I just bought a pair of Boston Accustics 6x9,3 way speakers for the rear ,if I just plug these speakers to the original wiring,will the tweeres on these speakers work the way they were intended?...I think the freq.coming out from the amp,is mostly a low freq. Will my speakers work or do I have to wire them independently from the amp?. Thank you for your response... :smile:

 

>>I just bought a pair of Boston Accustics 6x9,3 way speakers for the rear ,if I just plug these speakers to the original wiring,will the tweeres on these speakers work the way they were intended?...I think the freq.coming out from the amp,is mostly a low freq. Will my speakers work or do I have to wire them independently from the amp?. Thank you for your response... :smile:

If you have the stock audio then adding the 6x9 speakers should be OK. Whether or not you will get any better sound will depend on the efficiency of the speakers themselves. If they are not as efficient as the stock 6x9 then you will not be able to increase power enough to compensate so you will not hear much difference. Also for most of us the front speakers are the place to upgrade for better sound. The rear speakers are mostly for the benefit of the rear passengers and for fill in sound or to balance front to rear staging.

Add a different head unit with more power and/or a powerful amp and you may get more performance out of the Boston A. speakers.

As my first audio upgrade, I added MB Quart speakers to the front and rear and kept the rest of the stock audio and it was a very mild improvement unless played at louder volume. I reached distortion levels very quickly. It's not worth the cost to do that sort of upgrade and the speakers needed much more clean power before the benefit of the speaker upgrade could be fully appreciated.

Others have reported some gains just with changing the front speakers alone. I think it depends how efficient the speakers are, if not as efficient then you'd need double the power to get better output. Doesn't really matter on the price. And it is always good to listen to the speakers before you buy. Best is to listen to the speakers already installed in a MINI-so check out your fellow motorers that have done audio upgrades!

 

Well, the drivers sensitivity rating is only one piece of the puzzle. It's important to compare all of the T/S parameters when changing drivers, the most important ones being Qts, Qes, Qms, Vas, Fs, Re, Le, sensitivity, and Xmax are the most critical, along with Mms, Sd (radiating area) and Pe (power handling). Sorry to say, but it's rather difficult to get ahold of most car-audio driver specifications, which makes simulating anything very tough.

minihune has the basic idea; the audio system is only as good as its' weakest link - which with low-cost (read: car audio) systems, is just about everything. Changing out just the drivers in a heavily DSP'd system will most likely just screw up all the engineered DSP. I would say gut the car and start from scratch, and prepare to spend big, but then again, that's why we just get the H/K from the factory and leave tolerable-enough alone.

If you had to start somewhere with a piece-by-piece system, I'd start with more/better sound damping, and then attack from the head-unit down.

 

Ryephile,
Thanks for your post.

>>Well, the drivers sensitivity rating is only one piece of the puzzle. It's important to compare all of the T/S parameters when changing drivers, the most important ones being Qts, Qes, Qms, Vas, Fs, Re, Le, sensitivity, and Xmax are the most critical, along with Mms, Sd (radiating area) and Pe (power handling). Sorry to say, but it's rather difficult to get ahold of most car-audio driver specifications, which makes simulating anything very tough.

You're right, these specs aren't quite the same as the normal specs buyers see. If you have access to more technical resources then great. The fall back plan is to trust your ears.

>>minihune has the basic idea; the audio system is only as good as its' weakest link - which with low-cost (read: car audio) systems, is just about everything. Changing out just the drivers in a heavily DSP'd system will most likely just screw up all the engineered DSP. I would say gut the car and start from scratch, and prepare to spend big, but then again, that's why we just get the H/K from the factory and leave tolerable-enough alone.

Absolutely, the stock audio and H/K are not perfect but they are designed with the MINI in mind and aren't that bad (all depends on your expectations) when you consider how much it will take to do better. Your results may vary.
It's easy to replace one thing then get caught up in replacing more and more. In the end you spend anywhere from $1000 to $2500+ in upgrades easily. More with video.

>>If you had to start somewhere with a piece-by-piece system, I'd start with more/better sound damping, and then attack from the head-unit down.

This is quite reasonable esp with H/K as the sound damping/deadening (Dynamat and Cascade Audio VB-2 and VB-max) will help reduce rattling, help interior quietness, improve bass, and could be done yourself. The head unit provides the playback source so that makes perfect sense. You wouldn't want to amplify a less than clean and clear audio source.