Yay! I've been furiously hitting F5 on the UPS tracking site all morning

I already started pulling apart the interior the other night in preparation for the install. I am on a tight schedule as I am leaving on a road trip on Saturday morning, hopefully things go smoothly.

 

itshereitshereitshereitshere

:D

 

Stop typing here. Go git'r dun.

 

Well I spent 4 hours on it today and I'm pleased with the progress. All wires are run and tested, subwoofer woofs . The boss was getting hungry though so I had to call it a night. I've now got the subwoofer mounted in the box, standoffs installed, amp mocked up, all the trim ripped apart, and a few bloody knuckles.

First thing's first, OMG, this kit is AMAZING. Integral Audio did an outstanding job of packaging everything. I have 3 feet of velcro, a full roll of electrical tape, and way more wiring and connectors, and do-dads than I could ever need. Three cheers for spare parts!

The install thus far has been spot on. the only thing I would remind everyone is to look for the supplement bag first! I was cursing that my ring clamp wasn't fitting on the battery post, then I saw the 5/8" one in the bag, versus the 1/2" I had used.

Overall, this is a thing of beauty and I haven't even heard it yet.

 

I have heard nothing but good things about it. If I had the scratch, I'd likely throw down for it, but that's a dream for another day. For now I'll live through you people.

 

You will love it- trust me. Its worth the money!

 

And done! Took her for a test drive and it's amazing! oh my!

 

Congrats! Have it myself, and love it!

 

You would be the perfect person for a DIY write up lol.
BTW what kind of sound system do you have? Premium, base?

 

H/K in a 2011. I should have taken photos, but I never do during installs, I am always too busy focusing on the job.

The directions are pretty much spot on. There are almost no places where I stopped, except one, and Kevin got me going in the right direction in about 2 minutes. My only hang up was running the RCA cables from the remote volume under the knee bolster of the steering wheel area, and that was because there was a step no one ever took for granted (except me ). Thefront side panel of the center stack pulls straight off and you feed it through there.

 

i've read great reviews about the IA products but am a bit curious as to why people upgrade. now don't get me wrong, i think the bass on the HK system is far from ideal, but is the IA system dramatically better? those of you that have the subwoofer, do you plan on upgrading to the IA soundstage when that becomes available? i'm asking b/c i would love to upgrade my HK sound system at some point. i just don't know how i'd like to go about it.

 

It is like night and day. With the sub your existing speakers dont have to even try to reproduce deep base, it frees them up to be tweeters and midranges and lets the 10 inch subwoofer handle the rest. It makes the entire system sound better, not just the base response.
I am very interested in the soundstage upgrade, but my system sounds so good now that I am going to have to read a ton of amazing reviews before I will spend the additional money.

 

i'm curious as to how that happens. does the HK system have bad low freq performance? and how are the mids and tweeters improved? does the IA sub have crossovers? i'm more interested in the soundstage at this point. ideally i'll get both...we'll see.

 

I found that with the HK system, in order to make the stereo sound accurate, I would have to turn the base way down. With the base down, the midrange became clean, not muddy sounding, but the sound was weak with no base. The door speakers on the Mini just cannot reproduce deep base, and with the base level turned up, the midrange is a boomy mess. With the IA sub, it comes with an amplifier that has adjustments, so that you can "dial in" the proper amount of bass. It just allows the HK speakers that the car already has to operate in frequencies that they are more comfortable in. So you end up with clean midrange, and deep bass that is not boomy.
I am still hearing bass notes that I never really noticed before on songs Im familiar with. If I turn the system up really loud, on songs with low frequency drums lets say, you can feel it in the seat! The great part is that its accurate sounding, not bass heavy. It also allows you to adjust the frequency where the sub starts working so the sound is very customizable. Kevin, the owner of IA gives you suggestions of what settings to use on the Minis stereo and the amp in order to provide sound that he has measured to be accurate.

 

thanks for the explanation. i've always thought the bass seems pretty imposing on the HK system, but the mid-range is lacking. as you described, certain sounds you know are in a song just can't be heard clearly. i'm going to try turning down the bass level to see if i can pick up some of the mid-range. if that solves some of the issue, i'm gonna think about getting the IA subwoofer and see what the word on the soundstage is afterwards.

 

I felt exactly the same way until Kevin installed the Soundstage - I have the only prototype in existence at the moment.

There are 2 very noticeable differences: First, the 6" woofer in the door produces fantastic bass - combined with the sub in the boot, bass now fills the car instead of just coming from the boot. Second, the new tweeters and mid-range are of such good quality that I have yet to crank them up and have them distort. The problem with the stock speakers is that when you want to crank them up (even when you dial the bass out of them) you can only get them to a certain level and then they fall apart. I am still amazed at the pure clarity that I am getting out of my system now - it is a complete 180 from where I was with the stock Hi-Fi a year ago.

 

A big yes to the sub. And another big yes to the Soundstage upgrade. I told Kevin that I am the first customer in line when he starts to do the installs in NYC.

 

Albiecrazy- did you get a sense of what the soundstage upgrade would cost when it hits the market?
Also, besides being able to play loud without distortion, do you notice a big difference at lower levels?
I have the HK system, so the front speakers are of slightly better quality than the HI-FI.

Thanks!

 

If memory serves me, there will be different variations on the Soundstage to fit differing budgets. I'll see if I can check in with Kevin - if he's at all ready to give out some tentative pricing, I'm sure that he will.

I notice a significant improvement in sound at all levels; which is why I now think that upgrading to the Soundstage before doing the sub is a better route if you're going to do it in stages. The vast majority of what you hear comes from those front speakers - there is sooooo much music that I am listening to now where I am hearing individual instruments for the first time. The highs are crisp and clean - and the mid-range is just so full and clear. And as much as I like my music loud on occasion, for the most part I'm listening at reasonable levels and the clarity in sound now versus the stock system is a night and day difference.

I think Kevin would concur that the H/K speakers are of slightly higher quality than the Hi-Fi, but not by much. Kevin was showing me my old speakers and they are put together very poorly. I think he said they cost about $3.00 each... Any stock speaker in the MINI, H/K or otherwise doesn't really stand much of a chance against the high-end Morel that's in there now.

 

See the post in this thread: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...62-post28.html