Have the HK in my MCS and am disapointed with it. Looking for suggestions to improve it. Am interested in sound quality not nececesarily quantity. Am a bit of audiophile for home equipment (Audio Research, YBA, Classe, Vandersteen, etc.), but have never had anything but stock radios in cars. Am really averse to a sub in the boot, as I need the space.

Any website links showing installs of equipment in Mini's would be helpfull. Or good car audio sites.

My 1st thought is to upgrade the front speakers to some Focal K2-Power speakers and add some dampening material.

After that? Amp? Head-Unit? The rear speakers are about useless and what to do with those?

 

A high quality amp, some dynamat and 4 new speakers is a great start.
Mine are being installed today, along with a sub amp while we wait for the JL Stealthbox to arrive. Since I have the NAV system and MFSW controls, I am waiting on the head unit replacment until later. The Boost unit with a line in and my iPod should do me well for about a year, when I can get a head unit with HD Radio and SRS Circle Surround decoding.

I was going to do this without a sub too but once I heard the difference, it seemed that half the music was missing and I couldn't live without it. You can do a flat install in the back that only takes up a few inches vertically, to about where the seats fold down, thus preserving the entire behind-seat boot space. It would look fantastic IMO.

The reasons I opted for the JL stalthbox for a sub instead of a flush, custom-built enclosure, skyward-facing sub next to the amp back there are:

1.) Bits of junk can fall into a woofer, even with a grill on it when it's facing upward
2.) It sounds like garbage when you place anything on it (it will rattle)
3.) There was no assurance that the installer knows what he's doing with the enclosure specs and I could've ended up with something that sounded too muffled or too boomy. The JL box isn't ideal because it takes about 1/3 of the boot space, but it's perfectly tuned to do its job and fires rightward.

I'm certain you can get great results if you decide not to do a sub, just know that since you're an audiophile too, you'll just really want one once you hear it. I'll let you know how my new Polk Audio/Momo speakers sound once they're installed. Since I won't have the sub until next week, I'll be able to provide good feedback for 4 speaker upgraders out there.

I'll be feeding the Polk DB6500 components and Polk/Momo MMC690 6x9s with a JL-450W/4 which puts 150W to the fronts and 75W to the rears. It's a great sounding amp from what I heard in the demo and at the JL booth at CES. Way more power than I'll ever need since I'm not an SPL freak. All I want is solid, clean amplification that can cover windows down/sunroof open freeway driving (It's gets VERY noisy in there with the sunroof open). I am confident this will be just fine. I just hope I don't rattle off any hardware or plastic once the sub is installed.




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Try the link in my sig. Maybe there's some info in the audio install page that will give you some ideas.

 

"All I want is solid, clean amplification that can cover windows down/sunroof open freeway driving (It's gets VERY noisy in there with the sunroof open)."

thank you kurt!

i've told i was nuts for thinking this way in other forums.
i'm not alone!

cheers,
S-

 

--->fishey - I think it's a step in the right direction; loudspeakers are the most inefficient and distorting component in the vast majority of audio systems. Installing a set of very high quality drivers (and correctly implemented) will help improve the sound quality.

My only pointer is: Note the impedance of the drivers and select your new ones accordingly.

Also, I recommend Cascade acoustic control products; better damping-to-cost ratio as well as a greater spread of products to fit apps better.

Cheers,
Ryan

 

After sampling the HK in the show room, I decided not to order HK option. Instead, I added an amp, a sub, and replaced all the speakers to the factory head unit. Now it sounds great!!!

 

I was soo enamored with the MCS when I found this one I had to have it. The HK setup was the only thing I did not want, but I thought it sounded 'good' with the radio. I was too excited about the car to think about the stereo. Big mistake once I owned the car and threw in some disks on the 5 hour trip home.....

So first is to just replace the front speakers with some dampening material and see where that gets me. Then go crazy with the amp, sub and headunit.

Any thoughts on just running the front speakers and the a sub and just forgetting about the rear speakers all together?!?

 

>>Any thoughts on just running the front speakers and the a sub and just forgetting about the rear speakers all together?!?

If you don't want to replace the rear speakers, it might be a good idea to still keep the rear factory speakers, which is necessary for ambient effect. Because of front sound staging, majority of the sound reproduction will be coming from the front anyway. A sub will dramatically improve the low end. :smile:

 

Has anyone eplaced the rear speakers with a pair of JL 6w0 6.5" subs? I had a 6w0 in my Integra. It was right behind the drivers seat and it sounded great. I think two would be more than plenty. I don't really use the rear speakers anyway. My system was faded all the way to the front in the Integra. Fronts were JL XR series 5.25" seperates. Amp was a 5 ch Soundstream Little Wonder. Left and right channels were bridged to the seperates and the sub channel to the 6w0. Any thoughts?

