WagonR - Peculiar Requirement

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by pt7

... 9884 and 9886 do have Balance, Treble, Balance Center, Treble Center etc adjustments or equilization settings built in.

... in other words, are these features omitted in the versions available in Asia (Inturn India) or these things are there in the set just that website does not mention? ...

Do we have anyone who has bought 9884 or 9886?

Treble, Treble Center etc. ARE the equalizer adjustments. 9887 has 7 band parametric equalizer, even if you don't use Imprint. 9886/9884 must be having a 3-band equalizer - you could get that confirmed.

There are a few members who have 9886 (not sure of 9884), some have installed it, and others are still waiting. Search - zak, mishraak, limpid, xetaGLGrocks, etc. have 9886. You could PM them to find out the exact provisions from the manual.

No, there is no India-specific omissions in the models of Alpine AFAIK.

[pt7]

Folks

Another day and another visit to an installer. This time at TecnoKrat in Chennai - phew!!! The place has moved from its earlier location (mentioned somewhere in another thread - I will update it there)

The vehicle standing around there for installation made my jaw drop!!! Here is the list ... Accord, Safari, Swift and hold your breath a cayenne S(Yes Sir) standing there... My car felt ashamed but I inisted!!! I met Bala (Who has been written much about) and he seems to know his stuff...Here is what I have been offered!!

1 - Alpine 7884/6/7 for 13.9/15.9/22k with B&W (I pod cable extra for 2k)
2 - Eclipse (Fujitsu) CD3100 for 18k (Never heard of this one before)
3 - DLS 6inch front comp for 9k
4 - Finally a full setup (Now here I dont know all the model numbers etc) but here is what:
Pio 6050 + 4inch Coaxial in front (the guy said since Wagon R's installation place is on dash - we dont need comp... The component are used to 'elevate' sound stage in case the woofer mounted on door - for WagonR does not need Comp) + 5.25inch coaxial in Back + One Amp + 10inch SW (Portable) = for speakers he mentioned that will be from kicker - dont know exact model etc == this complete stuff including installatino for 27k...(Guru's what is your opinion on this one)
5 - How are kicker speakers in general - are these good for getting a good 'Resolution' or these are preferred more for boom? Also pio - kicker combo - does anyone have it?
6 - Finally can guru's make a comment on the 'funda' on component and coaxial given? - That there is hardly a difference. Component are used only to elevate the sound stage to dash level when the woofer is in door...for the setup where speaker is on top of dash like WagonR it does not make a difference...The other difference he mentioned was that Coax has very rudimentary cross over - but in the setup mentioned above does not need high end comp as the entire bass would be routed through SUb and Coax will be used for Mid and High freq!!!??? Any comments???

Thanks!!!
PT

[cooldude1988765]

Components will definitely make a difference. There are not too many 4 inch components available (he might not stock them). Kicker are generally more boomy and dont offer too much sq IMO (based on my listening experience)

[pt7]

Finally I did upgrade the WagonR yesterday - the initial results are very interesting - good sound - here is the drill I went through.

[Recap: Consideration for the Car was more driven by the sound quality - clarity at all through spectrum...Budget although tight was a little flexible as this was going to be one time affair. The options were Pioneer 6050 Vs Alpine...Speaker selection (this was driven more by availability - as Wagon R stocks 4inch in front on dash - really not many choices) :( ]

Started at 10:30 on saturday...

1 - first was speaker selection...There were no 4 inch comps available with the guy - moreover he suggested since Wagon R has dash top mount speaker position - Components does not make much difference. Comps needed when sound stage needs elevation to listening ear position where the woofer is mounted on doors etc --- I was not in favor of any cut / splice in my car. So decided on 4 inch coax for front.

I did try out few options - Blau 4inch, Coustic 4inch (An MTX product), Ultimate 4inch (A canadian product) - Kicker (I decided not to go for that except for SW as lot of folks did not give a good opinion on Kicker regular speakers).

I did test out all 3 choices through temporary wiring. [Used fader control to switch off rear speakers. Used balance to compare between left and right - where left and right were different company's product. I tried this with and without a SW in the background] Another rather interesting observation I made was that sound improved automatically (Drastically too) when speaker was put inside the dash mount (Still not fastened)

Unfortunately Blau paled in comparison between Ultimate T2 Series and Coustic 4 inch...Ultimate gave a little rounded sound more rich with lower frequencies - Coustic gave sound which was tilted towards mid and high range...Change of song (Changed to Fade to black by metallica) brought out clean guitar sound on Coustic - the vocal and guitar sounded better on coustic...

