Wife's Corolla gets BULL Audio - Install & Opinions

[autopsyche]

Hi All,

We already had a discussion about my car in the BULL Audio review thread, but i guess i didnt want to hack into someone else's discussion, and since this is an install pictorial alongwith an initial feedback i guess it deserved a seperate thread.

So it was time to ICE the wife's Corolla again. The car had a Hertz setup earlier but i did away with it a while back. Bull looked promising and frankly, since the earlier setup was overkill for the wifey, I wanted to spend comparitively less this time and get to a setup that would suffice for her audio needs.

Since I already had a Kenwood 8529 HU, I got the Bull stuff: a 4ch amp, 6.5" Components and 6x9 ovals and started the install. Here is my unbiased review of the same...

Initial impressions: Packaging was nothing spectacular, infact i thought the pictures on the box cover were too overdone but excusable. Now to the actual stuff. I openened the components first. The midbass is built very well. The first thing I noticed was the quality of the paint on the speaker basket, very nice. The Bull logo on the center thingy of the midbass was also finished well. There were more screw holes than I remember other speakers having, I'm told this is for compatibility with japanese, euro and american cars. The cone material also looks cool with a silver carbon weave kinda effect. There is long cable included with the midbass with connectors on the midbass side and bare cable on the other.

Onto the tweeters, they came ready to mount in a swivel housing which i thought was the best feature in this set. They have a longer attched cable than other tweeters. Again, the finish was quite nice and the swivel works very well. The crossover has a mesh on its top cover and apart from the couple of things inside that I didnt knew about initially, had a loud/soft switch inside that i came to know later was for the different settings for tweeter.

We made spacers out of half inch MDF and mounted the midbasses in the front doors. The tweeters went into the sail panels that were already cut due the the hertz tweeters installed there earlier. Though we had to enlarge the hole as these tweeters were slightly larger. The ovals went into the rear stock locations. I noticed the ovals also had similar build quality as the components. The 4ch amplifier was also solidly built. We used an old Audison wiring kit that I has lying around and installed the cables and amp.

Once done, we put back together the car and it was time for a listen. I must say I was expecting good things and I wasnt disappointed. Since the earlier system had a 12" sub, I was expecting lack of bass but was willing to live with it. But... So i put in a Chemical Bros CD and the first thing I noticed was the there was loads of bass. I increased the volume to near 34 (35 being the max) and the bass just kept getting better and better. There is lot of kick happening even without a sub, and the amp is rated only 50w x 4!! The ovals were playing louder than the fronts so I set the fader to F6 and that brought the sound stage upfront more to my liking (my other car has only front speakers so im more used to that).

Impressed already, I played more music from Michael Jackson to AR Rahman. The sound stage was deep and detailed but a tad veiled. I was expecting the tweeters to be a bit bright as expected in this price segment so had set them to the "soft" setting on the crossovers. Now tried them on the "loud" setting and wow... they are really smooth. I remember thinking, the overall sound is more laid back than the Hertz Energy comps I has ealier. In fact, its more in the region of the Hertz hi-Energy comps. (Since i have used these two ranges of speakers earlier extensively it is easier for me to compare with them) But wait... these only cost Rs 4.5K lol.

Overall, I am pleasantly surprised (shocked is more apt) at the SQ as well as SPL capabilities of these speakers. I can easily say that they are among the best I have heard in this range and can give any speaker under 10k a run for their money.

Since it has already been a VFM investment for me, in true TBHP tradition, I'm already thinking of adding a Bull 2ch amp and subwoofer which i had opted out earlier to save on the budget! Looking forward for the second phase of upgrades now that will happen sooner than i thought. Cheers.


Total Budget:

- Front Speaker BULL 6.5" Components: Rs.4,490
- Rear Speakers BULL 6x9 Coaxials: Rs.3,990
- Amplifier BULL 4ch x 50watt: Rs.8,990
- Speaker Wire 15m x 80: Rs.1,200
- RCA Cables x 2: Rs.2,000
- Amp Power Kit: Rs.3,500
- MDF Amp Carpetted Mount & Rings: Rs.1,000
- Install Labor: Free for the wifey


Product & Install Pics follow....

[autopsyche]

More Pics follow.......

[adityamunshi]

Nice detailed write up!

Build Quality looks impressive from the pics.

