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An easy button is possible if you have a budget. Pretty much any of the options that they have will work but the sound quality will be different. You want to match the speakers to one another. Try to keep the same brand in all locations (if possible) and keep the same power handling capacity as well. If you go into one of the superstore audio places (specialized audio place would be better) and talk with them about options they will give you several. But you have to have a budget to start with. Speakers should be the highest quality you can afford as they are what produce the sound you will hear.
In all honesty, I would replace the big ones in the doors and the big ones in the rear and leave the tweeters in the doors alone. That way it will not cost too much and give you better sound for your podcasts. Single or two way speakers might be best. If you take it to a local shop tell them exactly what you want and your budget. I bet they can hook you up (and install them) with some good inexpensive speakers that will be better than the factory ones and last longer.
Four years ago (time flies!), I ripped out the non-HK speakers in the R53. They were not completely rotten yet, but they definitely had a very hard life with very fragile foam surrounds and water stained paper cones.
Out they came and in their place went in some Polk db651 components and db 6x9s in the rear. This was the recommended upgrade here on NAM at the time. Very minimal effort though you will need to find a place to mount the crossover, but otherwise, the speakers will mount to the door easily. The rears are really easy as they plop right in. Make a little harness for the speakers or cut the oem plugs and you're done.
I also added a small Alpine KTP-445U amp to push a little more power to the new speakers. Plenty good sound, especially the CD(?!) and if and when the radio dies, we'll upgrade that. Not a big investment for all of the above and your podcasts will be loud and clear for your travels.
Four years ago (time flies!), I ripped out the non-HK speakers in the R53. They were not completely rotten yet, but they definitely had a very hard life with very fragile foam surrounds and water stained paper cones.
Out they came and in their place went in some Polk db651 components and db 6x9s in the rear. This was the recommended upgrade here on NAM at the time. Very minimal effort though you will need to find a place to mount the crossover, but otherwise, the speakers will mount to the door easily. The rears are really easy as they plop right in. Make a little harness for the speakers or cut the oem plugs and you're done.
I also added a small Alpine KTP-445U amp to push a little more power to the new speakers. Plenty good sound, especially the CD(?!) and if and when the radio dies, we'll upgrade that. Not a big investment for all of the above and your podcasts will be loud and clear for your travels.
you had me until you added the amp
so you ran all new speaker wire or is it already going from the amp, stock?
Truth be told, the amp was an elective not a mandatory requirement to make the speakers perform. The factory head unit does not have much power so boosting the output definitely helped, but again, you can always do the speakers first and build from there.
I did not run all new speaker wire. No need to since this is still a relatively low power system. (less than 25w RMS per channel). The Polks are pretty efficient. ~92db so they should work fine without amplification too.
Truth be told, the amp was an elective not a mandatory requirement to make the speakers perform. The factory head unit does not have much power so boosting the output definitely helped, but again, you can always do the speakers first and build from there.
I did not run all new speaker wire. No need to since this is still a relatively low power system. (less than 25w RMS per channel). The Polks are pretty efficient. ~92db so they should work fine without amplification too.
A couple of pics of the speakers in place:
looks well put together.
why component speakers in the front? Is there not two channels (tweeter and bottom door)?
Factory speakers in the doors are also components. Tweeter by door handle and mid-bass in the lower door. There's a small resistor inline with the factory tweeter acting as a 'crossover'. Both factory speakers in the door get removed and rewired with the new crossover. The tweeter will need a little bit of work to make the bracket tweeter cup fit into the original tweeter mount. Not hard.
No crossover for the rears. Those run full-range with whatever tuning used for the three speakers in each 6x9.
Factory speakers in the doors are also components. Tweeter by door handle and mid-bass in the lower door. There's a small resistor inline with the factory tweeter acting as a 'crossover'. Both factory speakers in the door get removed and rewired with the new crossover. The tweeter will need a little bit of work to make the bracket tweeter cup fit into the original tweeter mount. Not hard.
No crossover for the rears. Those run full-range with whatever tuning used for the three speakers in each 6x9.
Excellent. That sounds doable. I’ll need some wiring supplies, and a soldering iron...
Maybe some double sided tape to fix the crossover to the door and some plastic weld to fix the tweeter in place...
Let’s see what the shop comes back with. They are preparing a quote
It looks like the speakers you purchased also have a spacer, but the JBLs are deeper than the Polk db6501 (about 10mm or .40 inches)
if they are hitting the regulator, you’re pretty much stuck and will need to return and order something else... cough Polk...cough...😉
edit: The other option is to remove the factory door speaker cover on the door card and mount the JBL speaker cover. Not sure if that will solve the interference so something to investigate.
It looks like the speakers you purchased also have a spacer, but the JBLs are deeper than the Polk db6501 (about 10mm or .40 inches)
if they are hitting the regulator, you’re pretty much stuck and will need to return and order something else... cough Polk...cough...😉
edit: The other option is to remove the factory door speaker cover on the door card and mount the JBL speaker cover. Not sure if that will solve the interference so something to investigate.
Yes, you are correct, they did come with a spacer. Pushes the speaker out away from the door (towards the interior of the car). That allows clearance from the back / regulator.
Seems like these speakers would need to be mounted with the aftermarket grills. The door card would probably need to be cut also. Further than I'm wanting to go.
So then I'm seeing that right? You were able to mount the Polks without a spacer, flush to the door?
I did notice that there are two sizes that "fit" here (6 1/2 and 5 1/4). Might go with the smaller size to be on the safe side.
The 6.5 inch Polks are mounted using the provided spacer that was in the box.
Also, there is a review on Crutchfield with a close up of the speaker installed in a 2005 Mini. Says with the included Crutchfield adapter everything fitted. Looks like a white plastic spacer. Did you receive that?
The 6.5 inch Polks are mounted using the provided spacer that was in the box.
Also, there is a review on Crutchfield with a close up of the speaker installed in a 2005 Mini. Says with the included Crutchfield adapter everything fitted. Looks like a white plastic spacer. Did you receive that?
good catch. I went back and I do see the pic but not sure that’s an r53 door in the pic...
any any rate I did not get that spacer. Mine is black and about an inch and a half thick.
how thick was yours?
going to get on the phone with crutchfield in the morning.
also not sure I need component speakers. Not changing the amp. Not sure I’m thinking of that right
Looks good, talked to guys at Bavsound and told them we need stuff for our R50-R53 MINIs like mine. Hopefully we will have something in the future. I have a super rare MINI Cooper Sound Module kit that i never installed, it was used from an R53
Looks good, talked to guys at Bavsound and told them we need stuff for our R50-R53 MINIs like mine. Hopefully we will have something in the future. I have a super rare MINI Cooper Sound Module kit that i never installed, it was used from an R53
yep the dspm sounds great and was at the time the most advanced developed system for the R50-R53 platform, even had one for the R52 with upgraded interior body panels to match. Back in the day MINI owners through so much money at their cars and pretty much all were special order and new, so you did not have many used. Good old days.
