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My ICE on a BUDGET

Just wanted to share what I did which may help others who may be in a similar situation.

I already had a FOCAL SOLID 4 amp with me which I retrieved from my Fiesta - so that expenditure was saved

Requirement :

Clean, crisp sound with good sound staging and imaging
Minimal expenditure
Minimal removal of panels
Not to touch the Centre consol and HU at all
Minimum disruption to OE wiring

Thought about this for quite some time and made the following :

Instead of choosing components for all 4 doors OR choosing Components for front and Co-ax for rear doors, due to budget, i chose 4 x Rockford Fosgate Tri-axials at Rs. 3500 per pair for all 4 doors - Total Rs. 7000

Also mounted my earlier JL Audio Tweeters to the Front door sails as an addition to improve the imaging as they are fantastic tweeters. Wierd, probably, but..

Since this amplifier can take Line Level Inputs, WITHOUT touching the HU and centre consol, just tapped the speaker level inputs from all 4 doors and drew two lines to the amp - 1 for the input and the other one for the output back to the door

Connect all 4 speakers to the FRONT CHANNEL and now the amp see them as 2 Ohms load which is Ok for this amp as per specifications - NO FADING possible

Used a SPACER to mount the speakers and put a 1 foot x 1 foot Dampmat just behind the speaker magnets for minimal damping

Wires were neatly drawn through the door trims and Amplifier placed under the passenger front seat

Speaker wires, Power wire, fuses, installation, damp mat, spacer and all that costed me another Rs. 3000

Total Rs. 10000 for the installer and it sounded nice.

But, I wanted to complete the setup using a SUB WOOFER to take care of the low frequencies and anyway I have an amplifier and started the DIY last weekend. Again, budget was an issue.

Bought 2 x 6.5" DAINTY sub woofer drivers from Ritchie street for Rs. 1300 total. I chose this originally to squeeze it between the rear door and last row seat. But later decided to make a descent box which I have now put on top of the folded seats at the end. If this was the case, I could have gone for a 10" straight away, anyway, no regrets.

Made a rectangular box of 1 cu.ft volume without any dividers
Used 1/2 plywood cut to size - 2 pieces each, then FUSED them to make it 1" thick (had these plywood in my house, so no expenditure)
Lined up the sides and rear inside with FELT lining (had them earlier)
Bought a 6 feet x 1 meter Carpet (Rs. 300) and nicely covered the sub woofer enclosure
WIRED the sub woofers in SERIES to make it 4 Ohm load for the amp in BRIDGED mode
Man, it has become heavy due to 1" thick and absolutely solid
and it sounds FANTASTIC exactly as I like

TIGHT, CLEAN and sufficient low end to complete the dynamics. I may not need anything more that this

Even with this in the boot, i have sufficient space. This will only need to be removed from the car IF all 7 seats are occupied which is extremely rare for me. Removing is simply taking the wires off from the terminal.

My reference songs to ensure it works OK are below :

• Jennifer Warnes "THE HUNTER" album - Song Way down DEEP, some serious low end loose vibrating bass
• Eagles, Hotel California & Mark Knopfler "Private Investigation" songs to test the Sound Stage and the tighter bass respectively
• Varanam Ayiram Tamil movie songs to test the other instruments and Vocals

and it came out to my satisfaction.

Hope it helps.

Swami

Thank you for the detailed write-up. I recently bought an XUV and is looking for a ICE upgrade without touching HU and dash. Am planning to request this set-up to my local shop here as I'm not confident on doing it myself.

Btw, could you share some snaps of the set-up especially the one that show sub set-up?

Though its not a Niggle/Issue but a question to all XUV owners who have the latest W10 Model.

I had a plan to install a Sub-Woofer in my W10, hence approached a known person who is a good friend and he flatly denied stating that in this music system they can't fix the same. :Frustrati How true is this? Any one tried installing the sub-woofer?

Very much possible. I have it in my w10 though I have a bigger setup wherein I have replaced all factory speakers. You need to install a mono amp and converter in case you want to put sub alone. Any one of the speaker outputs can be tapped for this.

Hey NightHawk, hows the upgrade been? Was there an issue with in famous humming sound that comes due to high level inputs to amp?

Anyone else on the forum tried this same product? I am interested given it has DSP integrated. Would that be a significant ROI?

