I'm looking into a full upgrade for the mini

In my previous car I ran JL and focal products and sold all the kit for over £1000 come breaking for the part ex for this car. So as you can tell I love SQ!

I've been doing some research into upgrading the r56 audio with a double din headunit but it seems the factory radio is part of the ECU and you require a longer ribbon to keep the functionailty and to mount the existing radio somewhere in the dash allong side the double din...

This seems a lot of effort and tbh I dont like the idea of it! Second was to look at an audio processor such as the alpine pxe h650.. Has anyone gone down this route? I've read reviews on this specific product and they dont seem great.

third option is a bit of a cop out that I think would greatly affect the SQ. Splice into the speaker outputs and fit high level to rca outputs. This is a method i took when installing an amp and sub to the factory headunit. it did the job fine!! however I now want to amp and replace the speakers and I cant imagine this being a great route to take.

Finally the newministuff audio upgrade... This looks a great bit of kit but I normally buy all my audio secondhand as it depreciates so much from new to used however maintains a good value second hand and can often be resold for profit if you shop around on fleebay and gumtree enough.

So I have 2 questions:
- Does anyone live in the south or birmingham or ipswich (multi locations due to work travels) that I could listen to their newministuff audio install?
- Has anyone completed an install on an r56 without losing functionality on their dash etc succesfully and if so would you be willing to share what you did?

Thanks guys!

 

I plan to use the stock headunit with an audio processor, 2 ch speaker amp (I'm ditching the rear speakers), and mono bass amp. I already have an Alpine Type-X 10 with PDX 1200w rms amp running bass, but I desperately need a speaker upgrade. After talking to many shops and people I am going to run an Audison Bit Ten, with either 3 way Hertz or Focal speakers (as I have the HiFi with 6 front speaks). I have not chosen an amp yet.

Bit Ten: http://www.audison.eu/index.php?page=product&id=42

Hertz: (can't get the official Hertz link to work)

Focal: http://focal-america.com/product/165as3/

 

jimjam19927,

What is your budget?