I saw in the Just Got Back from the Dealership thread that Kyle is looking to get XM radio...I have the 2004 MCS with the H-K system, and I was wondering, isn't the Mini supposed to be satellite ready? What does that mean? When I go to get satellite, do I still have to get all the equipment? My radio already tells me what the song is and so forth (if the station sends it). And what about it being the H-K system? Is the Sirius equipment compatibile with that? Does anyone have suggestions about it? I was also thinking of not having it installed at an audio shop, not the dealer because of the expense..my Mini repair advisor at Global suggested that but will that affect my H-K warranty?

Any advice and feedback will be appreciated!

 

Your MINI can have the official MINI Sirius satellite system installed - that consists of an antenna and a receiver and it connects to the head unit with no modifications ("head unit" is the bit with the display and ***** in your dash). So in the way that the system can be connected without modifying what you have already, your MINI is "Sirius Satellite Ready".

If you have an aftermarket system installed (Sirius or XM) it will need to be compatible with the MINI (unlikely) or will need to be adapted to work with the MINI (this is how it is normally done) - an interface (for example from BlitzSafe) adapts the satellite receiver equipment so that it talks to the MINIs stereo - often the adaptor makes it pretend to be a CD changer.
You still have to have an antenna installed (the MINIs built-in antenna does not receive Satellite signals - also the Sirius & XM antennas are not the same!)

Your MINI dealer should not be telling you that an aftermarket stereo install will void your warranty - this is not a legal position for them to take.
If you have a system installed and IT DAMAGES YOUR CAR or some part of it, MINI can rightly claim that the warranty is void ON THAT DAMAGE.
If some unrelated problem occurs, your warranty is legally unaffected. MINI have to prove cause & effect before they can refuse warranty.

NOTE:
A badly installed stereo could harm parts of your car - in the worst case, read about problems with the new Dension IceLink Plus which for some people is messing up all the electrics in their car!)
Be sure to choose a reputable stereo installer - preferably find someone that has done some MINIs, and can put you in touch with happy MINI owners.

 

Every MINI is Satellite ready- which means that the car is pre-wired for Sirrus Satellite Radio as well as a 6 disc CD Changer. Yes! When you go to get the Satellite Radio installed- you will still need the receiver and the antenna. It will not change out your head unit though- that will stay the same. You will just have to use your Mode button to get to the satellite.

Harmon Kardon and Sirrus are compatible- you shouldn't have a problem having Sirrus added. But you might want to read about your electronic warranty to know if an Aftermarket installer or Aftermarket sytem will affect your warranty.

My suggestion would be to go with your local dealer- they know what they're doing! Might be more expensive now, but work better with your car! :smile:

Motor On!

Carissa

 

There are several threads in the Navigation and Audio forum about it but it boils down to this.

Direct Connections:

All the radios in MINI's 2003 and up (and a few late model 2002's) are satellite radio ready, including the H/K. This means that with a tuner, you can have control of the Sat Radio on the head unit and with the steering wheel and display on the head unit, just like the FM and CD, in fact, this option just adds SAT as a third input. There are 2 options for this, the official MINI Sirius radio and the XM Direct Blitzsafe interface. Both can also be used with the CD changer as well if the right interface is ordered. There may be some issues with navigation so you should check that if you have that option.

You can also of course use the AUX input to hook up a "Plug and Play" Satellite receiver. This allows only volume control on the head unit and the Sat radio itself is used for tuning and display. There are some aftermarket adaptors that might make the steering wheel controls work with this option as well, but nothing for the display IIRC.


FM Modulator:

Similar to the AUX input is the FM Modulator. This can either be a seperate part that connects to the Sat Radio itself or built in and it allows you to tune to an unused station to hear the Sat Radio. There are wired and wireless versions. The wired must be run to the antenna input on the back of the MINI radio, the wireless does not require this and they seem to be as good sound quality wise as the wired with the latest units. The control is like the AUX inputs.

You can also use a cassette adaptor as well but I don't know of any MINI's that have cassette in the US.

All these options can be installed do-it-yourself although running the antenna is probably the most difficult part.


If you want to go forward, you should definitely check the Navigation and Audio forum.

 

Thank you everyone! This is all pretty confusing to me and want to be sure I am doing the best thing all the way around...

 

You can also use a Kenwood Sirius Tuner and a SoundGate adaptor to get Sirius to play through the factory head unit as well. This is very similar to the XM Direct solution.

 

I'm in the market for sat radio, too, and like a lot of people, I get more confused as I do more research. I have an '05 with the HK radio. I don't use, or plan to use, a CD changer or an I pod. I understand that my antenna has a Sirius antenna built in. I do not want to add anything to the dash. I thought I was going to go with XM (and an additional antenna) but now I'm reading that a Kenwood tuner and Soundgate adapter will work, and for less than $200 I can get what the stealer wants $800 for. Could somebody pleas tell me what the two part numbers are?

 

I jumped the gun and did a bit more research. I checked the Kenwood and Soundgate websites and found the part numbers: Kenwood KTC-SR903 and Soundgate KBMWSIRV2. The Soundgate adapter also allows use of a Kenwood 6 disc changer. One last question: will the '05 MINI's sat antenna work with this or will I need an additional one?

 

I actually just installed the Kenwood tuner with the Soundgate interface. It was EXTREAMLY easy to install.

It works really well, sounds good too. Only downfall is you do not get the station text on the head unit. All you see is the station number. Apparently this is a limitation of connecting the Kenwood through the CD changer port.

Hopefully someone else, (Blitzsafe, PIE, etc) can come up with a solution to get the text to display. I know, at least from what I've read, that the current Blitzsafe's interface + XM direct somehow displays text through the CD changer port. Maybe soundgate will figure it out in the future...who knows.

 

MINIFuzz,

What year is your car? What did you do for an antenna?

S' Coop

 

Hi Gang,

I did install the XM Direct on my '04 HK w/ Navigation. It was super easy to do, and I am NOT mechanically inclined. You simply pull out the plug in the boot's side compartment, plug in the Blitzafe thing and then plug the XM tuner into it and plug the antenna into the tuner. The antenna has a magnetic bottom that you position alongside the navigaion antenna, and you run the thin wire inside the boot's rubber gasket. There is a link here somewhere that shows the entire installtion.

You tune the car and the Sirius input will get activated and then it will switch to X Radio. All the channel name, artist and song name are displayed (albeit truncated) on the head unit display.

The only bummer is that Howard Stern is going to Sirius and now I want Sirius instead on XM.....

I hope this helps.