MINI Cooper F56 JCW Basic Stereo - Complete Sound System Upgrade
Complete custom-tuned Speaker and Subwoofer upgrade
Original Setup:
Basic MINI sound system with:
- 2 full-range 4″ speakers in the front doors
- 2 full-range 4″ speakers in the rear doors
- 2 poor quality 6,5″ floor woofers
The woofers were on the same channels as the front speakers, this was never meant to perform well. The factory sound was just way too bad to be left unattended.
New Setup:
- 7 channel amplifier with 8 channel DSP
- front 2-way component speaker set
- rear door coaxial speaker pair
- 2x floor 8″ 100W RMS woofer
- centre speaker on its own dedicated channel
About the upgrade:
It started with a conversation with Tim who was looking for an audio upgrade solution for this beloved MINI Cooper Countryman JWC 2022. After checking it out it turned out the car had features of both the Basic and HiFi S0676 BMW F series’s sound system. To be more specific, it was nearly identical to the basic one with the fact it had a mini amplifier behind the rear left seat powering the system up. And the factory amplifier tuned out to have the same connection as the OEM BMW HiFi speaker upgrade amplifier. From the upgrade perspective, that was great news.
Following the customer requirements, we designed a solution with a complete custom-tuned speaker and subwoofer upgrade as a Plug and Play solution to the existing wiring with no modification to the new vehicle. We upgraded everything in the car and added more to it yet there was nothing in the interior that would look different from the factory.
Specifically, we upgraded the 2 front speakers into a 4-speaker 2-way component set by supplying MINI OEM A-pillar trims from the Harman Kardon series to install the tweeters. The same was done with a new grille for the centre speaker which has got new wiring from the amplifier directly. Both subwoofers mounted in the floor also got their own dedicated power supply from the DSP amplifier. Lastly, rear door speakers were replaced with 4″ coaxials.
As the heart of the entire sound system, it was chosen and installed a PnP 7ch amplifier with an 8ch DSP, the legendary MATCH UP7 BMW. It was a direct replacement of the existing factory mini amplifier using the same harness with no cutting or wire modifications.
Now everything in place and the car back together, the magic could start happening for this Cooper Mini stereo upgrade. Our technician connected the PC to the DSP amp by a USB cable and started the process of sound tuning. Without going into too much detail, it was a list of actions from phase correction, output balance through time alignment to a precise setting of the 30-band equalizer and many more.
Results:
Our task was to deliver a clear and bassy sound system with a good dynamic performance of the music but the solution we brought was much more than that. Tim’s expressions were priceless as he was totally astonished by the quality and clarity of his new sound system. Later on, he wrote to us: “The sound system is out of this world!”
