Replacing rear speakers

[djwoody]

I am wanting to replace my rear speakers in my Cooper S with some Pioneer ones.

I have looked on the pioneer website and in the brochure it says that the TS-A6901 speakers will fit but are Universal.

Does this mean that i will have to buy an adaptor plate as well? If so, which adaptor plate will i need and where in the UK can i get them from?

Regards
Chris

[DaFlake]

Do you have HK or standard radio?

[djwoody]

Just the standard radio...

[DaFlake]

Universal 6x9 speakers should work just fine for your rears. These speakers will probably have the standard speaker interface which means that you would have to splice your wires.

However, I would check out www.newministuff.com and speak to Mikey. He can set you up with everything you need to fit your MINI correctly without hacking your wires. Give him a look but be advised that his wife just had a baby and he may be a little slow to respond.

[SteveM3]

You can replace the existing 6x9 (except convertibles) and use the existing wiring.
You may find you need to enlarge the hole slightly or make a very thin template to
go between the speaker and the metal.

[G-Man]

Hi can you change HK speakers for different ones?

[SteveM3]

Quote: Originally Posted by G-Man (original)

Hi can you change HK speakers for different ones?

Yes but the HK speakers are bi-wired. Bi-wired means one set of wires for the large
speaker (commonly called the woofer) and another set of wires for the small speaker
(tweeter). You can bi-wire any 2 or 3 way 6x9. Some 6x9's will be ready for bi-wiring,
usually the more expensive ones. If a speaker isn't bi-wired ready then you can snip
wires and do a bit of soldering. If in doubt go to a good car hi-fi dealer and pay a
little more than mail order but they will be able to show you what to do.

[mikeythemini]

You can't change the HK speakers for normal aftermarket ones or you will blow the HK amp - HK amp is designed to work with 2ohm speakers not 4 ohm which most aftermarket ones are
Most 6*9s will physicaly fit in the rear positions but as Steve points out, some are slightly too big.
I keep wire plug adaptors to save you chopping the factory speaker plugs off

[DaFlake]

Thanks Mikey and congrats. You getting sleep yet?

[G-Man]

Thanks Mikey. So it's best to leave the HK speakers in. To be honest the HK speakers are great.

[PMB]

Actually, by fitting 4 Ohm speakers to a HK system you will be more likely to blow the speakers. This is because at 4 Ohms the 2 Ohm amps will only put out about half the power and cause distortion that is likely to damage the speakers, especially the tweeters. To the amplifler a 4 Ohm load is easier to drive than a 2 Ohm load, so no danger to the amp.

If you have an HK system and want to replace the 6x9s the Infinity 693.7 is a very high efficiency 2 Ohm speaker that makes the HK stock sound rather inadequate. The 693.7i can also be connected up to a Boost system without damage provided you don't run it turned up to 11 all the time.

[DaFlake]

Quote: Originally Posted by PMB (original)

Actually, by fitting 4 Ohm speakers to a HK system you will be more likely to blow the speakers. This is because at 4 Ohms the 2 Ohm amps will only put out about half the power and cause distortion that is likely to damage the speakers, especially the tweeters. To the amplifler a 4 Ohm load is easier to drive than a 2 Ohm load, so no danger to the amp.

If you have an HK system and want to replace the 6x9s the Infinity 693.7 is a very high efficiency 2 Ohm speaker that makes the HK stock sound rather inadequate. The 693.7i can also be connected up to a Boost system without damage provided you don't run it turned up to 11 all the time.

Actually, I agree with Mikey. A 4 Ohm speaker will blow the amp as it works harder to drive the speaker. Not that I plan on testing this theory. However, it is nice to know that there are some other speakers out there. Have you used these in an HK system?

[PMB]

Amplifiers do not drive speakers, speakers draw power depending upon their impedence (resistance) and sensitivity. The more resistance between the + and - terminals on the amp., the less power (current) can be drawn 2 Ohms offers less resistance than 4 Ohms, which in turn offers less than 8 Ohms. If you connect the + of the amp directly to the - of the amp ( 0 Ohms) it will either shut down in safe mode or blow.

When you connect 2 similar speakers in parallel there are two paths for the electrical current to take which effectively halves the resistance, therefore 2, 4 Ohm speakers in parallel offer a 2 Ohm load. When the sam e speakers are connected in series the electrical current has to pass through twice the resistance so the 2, 4 Ohm speakers offer an impedance of 8 Ohms. There is a little more to it than this but this is a good rule of thumb.

The biggest resistance is of course having no speaker connected at all!

[DaFlake]

I understand that a 8 ohm speaker could and will be destoyed by an amp that can't provide the power. If I remember correctly this is called clipping. Distortion that rips the speakers to shreds. However, I have also read many threads about people that have swapped the speakers in a HK MINI only to turn the system on and smoke the amp. These people even put the old speakers back in and were forced to buy a new HK amp. So what would cause this?

Just trying to get this all straight in my head and learn.

[PMB]

The HK system uses mulitple amplifiers and it is likely that in replacing the speakers they have joined the output of two or more of the amplifiers together causing effectively a dead short. This will fry the output transisters / ICs.