Advise Needed- In Car Entainment Systems

[drive_angry]

Hello Gurus, I have been following most of the ICE threads as a mute listener. I am a newbie in ICE So I would really appreciate if the ICE Gurus can help me out.

My brother recently turned 21 and we have decided to give him a small car to commute. Since the car is MS Zen 2005 LXi and it has a cassette player and a stock door speaker ( My grand pa used to drive this car, he never listened to anything when driving) Well after much discussion, we have decided on upgrading it to decent ICE. For that we need your help.

This is what I am thinking of

1. HU: PIO or Sony HU- only Aux and USB is needed.
2. Front Door Speakers: infinity Primus 6502
3. Rear Tray Speakers: JBL GTO 950SI
4. Amplifier: need a 4 way amp, advise needed. Heard blaus and rockfords are good
5. Subwoofer: thinking of pioneer dual coil or JBL
6. Tweeters: do I need any? If yes, would Infinity tweeters be sufficient enough?

Other details:

For Novices: (Seeking advice on a new setup/ upgrading their current setup):

1. Your Car: Maruti Suzuki Zen LXi

2. Your current setup (If any): Sony HU with stock door speakers.

3. Your Budget: 20K

4. Do you drive most of the time or is it chauffer driven? Self

5. Your Music preferences (Genres, favorite artists, etc.): Rock ( Alternative, Punk) and hip hop. When my brother listens to music he doesn't expect to hear from the person sitting next to him.

Budget is low i.e. Around 20K. All suggestions are welcome.

I need your help finding a good dealer in Chandigarh for purchasing and installations. Thanks much guys!

Looking forward to your replies.

 

[piyush608]

my advice :
1)Head unit : pio/sony/jvc/kenwood/blaukunkt:aroung 4-6k

2)Front 2 way component
with crossover :6.5inch in door by adjustment tweeter in pillar around 4-6k(jbl/polk/infinity/hertz/rockford/focal/morel/rainbow)increasing order of quality

3)Rear :6.5inch oval around 3-5k(same as above)

4)Amp :jbl/dls/etcaround 8K(can be installed later)

5)sub :infinity/polk/or any other (first listen without sub i think this sys will sound good even without sub)

6)damping :must for the front doors :around 3k

PS:you can install point 4 and 5 later to keep the budget within 20k
place for install: if you can take pain to come to delhi then
1)motor concept
2)diven
are one of the best ICE installer in india

 

[greenhorn]

I'd say put a 6x9 in the back with a wooden tray, and an alpine head unit, and that should be all you need - no sub or amp required.

 

[matbhuvi]

I would strongly advice against putting anything in rear parcel tray. They are big spoilers of imaging. Zen has a beautiful flat dash. You will get very good staging if installed properly. Sub is not needed if your midbass has low fs (like 50-60Hz). Can be added later based on your taste. Go with what Piyush has suggested.

 

[gp_freak]

With 20 K budget, the options are very limited.
6.5 Driver will not fit the door pods even if your car came with. The sound signature of Infinity reference is far better than the primus series. But please do listen and understand.


I suggest to go all Infinity if you are not going for Amps as they are more sensitive and can run well from the moderate H.U power.

instead of parcel tray, you can consider the ready made speaker boxes for the rear coaxial 6*9. Even the Generic boxes do well for the coaxials.

The rear ones will act not only as rear fills, but also give some nice Bass kick and you may not require a sub.

6 K for Head unit
8 K for front Component speaker
4.5 K for rear 6*9
0.5 K for 2 nos rear 6*9 Box
1 K for installation, speaker rings for the front components.

If you want a Sub, then add another 8 K for 4 Channel Amp and 7 K for Sub and Box.

Run the front on AMP and bridge another 2 channels for the Amp.

If you are tight on budget, then you can get a 2 channel amp for 4 K and run the sub in bridged mode.

 

[venki7744]

instead of parcel tray, you can consider the ready made speaker boxes for the rear coaxial 6*9. Even the Generic boxes do well for the coaxials.

The rear ones will act not only as rear fills, but also give some nice Bass kick and you may not require a sub.

