We have a 2009 Clubman S with the base 6-speaker stereo. I'm going to add and amp and upgrade the speakers. I've identified the outputs from the headunit at the X9331 Connector. I have two questions:

1) In this connector is there a turn-on signal from the headunit I can use to power the amp?

2) I have read that the headunit sends a signal to the 6.5" and 4" speakers in the front doors. Where does this split occur? I plan to add a component 6.5" woofer/1" tweeter to the front doors, is there any crossover in the door, or can I just identify the wires going into the door for the 2 speakers and feed them from my new cross-over?

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

I've got the door apart and am getting ready to wire up the speakers. What are these fat crimped ends next to the leads for the lower speaker in the door (arrow)?

 

No. However, common type high-level-input compatible amplifiers with auto-on work just fine with the factory head unit. Bear in mind that all warning sounds are output via the head unit which is why it is turned on the moment the car is unlocked or (if unlocked for a while) any door opened.

Nowhere. Both in the 6 and the 10 speaker set ups the two speakers in a door are connected in parallel with no crossover, receiving the same, full bandwidth signal. The amplifier in the radio is capable of handling the 2 ohm load that results from this.

I don't know. However, it sure looks like someone has already been in there before:
- there is a hole through the black rubber plug to the left of the picture (commonly used to feed wires for aftermarket speakers through). There is no hole in that plug from factory.
- two wires (colored individually and differently from the corresponding wires in the other door) normally end in a male connector jack (the female one being on the speaker). In your picture there is a total of four wires (two with bare ends, two crimped), all of which seem to be black-red.

Have you looked behind/underneath the cover of the arm rests whether a previous owner has fitted a crossover there? If not: look for signs showing that something was fitted and removed prior to you getting the car.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. We are the original owners, so this is how it came from the factory.

I took apart those insulated connectors in the above photo, and they are where the two sets of speakers split from the common feed to the door. And I was planning to put my cross-over in the arm rest, so I've just taken it apart to look for space.

 

I've got all the replacement speakers installed, amp installed, and was setting levels when I discovered weirdness. The front speaker pair don't seem to be adjusted right-to-left with the balance control.

I hooked up an oscilliscope to the amp outputs to check for distortion. The good news is that I could get an undistorted 1000hz sign wave from all 4 channels right up to max volume (13v measured). While I had the speakers hooked up I tested the fader (front-rear) and balance (right-left). The fader worked as expected for both pairs of speakers, decreasing the voltage when moving away from the speaker outputs being tested. But only the rear outputs from the factory headunit would shift right-left with the balance control. The front outlets didn't change.

Anyone else notice the balance oddness?

Thanks for any suggestions.