16 replies to this topic

[thomson.]

Hi, I could really do with some advice please!

I have a red Austin Mini Mayfair, 1990.

It has no sound system at all, not even a radio fitted in, nothing!

So.... I am wondering to fit one in, but I have no idea how to start with and how much will it cost!

Any advice or suggestions? ie. how much will it cost and what sort of speakers i needed to fit in?

Thanks so much! I am very very new to owning a MINI!

Thomson

[maccers]

I guess it all depends on what you want to get from it? As basic setup would be a headunit - typically you will find most these days come with cd player and ipod / usb interfaces. Also usually they come with inbuilt amplification enough to drive 4 * 35 or 4 *50 watts speakers. Something like this would give you good enough sound to hear most music and radio capability.

If you wanted to make it sound like you are sitting at the Royal Albert Hall listening to a Who gig or something, then you may need further items, such as external amplifiers, speakers that are known as component , ie they split the parts of the speaker that produce low - mid and high range sounds to position them in various places in the car to get the better sound. Things like subwoofer boxes also make a difference as all the low sounds can be sent to these and the mid to high kept where you need them.

Its a bit of an art going this far though, there are lots of car stereo shops around that can design you a system, and either install it for you, or sell you a package. I use a place in Wandsworth who are very good on price and offer an install service too.

The thing with the mini is there are not that many places to mount speakers, you can buy extra bolt on / add on pods and panels etc. If you are smart you can work with the car, the boot compartment for example is a sealed area, unless there are holes already cut into the parcelshelf. Having a small sealed enclosure like this gives you some options regarding subwoofers if you were going that way, most come in a box with port holes etc, but you already have a sealed area that you can use.

Its a good time of year to get to some shows and see what people have done, some are just amazing!

My setup is Alpine Head Unit - 240w Alpine amp under passenger seat, 2 * 3 Way Pioneer speakers 150 watt i think under passenger seat on a speaker board from Custom Consoles. The sound is good for what I want, but lacks some bass, due to the physical size of the speakers.

Where in London are you? I am near Kingston.

[maccers]

Just realised, there is a section on this site that is specifically for in car audio etc. This post will probably be moved there, where you can find lots of other info on this topic.

[Skortchio]

Hello matey,

Welcome to the world

Sound systems, with your mini will need 2 distinct bits to it.

1) the system itself, depending on your budget this could be just a head unit (the stereo bit, often refered to as HU) and some speakers or the more comprehensive approach of a HU, front mounted component speakers (mid range and tweeter (or high range) seperate speakers, sold together) and a sub (bass) speaker in your boot / back half of the car - normally in an enclosure to keep the sound pure, all this powered by an amplifier.

2) Dampening! Mini's rattle, a lot. Hell, they ever rattle when they're not moving. No point having a super duper sound system that only manages to make the car buzz from vibration and ruin the dolcet tones of whatever you're listening too
You stop the rattles, buzzes, twangs and booms and your ears will love you, passers-by will envy you and there will be sunshine wherever you drive... Okay, maybe not all of it, but it's better trust me!

Cost wise, well you could scrounge around and get a basic HU and some co-axial speakers for about £30 if you ask nicely at the other end, the pro's are spending literally thousands on tiny boxes to make certain frequencies go away.

My own system (Amp, front comps and sub) cost me about £200 I think, add on that your choice of HU - flashing lights / ipod / DAB radio, whatever you want it to do, then about £50-£100 for the sound deadening / mass loading, depening on if you use brand names or not.

All you need to know about the sounds is here:
http://www.theminifo...mini-audio-101/

and here:
http://www.theminifo...tive-ice-guide/

Goodluck! (And take pics to show us)

*edit* Maccers types faster than me, it would seem!

Edited by Skortchio, 31 May 2012 - 08:55 AM.

[thomson.]

Hey! Thank you guys!

Well i am living in Euston and to be honest I HAVNT YET bought the mini..

sorry the previous post i was saying i own one already, but i am thinking of buying it in these couple of days and thats why i am trying to figure out whats the total cost for me (include the sound system) for the mini!

And by the way, this is the mini that i am going to buy http://www.gumtree.c...ery-item-full-8 ! Any comment or suggestion?? and as you can see there are no speaker or what so ever, but the guy who sold this mini did say that there was a cut out in the dash ready to fit in the radio!

For the whole sound system my budget will be around something like 200 - 250 so i guess it would be something like Skortchio! and i have seen some speakers in halfords which are:

https://www.halfords...osure&width=800

and

https://www.halfords...akers&width=800

And yes! not only i am new in mini, i am also very new in getting a speakers in the car, cause the car i used to drive have them all..... So are these what i should looking for????

Also, I dun have much time to do all the fitting and stuff, so i guess i want a decent garage that could do all sort of setting up for me, since, seems like all the mini have a custom made frame to fit in the sound systems.... and how much would that cost??? and i have uploaded some photos that are taken from the inside of the car..see below:

http://imageshack.us...5/image1zq.jpg/
http://imageshack.us.../image2iec.jpg/
http://imageshack.us...0/image3iq.jpg/
http://imageshack.us.../imageoekq.jpg/
Thank you very very much!

Thomson

Edited by thomson., 31 May 2012 - 12:20 PM.

[Skortchio]

Hey fella,

Go and read the links!

Ditch the twin 12's, get a single 10" and save yourself an easy £100 (check the for sale section).

