Hey guys,

I was wondering if anyone has done a full HK system replacement? I have a new head unit, a set of 6.5 components and a set of 6x9s getting here tomorrow and I'm slightly nervous about running the new speaker wire (as Crutchfield says is required). Where/how exactly do I connect the new wire to? Do I cut the stock speaker wire behind the harness connector and attach my new wire to that lead? Is it going to be obvious where/how to route the wire?

Any tips, advice or answers would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

 

The HK system has a wiring harness that runs from the factory headunit to the HK amp at the rear of the car. From the HK amp, there is wiring to each speaker. So it is possible to reuse the existing wiring if you disconnect the HK amp and connect together the wires you need.

Here are the pinouts at the HK amp: https://iancull.files.wordpress.com/...onnections.pdf
and the pinouts at the factory headunit: http://www.mini2.com/galleries/data/..._hu_pinout.jpg

 

If I don't have the amp that wouldn't be an issue right? The wiring harness is still back there. I'm just trying to figure out what would be less of a PITA. I ordered wire with my equipment so that's not an issue it just really comes down to efficiency and ease.

 

I don't understand. You asked about "full HK system replacement". If you don't have an amp, then you don't have HK. Do your speakers have silver trim rings marked Harman Kardon?

 

I believe the owner before me sold the amp, so everything wiring and speaker wise is still in place just not the amp.

 

It's critical that you identify exactly what you have, because it determines how to proceed. So you're saying that your speaker trim rings are marked with "Harman Kardon"?

It is no simple matter to remove and sell off the HK amp, leaving just the OEM headunit. To remove the HK amp and get the stereo working again, the previous owner would have had to either install all new speaker wiring, or do a rat's nest of wiring to re-route the signals where the HK amp connector is. And after all that, the original HK speakers would work poorly connected directly to the OEM headunit, and the speakers should be replaced.

What exactly is the wiring you see at the rear of the car? Pictures would help. Do you see a big 42-pin connector that isn't connected to anything? That's what would be left if the HK amp was removed. Are you sure you aren't looking at the connector for the optional CD changer?

 

I have the HK system in my R53 and I consider myself an audiophile. That system sounds awesome in that small space. I have a 1200 watt Classe/Magepan system at home. I could never understand the need to change the HK system in the Mini, can"t imagine anything sounding any better. If it were me, I would try to source the original HK amp. You should be able to get one for about $100, just my 2cents...

 

I am 300% sure I have the HK system. What you mentioned is correct. Everything including the harness is in place, just no amp (the 42 pin is in the correct location). The system sounds awful and only the fronts work that's why I am replacing it instead of dealing with the HK amp issues.

 

Some have replaced just the facory HK amp with a JL Audio 600/6 6 channel amp. It's small enough to fit in the factory location and is stable at 2 ohms so it doesn't blow up running the HK speakers.

 

Why not just replace the AMP?

 

I think at least one factory speaker is blown and I'm not really interested in getting invested in an amp that costs half of all of the high quality replacement parts I have in the mail that's almost guaranteed to go out again. I've never been super impressed with stock sound systems, premium or standard, so to me it was a no brainer to get it working and leave myself with an expandable platform to build on if I want

 

Have you heard a fully functional HK sound system in a MINI?
Where did you get the idea these amps are faulty and blow. I'm on my 2nd Mini, both with the HK systems and never a problem. A used HK amp can be found for around $100, nothing for under $1000 that you will pay in a aftermarket system will sound better than the HK system.

 

It looks like the previous owner did a poor job. In an HK system, there is no wiring directly from headunit to speakers and he added new wiring to front speakers only, and they are probably still the original HK speakers. The easiest improvement you can initially make is probably to replace the front speakers with standard (not HK) speakers.

The HK amp failure in 1st generation MINI has come up fairly often on this forum.
https://www.google.com/search?q=blow...anmotoring.com

Used 1st gen HK amps I see on eBay run $200-$300. Supply and demand drives up the price. These amps are failing, and there is a limited supply of replacements for sale.

A used HK amp from BMW E46 is more easily available and cheaper, and will work with some modification:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...amp-works.html

 

So going back to this idea, I called Crutchfield and this is also what their guy recommended (tapping into that wiring harness and only having to run wire to one location instead of all 4). I notice that since the factory rears are dual voice coil there is 2 sets of rear speaker wires per speaker. How would I go about doing that on my new speakers since there is only 2 posts (+ and -)? Do you connect the + to the + and - to - for each speaker and run 2 wires to each terminal?

 

You can double up the wires like that if you want, or simply use 2 wires and leave the other 2 unused.

You need to pull the radio and see what the previous owner did to wires back there. The harness to the rear has probably been disconnected or the connector modified for the new front speaker wires. Hopefully the original front wires are still intact.

 

Cool, I'll probably run with the 2 twisted together. And nothing was changed in the speaker/wiring from him, he just unplugged the amp. The Front speakers are linked to the head unit, but the rears are not which explains why only the fronts work.

 

So I’m trying to help my son replace his Harmon Kardon speakers since 3 of the 4 now sound distorted after 17 years. Went with the Polk Audio DB 692 for the rears but found out when I removed the OEM rear that they are dual voice coil and 2 sets of wires coming from the amp. The Polk’s only have 1 set of posts so I’m not sure if I can run the + wires from each set and the - wires from each set and attach them to the posts on the Polk or as some have suggested only using 1 set of wires but if I go this route which set should I use? The front speakers were rather easy to replace despite having to cut the connectors and using butt splices for the new speakers but I’m confused on the rears. I really don’t want to run new wires from the aftermarket head if I don’t have to.

