Just finished doing my front speakers tonight! (2AM) Ha Ha. I have the non-hifi speakers and replaced my fronts with 6.5'' and 4'' Polk speakers. Man, bass is off the charts, so much bass that I thought my speakers were blown, turns out the distortion is from the speakers rattling the door internals! Both are coaxials by the way. I used to have my bass setting at +4 or +5, now I find myself adjusting it between +2 and -2.

 

great post coolvinny!....
thanks for the feedback, it's nice to know that cost is pretty low to do, I'm imagining (for a lack of info. to be honest) this huge expense in getting the sound that I want and haven't gotten a good idea on how I would go about that....

but overall, I just want a good DECENT sound, nothing extravagant where the whole neighborhood can hear me if u know what I mean, I don't want my car to vibrate, etc...I just want a better sound response, alot of my music choice is dance/electronic/ R&B (Moby/Daddy Yankee/Rihanna/T.I./Timbaland, etc.)...

so I really feel very optimistic that a front speaker replacement might be the answer.... thanks for keeping it 'simple'.........

 

NeuroticRobot: You might want to check your install...I understand that some mods are needed to make 6.5's fit properly in the 5.25 spot. I can tell you that my doors absolute do NOT rattle. I had them professionaly installed. I'm sure if I'd done the install myself, well, I'd probaby still be trying to do it...

Edjd: If you just replace the front's in the non HIFI with high-quality 6.5 coaxials, you will be very happy.

One thing I'm unsure about is this: it seems like the front channel is getting significantly more power (and significantly more than 15w, might I add). As I mentioned, I disconnected the smaller front speakers to keep all the power going to the 6.5 co-axials. But perhaps the front channel is getting enough power to be able to sufficiently power run a second set of aftermarket speakers up-front in the smaller 3.5" spot? NeuroticRobot's experience seems to suggest this might be the case. Actually, Neurotic could probably test this for us by disconnecting his 4" co-axials and seeing what kind of difference that makes in the sound from his 6.5 co-axials. The downside would be less sources of sound; the potential upside would be more power to a high-quality speaker (the 6.5). Neurotic, if you open up the door panel to check your install re: rattles, any chance you can test this theory and report back?

 

I upgraded our system with 6x9, 6.5 and 4 infinity speakers, I then added an Alpine amp and 12 earthquake sub in a modified RoadsterSound enclosure. I have turned down the power to the sub quite a bit so my wife is not blown out of the car. But I get a lot more bass out of the fronts then I did before. Vocal imaging is well placed in the center of the vehicle.

I just had a complement on the system from a valet in LV last week, he decided to crank up the stereo while driving our car.

I would swap out the fronts at least, and would recommend people not go with the HIFI upgrade with 4 additional tweeters and a cruddy amp for $500. the other speakers are still the same .89 cent OEM cheapy junk that come with the standard stereo.

 

coolvinny,

Your post was excellent and thanks very much for the details. You don't have to apologize for the length of your post; this is what I love so much about this forum. Most people really enjoy sharing their own experiences and ideas.

So thank you! Once the MINI Gods decide I have suffered enough with "The Wait", I will let you know how the sound experience is......

Regards,

 

For a while my driver side door was running with a 6.5" Polk speaker and a stock 3" with the passenger side door running the lone 6.5" Polk speaker. There was no audible significance to warrant the sole installation of 6.5" speakers. Last night, after about a week of rocking the quirky set up mentioned above, I was finally able to install the 4" Polks. Everything sounds much fuller. I had also previously mentioned the door rattling issue, I believe that problem has been isolated to the speaker itself and that amount of power--err or lackthereof that supplied to it. Apparently my speakers are "clipping" at high bass volumes. Which is easily fixed by turning the bass down a bit. Still, with the bass turned down lower and volume higher, I can still feel the beats rippling up and down my spine at highway speeds. I'd try to get a second opinion on the whole replacing the 6.5" speakers only issue though.

To be honest, I think I just expected a huge amount of bass, however, with that expectation I would have to replace the rear speakers. I just had much higher expectations (beyond the above average individual) haha.

 

Based on Neurotic's comment that his 6.5's didn't sound all that great when he upgraded them while keeping his smaller front speakers powered, I think we can conclude that a significant improvement in sound can be attained by disconnecting the smaller front speakers and upgrading the 6.5's.

As you may recall, my first mod was to upgrade the 6.5's and disconnect the smaller front speakers; the change in sound was absolutely amazing. Neurotic upgraded the 6.5's and kept the smaller front's and the change in sound was of "no audible significance". That's very instructive!