[Magma]

wow at last some nice detailed pics,
lovely review as well
NOw we have an answer to " my budget is only 10-15K".
Escept the amp which to me looks a tad expensive in comparison ( being a 50*4rms)
May i ask what happened to the setup you had earlier and why exactly did you remove it and upgrade/downgrade to bull?

[noidaboy]

Nice set of pics and writeup! Finally what tweeter setting are you running? soft or loud?

[autopsyche]

Thanks Magma, I was driving my wife's car earlier while my other car was being worked upon for a few months last year. After i switched back to my regular car there was no need for that expensive a setup in the corolla and since i was getting a good deal on the stuff i sold it off and converted it back to stock. Now a few months down the line my car is again going into its second phase of work so i shall be shifting back to the corolla. Now like all of you, i cannot simply sit with stock speakers in the car i decided to get something in advance but this time i was on a budget crunch hence the result is what we have now My other car however is getting the expensive upgrade soon, there will be details on it a couple months down the line.

And as far as the amp is concerned, i definitely feel 50w is nothing feeble. In numbers yes, but while listening to it, itll put a lot of amps with fake numbers on them to shame. The earlier setup was on a 5 channel Audison SRx amp (that was almost four times more expensive)... gave 50w to the speakers as well, and i can positively say this setup sounds almost equivalent if not better at top volume levels.

Noidaboy: Tweeters are set to Loud now, i liked it better that way. I hate lots of trebble but i realised they give more depth to vocals and strings this way rather than just giving more treble.

[ramie2400]

Thats a nice review arush bhai,i liked the build quality of the drivers.The installations done is very neat and impressive so we have another VFM upcoming brand something new to try now ..cheers and happy ICEing

[noidaboy]

Plans for getting a BULL sub? i think thats the only thing missing.

[autopsyche]

Oh yeah definitely, next addition is an Enclosed and Ported BULL 12" Subwoofer and an additional BULL 2.100 Amp (Bridged 1 x 150w) for it. Already added a spare RCA for it this time around so its gonna be a quick one

[noidaboy]

Originally Posted by autopsyche

Oh yeah definitely, next addition is an Enclosed and Ported BULL 12" Subwoofer and an additional BULL 2.100 Amp (Bridged 1 x 150w) for it. Already added a spare RCA for it this time around so its gonna be a quick one

Nice,i heard the above,on a kenwood amp against a hertz 15" woofer,and trust me,it was almost the same.

[aZa]

Woah!! Neat setup arush, the speakers really do look nice. We all know about the Components being good and VFM, i would like to know how the 6x9 coaxials sound ?

[autopsyche]

aZa, honestly speaking i havent sat in the back and listened to the ovals isolated... But i can tell you that as a whole setup when i listened to them the first time with the fader set on zero, there was a lot lot more bass from the rear than from the components. But since im more attuned to a front stage i moved the fader forward on impulse and it has been that way since then. I have no doubts however in the capabilities of the coaxials.

[navin]

Originally Posted by autopsyche

aZa, honestly speaking i havent sat in the back and listened to the ovals isolated... But i can tell you that as a whole setup when i listened to them the first time with the fader set on zero, there was a lot lot more bass from the rear than from the components. But since im more attuned to a front stage i moved the fader forward on impulse and it has been that way since then. I have no doubts however in the capabilities of the coaxials.

the 6x9 suually would sound louder. They are operating in a much larger box (trunk) than the front components (door). a nicer way to set the sound stage would have been to adjust the gains to turn the 6x9 down.

The XO is a rather simple 1st order crossover but the part quality looks good. What surprised me is that instead of an L pad (that will maintain the equivalent resistance the same) on the tweeter all they put is a 3ohm resistor (presumably in series) with the tweeter. This means that when you switch from loud to soft not only is the level of the tweeter going down but also is XO frequency! ouch!

3.3ufd at 4oohms = 12khz (guys if this looks high remember it is 1st order)
3.3ufd at (4+3) ohms = 7kHz

also since you have used self taping screws to intall the 6x9s can you change these to a machine screw and nut and then put some loctite on the nut. It will be nicer for the long run. besides the sharp edges of the self taping screws can damage a leather bag in the trunk.

[greenhorn]

funny thing is , their specs say that ALL bull speakers are uniformly 89 dB. usually for most speakers , the sensitivities vary, with the 4" coax's being the least , and the 6x9's being the most

[ashthedivx]

Whoa... a clean setup, build quality also looks nice to me. Only missing thing i found is the enclosed SUB !!

congrats !!