I missed the HK upgrade after the factory postponement on Sept builds.
In starting the complete overhaul I changed the door speakers first. Wow ! If nothing else do this. If the HK came with the same drivers I would rip them out too. Even with out extra wattage from a remote amp I can stand to listen to it.
Sound insulation (dynamat, sort of), new 6x9's, two amps, and a head mod for low level outs are in the works. I hope to add to this post as I do it.
I used Pioneer 5 1/4" to save modifiying the door card. I realized that the speaker must seal against the door card to create an infinite baffel. I made an adapter from 3/4" birch ply and turned a pilot for a 6" section of PVC sewer pipe. What is not shown is a piece of foam pipe insulation I split and glued into a ring to fit over the PVC to make a soft seal against the door card. The distance from the door to the compressed foam is 1 1/2". This is the max space behind the door card. The adapter is fitted with 1/8" foam to seal to the door. #8 x 1" SS screws fit the door screw inserts. The tweeters are simple. Dremel the factory holder and the Pioneers press in. The crossover location is TBD.
Here is pic 1 showing the parts.
Pic 2 is the door with speaker. (On the second post. beacuse I can figure out how to include both.)
The door card is not going to come apart! The pieces are melted togeather with something like a plastic rivet. You could grind them off but you would need to do a lot of glueing.
right, I just wanted to point out to other folks that you do not have to modify the door to fit 6.5 speakers. There are plenty of speakers that will fit without any door mods.
If you pull the factory speakers out, is there ANY obstruction that comes between the speaker hole proper and the external skin of the door (ie. window tracks, braces)??? Would it be possible to mount a 6.5" with a 3" mounting depth in the door? I haven't seen one in person yet, mine won't be here for a couple of weeks. Anyone have any pics of the bare door, especially the speaker opening??? Any help would be appreciated.
Wow, nice install Bad Ess. I was just wondering about how one might seal around the speaker to prevent sound from escaping and bouncing around behind the door card. PVC pipe... You sir, are a genius!
Some questions:
Do you (anyone) feel that the stock speaker grills are "okay" to use with upgraded speakers? Especially 6.25" speakers? Is the hole big enough? Do they seem acoustically transparent enough? I like the idea of a stealth install, but I also think the stock grills are ugly! If they were hurting the sound as well, that would give me an excuse to get rid of them.
If one did get rid of the stock grills (not easy, I guess) could you "surface mount" the new speaker and then just snap the aftermarket grill onto the speaker? (Are grills still made that way? I guess they must be.) I realise to be able to mount the speakers securely to the outside of the door card, you'd need to make a thick spacer that filled the entire gap between card and door. Do-able? Can you elaborate on that "turned a pilot" phrase? What exactly did you do to the PVC pipe?
Are the doorcard and door exactly parallel to each other around the speaker? If I made a 1.5" thick spacer out of MDF, would the door card lay flat against it all the way around?
Please post pictures and further desciptions of how you mounted the tweeters. You're a brave man with a Dremel.
turned pilot? Are you talking a tuned port? If so that's very cool.
I myself was thinking that the Mini's limited space might be best served by a "transmission line" speaker design. I'd been toying with the idea of using a heat bent and tuned pvc tube to get lower bass freq. MC
I wanted this to look stock. I may change speakers again and or want to avoid attention from some guy with a crowbar checking my install. (The car gets alot of people drooling on the windows.) I think the grills are fine (transparent) for mid bass and up. The whole door breaths (vibrates)as it is. I will be stiffining the door card and door with a heavy pliable pvc membrane and 1/2" pvc foam. If you want to cut out the door card you could mount 6" speakers flush and attach different grills. I think the card is parralel to the door. My flange is about 1 3/8" off the door with the foam ring making up the rest. In my "smush" test the foam was evenly flattened. If you are going to remove the OEM grill, do it, re-install the card and measure. But yea an 1 1/2" spacer would work. Apparantly almost any 6" speaker will fit if spaced out to clear the window stuff.
I have a lathe to use so I turned the spacer to fit the PVC.(See pic.) That's what I meant by pilot. You could just epoxy the pipe on. It also happens that the OD of the speaker just fits the ID of the pipe. The surround needs to be protected from touching. Some installs I have read about make me wonder.
Personally I would not worry about jamming the biggest speaker in the doors. The bass is not going to come from there.
There are threads and pics in MINI2 somewhere of the tweeter mount and the basket that snaps into the door. The original tweeter snaps in this basket and is almost same OD as the Pioneer I used. The dremel work is to remove the detents and open up the basket slightly.
cheers,
yes there is an obstruction about 1/3 - 1/2 an inch into the door (window rail). you'll have to make lift out spacers (even the stock speakers sit on lift out spacers). I mounted 6.5 speakers with a mount depth of 68mm. that required a 3/4 inch spacer and only just cleared. 3 inches would require about 10mm more of space. It should fit, but make sure you line it up with the door card as you're close to max.
i would not top mount to the door cards. Instead do the spacer idea and just mount the speaker to the door and use the spacer to bring it forward. in order to bring it that far forward you will need to cut out the factory grill. There are pegs inside the grill that restrict clearance, to get it flush with the door card, you'll have to cut them out!
search for jlm's focal speaker install, he brought the speaker flush with the door card. he had to cut out the grill then glue it back on, but the picture shows what you want to do.
Okay, it sounds like the stock grills are the way to go. I may not like the look of them, but their anti-theft qualities probably make up for that.
If I understand folks correctly, the grills have some sort of internal structure (pegs?) that would prevent you from bringing a speaker up level with the door card? Is there any downside to grinding the obstructions away, other than the hassle factor?
I will look for that thread regarding the Focal install. I was thinking that the liberal application of some sort of Dynamat-like product to the back of the door card might help damp things down. It might even make the plastic door trim seem less plastic-y when tapped on. Is the foam intended to fill the space between door and card? Transferring vibration from the card, back into the sturdier metal door? I agree. 5.25" speakers will probably give you better mids as well. But, I just ran across a fella who was selling some barely used CDT HD-62's for $200, so I think I'll splurge a little. I've a couple 8" subs as well, but I may not really need them. I'm hoping to come up with a clever way to mount one of them in the boot, with the enclosure extending down into the battery compartment. We shall see...
I will have my damping material tomorrow. I am using componant parts of a foam barrier used on engine rooms on boats. The dampening layer is a 1 lb per squre foot PVC material with self stick. It looks somewhat like the stuff MINI uses. Covering 70% of a panel will stop most of the transmission from outside the car. The foam layer is to absorb any noise in the cavaties including dampening the speakers. I won't know where it goes or where it will fit until I tear into the car.
It may take a while to finish this project with the holidays etc.
Speakers for the front: my list was MB Quart, Infinity, Boston, A/d/s, Alpine. I listen to all these but was never able to A-B compair. I think I liked the Infinity the best because of the middle hi clarity. but...
For the rear 6x9's I was attracted by the low responce of the Pioneer TS-D960R's (24 HZ). If this is true, a couple of hundred watts and little EQ could vibrate the fuel cap and I'm rockin. (No sub in the plan as of now.)
A friend of mine had a source for Pioneer and a price that will make you cry, so sight unheard it's Pioneer all around. I am very impressed with the fronts as I said earlier.
I have ordered two Blaupunkt PA2100's. These are less than 6"x7"x2". They make almost no heat, are very powerful, and will fit in the hollow pockets in the boot.
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