 

Hey, so I did this a longgg time ago so I’m a little blurry, but long story short I ended up rewiring the system/car for my new equipment. My car was missing the HK amp, and with all of the irregular things in general related to the HK system I decided to say screw it and not risk using any of it.

rewiring was easy with the glovebox and knee panel popped, I ran them out each side of the center through those routes, then for the rears down by the hood latch and fuse boxes, through the channel with the factory wires under the door frame panels (under the kick plates) and then back.

The front sucked a little. I ended up drilling the molex (I believe that’s what it’s called) connector that allows the wires to come from the body to the door, and passing the wires through to the door from that hole I drilled. I tried to keep everything looking as oem and non noticeable as possible. I’m using 3 ways in the rear (I think the same as you) and 2 way with remote tweeters to take the factory tweeter location up front, all Polk DB.

let me know if I can help any more!

 

I appreciate the response! My dilemma is that his car still has the factory HK amp and it still works with his aftermarket head unit because we installed the adapter interface when we did the instal. I’d hate to remove it and re-wire all the speakers from the head unit if I don’t have to. There’s gotta be a way to use the factory wires coming off the amp for the rears despite being dual voice coil. I’ll have to keep doing my research in the mean time. All else fails I’ll sell the Polk 6x9 and buy HK speakers for the rear again.

 

The factory HK amp should be 2 ohms and the rears electronically crossed over in the HK amp as woofers only. I was always under the impression that the rears had one set of wires coming from the amp and the rear 6x9’s were dual 4 ohm voice coil woofers wired in parallel to 2 ohms but the 2 sets of wires seems to say otherwise, unless they’re connected in parallel in another part of the harness.

You can possibly run the Polks all around, but the power will be approximately halved since they’re 4 ohms, and the rears won’t have any highs, making the additional axial mid/tweets useless. Do you have a multimeter to determine how many ohms each voice coil is on the HK rears, and can you post a pic of the cone side of the rears?

Also, did the sound clear up on the front speakers with the Polks installed? The HK amps are known to go bad in various ways and the some of original problem could have been from the amp.

 

The sound definitely cleaned up when I installed the front set of Polks and I didn’t notice a decrease in the level of sounds when listening to a song at my normal volume level. But for our own curiosity (much more mine haha) I like the idea of using a voltmeter and testing the ohms of each wire to see what the output is coming from the amp. As for the rear, I buttoned the car all back up until I could find a definitive answer but below is a picture of cone side and based on the description, the rear is a woofer only. Makes me even more curious to know more why there are / sets of wires if this is indeed for lows only.

https://www.minimania.com/part/NMI77...Mini-Cooper--S

 

I don’t think you can measure the amp with a multimeter like that. Use the multimeter to measure the impedance of the voice coils to see how many ohms they are. Do you still have the front midranges around to measure?

Looking over some notes I’ve saved over the years regarding the HK system, the rears should be dual voice coil woofers at 2 ohms each and the HK amp is a 2 ohm, 8 channel amp, with active crossovers on all outputs. If correct, there shouldn’t have been any crossovers or capacitors on the front mids or tweets, just a set of wires connected directly to each from the amp, and the rear four channels to the two woofers.

Since running an amp with higher impedance speakers shouldn’t hurt it, you can probably just hook up one pair of rear wires to your Polk’s and leave the other set of wires disconnected. The only issue with that is they’ll only play low frequencies, probably below 150-200Hz, so the attached mids and tweets wouldn’t be utilized. It will be simpler and cheaper than re-wiring your whole system, or finding a set of woofers to replace them.

Returning the rear Polk’s and running the factory HK’s might also be a possibility, but I’m not sure if I would want to mix impedances on the various channels of a single amp. I don’t think it’ll really matter since you wouldn’t be running any channel below spec, but that’s something you would have decide on.

If it were my car, I would probably just run the Polk’s with the 6 channels. If the HK amp ever dies, it’ll most likely be from their regular issues rather than running it at 4 ohms and 6 channels.

 

This exact reason is why I rewired instead of thinking about any of this lol. I thought something seemed a little weird about stock amp+aftermarket and this is basically it. Sell the HK amp (they used to be worth a lot a few years ago at least) and use that to pay for the upgrade.

I did a 12” self contained/powered Rockford sub at the same time and the only regret I had was not doing a speaker amp while I was at it (I waited until a few months ago; years after the stereo) but it wasn’t too bad of an install. I will say my new amp, which is theoretically like 250% the RMS wattage of my built in head unit amp, made pretty minimal differences and I’m still trying to convince myself it was worth the $$$

 

Unfortunately I don't have the fronts anymore as I threw them away. You are right though as the front mids and tweeters only have 1 set of wires connected to them. I like the idea of running one set of the rear wires but I'm wondering why I can't bridge the wires on the rear speaker from 2 sets to 1? As you said, the HK is running at 2 Ohms per channel and the Polks are rated for 4 Ohms so I'm not sure what the outcome would be. A part of me thinks its feasible but another part of me thinks by bridging the rear speakers from 2 sets to 1 than I will be going from 2 ohms per channel down to 1 Ohm?

I did some research and I found this wiring diagram if that helps....

 

If I can't a way to make this work with the factory amp than the inevitable of running new wires is most likely to happen. Just trying to put all my options on the table first haha because that's going to be a long backbreaking day LOL.