 

That was another thought I had, using the rear speakers as subs and amp, but I dunno much about this type of thing?!?!

 

>>That was another thought I had, using the rear speakers as subs and amp, but I dunno much about this type of thing?!?!
>>
The mini HK setting is doing just that. The rear speakers act as subs in HK mode and possibly one of the others.
Sound deadening in the doors is supposed to help alot. Replacing the fronts with high quality component speaks, so you can keep the tweeter positions, sounds like the best place to start. You could try the different sound modes of the HK DSP again too see if the whole thing has too be dumped, or not.

 

remember; the car was eq'd using the speaker components your thinking of replacing ( which were probaly also matched to the amp ) i would first go with the "tightining" of the doors ( http://www.quietcoat.com/ ) this can open the soudstage and lower the noisefloor and get you closer to " spooky" stereo...also power is everything in car stereo so look into a stiffining capacitor ( the caps aren't all that great in the amp and not unless your going to change 'em all out with black gates http://www.soundlabsgroup.com.au/com....htm#blackgate or auricaps then the less they are deployed the better..that's where a stiff Cap could help http://www.phoenixgold.com/powerflow.html and a dry cell battery wouldn't hurt either http://www.batterymart.com/optima_battery.php....i suggest these because right off the bat they are the weakest parts of the system....here's a guy who could maybe mod your stock stuff ( maybe the D/A converters ) Steve Nugent http://www.empiricalaudio.com/ but he's not cheap...and remember it takes some time before the system breaks in ( somtimes a 100 hrs. or more just on the speakers! ) Good Luck

 

If you like vandersteen so much
May I suggest using Dynaudio and Scan-Speaks rather than Focal!
Vandersteen home speakers is using driver from Scan-Speaks which doesn't have any car audio package( aka crossover is not included)
so if you want to go Scan-speaks make sure you have a Custom X over specifically for your car(cost alot)

#1 :
If you want slight cheaper price, Dynaudio would be a good choice....
you can get Dynaudio 220mkII or 240mkII for around 500 $ on ebay!

#2:

for amplifier I suggest using these brand:

1. Brax
2. TubeDriver
3. McIntosh
4. Helix
5. Phoenix Gold(Ti)

#3:
the next thing should be Subwoofer

IDQ/ Image Dynamics makes a really good sub they have row profile one that probably fit under the boot or under the seats.....


#4:
after these 3 major upgrades then the next one should be HU

Denon is very very good and very very expenisve
McIntosh also the same
Nakamichi has some relibility issues.... for the old series ( cd45z) don't know about the new series...
Eclipse has the same sq as nakamichi but better build quality
Alpine is the next best one.....

avoid kenwood, sony and aiwa.... a definite no-no


make sure when you have these 4 upgrades, you purchased a high quality cables...

Ixos is a high quality one... much much better than monster...

after that
sky is the limit.....
Battrey, High output altenator, Capacitor, D/A converter, Monitor... etc etc etc etc....

if you have further question about this stuff pm me....

daniel-

 

Kurtster ... how did the install go?

I am interested in a similar system and was wondering of the outcome.

 

>>That was another thought I had, using the rear speakers as subs and amp, but I dunno much about this type of thing?!?!

The low frequency response is limited by the size of the rear speakers. There's only so much a DSP can do. A true sub, along with a set of quality mid-range drivers and clean sounding tweeters, will dramatically enhance the sound quality of the OEM stereo. The factory head unit is actually quite nice, just needs a little oomph!


If you want to retain the HK's DSP:

1. add a clean powered amp with low distortion
2. replace the front speakers with 2-way component speakers that has a true crossover with dB selection and attenuation
3. add a sub

Depending on your taste of music, speaker selection can be rather personal. Different speakers and subs encompass different characteristics. The design and the material of the speaker play a major factor in its sound quality. For example, some are better for voice, whereas others might be better for instrumental reproduction. From my experience, there are only a few speakers that are capable to satisfy a wide variety of music types. However, they are highly priced. My recommendation is bring your favorite CD to the stereo shop and sample the speakers yourself. Keep in mind, what you like is most important, and hence, determines the perfect speaker for you.



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04 IB/W JCW MCS