Assuming he and I were working from the same specs (a fair assumption, I think - it's very unlikely that Mini gave us head units of differing output), then I think it's clear that there IS real value to be gained from disconnecting the smaller front speakers and focusing all the front channel (i.e. MAIN channel) power to some hiqh-quality co-axial 6.5's (some with a very good built-in tweeter such as my Hertz HCX 165.3). This is also the easiest mod to make. And remember to pass on the channel swap since you'll want the main channel to continue powering your upgraded front 6.5's.

I must confess that this weekend I'm going to do two things:

1) undo my channel swap (to get the front channel back to the fronts); and
2) upgrade the 6x9's in the rear. But the only reason I'm upgrading the 6x9's is to get a coaxial 6x9 that has a built-in tweeter; the rear channel gets almost no bass and also very low-quality midrange so there's no point putting fancy 6x9's in there. If I wasn't so picky, I wouldn't bother swapping the 6x9's. I know for a fact that once I get my front channel back to powering my 6.5's up front, the overall sound will again be very impressive.

Thanks for your comments Neurotic - you provided the last part of the puzzle. Sounds like for about $300 installed, non HIFI owners can really upgrade their sound (that's the cost I incurred in buying the 6.5" Hertz speakers, having them installed, and disconnecting the smaller 3.5" front speakers.

 

Hold on there cowboy. What I meant when I had said, "no audible significance" was that there was no downgrade in sound quality when adding the 4" speakers in. I had also mentioned that with the 4" coaxials installed, everything sounded "much fuller." Sorry for that contradiction. Didn't mean to pounce on the victory dance there. Haha.

As for the channel swap, (too lazy to link the thread form Nav/Audio), some people have disputed that channel swapping still provides gains regardless of the upgraded FRONT speakers. Although your personal account DOES give a detailed and straight forward experience of it. I myself have not done it.

Also, in my other posts above this one, I did also mention the extra improvement in bass. Its just that I had much MUCH MUCH higher expectations, expectations that are null and void unless I switch out the rear speakers. Remember, I've turned the bass setting down two notches now while still gaining the much better bass with the new speakers.. Im feeling the beats in every driving condition now. Polk 6.5" db651s, Polk 4" db401, and wire connections/stuff came out to $160 rounding up.

To CoolVinny:

Have you listened to your speakers on a relatively high volume/+6 bass setting with a song with good beats yet? Just curious if your results are diff. than mine. Get back to me. Thanks.

 

In response to the above, we'll have to wait until I swap my channels back to the factory setting, which will happen this weekend. But I do remember testing the bass response with Icecube's "You Can Do It" - a song that has ridiculous bass - and there was both tons of bass and no rattling that I can recall. However, I only had the bass at the default level. I'll check with the bass levels turned up.

And, yes, it seems that I misunderstood your comment about your experience with/without the 4" Polk's up front. But, just based on the fact that the Main Channel is of a certain number of watts (to be shared between the front-left and the front-right), it would logically follow that by foregoing the smaller front speakers one can send more power to the larger front 6.5's. I guess the only way to know whether better sound is obtained with just front 6.5's OR front 6.5's and front 4's is to install 6.5's, disconnect the smaller front's, and assess the sound - and then upgrade/re-connect the smaller front's and then reassess the sound. I myself will not do this and I kind of doubt that anyone will bother - who can be bothered to remove/install the door panels twice? I guess the main thing is that both Neurotic and I are happy from our different approaches to the front's (me: just upgrading the 6.5's and disconnecting the 4's; Neurotic: upgrading both the 6.5's and the 4's), which suggests that you will be happy either way. Who knows - maybe Neurotic's approach to upgrading both front's is the better route since, after all, I will be upgrading my 6x9's to get another pair of tweeters into the car whereas he was able to get another set of tweeters through his install of the 4" coaxials up front. There's an argument that it would be better to have the other tweeters in the rear, to balance the sound out and since the front speakers are located about 2 inches from each other, but it's impossible to know without comparing them side-by-side. If I make a road trip to California, we can compare them side by side.

It seems this "review thread" has been hijacked by me into a "stereo thread". Sorry about that - I'm done with expressing my views on this subject. Good luck to all.

 

One last thing I'd like to add. You can easily test your idea because the front upper speakers can be accessed without having to remove the door panel. You just have to be careful about wedging a tool underneath the grill to pop it out. Thats what I did last night. With that in mind, I will try to test out the issue this weekend if possible.

 

Has anyone read this story about Mini doing away with the paddle shifters come ~ March 2009?

"Shift Paddles Disappear from the Cooper" http://autolust.com/Mini/post:shift-...om-the-cooper/

Reliable information?

 

Also covered by MotoringFile last month - http://www.motoringfile.com/2008/12/...om-the-cooper/

According to them it is a way to put more difference between the base Cooper and the S. IMHO a manual transmission is more fun in either model

 

Window grime: the slope of the front window is definitely something to get used to, I've definitely have used my spray washer more than I have than any other car I've ever owned, not a complaint, just noticed. Additionally, it just about takes a whole gallon of window washer fluid to refill the reservoir.

