Once upon a time, a Qualis was ICED. (Again!)

speedzak · 30th March 2007, 01:05

Aaaaah....... Finally it is done!

I thought the install was completed on monday as told earlier. I only got a chance to see and hear the car this morning. And only to blame my stupidity, the amp which was supposed to be put in this car was lying somewhere in my office/home (it was fitted in my Alto and this alto was being repaired after it met with another crash last thursday. No, I was not driving it.) The person who was supposed to deliver it to Zuhemi couldn't find it (he said so)

.

Found the amp today and went to complete the install. All the install jobs were finished on monday other than fitting in the amp. A very quick job it was and within 15-20 mins, the system was turned on. I didn't want to interrupt Zuhemi when he was tuning the setup and decided to have a coffee standing a bit far from the car (I didn't even know when the cup was emptied, my whole attention was grabbed on ICE).
After some quality time spent, I was called in to listen to the setup. MAN!! What a disappointment it was!! Zuhemi was looking very upset too. He tried infinite number of CDs and different kinds of music. It was just sounding CHHIN CHHAK CHHIN CHHAK BHOOM!! I almost gave up listening and came out from the car. A completely dissatisfied man! I was.

Now, the brainstorming session started. Yes, the first session was done before we started all this and when the budget was fixed at 25k. Now, things seemed different. Budget became a hazy view in mind and almost everything from Hertz HSKs, Audison SRX, to Polk momos were discussed and thought of. I stayed firm in my decision to do an only Hertz speaker setup and didn't want to change to another Sub than the one installed (It is not a Hertz). I even tried to get a pair of 6.5 midbass drivers airshipped from some of the Delhi sardars (ofcourse, thru the dealer).
But then, the problem in the setup was that the sound was too bright to my liking. Yes, a lot treble. Due to the highs, the mids were completely over shadowed. Adjusting treble levels in the HU made not much of a difference. I like mellow tweets and I was sure these speakers were not bad in delivering what I was looking for. I had been listening these in many different installs. Maybe it couldn't match a 6.5" in midbass section, but everything else would play great.

We decided to parallely connect the rear speakers also to the front channels in the amp assuming if the amp was putting more than what the speaker actually needs. Job done, but again I was far from satisfied.

Now, I asked for another HU to be connected to the setup and see if things could be sorted out. Looked around for some other HUs and something which also matched my necessities. I am a strict Pio man. Most of you guys here know that by just reading my 'HeadUnits changed.... Gone mad' thread. So, I stuck to my demand for the same here too. But after fitting in one more and getting almost the same results (now, this improved model even had parametric eq, EQ ex etc...) I decided to give a try to a very unliked and overpriced Alpine! (I was avoiding this name for some time). Zuhemi was sure it could make a lot of difference and will also give some more options to fine tune the setup. I nodded my head in affirmative but still in 2 minds.

The vehicle was again moved in for a change. 4th time, the HU assembly was being removed after I started this install. There were some extra work to be done to get the HU fit in comfortably. An iPod full speed connector cable was also put in this time (it was AUX in earlier).
The system was turned on. Voila!! It was gone. The speakers were playing clean. Then, some necessary tune ups in the amp and HU were done and it was sounding just too good.
Now, changing from PIO to Alpine has made me satisfied unlike my earlier experience. I was smiling again now.

So, let me list down the thingys which have gone into the setup.
1. Hertz DSK130 5.25" component speakers (front and rear).
2. Blaupunkt MPA4 4channel amp.
3. Audison and Visionik cabling.
4. AzComp sound dampening mats.
5. Alpine 9856 HU.
6. iPod full speed connector (k422i).
7. Infinity kappa 10" sub woofer in sealed box.
Some things listed here may come as a surprise to many due to the budget limit of 25k said in the beginning of this thread. Huh, but it couldn't be kept inside that.

