Is there something special about the rear speakers? Crutchfield doesn't even show them as an option for the MINI -- aren't they just 6x9's? I have my interior trim out for sound deadening and plan to install the Integral Audio subwoofer as soon as it arrives. While I have all that trim off, I thought I'd drop in some better rear speakers, but there is not much info out there (unless I totally suck at internet searching)

Thanks.

 

Depending on what your final upgrade goal is, you may or may not want to bother with the rears. You want your sound stage and image to come from the front, and the rears should be just “fill” (what they really do is take the place of the secondary and tertiary reflections you’d get in a normal listening environment). Adding volume and especially higher frequencies in the rear sends confusing signals to your ear/brain and damages your overall sound stage. You don’t need the rears for bass since you are adding a proper subwoofer. Additionally, if you have the base 6-speaker system the rears get very little power, about 8 watts. If you have the HK the rears get a modified signal with a lot of speaker-correction eq – any speaker you would add would be different, and the cuts/boosts would be in the wrong places. For reference, our Soundstage upgrade doesn’t touch the rears at all, regardless of which factory system the car came with. I’d spend your dollars on the fronts and amplification.

 

Thanks for the info. You audio guys always impress! I'm not sure what stock system I have. My vehicle order shows 6FC and 6FD. I have an amp on the driver's side rear in the cargo area and I think 10 speakers (on each side: A-pillar tweeter, 2 in the door, and 1 rear woofer and tweeter mounted to the trim). So I guess that's MINI Boost, but no HK?

 

I 've installed Soundstream Tarantula SST6.9.

 

That's the MINI HiFi by Harman. See this post for details of the two systems: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-upgrades.html

 

Thanks Kevin. As always, great info. So I have the 1101S subwoofer on the way. As far as tuning goes, I guess I should dial back the bass on the HU and let the subwoofer do the heavy lifting. I've heard that weird bass boost on the HiFi system. Some songs are just unlistenable.

I think I'll eventually want to go the Soundstage route, maybe later on this year. So what happens to the factory amp in that case? Is it totally bypassed? I read somewhere that the car computer expects it to be there. But then again, I have NCS Expert on hand if it can be retrained

 

The factory amp remains in place to enable updates and to continue to drive the rear speakers. It is completely bypassed for the front channels.

 

Not trying to hi-jack the thread, but is the soundstage available yet?

 

Still looking at next week. I've been out of town this week, but we're still pulling together the kits and final pieces. Very close now!

 

Sounds good!