[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by gkannan

80PRS is one of the best VFM audiophile head unit. The only glitch is the plasticky feel about it.

Feel is ok. Hope nothing breaks.

I won't be going active soon. Budget constraints, and also would like to go ahead in well defined stages. Will take up an active setup as the next stage after few years.

How bad is the build quality? Parts can fall off with careless handling?

Originally Posted by SunnyBoi

80PRS is an excellent head unit. I'm running 3 way active in my car with the 80PRS and couldn't be happier.

Nice. Can you please explain the setup, if possible? Curious.

Originally Posted by SunnyBoi

Its not an easy head unit to live with.

Any major negatives?

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Came across (a discussion in another forum on) a not so popular feature of the Pioneer 80PRS. It's capability to go active with the tweeters powered by the in built amplifier, while the four channel amplifier can be taken from the pre outs and used to power the component mids and the sub.

Is this worth experimenting? And would it have any definitive advantages in sound quality as compared to an active setup?

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Did not pick up the 80PRS afterall, since I felt it was a bit too much of a stretch for my budget and the rest of the system may not do justice to such a brilliant head unit, ever. And the fact that there was an uncertainty on the amount customs would charge on the unit. nkrishnap went ahead with the 80 PRS upgrade though.

I once again started looking at other options and realized that there were no middle level options in the single din space. It was either 10 - 12k head units or the 24k 80PRS.

Pioneer DEH 80PRS:

+ Absolutely drool worthy stuff. Excellent reviews everywhere.

- Price of 24.8k after import and customs charges. Had to let go of this one due to my budget concerns.

JVC KD R80 BT:

+ Good features for the price.
+ TI/Burr-Brown 24-bit DAC, 3 high (4.8V) volt RCA pre-outs, 2 phones conneted full time.

- External bluetooth module. Would be concerned if i had to leave the car at the service center.
- No active capabilities incase i need it for future upgrades. No Time alignment.
- BHP'ian sidindica picked it up for Rs 8990/- an year ago. Currently it retails at 10,366 at Snapdeal, after its discontinued. That didn't feel a nice proposition and hence striked off the list.

Pioneer DEH 8750 BT:

+ Good features for the price.
+ 3 high (4.8V) volt RCA pre-outs, Almost unlimited choice of colour customization, good bluetooth options.

- Looks bland and many reviews suggested the interface takes some time getting used to.


Had decided to purchase the 8750 BT, when one fine day I get a message from nkrishnap asking if the Clarion CZ703A could be an option. Our installer mentioned that he could source one piece at a special rate from the distributor.

Now, I had heard of this head unit earlier here -

But it looked expensive back then, and I thought it wouldn't be available in India post the trial import. Turns out I was wrong, although not for long. Decided to go for the Clarion instead

Clarion CZ703A:

+ Excellent features for the price.
+ 3 high (5V) RCA pre-outs, Digital time alignment,
+ 3-way (2-way front + subwoofer) active capable like the 80PRS.
+ Good reviews on the sound signature of clarion being very natural compared to the entry level Pioneer units below the 80 PRS.

- The unit was going to be discontinued in India mostly, and hence the special price. But anyways the other options were also the same. DEH 80PRS was only an import, JVC R80BT was discontinued long back and only available on snapdeal at higher price, Pioneer authorised dealers also had no clue about the 8750BT and was pleasantly surprised when Evo confirmed they could source one. But anyways it was going to be risky proposition with any of these players.
- Doesn't play WAV via USB. Not a big deal for me since the better-half managaes the pain of maintaining the music collection. I just need something that plays that music in the best way possible within my budget.

Sounded like 80% of what 80PRS had to offer at around 65% of the price. Confirmed the unit and it has arrived with the installer now. Installation sometime later this week.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Some pics from the installation -

Stock Delphi HU -



Fascia plate from Konnects brand. Purchased for Rs 900/- INR with the help of BHP'ian nkrishnap.



Stock HU comes out -



Clarion Packaging -



Made for Clarion Malaysia. Made in China. MRP of Rs 19,990/- I had to pay a little more than 80% of that price.



First look at the faceplate.



3 RCA pre-outs. Good build quality. Heat sinks seems to be good quality stuff, so I guess it can be run for longer periods without much of a worry.



Dashboard with the fascia in place.



Powering it up for the first time.



Final look -




First Impressions -

+ Very clean sound. The tweeters specially seems transformed and are producing very pleasing notes.
+ Inbuilt amplifier can be switched off which improves the sound further. But I need it to power the rear speakers.
+ Build quality of the face plate seems good enough to last a few years atleast.