Now, the system plays very clean and sounds purrrfect. Many old tracks felt new and fresh in this setup. I started enjoying the iPod better too. I left the place with very satisfied ears and mind. Drove back to Trivandrum (3-3.5 hrs drive). The sound was very involving and I was counting various instruments being played. Just what the doctor had ordered.

Image shack down now. Install pics coming up in another hour or so. Hope it to be up by then.

icemanz · 30th March 2007, 01:22

Finally the setup is done!!!! Congratz Zak.

Grrrrrr...you are back in TVM

, when are you coming back n when can we hear the setup????

jkdas · 30th March 2007, 02:39

knw what? I have an old fiat. For ICE I will give it to you

WITH a budget.

hydrashok · 30th March 2007, 07:10

Ahhhh. Good to know its done and that you're happy too

So back to Alpine again eh? I guess the full-speed Alpine iPod connector could be better than the Pio's connector. So the 2007 Pios play brighter than before, huh?

And good that you are in TVM. I'm totally up to my eyes in work and couldn't come to listen to the setup anyway

How about a weekend ICE meet tomorrow?

desigNation · 30th March 2007, 08:55

congrats zak & good write up.

iraghava · 30th March 2007, 11:35

Look who's buying an Alpine HU

Nice install Daari, now time for some pics methinks!!

maxbhp · 31st March 2007, 08:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by speedzak

Aaaaah....... Finally it is done!

Zak , we could decide on the best ICE between you and Hydra over a Peetza from Pizza Hut, what say Sir ?

carfreak · 31st March 2007, 11:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxbhp

Zak , we could decide on the best ICE between you and Hydra over a Peetza from Pizza Hut, what say Sir ?

and the guy who buys us maximum pizzas has the best ICE set-up!!

speedzak · 31st March 2007, 12:13

Guys! I'm a makkaar. I agree. Haven't posted pics yet.
1. I am very far from Home and driving atleast 16hours every day.
2. When I did get to a PC, imageshack was acting funny. Haven't got my hands to another PC since 2 days.
3. My phone (which is my only hope to get on to team-bhp) cannot upload images to imageshack.
Hope these excuses me a bit from the crime. Today, I will be meeting JERISH. Will handover the pics to him. He will post by evening I think.

BTW, more driving means more time in this ICED up Qualis. I have done about 1000kms in this car within 2days after I took delivery. And also spent the last night by a beach waiting for a delayed flight for more than 6hours. I've almost played my entire collection of favorite numbers in this car by now. Guys, it is a proper SQ oriented setup and some tracks gave me goose pimples all over my body (sheesh! Not there) while played. The setup plays clean and great except the very extreme volumes (that also with very less distortion). The mids are very nicely reproduced. The highs are contained well. The low end is good tight and clean. It has been a pleasure experience all the way.

Hello! Hydra's setup is very far ahead from this setup. This is just an entry level setup guys! 2 pairs of basic components, an old 4 channel amp, a decent HU and a 10" sub. That's all.

@Those waiting for a meet. Guys! It is bad news. Seems like you will have to wait till I am back from F1.

maxbhp · 31st March 2007, 12:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by speedzak

Hello! Hydra's setup is very far ahead from this setup. This is just an entry level setup guys! 2 pairs of basic components, an old 4 channel amp, a decent HU and a 10" sub. That's all.

@Those waiting for a meet. Guys! It is bad news. Seems like you will have to wait till I am back from F1.

Zak , this is Kerala . You know about bribing right

, we gave you our offer ..just a dinner at Oeetza will earn you the coveted prize from none other than Mr.Anup .

carfreak · 31st March 2007, 12:34

i dont care about ICE-setups zak,as long as you buy pizzas for us,yours is the best sounding car on earth-whether its the alto or the qualis!!

hydrashok · 31st March 2007, 12:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by speedzak

@Those waiting for a meet. Guys! It is bad news. Seems like you will have to wait till I am back from F1.

Ahhhh. By then my new upgrade would be done

We can have one great ICE meet with two cars with fresh ICE.