Goes w/o saying or at least repeating, that the rear boot area gets crazy dirty fast in rainy weather, you literally have to scrub some of that 'dirt' off, definitely going to add couple of extra coats of wax back there.

FUEL: for nearly 90% of time, I use 93 octane, tend to notice better mpg and performance (of course)....now, the gauge for MILES left on tank come up to about 450-480 sometimes after fill up, all looks good until you start hittting about 200 miles left on tank, and just when you think you might have the potential to hit an easy 400 or so BEFORE the gas warning light (comes on about 70 miles left) comes on, you seem to "lose" that est. mileage left and wind up avg. around 400-425 overall.... I use my car as a commuter, so 100% virtually of HWY mileage driving, office/home, etc.

add another post in a few...

 

so, parked my clubby on the street in front of my house....washing cars and doing my sisn'laws as well...so driving back w/ sis n laws car after washing and just as I round the corner to my street, I see one of those small dune buggy ATV's HITTING my parked clubby... HIT it DIAGONALLY,, left rear bumper, side marker, left rear rim/tire area all 'impacted'.... by little dune buggy.
ThREE teens on a 2 passenger vehicle messing around, supposedly one kid bumped the kids arm (who was driving) and he drove straight into my clubby.. kids were banged up pretty good by my opinion (two boys/1 girl)...except the girl..she was stting in passenger sit, 3rd teen was on her lap....
they seem to be ok, not sure overall though....the owner of the dune buggy and one of the parent(teen boy in pax) came and allwed me to call ambulance for them....the EMT techs say they were all bruised up but overall should be fine... cops came soon thereafter, one officer mentioned to her that it is illegal to drive those atv's/buggies in city limits let alone in neighborhoods, to top it off, overheard the fire dept. guys (yes, they showed up too...just down the street) said the pax kid was airflighted out just last month for having an incident with the atv/buggy.. mom said out loud that she already had an incident w/ her boy....the buggy was not moving, the steering was all out whack and struts and arms all dangling. It looks like it hit my corner bumper pretty good (with the tire of the buggy) and caught the iron front bar of the buggy hit my rim tire as I had paint on the rim from the buggy and my bumper was all black/tire marks and brok the rear side lamp marker and pushed out the black plastic trim (ANYONE KNOW IF THERE ARE PINS OR ANYTHING ON THE BACK OR IS IT JUST PUSH IN TABS??) not sure if any broken pieces from the rear of the black trim, but it is hanging out....wasn't going to push it while I wait for insurance rep to gauge his/her diagnosis....

ANYONE know if I can sue the owner to get my deductible taken care of....?? or what is the best method?...at first glance it (damage) looks kinda comsetic, BUT this morning (accident was yesterday) the car had LOW TIRE PRESSURE warning, no idea which tire of course, but only assume the left rear (the one hit)....so added air and reset TPM, to see if error comes back on again... driving in to work this mrng, i hear a tire sound...sounds a bit like a flat or tire w/ bulge in it.. (and I took a looksy, no 'visible' damage that I can ascertain).....or maybe my mind is looking for something??.. (BTW (continental 16" runflats)

so..... clubby has a booboo...... I've emailed the dealer to see if they have a preferred body shop, to see what my options will look like.... if I get a chance, I'll post pix for reference....

 

edjd - that is a major BUMMER...!! I would expect the adult owner of the other vehicle to pay for your damage...!

 

thanx and agreed.
but y'know, just greatful the kids are ok, but just not too smart of a parent y'know... I'm a big beliver in "if you dont' want trouble/issues', don't introduce the potential to exist", in other words, if you don't want to get burned, then don't play with fire, else....... so what are teens/preteens doing driving this thing around is just beyond me, they could have easily killed themselves or more serious bodily harm.... nonetheless...
still wtg for my insurance (USAA) to call me, but i just hope that I don't have to pay the $500 deductibel or somehow they charge her for it (heck, is that even possible?)..... I mean, my clubby was sitting there, all primed and pretty, tires glossy, windows streak free and WHAMO!..............
I"m not that depressed about it, but just disappointed out of all the cars in the street!....

 

Bad luck, edjd. I hope the damage isn't too great or expensive. Couldn't agree with you more about the "if you don't want trouble/issues, don't introduce the potential..." Sounds as though it's time for a bit of a crack down on those kids and their parents - by the local gendarmes.

 

Trying to post Some Pix of the assault, THEY ARE NOW IN MY GALLERY!'