- Volume seems to be on the lower side. However, I have set the amplifier to match the 5V input given by the HU (In other words, amplifier gains set to minimum?). Very clean notes, but not for head banging stuff.
- The UI is a royal pain. Makes even the poor FIAT blue&me stuff seem so well designed. But guess its only a matter of getting used to.
- Display brightness is too dull too be visible in the afternoon.


Yet to get the remote control though, as the dealer says it is yet to arrive from the distributor.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Took my time with this post, since it is not going to be a pretty one. The HU upgrade done back in December has turned out to be a major disappoinment with multiple issues that need to be addressed now.

1. Choice of installer -

a) Loose wiring in the cabin and several new rattles introduced after install. The clips on the left side of the fascia console seem to have been broken during the install and glue applied to avoid rattles, but it does anyways! The below picture should give an idea of the wiring issue. I'll need to clip the wiring behind the steering column myself since it obstructed with a braking situation few days back!



b) RC cable issues - Not sure if it is the quality of cables or not, but the cables are just too loose fitting with the amplifier. It plays on and off every five minutes rendering the sub (and the music) useless. It plays at random on and off, and replugging the wire makes it play for another 10 minutes before the whole drama starts again.

c) Tuning - The boys at Evo completely manage the installation on their own without the supervision of the owner. So I was pretty excited when the owner came in at the tuning stage, got into the car on his own and started playing some tracks from his collection. 10 minutes later, he invited me to the car to listened to the setup.

Which i found as totally boomy and with the midbass and sub dominating everything else. Pointed out the same to him, and he only said - "Thats because you have been listening to the wrong music till now. This is how it should sound". Pretty much a direct poke, but said thanks, paid up and left probably wondering if I was wrong since I was used to the weak FIAT HU.

But no, other BHP'ians who listened to the setup were disappointed as well. Even with a high quality original CD, the bass was too boomy to make out the different notes. And it took a good two weeks of tuning to finally get the setup sound anywhere near to what I wanted.

By the way - he also didn't know the head unit was active capable till i pointed out the specs. Wasn't bothered to do a background check on the product he was selling considering the low volumes I guess.

2. Choice of head unit -

Made two mistakes with the selection of the head unit. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have made a last minute switch of the unit with little time to research on it.

a) "Amp guard" protection - The Clarion HU comes with amp guard protection which tries to prevent the internal amplifier from overheating when music is played at higher volumes. Yes, i had seen the same in international reviews. What i did not expect is that the 'higher volumes' mentioned there is rather low by any standards.

Since I have a four channel amplifier powering the front and sub stage, idea was to power the rear speakers using the HU. And the HU doesn't support anything near to medium or high volumes.

b) Lack of flac/wav support - Underestimated the importance of good wav support since I never took the pain to manage the music collection. Wife used to do it for me. Little did i realize that she would understand the importance of flac files after listening to good CDs in the new system and switch most of her music to those formats.

Way forward

1. I need to tie the cables beneath the steering column. Should not be a hard fix.

2. Amp Guard issue is probably the most difficult to fix. If I need to play the rear speakers ( and it can't be skipped), I think I would need to invest in an amplifier. Would need to wait for the next budget (and issues at home with further spending on music!)

3. RC cable issue need to be sorted. Just waiting to see if I can take it up along with the amplifier upgrade. Will need to go ahead with this one, if amp upgrade gets delayed.

4. Not much can be done for wav support since I use an archaic iphone 4S 8 GB as well.

[sandeepmohan]

I noticed that you have used damping material extensively on the metal door frame. Does the application of damping material on the metal door frame, arrest the vibrations from the plastic door panel?

I don't have a set up like yours. However; on upgrading my speakers to Diamond Audio's, all running off the stock unit, my door panels start vibrating from a gain level of just 10. The rear door panels seem really weak.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

I noticed that you have used damping material extensively on the metal door frame. Does the application of damping material on the metal door frame, arrest the vibrations from the plastic door panel?

I don't have a set up like yours. However; on upgrading my speakers to Diamond Audio's, all running off the stock unit, my door panels start vibrating from a gain level of just 10. The rear door panels seem really weak.

Is the speaker directly installed on the door panel? You could try installing with a wooden spacer. That should help, and would be cheaper than damping.

Damping can be done later if this doesn't help.

Attachment 1501623

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Is the speaker directly installed on the door panel

Both the front and the back speakers are mounted on spacer rings. The front door panels rattle but need a more gain to start. The rear requires very little gain from a bass heavy track and the panel starts vibrating.

