There are, I'm sure, a million threads on NAM about car audio systems people have built and asking for help. I'm hoping to bring some of the alternative installation ideas I applied to my '94 Miata to my '03 R53 MCS.

I've already begun the project and completed what I refer to as Phase 1.

PHASE 1
Kenwood KIV-BT901 Head Unit
Kenwood iPod connection cable
PAC Steering Wheel Control Interface
4 Port USB Hub
128GB WD Laptop HD in USB 2.0 Enclosure


I had Josh and the guys at JML Audio here in St. Louis install the whole thing for me. The unit has no CD player and instead relies on a 128GB hard drive for MP3 playback. This gives me acess to a ton of music on the fly. The head unit displays album art as well as normal track information. In addition, the head unit supports Pandora Internet Radio via the iPhone and allows statio creation and deletion as well as thumbs up and down of audio tracks from the head unit.

Phase 2 will be the installation of a set of Dyne Audio 8" Woofers in the factory 6x9 locations and installation of an amp. Amp selection is still up in the air but I'm leaning towards Arc Audio or JL Audios Class D offerings due to footprint size. Ideally I'd run the whole system off one amp if possible.

Has anyone attempted to mount a 8" driver in the factory 6x9 locations? If so, how were the audio results? As this is my daily driver, I'd prefer not to eat up what little boot space there is with subwoofer enclosures.

 

I had someone put 6" drivers in a MINI, long ago:
http://www.gbmini.net/wp/2005/06/jam...io_specialist/

Might be possible to squeeze 8" there, but it would be very tight.

 

JML does excellent work.

They should be able to help you figure out the best way to fit 8" drivers into the 6x9 holes. FWIW, you might also want to check out the Hybrid Audio Technologies 8" subwoofer...

Do you have any build pics?

I am taking a similar approach with my build, using the back seat locations for subs. Fortunately for me I was able to get a pair of Genesis drivers for that duty.

 

For front components I'm leaning towards a pair of Hertz Hi Energy components. They sound amazing, are priced reasonably, and should be a fairly direct fit.

I had Josh and the boys install the Kenwood HU I'm currently using. Everything works fantastically. I just wish the steering wheel controls were a bit more responsive and that I could map one of the buttons to answering the phone.

Genesis are awesome! I'm not to familiar with Hybrid Audios stuff. I'll have to look into it. Whilst I was at JML last night looking at their projects I saw they had a Hertz 5 channel amp, the HDP 5. I think I might consider this instead of the JL Audio and Arc amps I'd been looking at. Whilst I have no doubt that Josh knows exactly what he's doing, doing things economically is not his strong suit. :D

I'll try and take some pics later today and post them. The Kenwood looks fantastic in the dash and works remarkably well.

 

After doing some research at DIYMA I've found out that the Hertz amps are just rebadged Nakamichi's. This isn't a bad thing, but if that is the case there are cheaper amps that use the same parts, namely the PPI P900.4 and the P1000.1. While they are no where near as good looking at the Hertz amp they are quite literally one quarter the cost. I know PPI had an excellent rep back in the mid 90's that took a hit durring the massive buy-outs but I'm wondering if they've regained enough quality to be considered reliable?

 

I finally got around to taking some pictures of what I have installed thus far. It's winter here in the midwest and I haven't cleaned my interior in a few months so don't hate on the dust.



Here you can see the radios display as it runs Pandora off my iPhone which is tucked in the glovebox. The radio has bluetooth hands free so I don't really need to see the phone anyway.



There's the mic for the hands free kit.



Here's the rats next of wires for the iPhone connector cable and the USB connector cable for the USB hard drive I have tucked in there. I plan on cleaning all of that up when spring gets here and I can work outside on my car as my garage is to small and the wiring to stiff in this cold weather.

 

Skip - any further progress? I actually ordered a fairly similar setup (before seeing your post). Same head & attachments and have some polk components for the front and another set of polks (cheaper) for the back to fill. I gave thought to trying to get a small sub or two back there but it's the enclosure for the sub I see as being a problem. I'm still waiting on a response from Integral Audio before making a sub/amp decision and always looking for ideas. I have a convertible so I don't have all that much space.

 

@GBMINI do the original covers still fit over the front speakers? Also where did you get the speaker mounts for the fronts?

 

Yes original covers fit. I got adapters from NewMINIstuff.com but I think they are quite common