.... so the more I drive adn think about the incident, here is what I've been able to piece together... as I said earlier, on Monday mrng, (incident happpened Sunday) i had a 'low tire pressure' warning... after looking at other photos I have (not posted here), I think and it seems that the dune buggy hit my bumper w/ it's tire and pushed the bumper in while proceeding to hit buggy tire to MINI tire (keeping in mind that the impact moved my whole car about 2-3 inches diagonally) and then the buggy flipped and the front dune buggy bar hit my rim and bounced in it's final resting place.... ..... so I think my driver rear tire (at a minimum, maybe 'honeycomb' collapsed inside tire??) is 'damaged' somehow if not the rotor or something is not right, cuz the ride is slightly bumpy and the drive is loud from the tire(s)...sounds like a 'bald' tire on a hwy....think i need an alignment as well.....I think they must have been going pretty fast, look how far away the buggy ended up away from my vehicle, quite a bounce! if u look closely, you may notice where the tire overspray is on the cement from where the car was originally located and where the final resting place is of the tires/car?.....

I Have appointment for body shop, just waiting for verification of initial inspection....and feedback from insurance....police report will post online later today the police department says...I"m curious to see what the officer wrote...

 

You may have to advance the deductible, pending your insurance company subrogating against the ATV owner. If your insurance company is unable to collect from that party, you probably will not get reimbursed for the deductible.

 

Aww.. edjd, I am so sorry to hear about your clubman's "incident". Best wishes in getting this taken care of and getting your deductible taken care of also. Hopefully this will be nothing but a bad memory by next month...

 

Edjd's MA misinformed:
"From what I understand, the premium fuels have detergents which clean the fuel injectors...and the lower fuels do not. I have had 2 MINI's in my life and have used nothing but 93 octane. My fiancé has a 2008 cooper and she has used 89 and 93 octane, and no problems. I would recommend using the 93 and if you do use the lower fuels...put a Techron additive in your tank once a month."

Wow, where do I start? The lower octane fuels ALL have detergent additives. If you're worried about maintaining 91 octane, buy a tank full of 93. Use up half of it and then re-fill with 89. Use up half and re-fill with 93. And on and on.

As for Techron EVERY month, that is ridiculous. Maybe use Techron once or twice a YEAR, that will be more than sufficient. And really not needed at all if you're using a major brand gasoline like Texaco or Chevron - they already have Techron in them.

I am using 93 octane for 1/2 tank followed by re-fill with 87 and my Clubbie S is running perfectly. Don't waste your money on straight 93 all the time, you are not doing your car any favors and you are wasting money...

Good luck with the new ride, these are SWEET cars!

 

i am glad to read all this, and also the windshield comments. (I am still a looker--have not made the plunge yet.) Here's why. I friend who lives in rural Kansas bought an Audi, and after 9 years of driving the same road with his previous cars and never cracking a windshield, he broke 3 in his first year. The angle must have been just right (or wrong!) for the pebbles to not deflect but to crack it. Though the Audi was his dream car (saved for it, loved it, and it was fun to drive!) he sold it as windshield repair was making the car way too pricey.

My 9 year old VW has never had a cracked windshield, and this weekend a fairly large something whacked it and bounced off without any damage. My wife and I wondered about the Mini's windshield resiliency. Glad to read this!

 

You can always rotate among the two highest octanes, or mix them to achieve higher than 89.

 

so far, so good, my car will be turned in next Monday and if all is well, car should be back by Wednesday.. I really only expressed my concern for the tire and rim and rotor, I agreed w/ them the other stuff is 'easy fix'...but expressed to them my tire pressure issue earlier this week, etc. and they will have the rim/tires sent out for inspection/balancing, etc. and then check the aligment,etc. after all the 'bits n pieces' are all inputted back on the car. But I hope they find something wrong w/ the tire/rim, cuz might be a battle to prove my concern about the noise I hear when driving now.

it sounds like a portion of a tire has a 'bald' spot on it, I"m inclined to think there is something wrong w/ the tire that was impacted, guess we'll see.... last I heard from insurance co. (usaa), they recommended that I just stick w/ them to sort this out versus trying to get any insurance movement from the owner of the dune buggy:

apparently the way it works is, I will pay my collision deductible ($500) and then when/if the buggy owner pays up, they (usaa) will reimburse me, in addition if it's validated that the buggy is or does not have insurance, then I will roll up under the Uninsured Motorists Insurance and my deductible will decrease to $250 and they will reimburse me any difference that I"ve paid up to this point and of course if/when buggy owner pays, I'll get reimbursed.....

worst case, I guess the buggy owner doesnt pay..but not sure what happens if they dont' pay at all? do they get sued or something?...

 

edjd - good grief. it's good your insurance company is working with you and you'll have your MINI fixed and back soon. but the buggy owner?? have they said anything to you such as 'what do we owe you for your deductable?'...in California - people would sue. i'm not advocating either way because we're sue-happy in this state, but it doesn't seem reasonable their irresponsible kiddos could hit and damage your car and then all is forgotten...crazy.