BTW if you're buying the pizzas, I concede defeat

OT: @carfreak, your exams are done? Long time no see.

speedzak · 31st March 2007, 13:28

Forgot to mention one thing. The vocals, I mean the ones without any music felt too good in this setup.
At one instance, my sister complained that she was feeling some unpleasant odours from the singers' mouths.

Tongue movements of the singers can be made out easily too.

Pizzas? I am on (after april 11th). And guys, there can be a very surprise ICED up vehicle (It's a giant SUV taking in 1.2lac worth of ICE) for the meet. Will post more details on our Quickie meet thread. Please keep the meet discussion there.

Thanks.

speedzak · 31st March 2007, 19:25

I came to Jerish's house now.
WOW!!! a PC!! all for my use and what fun it is to see Team-BHP on a big screen!! Yes, 17" is far far better than a 2" screen!!

Pics!! Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!!! It is coming.

That's the Pic of the HU. Alpine 9865 sitting prowdly in a car owned by an insane bearded guy who used to hate it till some days ago. (I still hate the price of these!!)

Hertz DSK130 components sitting in the front Left door. Yes, the spacer was designed in such a way that the tweeters would also sit on top of it. It could've been more stealthier, but this fits neat and clean.

Hertz DSK130 comps sitting in the rear doors. Didn't need a spacer here. The tweeter was kept a bit to the front to get the imaging right. Nice and clean again.

Front door open. It hardly intrudes a person's legs while going in or coming out from the car.

Rear door open.

Front right door open.

Interiors as seen from the outside. In the middle of both seats is an Armrest designed by Zuhemi. It is very comfortable to drive with this.

4channel amp sitting comfortably below the driver seat. No exposed wiring or any mess. Again kept in a very stealth location.

Ipod kept in the dash and connected using the Alpine K422i full speed connector. iPod can be fully controlled from the HU itself. It also charges it. So once kept in the dash, no need to fiddle with again and again.

View from the rear seats.

And finally, the car!!

And Rudy's job sitting proudly on the rear!!

That's it folks for now. Will try and get the install pics (Damping job, wiring etc..) soon.

low_bass_makker · 31st March 2007, 19:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by speedzak

Hmm this front door mounting look a bit wierd....but the rear door looks fine.....