You've picked front speakers that will top out at 60watts and a sub that hits 800w, that's a slight imbalance some might say. Unless you listen to the sound of sleeping bears on your stereo

The key is balance, not numbers. I suppose you could save fuel by letting the sub bounce you along the road...

Car looks really nice too

Back OT, as I said my own set up cost me probably £250 - 5.25" components, 800w amp and sub. It's uncomfortable to sit in the car with it above about 80%. Then £100 for dampening, deadening, fibeglass, MDF and carpet.

Fitting the ICE yourself is very satisfying when complete but doing a good job takes time (and takes everything out the car to sound proof), paying a shop to do it properly, you could be looking at double the cost of the system you're installing. But I'm not up on current prices.
I'd definitely suggest doing it yourself, over a few weekends if need be.
HU & front speakers will give you sound, whlie you add the rest.

[maccers]

Custom Consoles make panels and pods for speakers. My old mini I made some MDF panels and put them inside the top of the rear storage bins and put some component speakers in them. Of course you lose the storage and now I have a rear cage so cant do that.

Car looks good , quite tidy. If I were you I would focus on first of all getting it back to London and then giving it a basic service, oil, filter, coolant, brake fluid check, brake pad/shoe check and general once over.

Hope it all goes well for you!

[Skortchio]

http://www.theminifo...active-sub-l20/

There you go, 12" sub at a great price

[conlad]

http://www.theminifo...active-sub-l20/

There you go, 12" sub at a great price

I'd stay away from Fli :/

Go over to talkaudio and have a look at their classifieds, its where I got my HU, JL Amp and HAT components from in my signature...

Here: http://www.talkaudio.co.uk/ipb/

Simple system would be:

Headunit
Two 6 1/2'' components with tweeters up front
10'' Sub in boot or other decent location
Amp to power sub

...Decide on what you want first then worry on names later ;)

But for 250 you can do well 2nd hand...

Headunit - £50 (take time to look around)
Components - £50 (Focal, Alpine, JBL, Diamond...)
Pods for speakers - Now, you cold make your own or blow about £70 on optimise automotive stuff which is a lot unfortunately!
Sound deadening - £40

Then a sub if you want it - but the above is basic and will let you listen to anything ;)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When looking for second hand look here first http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/ for brand new and then half it for second hand to give you an idea of what you're after :)

Regarding Watts - dont pay any attention to the peak Watts, only look at the RMS value as this is that the speakers can put out at a constant rate.

Also, ALL headunits put out 45/50W x 4 which you could power the components on, although for high end speakers an external amp may be needed :)

Cant think of much else at the moment lol

[maccers]

Just out of interest, where should one use sound deadening on a mini? I have sound proof backed carpet panels on mine and this cuts the general road noise.

[conlad]

Just out of interest, where should one use sound deadening on a mini? I have sound proof backed carpet panels on mine and this cuts the general road noise.

I dont know exactly where, and peoples opinions will change massively but I am putting it:

On the roof
All over the floor
Rear firewall
Cabin Bulkhead
Might whack some in the boot

Got 40 sq/ft to play with so see how far it goes

[Skortchio]

Out of curiosity, what's wrong with Fli?

I'm using a 10" sub and 800w amp and have no problems with it at all, it's not competition standard but it definitely fulfills it's purpose.

Not meaning to be funny but it's a bit contradictory to say "I'd stay away from Fli :/" then "...Decide on what you want first then worry on names later ;)"
a minute later

£40 isn't going to get you much noise cancelation either.

[conlad]

Out of curiosity, what's wrong with Fli?

I'm using a 10" sub and 800w amp and have no problems with it at all, it's not competition standard but it definitely fulfills it's purpose.

Not meaning to be funny but it's a bit contradictory to say "I'd stay away from Fli :/" then "...Decide on what you want first then worry on names later ;)"
a minute later

£40 isn't going to get you much noise cancelation either.

Well the bloke dont even know what he wants yet! So decide on what he wants, then ponder on names, but i havent heard Fli personally but a few mates I know dont rate them lol so thats up to him

£40 got me loads of stuff, Its called Ez-cool and 'meant' to be good! The Americans rate it good.

£40 will get you about 15 sq/cm of Dynamat, so no, it would get a lot of that stuff ;) What do you use?

[Skortchio]

Follow the link I gave you ealier, dude.
http://www.theminifo...tive-ice-guide/

It explains what you're attempting to accomplish by applying dampening / deadening material and where to put it.

TLDR: you need to deaden any vibration in the panels / wobbly bits of the car (mass loading), then dampen the sounds you don't want to hear - road noise, engine noise, etc (blocking), you use different products for each. The sub gets sealed in an enclosure so that it doesn't distort it's own sound production (and so it doesn't flap about wildly and pop itself out the gasket).

Essentially, even a low budget system in a well dampened and blocked car will sound great! Skimp on the prep and be ready to listen to distortion and rattles more than the 1000000w sub you install

[Skortchio]

I went cheap as chips with my preparation:

Flashing tape: £15 a roll (screwfix) x 2
Closed cell foam: £45 for the lot (ebay)
Carpet underlay: £15 - carpet shop

Panels deadened, noise canceled and higher frequencies absorbed from bouncing about.

Works rather well.

http://s1105.photobu...fing and Audio/

Oh, also have some sound paste / seam sealer type stuff for little gaps / hard to reach place and inside of speaker pods / sub enclclosure.

Edited by Skortchio, 01 June 2012 - 09:36 AM.