Hi Abhi182,
I will be getting my XUV w6 automatic delivered in March and planning for the same setup! Just wanted to know a couple of things:

1. How is the wiring done through the built-in touch screen? Is there any provision for RCA to attach the woofer? How easy it is to attach to the stock setup?

2. Where did you place the woofer? I'm planning to keep it in the trunk (in standing position)

3. What if at the same price I upgrade the stock nippon speakers to Kicker/Rockford/Polk audio coaxial speakers?

Mod note: Post moved, please use Search before opening a new thread. Topic already exists. Thanks.

Folks, Greetings to all and hope its been a good start to the monsoon to all BHPians out there...

I own a XUVee W6 and is a 2013 model. I am in the middle of my own XUVee facelift (of which I will post my experience a little later), I am looking to upgrade the speakers.

Stating a fact, the stock speakers in the XUV are pathetic and I finally have grown tired of listening music in retro mode ...

So my XUVee speakers need an upgrade and so does my knowledge of the ICE world. I have tied up myself in knots trying to figure out the bits and pieces of ICE world, the 2-way, 3-way speakers, the components, the multi-channel amps and so on.. and here's where I need your help and advice...please:

The requirement -
The head unit will stay as-is as various other controls seem to be integrated and I also do not want to disturb on that end.

I am also not a "bass" person so the sub can also take its time and with the rest of the mods on my XUVee, a 15K (stretchable a bit) budget also does allow space for a sub.

At this point, I am looking for a good set of speakers, if not mind blowing ones, a set certainly much much better than the stock ones. I do listen to all kinds of music starting from KL Saigal to Benny Dayal, from Beatles to Enigma to some moderns ones including Indian classical instrumentals.

So, as a starting point I am looking at a decent set of speakers. The questions I have are noted below. While I have tried to go thru'
lots of posts on that, I am not sure if I can make sense of the specs or alterations mentioned in various posts are valid to XUVee. Since I'm new to
this ICE stuff, I also ended up confusing myself.:Frustrati

So to start,
1. How does #A whether to go for components at the front and coaxials at the rear (middle row)
compare with #B component systems at both front and rear in XUV ?

2. My Options for a good speaker upgrade are..
Option #1 is POLK DB6501 Component system and Polk db651 co-axial speakers for the middle row.
Option #2 is JBL CS-760CSI 6.5 Inches 2-Way 360W Component for front and Polk db651 co-axial speakers for the middle row.
Can I mix and match JBL for component and Polk for coaxials like option #2 above ?

3. Does it need any alterations on the OEM wiring starting from head unit or is it just plug the speakers and forget ?

4. For a speaker upgrade, do I need an Amp, Do I really need a 4-channel amp only keeping in view of possible addition of a sub at a later date ?

5. I am not a fan of Bass and hence don't need Subwoofer, so do I still need an amplifier given that the component sytems above already have crossover filters?
(So how different is a crossover to an Amplifier?)

6. I see some good deals on Amazon, or other e-tailers, Is it worth buying there from the Warranty and service perspective?

7. Do I need to get damping done to the doors ? Is it mandatory ?

Any help on the questions above will be really appreciated !!

Mr. Swami,
What you've done looks to me like something I want to do to my XUVee. Thanks as it gave an idea of how it looks like. I looked into lots of posts and ended up confusing myself (am new to ICE) and this helps a bit.

Hello, I’m looking for suggestions on amplifiers and sub woofers. I plan to maintain the stock head unit and speakers, looking for 5 channel amplifier to power 2 front and 2 back speakers and a sub woofer. Need suggestions for a good detachable sub woofer too.
Also, any recommendations in Bangalore for a good buy and fitting. Thanks!

Contact Sachin's autoshop in Kormangala. They are usually good and have a complete wiring kit can allow installation of any setup with Amps and components. Holds good for the new gen XUV.
For the older gen, you can opt for JBL soundstage, which is recommended by Mahindra as well.

Audio Experts - need some advice.

I am planning to buy a XUV500 - W6 in the next couple of weeks and planning right now to put together a plan to upgrade it once I take delivery of the vehicle. have removed items from my prev car and have some items already with me.