30th March 2007, 01:05	#31
speedzak BANNED Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: India Posts: 4,347 Thanked: 27 Times	Aaaaah....... Finally it is done! I thought the install was completed on monday as told earlier. I only got a chance to see and hear the car this morning. And only to blame my stupidity, the amp which was supposed to be put in this car was lying somewhere in my office/home (it was fitted in my Alto and this alto was being repaired after it met with another crash last thursday. No, I was not driving it.) The person who was supposed to deliver it to Zuhemi couldn't find it (he said so) . Found the amp today and went to complete the install. All the install jobs were finished on monday other than fitting in the amp. A very quick job it was and within 15-20 mins, the system was turned on. I didn't want to interrupt Zuhemi when he was tuning the setup and decided to have a coffee standing a bit far from the car (I didn't even know when the cup was emptied, my whole attention was grabbed on ICE). After some quality time spent, I was called in to listen to the setup. MAN!! What a disappointment it was!! Zuhemi was looking very upset too. He tried infinite number of CDs and different kinds of music. It was just sounding CHHIN CHHAK CHHIN CHHAK BHOOM!! I almost gave up listening and came out from the car. A completely dissatisfied man! I was. Now, the brainstorming session started. Yes, the first session was done before we started all this and when the budget was fixed at 25k. Now, things seemed different. Budget became a hazy view in mind and almost everything from Hertz HSKs, Audison SRX, to Polk momos were discussed and thought of. I stayed firm in my decision to do an only Hertz speaker setup and didn't want to change to another Sub than the one installed (It is not a Hertz). I even tried to get a pair of 6.5 midbass drivers airshipped from some of the Delhi sardars (ofcourse, thru the dealer). But then, the problem in the setup was that the sound was too bright to my liking. Yes, a lot treble. Due to the highs, the mids were completely over shadowed. Adjusting treble levels in the HU made not much of a difference. I like mellow tweets and I was sure these speakers were not bad in delivering what I was looking for. I had been listening these in many different installs. Maybe it couldn't match a 6.5" in midbass section, but everything else would play great. We decided to parallely connect the rear speakers also to the front channels in the amp assuming if the amp was putting more than what the speaker actually needs. Job done, but again I was far from satisfied. Now, I asked for another HU to be connected to the setup and see if things could be sorted out. Looked around for some other HUs and something which also matched my necessities. I am a strict Pio man. Most of you guys here know that by just reading my 'HeadUnits changed.... Gone mad' thread. So, I stuck to my demand for the same here too. But after fitting in one more and getting almost the same results (now, this improved model even had parametric eq, EQ ex etc...) I decided to give a try to a very unliked and overpriced Alpine! (I was avoiding this name for some time). Zuhemi was sure it could make a lot of difference and will also give some more options to fine tune the setup. I nodded my head in affirmative but still in 2 minds. The vehicle was again moved in for a change. 4th time, the HU assembly was being removed after I started this install. There were some extra work to be done to get the HU fit in comfortably. An iPod full speed connector cable was also put in this time (it was AUX in earlier). The system was turned on. Voila!! It was gone. The speakers were playing clean. Then, some necessary tune ups in the amp and HU were done and it was sounding just too good. Now, changing from PIO to Alpine has made me satisfied unlike my earlier experience. I was smiling again now. So, let me list down the thingys which have gone into the setup. 1. Hertz DSK130 5.25" component speakers (front and rear). 2. Blaupunkt MPA4 4channel amp. 3. Audison and Visionik cabling. 4. AzComp sound dampening mats. 5. Alpine 9856 HU. 6. iPod full speed connector (k422i). 7. Infinity kappa 10" sub woofer in sealed box. Some things listed here may come as a surprise to many due to the budget limit of 25k said in the beginning of this thread. Huh, but it couldn't be kept inside that. Now, the system plays very clean and sounds purrrfect. Many old tracks felt new and fresh in this setup. I started enjoying the iPod better too. I left the place with very satisfied ears and mind. Drove back to Trivandrum (3-3.5 hrs drive). The sound was very involving and I was counting various instruments being played. Just what the doctor had ordered. Image shack down now. Install pics coming up in another hour or so. Hope it to be up by then.
	() Thanks

30th March 2007, 01:22	#32
icemanz BHPian Join Date: May 2006 Location: cochin Posts: 94 Thanked: Once View My Garage	Finally the setup is done!!!! Congratz Zak. Grrrrrr...you are back in TVM , when are you coming back n when can we hear the setup????
	() Thanks

30th March 2007, 02:39	#33
jkdas Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Thiruvananthapu Posts: 9,687 Thanked: 1,492 Times View My Garage	knw what? I have an old fiat. For ICE I will give it to you WITH a budget.
	() Thanks

30th March 2007, 07:10	#34
hydrashok Senior - BHPian Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: In my Office Posts: 2,528 Thanked: 17 Times View My Garage	Ahhhh. Good to know its done and that you're happy too So back to Alpine again eh? I guess the full-speed Alpine iPod connector could be better than the Pio's connector. So the 2007 Pios play brighter than before, huh? And good that you are in TVM. I'm totally up to my eyes in work and couldn't come to listen to the setup anyway How about a weekend ICE meet tomorrow?
	() Thanks

30th March 2007, 08:55	#35
desigNation BHPian Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: calicut Posts: 661 Thanked: 51 Times View My Garage	congrats zak & good write up.
	() Thanks

