[oreokid]

After reading a few threads i am all confused as to buying the HK or getting an after market system and a better HU any advice?

[duncanbanana]

I have the HK system in my mini and Im really happy with it . But its another £350 on top of the £200 for the Head unit so total is £550. You can get a really good HU for that.
I went for the HK cos in the demo car it sounded really good and was fitted in the factory so I didnt have to mod the car to make it sound good.
At the end of the day its a choice of a factory fiited HK or spending the money on a HU and speakers and fitting them yourself or getting someone to do it for you.
Like i said before i was very impressed when I first heard the HK and I am still happy with it now.
Everyone will have different opinions on this and go into great detail about the subject but in my opinion go for the HK . You dont have to fit it, fitted in factory if specced, and there are endless combinations of HU and speakers and amps to choose from which you have to decide from !
Another dilema I guess !

[maven]

I too have the HK system and am delighted with it. So far nothing beats having the roof open, windows down and the red hot chilli peppers blasting out on a summer's evening.

[aphix]

This has been one of my biggest dilemas when speccing my new MCS (and still havnt ordrered it yet, damn holiday)

I really want to have a sound system that sounds right, the stock system i could live with. However at £500 the HK isnt a bad option, i havnt heard it though.

The thing that is putting me off a little, is that if i want to change anything later, its not straight forward, and would ideally need to rplace the whole lot.

So i dont know weather i should spec it with the HK, working on the basis that i will keep it, or go aftermarket later on, if i do go down the aftermarket route then ive wasted £500 on the HK, however if i dont end up going aftermarket and dont put the HK in now, then will regret it afterwards.

im 70% in favour of going for the HK, but still have the dilma of the colour, BLACK or GREY!, with ot without roof!

Sigh, why cant life be easy

Rob

[ALD0]

I would reckomend it it.

[needMINI]

personally, i would say go aftermarket. the learning curve is so much larger, plus you can get a real joy after you've finished installing.

DIY is where its at!

[SteveM3]

Go for the HK for the easy option, go for aftermarket
for sound quality. You can spend 280 on an Alpine
CDA-9813R that is much better quality that'll do MP3
as well as CDs. The rest you can spend on better
speakers and some sound deadening. I'm sure Kenwood,
Blaupunkt etc etc all do similar HU's for the money.

[GBMINI]

Just remember that unless you include an amp as well, the sound quality/volume of the HK will be much better than any HU ...
I was less happy with $1200 of MB Quart speakers and Boston Acoustics amp, then with the HK that was in the car before (and is back in now).

[SteveM3]

Well I've just bought a Cooper S and already have
good quality speakers and amps but no HU. I'll
install the HU first, then HU and speakers, then
HU with speakers and sound deadening and then
finally HU, speakers, sound deadening and amps.
I'll let you know how the sound changes but this
isn't going to happen overnight. It'll be fun
experimenting though.

[GBMINI]

SteveM3,
Look forward to following your experiments - a thread or even a web site would be good

I expect you will get "crisper" sound when you replace the factory HU but you will quickly find the limit of the factory speakers.
Then the aftermarket speakers will help a lot, but you might be disappointed with volume.
Personally I found no noticeable difference with the sound deadening. The MINI panels seem pretty stiff already; if you remove the rear seats you get quite a lot of road noise, but I cannot imagine the sound deadening Tweeter put underneath them achieves much. I would skip this step.

And when you do the amp, I hope you do NOT suffer the engine whine problem ...

(PS: Malmesbury? Used to live in Frome - long before I emigrated - and hauled the A303/M3 regularly to London area)

[SteveM3]

Quote: Originally Posted by iancull

SteveM3,
Look forward to following your experiments - a thread or even a web site would be good

I expect you will get "crisper" sound when you replace the factory HU but you will quickly find the limit of the factory speakers.
Then the aftermarket speakers will help a lot, but you might be disappointed with volume.
Personally I found no noticeable difference with the sound deadening. The MINI panels seem pretty stiff already; if you remove the rear seats you get quite a lot of road noise, but I cannot imagine the sound deadening Tweeter put underneath them achieves much. I would skip this step.

And when you do the amp, I hope you do NOT suffer the engine whine problem ...

(PS: Malmesbury? Used to live in Frome - long before I emigrated - and hauled the A303/M3 regularly to London area)

Thanks for that info, I must admit to being less confident if you removed
MB Quart speakers and the amp to put the HK back. I will go ahead
though as I love playing around with stereo. I have also heard a lot about
the engine whine. If the amp(s) are in the boot near the battery I assume
that it must be the RCA's picking it up? Sounds like more experiments
are needed on that part. My car doesn't arrive until September and my
house is already awash with diagrams and cardboard cutouts.
So you are from Frome. Lovely place. By USA standards that must
make us ex near neighbours! A MINI must go down a hoot over there
and get a lot of attention.

[GBMINI]

Quote: Originally Posted by SteveM3

If the amp(s) are in the boot near the battery I assume that it must be the RCA's picking it up?

I have heard that someone eliminated noise with alternator filtering.
Someone else got rid of it by getting the amp ground from a cable run to the front of the car.
Another succeeded by using good shielded RCAs.

My guess might be that with the alternator at the front and battery at the back, there are more currents flowing in the car than normal.
So you have more risk or noise pickup, ground loops, supply injection and everything else.
I suspected a ground loop and did try grounding the HU at the amp, with no luck. With the RCAs removed from the amp there was no noise, so it was not a power supply issue - therefore most likely RCA pickup but I did not prove that.
Good luck!

Quote: Originally Posted by SteveM3

So you are from Frome. Lovely place. By USA standards that must make us ex near neighbours! A MINI must go down a hoot over there and get a lot of attention.

Actually born in South London, but lived 10 years at Bath University then in Frome. It was a nice place when I was there, but I have heard stories of trouble since leaving (a friend still lives in Warminster).

The MINI drew lots of attention when I first got it; mine (because of the painted flag on the roof) still gets noticed but there are quite a few around now.
I was surprised how *few* I saw when I was back in England last year.