion is OK at 2.5 mm, but it does have "offset" which contributes to 2nd harmonic distortion-strong 70-80 Hz bass will make a "growl" from the speaker. It also contributes to modulation distortion, or a tremolo effect. You'd hear this with VERY low bass, and fulte or female vocalist (little else on the track-maybe Holly Cole, or a bassy version of "Fever&quot. I'd say that limited excursion and the "offset" built in are the driver's weak points. It's disappointing to see this problem, beacuse it's free to fix in manufacturing...

Overall, good driver. As expected, it's tough to find a driver that performs better in the categories that will make the system noticeably better (sensitivity, tonality, dynamics).

The tweeter response looks good. As expected, the crossover is very high, 8kHz-10kHz, with a simple 1st order filter. From looking at the part, it appears to be about the same design as the MB Quart.
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So don't all of you throw out your stock front speakers yet.

I have MB Quart front speakers. I had thought of replacing them for something more efficient. I also considered adding an amp and keeping the front MB Quarts. So Tacotim replied:
If you just want to add amplification, to round it out, here's some pointers. Get a 40-50 watt x 2 amp for the front, with variable high-pass crossover (up to 200 Hz, if possible, variable slope if possible), and variable gain. For the rears, get 50-100 watt amp with variable bass boost (fully parametric if that's available-Alpine has one that gives more control than most, at a glance). You could later upgrade the front amp to a 4 channel, with high and low-pass crossovers, and take contol of the crossover between speakers. (I think two 2 ch amps, and the associated wiring, et. all will take you to your budget.)

The variable crossovers, gains and bass boost will give you some eq-like capability for tuning the system.
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Aloha to you, and thank you for the response. The problem is I do not want to remove the stock stereo, as I know that MINI will make a lot of additions to the system in the future. I know that Infinity makes a sub that Bavarian sells, which are supposed to be an addition to the BMW stock system. If I could figure out how to add an amp to the stock system, that would be ideal. I used to install custom sound system, but this is the first time that i want to stay stock, simply because the H/K sounds very good. Do you know of any ways to add an amp to the existing system without using line level adaptors? I know it is possible because Bavarian Auto parts is doing it with some models.

Again, thank you for the response.

gmed

 

>>Aloha to you, and thank you for the response. The problem is I do not want to remove the stock stereo, as I know that MINI will make a lot of additions to the system in the future. I know that Infinity makes a sub that Bavarian sells, which are supposed to be an addition to the BMW stock system. If I could figure out how to add an amp to the stock system, that would be ideal. I used to install custom sound system, but this is the first time that i want to stay stock, simply because the H/K sounds very good. Do you know of any ways to add an amp to the existing system without using line level adaptors? I know it is possible because Bavarian Auto parts is doing it with some models.

Infinity makes the BassLink that is a 200W powered sub that will fit into the rear boot of a MINI. It can be added to the stock audio or the H/K system. You can usually find it at places like Circuit city for about $260 on sale and they can install it or you can by following the directions. It isn't as powerful as the JL stealthbox but it is less expensive because it comes with a built in amp.

For the how to- try sending a PM (personal mail) to Scooterboy, see this thread and visit his site!
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...mp;topic=13958