For my 2009 R55 with HIFI stereo (10 speaker option before they came out with the Harman Kardon version). Thinking of getting their speaker upgrade kit which includes new 4” door midranges and new a pillar tweeters. Easy plug and play. Anyone tried these? Is the sensitivity at least as high as the oem drivers? Also thinking of replacing the lower door woofers with Polk MM6502 ones to improve the bass. Not considering a subwoofer. Will leave the rear speakers the same - don’t think it’s worthwhile to change them. Any thoughts? Keeping the stock head unit and amp.
I have the HK unit in the Helmet and hair that damn amp. Polk make some nice speakers I would think that clown will improve the sound. Sorry to ask a dump question but who makes the upgrade kit?
I believe Euro Audio Design makes them but pictures show a Bavsound logo on the back of the magnet assembly. They’re said to be designed specifically to play nice with the weird MINI and BMW oem amps that have different frequency responses on the various channels. ECS tuning sells some of their drivers that look identical to the Bavsound ones except for the labeling, but they don’t list a set as specifically being for my application.
Her’s a link to the kit. https://www.bavsound.com/products/bsd-s1-r55r56r57r58r59-hk-front-sound-stage-for-r-gen-mini-cooper-harman-kardon
I do. I emailed them and they said the non HK 10 speaker setup (HIFI option) (which I have) uses the same kit as the HK 10 speaker setup. The standard 6-speaker setup uses their 4” coaxial driver kit instead of the separate 4” inch midrange and pillar tweeter in the kit linked above. (life is complicated)
Ok. I think HK system in the Helmet sounds good but I felt like the Alpine system I had in my R53 was cleaner. I did have kickers in the doors on the R53 though. I think Kickers and Polks sound close to the same. So you can’t go wrong with the Polk speakers. Also I think that kit look good I would try it. I would change the rear speakers. It’s a pain but I think it’s worth it. I had a sub and amp sitting around so I put it in my R53 it really made the system sound good. But if you do the rear speakers you could do with out a sub. That’s just my two cense worth, your mileage may vary.
Me too. Getting close to pulling the trigger on the BavSound front mid and tweeter upgrade. Also changing my mind about the front lower door speakers. May just swap from the oem HIFI to the oem HK drivers there (65133422637 to 65139194841) instead of woofers from an aftermarket component set like the Polk Mm6502. They’re a more direct swap physically). They are said to have better bass response and clarity than the HIFI ones. They’re probably a better match with the current system in terms of impedance and sensitivity. They’re already listed on realoem and some other sites as a part that supersedes and replaces the HIFI driver, so and some have said it does sound better when swapped into the HIFI system. Never felt that rear speakers add that much to the soundstage and experience except for the rare occasions when there are passengers in the back, or for a little bass fill as those frequencies are low enough that localization and wave cancellations are not really a factor. Will leave the rear drivers stock for now. If someone made a decent 6x9 subwoofer might swap a pair of them into the back but that market is pretty empty.
Changed my mind about the rear speakers and ordered these CDT CL-69 SUB CF.2 6x9 subs. https://www.cdtaudio.com/2ohm/subwoofers-2ohm/cl69subcf2.php Hoping they will fit. Might also make a low pass first or second order low pass filter and unplug the rear tweeter.
Put in the BavSound midranges and tweeters. It took less than an hour taking my time. Sound is cleaner and better balanced, and slightly less efficient than the stock speakers. Sounds significantly better at higher volumes than stock. Less upper mid-bass prominence than stock. No instructions (despite site saying all kits come with detailed instructions) but very simple plug and play. Replaced one of the lower front woofers from stock HIFI to the newer HK one. Also easy plug and play, slightly more efficient than stock, more deep bass extension, and more even frequency response. Measures 2 ohms just like the stock ones. Will do the other side next time I have a free 1/2 hour to do it. Today doesn’t look good. Might get to the rear speakers this weekend, more to follow.
Got components from Mouser and Parts Express for a low pass filter for the 6x9 subs. I designed an 80 Hz 2nd order filter with a low DC resistance toroidal 5.6 mH inductor and 1470 uf of capacitance, plus a Zobel circuit with 220 uf and a 2 ohm non-inductive power resistor in series across the output of the filter/input to the speaker.
Put in the club door 6x9 sub since it’s the easier side. Changed the low pass filter from a Butterworth design to a Linkwitz-Riley design at 115 Hz crossover by reducing the capacitor and keeping the inductor and the Zobel resistor-capacitor pair the same. The inductor was expensive and I didn’t want to change it and also decided I wanted a higher crossover after hearing the initial results. They’re not as sensitive as I hoped (rated at 90 db/W but they sound lower than that). Adds a subtle amount of low bass fill but it’s hard to fully evaluate with the stock rear left speakers still in place. Will do that when I have a little more time since the rear seats and both the rear and trunk panels and C and B pillars have to come out to replace the rear left speaker. Hoping the left side is a little better since it has a bigger volume behind it than the one in the little club door.
$250 for the BavSound mods and tweeters. $200 for the 6x9 subs. $120 for the low pass filter components.
Put in the left rear CDT 6x9 sub and low pass filter yesterday and disconnected the rear tweeter. All the speaker mods are done now. Pretty easy except a little work getting the left rear seat upright out. Didn’t need to take out the C-pillar or the rear boot side trim. The rear subs fills in the low bass nicely. It’s subtle on most tracks. Accurate rather than overbearing. Have the settings -1 for bass and 2 clicks to the rear on the fader. The BAV mids and tweeter combined with the HK lower door speaker and the rear 6x9s handling bass mainly below 100 Hz or so seems to be a good combo for the HIFI system in early 2nd gen MINIs.
I suspect the HIFI system is the best candidate for this upgrade. The base system doesn’t have enough power to make it worthwhile to do, and the later model HK system will likely not show as much improvement with the BavSound drivers.