This is what I currently have

Head unit - Pioneer 8890 BT

Component - Polk Audio - DB series - DB6501

Subwoofer 12 inch - MTX - RT1204

DLS 4 channel - XM 40 - 400 Watts RMS

Acoustics Class D - Mono

Power Cables & RCA - Pretty good quality ( Kanban)


I do intend to buy one more pair of components to be used at front and will move the Polk DB components to rear door.

With the loads of ACC and other features of XUV inbuild within the factory infotainment, getting away with that and replacing with after HU doesnt seem be an option.

I can spend an additional 75 K over and above the existing items I already have.

1. What would be the best way to draw inputs from Stock HU to amp. DLS XM 40 does take in Line inputs.

2. How does one feed input to the MonoBlock. Would line out from 4 channel work as input feed to Mono Block.

3. Not a fan of HI low convertors. how does LC 7 score or do we have some better DSP options.

4. what would be the suggestion for front components. XM 40 can drive upto 100 watts RMS per channel at 2 ohms and drops down as Impedence increases

5. Ideal place to fix the amps. Tail area doesnt seem to be a place of choice to me.

all 7 seats wont be used mostly and last row can be kept folded.

Note - All my prev installs have been done by Anwar ( Top gear , Bangalore), pls do allocate some amount of that 75 K I can afford to Damping. I do have good quality cables and RCA already in hand.

Regards, Vijay.

I finally decided upgrade the sound quality on my XUV 500. Its Jan 2016 W6 model, yes it has monochrome stock system. It was ridiculous to listen through this setup. However i never really bothered as i had already spent a lot to buy the car.

Few days ago I finally decided to go for an upgrade and after lot of research. I went to EVO in Bangalore and Satya was amazing with his recommendations based on what I needed. I did not want to change the stock system.

My upgrade included
Focal Auditor+ RSE - 165PSI components for the front
Focal Auditor+ RCX 165PSI coaxial speakers at the rear
Focal Auditor+ AP-4340SI 4 channel Amp
Acoustica wiring kit & other wiring stuff and converter!
Damping for all 4 doors - 5 full sheets to cover 4 doors, it was a brand by STP.

The overall cost including installation was 38K. and I had to stretch around 10K from my original budget. However I did not want cell foam damping as I also wanted to ensure NVH and other niggles also stop with damping.

Two thumbs up to Satya for amazing tuning and getting everything setup as per my requirement and specifications. I loved the attention to detail.

There are lot of rumors about fake Focal products. I again did my research here and ensured I got original focals. The original ones are apparently only imported from Sahil International in Mumbai. I also inquired at Focal website over email about Auditor+ products and they are genuine and custom made for certain geographies.

Feedback: its been 2 days and oh my GOD. The clarity of vocal, quality of bass, sharpness of treble is amazing. Definitely huge improvement then my stock and i just love it. Just know for me what mattered was great quality of sound/music and am not so much into loudness.

Attaching some photos for reference!

Cheers!
Arun

Congratulations on your new ICE, that's a nice simple setup. Satya does good work as you clearly know by now. Enjoy the music :)

Great setup by all standards.
I, for one, believe that focal provides one of the best sound reproduction at the higher end of affordability. I have a focal polyglass in the front and RF prime in the rear door combined with a pathetic JBL 1200 sub, powered through JBL 4340 4 channel amp. Need to visit Sachin's autoshop this weekend to add another hertz 2 channel amp to power the woofer and have the speakers all powered by the JBL amp.
Hope it works out the way I want. Else will go with auditor+ for the rear as well as push off the sub and RF prime in the seconds market.

P.S. anyone planning for focal products, may let me know. I may be able to help crack a good deal through my contact.

Yet another XUV500 (as new as Aug 2018!) unhappy with sound.

My requirement is increase in bass. I am looking at options like JBL GTO600c + JBL coaxial (14k+4k) OR POLK DB+6502 + POLK DB+ 652 (11k+6k). POLK option the guy told me works well even without amps!

So a quick question, do coaxials provide the bass or the comps? My take was coaxials. However 1 shop in koramangala, blr said JBL GTO600C (reminded me of our GTO :) ) gives awesome bass BUT another shop said POLK coaxial gives good base and comps dont generally give bass.

PS: I am not referring to chest thumping bass and neither do I want a subwoofer setup.