Sorry to say this but Coaxials are not designed for an enclosure, most of the car audio drivers have a Qts of around .7 for IB operation. So loading coaxials with a sealed box is to make it sound boomy and would spoil overall SQ.

I think by now OP would be totally confused

Cheers,
Venki

 

[kanna.sridharan]

I would invest on a HU + Front Components (a 5.25" if a 6.5" wont fit) + Sub + 4 channel amp + front door and boot door damping. Skip the rear speakers, it just helps getting things loud, which I feel is not necessary.

I dont think you'd be able to get the above under 20K, but you could take it step by step. First spend the 20K on the HU + components + front door damping, the sub + amp + rear boot damping at a later stage, which eventually will happen soon :lol:

 

[matbhuvi]

I think by now OP would be totally confused

Haha..the 1 post op is not gonna comeback into the evil HiFi forum

 

[gp_freak]

Sorry to say this but Coaxials are not designed for an enclosure, most of the car audio drivers have a Qts of around .7 for IB operation. So loading coaxials with a sealed box is to make it sound boomy and would spoil overall SQ.

I think by now OP would be totally confused

Cheers,
Venki

My friend, You are right about the coaxial. They are designed to work with the Boot as the enclosure. So with that in mind and with no T/S parameters we had the Infinity reference, Polk and JBl Coaxial run in generic box of small size, then the bigger one and then In parcel tray. Loved the way the Infinity performed in the bigger box with nice Bass(mid) response and punch with Zero boominess.

Next came the Polk with again zero boominess. I liked the laid back signature of Infinity.

JBL sucked literally till it was fed with proper power through Amp. Then it started singing.

You may test it for yourself. I will.more than happy ito apologise if it was boomy. My boxes were .6 Cuf I guess.

PS. I hate boomy bass.

 

[venki7744]

My friend, You are right about the coaxial. They are designed to work with the Boot as the enclosure. So with that in mind and with no T/S parameters we had the Infinity reference, Polk and JBl Coaxial run in generic box of small size, then the bigger one and then In parcel tray. Loved the way the Infinity performed in the bigger box with nice Bass(mid) response and punch with Zero boominess.

Next came the Polk with again zero boominess. I liked the laid back signature of Infinity.

JBL sucked literally till it was fed with proper power through Amp. Then it started singing.

You may test it for yourself. I will.more than happy ito apologise if it was boomy. My boxes were .6 Cuf I guess.

PS. I hate boomy bass.

No sire its designed to work on an Infinite Baffle. Good that the box worked for you, this approach is always a hit or miss (as you had mentioned about JBL). Unless u know/measure the T/S specs the box may not work for all the drivers. IMO there is no "one" generic box which would work for all the drivers.

For going lower its always better to go for a dedicated sub. I brought this up so that OP and other FM are not mis-guided into thinking that a coax in a box would be the solution for bass (rather than going for a dedicated sub).

Cheers,
Venki

 

[gp_freak]

No sire its designed to work on an Infinite Baffle. Good that the box worked for you, this approach is always a hit or miss (as you had mentioned about JBL). Unless u know/measure the T/S specs the box may not work for all the drivers. IMO there is no "one" generic box which would work for all the drivers.

For going lower its always better to go for a dedicated sub. I brought this up so that OP and other FM are not mis-guided into thinking that a coax in a box would be the solution for bass (rather than going for a dedicated sub).

Cheers,
Venki

Agreed. That's was the reason for the hands on testing. When we put the speakers in the parcel tray, It sags after an year or so and when we go in rough roads, we get the squeaky sounds repetitively from the parcel tray.

Not only that, it also hamper keeping taller luggage in the small boot like Alto/Zen. So that advise was based on all practical sense and Co axials are never touted as Sub replacement, but many are satisfied with Co axials and never need a dedicated sub.

Btw, 90% of the subs go in to generic boxes when installed and many low cost ones are one note subs to start with. They just give out muddy bass when playing fast beats or goes boomy.

But the car speakers / Sub are more accommodative and not like the ones we used in home. That is for sure.