You know, the worse thing you can do is listen to a bunch of audiophiles as they discuss how to improve the quality of a sound system.

Go listen to the system for yourself, then you be the judge. From my perspective there is not a car audio system in the world which is up to my standards. For cars, it is all about compromise. They are not designed to be the best places to listen to audio.

 

I agree with the above. I was very concerned about the HiFi upgrade when I picked up my R56. I've had the car for almost a week and I'm very happy with the way it sounds. It does not sound like an expensive custom audio package, but sounds good to me. Go test it out for yourself before you make your decision.

 

Coming from an 05 with the HK system I was thrilled to find the HI FI in the 07 doesn't have the volume limiter that the HK had. Up untill the point where I turned it past that limit and it sounds just horrible. I will say though with the bass set to -2 and the fader set to 4 to the rear you can crank it way louder. I think the biggest thing is the small 3 1/2 speakers in the handle of the front door. They are the first to distort and muddle the rest of the sound at lower volume. You would think since the system has bass, mid, and Treble speakers they would have put a control for Mid in there as well. Anyhew, To fix my delimma, I took my 10" Polk MoMo sub and my 300w power Akustick Fire & Ice amp out of my other car since I hardly drive it. I used to be pretty big in the aftermarket audio /video sceen but haven't been really into it in a couple of years so I figured since I spent over $2 grand on my stereo system for my previous car I might as well take some things out of it and give to my mini. I have heard several peeps have theirs installed by Best Buy here and they did a pretty awesome job. Plus, it's only $70 and gives you a full lifetime warranty. I have everything prefitted and in Dori now and I should have it hooked up this coming weekend. I'll post pics after she's all back together.

 

I forgot to ask, Are there any other electronic stores out there that anyone recommends or have had their installs done at? If so how much did you spend for them to hook up a two channel amp to a sub??

 

ok. So i good a kenwood KSC SW1. it was small and cheap so i picked it up, I am planning to install it under the seat but holy cow is this car a pain. I have spent several hours trying just to get to the head unit. The car is a jigsaw puzzle. If anyone has gotten to the headunit is there anyway I could see some pics or a guide.

 

if you are trying to get to the head unit in an r56 - you have a hella tough job ahead of you. Mikey on mini2 has some pics of when he pulled the head unit. Most of the dash has to come out. You'd have a much easier time tapping off the rear speaker wires.

 

I picked up an MA Audio 8" sub and an MTX Thunder series amp last week. Still need to get the Dynamat, fiberglass and MDF before getting started. Ill be using the empty tool area and creating a false floor to get enough space. Once that is completed Ill be tackling the replacement of the stock speakers. It will be nice to hear bass once again!

Im still looking for the pin outs for the OEM radio. Ive called around and cannot locate a shop manual for the '07 anywhere. The dealership apparently doesnt have one either and wanted to charge me $125 for an hour of diagnostics to get me the pin outs. No thanks

 

Well I am in the middle of changing out the front speakers on my MCS. Put the panel back on today and bent a few clips. Will have to buy a few more for the repair. Also, window going up and down is not sounding so good. Pulling the panel back off tomorrow to investigate. I installed Infinity ref 6022's and 4022's. The 6 1/2 inch went in smoothly. The 4" I had to use a Dremel and GRIND away some plastic. I also removed a torx screw and replaced it with a 5mm x 40mm long screw. (Wonder if this my window problem?) Still using the stock amp for everything. Was really suprised of the quality of the stock speakers that I removed. Although made in Hungary, they were of a good solid paper with rubber surrounds. I have been testing all removed speakers to find out ohmage and what is the positive and negative connections since nothing is labeled. Unless someone has a schematic of the 07' MCS. Also have the wiring colors recorded for further ref for a amp change. Finish the front panels then onto the A pillars.

 

yea motormouth i saw mikey's pics and have most of the dash out, but am stuck on a section. I am not a huge car audio guy, if i tapped into the rear speakers for the sub, what do i do about power?

 

The same thing you will have to do no matter where you put an extra amp wether it is a standalone amp or built into a sub box - run a hot wire from the battery. There are no hot wires inside the car that can power another amp of significant wattage. It would be an extreme gamble to hook an amp up to the fuse box. Much more so to any power wire you found already in the car.

How many watts is that box you are installing?

 

You have HiFi or regular? If regular just get your amp signal input off the back speakers. Much easier. If HiFi then it'll be tougher to figure it out.

 

I have the standard stereo and the sub is selfpowered at 150W

 

best then to tap off the back speakers and run a hot wire from the battery (be sure to have a good size fuse near the battery) and make a ground connection somewhere near the amp. 8 gauge wire would probably be fine for the hot wire.

 

thanks MM. I will look into that

 

alright I took it to Best Buy. It was cheap and they got it done. So adapters from the rear speaker send to RCA into the sub and then I mounted the sub under the passenger seat. Stealth and the seat retains full functionality

 

Cool FS,

what type sub was it that you installed?

 

a Kenwood KSC SW1. 150W 6.5"

 

familiar,
Did they also install the remote controls for that sub? I just looked on crutchfield, and it looks like that sub comes with volume and crossover controls. What did you do with them, and are they really needed?

Also, did they install an adapter (Signal processor) between the speaker wires and sub to convert to RCA, like this??
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-ciRB2h6...04550&I=236REQ

I'm thinking of doing the same thing when mine comes in. Thanks for the help..

 

I mounted it in the little cubby under the toggles in the center stack. I use the controls quite often as i listen to a variety of music and my crossover levels change accordingly. They did not install a processor as far as i know. ( it was about $15) I believe they basically split RCA leads into the rear speaker sends so as to get a cleaner send to the amp.

 

So how's it sound?

 

it sounds good. if you sit in the passenger seat it feels good too

 

Well 4 hrs later and Dori went from looking like this






To This







It was actually a very easy install and the R-56 goes back together just as easy as it comes apart, abit some time doing it. I was really surprised how easy it was to wire the power through the extra rubber piece in the firewall. It took a total of about 45 min to wire everything and and 1 1/2 hrs to take apart and about 2 hrs to put back together (Had some trouble aligning the windshield wipers lol) I used an in line speaker converter to convert the singnals to RCA Outputs. It sounds about 250% better with the bass turned down to -4 and it faded -3 to the back is SOoooooooooooooooo much better. A ton of bass and no distortion. Or at least none that I can hear. lol

 

Thanks for sharing the pics! I bet the whole system sounds much better!

My sub is going to be installed next Monday&Tuesday. Pro shop is going to make a custom fiberglass enclosure that creates a false deck for a 10". Will hide the amp in the passenger side cubby.

 

I can't wait to see pics of your setup. Sounds like it's going to be pretty cool. I really wanted to hide the amp so I may tackle that project at a later time lol. I was just so happy that I plugged everything in correctly the first time and it didn't blow up. hehe I will say just by adding the sub the sound has improved drastically and I could only imagine if I actually changed the speakers to some nice focals or some infinity's. I'll save that for later though.

 

I smell BS on that...Me and my friends have had bad luck with 4OHM HU's+2OHM speakers..The HU will heat up;Fried 2 alpine 7998's this way :(