I am not very clear on how damping helps with regard to reducing plastic door panel noise as the damping material is fixed to the metal door frame, which is for better acoustics more than arresting vibrations from the door panel. I've been advised in another thread to apply the damping material on the plastic door panel. Not quite sure how this helps.

I am also pretty sure that the driver unit isn't touching the plastic door panel.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Way forward

1. I need to tie the cables beneath the steering column. Should not be a hard fix.

2. Amp Guard issue is probably the most difficult to fix. If I need to play the rear speakers ( and it can't be skipped), I think I would need to invest in an amplifier. Would need to wait for the next budget (and issues at home with further spending on music!)

3. RC cable issue need to be sorted. Just waiting to see if I can take it up along with the amplifier upgrade. Will need to go ahead with this one, if amp upgrade gets delayed.

4. Not much can be done for wav support since I use an archaic iphone 4S 8 GB as well.

Small update -

1. Fixed with tie cables.

2. Waiting for budget.

3. While I'm waiting for the amplifier budget, temporarily fixed this issue was ignoring the sub out from the head unit and using the cross over on the amplifier to split the sub and front component signals.

From the HU - the full signal is fed to the amplifier while amplifier splits LPF 60Hz for the sub, and HPF 90Hz for the front components.

4. Moved on from iPhone 4S to an Android phone with 64GB capacity. With Jetaudio player and lossless music streaming over Bluetooth - it sounds better than playing from the HU.

Trying to learn if their are any limitations in using Bluetooth streaming over AUX input to the HU.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

A monoblock gets added

A good friend was kind enough to let me used his old unused monoblock amplifier, and this gave me an opportunity to sort all issues with the earlier install at Evo. The newcomer to the setup is an old but capable (atleast for my setup) JBL GTO 300.1

Current Setup

Audio Source - Oppo F1+ smartphone. Jetaudio player with 20band EQ to help with the 5 band EQ of the Clarion.
Head Unit - Clarion CZ703A.

Front Stage - PHD MF 6.2 Kit.
Rear Stage - PHD FB 6 co-ax: Rs 3850/-
Amplification - DLS X-Program XA-40 4 channel amplifier.

Subwoofer - JBL GTO 804
Amplification - JBL GTO 300.1

Installation - High Definition Cars, Jayanagar.

Very thorough job though the installer takes his own sweet time to get things done. Can't complain though, as he worked only on my car during the time period and his attention to detail was really a pleasant surprise after the Evo experience.

They even made sure all the earlier wiring issues were corrected even though I never requested them to! Wires were all clipped in place and adequate protection was provided at the joints. They were also clipped to the seats so that I can use the split folding feature for both the seats now.

Didnt expect this much, else I would have taken a round of 'before-after' pictures for the sake of comparison. Anyways, let the pictures do the talking.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

2. Choice of head unit -

Made two mistakes with the selection of the head unit. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have made a last minute switch of the unit with little time to research on it.

a) "Amp guard" protection - The Clarion HU comes with amp guard protection which tries to prevent the internal amplifier from overheating when music is played at higher volumes. Yes, i had seen the same in international reviews. What i did not expect is that the 'higher volumes' mentioned there is rather low by any standards.

Since I have a four channel amplifier powering the front and sub stage, idea was to power the rear speakers using the HU. And the HU doesn't support anything near to medium or high volumes.

b) Lack of flac/wav support - Underestimated the importance of good wav support since I never took the pain to manage the music collection. Wife used to do it for me. Little did i realize that she would understand the importance of flac files after listening to good CDs in the new system and switch most of her music to those formats.

Amp guard protection is not an issue anymore since I have external amplification for front, rear and sub channels and hence the internal amplifier of the HU can be switched off. Phew! That one was a pain.

For the lack of FLAC/ WAV support - I switched my iPhone to an Oppo F1+ and never been happier. The sound quality over bluetooth is leagues ahead and it supports all loseless formats. A 20 band Graphic equalizer supported by the JetAudio player app has come in handy as well to tune the music around the limitations imposed by the simpler 5 band equalizer on the Clarion HU.

The next step was to mount the phone in a way it can be used in a convenient manner as a stock HU. Magnetic cell phone holder came to the rescue. Detailed update can be had here http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ml#post4013546

End result shown below -

Next plans?

May be a better SQ sub, but all that can wait. Enjoying the current setup and tune now as I haven't had such a nice audio source till date. Learning new definition in older songs heard many times over the years. Listening to AR Rahman has never been more satisfying.


Disclaimer - I didn't get the system tuned from High Definition Cars and hence not sure how good they are at it. I chose to do it myself. My comments about the quality of the work is only on the quality of installation.