Santro ICE - Installation & Tuning Queries

[razor4077]

Hey doc. How's the ICE sounding and behaving now? How about some updates in your Picasa album?

Hope the car was not affected by yesterday's deluge.

[hydrashok]

Originally Posted by nura

Is it important which end of an RCA cable goes into the HU & which end into the amp?
The reason I ask is that the two ends of my Audison interconnects are shaped slightly differently from each other.

Whoops! Just saw this post.

You can use either end. The ends are differently shaped just to aid installation. Normally, the "bent" ends are used at the amp-end and the "straight" ends are used at the HU-end.

[Sam Kapasi]

Some RCA cables are directional. They will generally have a direction arrow. Just make sure the arrows point towards the amplifier end.

[nura]

@ razor4077 - The ICE was sounding pretty good. Will probably sound even better with some tuning, but couldn't take out anytime due to work pressure.
A few years ago, when I had a Maruti 800, water had got in till dashboard height. This time, when water started entering our garage, I removed the amp, door-speakers (midbass) & crossovers & parked the car in my neighbour's slightly higher garage. The carpet is soaked, though. Will need to have it taken out & dried. I guess I'll be putting the removed ICE components back only after the carpet goes back in.
Hope your car & ICE were not affected.
@ Hydrashok - Thanks. I think my installer has accidentally put the RCAs the right way.
@ Sam - Thanks. I am not sure whether the Audison RCAs have these arrows, but the speaker cables do. I was under the impression the arrows were there just to make installation, dismantling & reconnecting easier. Installation & partial dismantling already experienced. Will be reconnecting in a few days, weather permitting.

[nura]

I am scouting around for an HU. I need to remove the front panel maybe 4-5 times everyday. Should I choose an HU with a motorised or a non-motorised (flip-down) panel?
What is the advantage of having a motorised front panel?

[razor4077]

As far as I know, a motorised panel just looks and feels "cooler"... very James Bond-ish
Dunno about any advantages apart from the coolness factor (gurus, correct me if I am wrong). In fact, they sometimes are a disadvantage... motorised panels are prone to malfunctioning (i.e, getting stuck). Have seen it in a couple of friends' cars.

[nura]

Thanks @ Razor4077.
Has anyone done a comparison between the Alpine 9887 & the Kenwood 9006?
Also, what are the problems a buyer will face if he doesn't have Imprint with the Alpine 9887?
Thanks in advance.

[hydrashok]

Originally Posted by nura

...
Also, what are the problems a buyer will face if he doesn't have Imprint with the Alpine 9887?...

There are no treble or bass controls till the 9887 is tuned with the IMPRINT kit (and MultiEQ) is activated. When the IMPRINT kit is used, all settings -- EQ, XO etc get locked and bass and treble controls get activated.

The face-plate is not motorised, just plain flip-down. But if you need to remove the face-plate every so often, this would be an advantage.

[nura]

@ Hydrashok - Thanks. From what you say, the Imprint kit doesn't seem to offer a great deal. Do you think 22K is ok for the 9887 with B & W? We have a distributor in Kolkata.

[hydrashok]

Well, actually there are a lot of good reviews about how well the Audyssey IMPRINT kit can tune the 9887 once installed.

From what I've read the Audyssey EQ is superior to other EQs, at least as far optimising things to the "sweet spot" is concerned. Denon, NAD, Marantz & Onkyo use the Audyssey EQ in some of their (Home) products. And reportedly the kit can get a truly flat response that is close to 95% of ideal.

But then, the kit needs to be bought separately (at considerable expense), and some really serious users need to use it with the 9887 and give their opinions about the before-after improvement in-car before we really can judge whether it is worth the extra.

22K sounds good enough (that's a 1K discount I guess) with B&W. Maybe you can also try and see if you can get the guy to throw in full-speed iPod cable (if you use an iPod) for free

[nura]

Yes. I did a bit of reading after my last post. The idea of the Imprint software automatically taking care of every acoustic challenge the vehicle throws up, seems pretty fantastic.
Maybe Alpine will come up with a special price for this part of the world.

[nura]

As posted earlier, I had to remove most of my ICE, a few days ago, when my garage started getting flooded. Well, yesterday I managed to put it all back in again & was pleasantly surprised that nothing blew up when I switched it on.
Today, I ordered an Alpine 9887 HU, with the local distributor. It's going to take 8-10 days to arrive from Gurgaon. Nobody seems to have a clue about the Imprint installation kit, though. Wonder if Alpine have started selling it in the US.

[DerAlte]

Good for you, Daktar-babu.

9887, WOW, you da maan! Ketna ka pada?

Imprint is an external software costing US$250, I think, and according to @hydrashok his Alpine HU worked fine without going that route.

[nura]

MRP of 9887 is 22,950. Getting it for 22K. Really like your command of languages & dialects, @DerAlte.

[nura]

Just added a few more pictures of my ICE here
Picasa Web Albums - nura - My Santro ICE...
Forgot to take pictures of the tweeters, which, incidentally, are on the dash.