Advantage Coustic

2 - Rear speakers there were a little more choices - Few high range like Boston, Kicker etc were thrown in. Here is where the guy suggested that to get a uniform sound signature, it is not advisable to go for different brands in front and rear - the sound matching becomes difficult. Since my consideration was front sound stage - decided the same brand for rear.

Match: Coustic

3 - Head Unit: This was more tricky part. My speaker testing was done through an Alpine 2DIN Unit that he had with him. So now it was turn to try out 2 different Head Units - Pioneer 6050 and Alpine (9884/9886/9887). I was tilting towards Pioneer due to 2 factors - Cost (At least 6-7 K more for Alpine) & features (Equilizers, Sound enhancer etc were not available on Alpine)

First tried out Pioneer 4050 (Did not have a 6050 handy) - did play few songs - ranging from Acoustic to Heavy Metal and to Hindi Oldies to Bhangara. The sound was nice. Controls were nice too. I played out the songs in 'Flat' equilizer to see 'unaltered' signature. IT sounded nice. I almost decided to give up testing Alpine - but then again pushed my self to further grind.

We replaced HU with Alpine - - A totally different sound. A lot more clear. Nice. Rounded. A lot of folks had advised me that for simple setup it does not make much difference - rather its not perceivable mostly - and here I was where I could make a world of difference between the products. I could hear string pluck / vibrations clearly on this one. Apart from the sound, the controls are very user friendly and display is also very better.

Match: Alpine. This decision pushed my budget by at least 10k more :'( Sad part but i had to part with that money - my banks are happy now with my increased credit card spend. Alpine HU cost me 15k + 2k for Ipod speaker compared to 8.5 for pioneer...Gosh...

4 - Amp and Sub: This i what i left on the guy. He gave an entry 2 channel Amp + 10 Inch Sub (Both Kicker). I did not want to part with boot space so got a portable enclosure for the sub that can be removed when needed...

So final line up is something like this:
Alpine 9886 HU (USB, IPOD, MP3, Imprint Ready)
Front 4inch Coax: Coustic CX402
Rear 6 inch Coax: CX603
Amp: Kicker Dx100.2
SW: Kicker C10

Modifications: Minimal. Rear speakers were fitted in Hatch Door - so Hatch Door plastic was replaced iwth a 1.5Cm thick wooden board and speakers mounted on that. SW came with enclosure. Amp was fitted below the Pillion seat.

The result: (first impressions) very clear, sweet, sound. Subwoofer can also pound so this system hardly has any problems switching between 'Neele Neele Ambar par' & "Du Hast. My speaker choice may rather seem unusual but the sound output is near perfect for me!!!

<<I will post pictures of install insubsequent posts>>

[speedzak]

Congratulations!
That is some good setup you've got and moreover, it is presented here in a very beautiful way.

Nice choice of a HU. That's worth the price you've paid for it's very good sounding, great features, easy controls and the build quality will astonish you in the long run.

Ipod speakers?
I think you meant iPod cable. Right?

Ultimate 4inch (A canadian product)

Was it a canadian? I always wondered where it was from.

[navin]

Originally Posted by pt7

<<I will post pictures of install insubsequent posts>>

post pictures and captions in a seperate thread in Sound Off and Show off section.

[pt7]

Originally Posted by speedzak

Congratulations!
That is some good setup you've got and moreover, it is presented here in a very beautiful way.

Nice choice of a HU. That's worth the price you've paid for it's very good sounding, great features, easy controls and the build quality will astonish you in the long run.

Ipod speakers?
I think you meant iPod cable. Right?


Was it a canadian? I always wondered where it was from.

1 - Yupp, I meant the IPOD Cable. I could connect IPOD to Pio thourgh USB connection and it recognize the folders fine - ID3 were not available. But for Alpine the USB does only show 'Folder 0 / Folder 1 and Folder 2' - not much userfriendly - you need extra cable to connect IPOD. With this Cable - now I can control my IPOD through HU just the same as IPOD's SW Interface (Genre / PlayList / Songs / Artists etc etc) so its quite user friendly.

2 - Ultimate is canadian. Ultimate Audio

[kaushykutti]

Excellent! Where did you get it done? Technokrat? Where did you buy the electronics from?

[pt7]

Originally Posted by kaushykutti

Excellent! Where did you get it done? Technokrat? Where did you buy the electronics from?

Yupp got it done at Technokrat - fairly expensive but decent job done.

Alpine is not available with B&W. Rates quoted by burma bazaar guys were almost same (- Minus the fear of cheating) - so i got all the electronics from the Tecnokart guy only...Rest of the gear is with warranty and so decided to buy from there only...