August 11, 2005:

More HKenablers

Posted 12:08 pm | Comments: (6) | Stereo Stuff

It’s a little surprising to me that I am not the only crazy MINI owner in the world ;)
Long ago (on GBMINI#2) I decided to fit an aftermarket head unit to the HK (Harman Kardon) upgraded stereo; the HK amp “talks” to the original head unit so I had to leave it laying in the trunk!
After a while I replaced the complete original head unit with a stripped down one (from ScooterBoy) which was easier to hide – but the functionality of the “kludge” was still not right, especially regarding volume control … So I next developed a software “mimic” of the head unit which gave me a “clean” system.

Then MikeyTheMINI contacted me; he sells & installs stereo stuff in England (and via NewMINIstuff.com) and had someone who wanted to do the same – run an aftermarket head unit through the HK amp/speakers. I sent him another “EZcal mimic” which worked fine, so I then decided if someone else wanted it, I needed to make a better product – more rugged and eliminating the un-necessary / expensive display & keypad; hence the HKenabler.

So I built and shipped about 10 HKenablers to Mikey last year – he has the harness adaptors to package them into a “plug and play” aftermarket solution, which he sells on his website.
Then I shipped nearly 20 more.
And now I just shipped another 15 more!

(click here for close-up of one)

So somewhere in the world there are a surprising number of MINIs with aftermarket head unit driving the HK upgrade …

Comments: 6 (post new comment)

  1. Ryan (2009/01/02 @ 2:53 am)

    i was wondering if you sell them here in the USA. i would love to get one. but the only place that sells them is newministuff which is over sea’s. i was wondering since you are the originator, if you have any to sell and if so how much

  2. GBMINI (2009/01/02 @ 9:22 am)

    NewMINIstuff add harness adaptor, etc to the circuit – a benefit I cannot offer.

  3. jose (2010/12/13 @ 5:12 pm)

    I really need one of those for my mini cooper s convertible with H/K sound. i bought a pioneer dvd unit and i cannot install it! :S im in usa, where i can buy that?

  4. GBMINI (2010/12/14 @ 3:22 am)

    http://www.NewMINIstuff.com is the only official retailer

  5. Donald (2011/04/10 @ 12:37 pm)

    Are you still making the base unit for Mikey, or is he producing the whole thing now?

  6. GBMINI (2011/04/10 @ 3:57 pm)

    I just shipped a batch to Mike.
    I shipped a batch end of 2010 but he had an issue with a sub-contractor that left him out of stock for a while.

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