30th March 2007, 11:35	#36
iraghava Senior - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Bhaiyyaland Posts: 8,033 Thanked: 265 Times View My Garage	Look who's buying an Alpine HU Nice install Daari, now time for some pics methinks!!
	() Thanks

31st March 2007, 12:13	#39
speedzak BANNED Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: India Posts: 4,347 Thanked: 27 Times	Guys! I'm a makkaar. I agree. Haven't posted pics yet. 1. I am very far from Home and driving atleast 16hours every day. 2. When I did get to a PC, imageshack was acting funny. Haven't got my hands to another PC since 2 days. 3. My phone (which is my only hope to get on to team-bhp) cannot upload images to imageshack. Hope these excuses me a bit from the crime. Today, I will be meeting JERISH. Will handover the pics to him. He will post by evening I think. BTW, more driving means more time in this ICED up Qualis. I have done about 1000kms in this car within 2days after I took delivery. And also spent the last night by a beach waiting for a delayed flight for more than 6hours. I've almost played my entire collection of favorite numbers in this car by now. Guys, it is a proper SQ oriented setup and some tracks gave me goose pimples all over my body (sheesh! Not there) while played. The setup plays clean and great except the very extreme volumes (that also with very less distortion). The mids are very nicely reproduced. The highs are contained well. The low end is good tight and clean. It has been a pleasure experience all the way. Hello! Hydra's setup is very far ahead from this setup. This is just an entry level setup guys! 2 pairs of basic components, an old 4 channel amp, a decent HU and a 10" sub. That's all. @Those waiting for a meet. Guys! It is bad news. Seems like you will have to wait till I am back from F1.
	() Thanks

31st March 2007, 12:34	#41
carfreak BHPian Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Udupi Posts: 599 Thanked: 342 Times	i dont care about ICE-setups zak,as long as you buy pizzas for us,yours is the best sounding car on earth-whether its the alto or the qualis!!
	() Thanks

31st March 2007, 13:28	#43
speedzak BANNED Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: India Posts: 4,347 Thanked: 27 Times	Forgot to mention one thing. The vocals, I mean the ones without any music felt too good in this setup. At one instance, my sister complained that she was feeling some unpleasant odours from the singers' mouths. Tongue movements of the singers can be made out easily too. Pizzas? I am on (after april 11th). And guys, there can be a very surprise ICED up vehicle (It's a giant SUV taking in 1.2lac worth of ICE) for the meet. Will post more details on our Quickie meet thread. Please keep the meet discussion there. Thanks.
	() Thanks

31st March 2007, 19:25	#44
speedzak BANNED Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: India Posts: 4,347 Thanked: 27 Times	Here comes the pics. I came to Jerish's house now. WOW!!! a PC!! all for my use and what fun it is to see Team-BHP on a big screen!! Yes, 17" is far far better than a 2" screen!! Pics!! Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!!! It is coming. That's the Pic of the HU. Alpine 9865 sitting prowdly in a car owned by an insane bearded guy who used to hate it till some days ago. (I still hate the price of these!!) Hertz DSK130 components sitting in the front Left door. Yes, the spacer was designed in such a way that the tweeters would also sit on top of it. It could've been more stealthier, but this fits neat and clean. Hertz DSK130 comps sitting in the rear doors. Didn't need a spacer here. The tweeter was kept a bit to the front to get the imaging right. Nice and clean again. Front door open. It hardly intrudes a person's legs while going in or coming out from the car. Rear door open. Front right door open. Interiors as seen from the outside. In the middle of both seats is an Armrest designed by Zuhemi. It is very comfortable to drive with this. 4channel amp sitting comfortably below the driver seat. No exposed wiring or any mess. Again kept in a very stealth location. Ipod kept in the dash and connected using the Alpine K422i full speed connector. iPod can be fully controlled from the HU itself. It also charges it. So once kept in the dash, no need to fiddle with again and again. View from the rear seats. And finally, the car!! And Rudy's job sitting proudly on the rear!! That's it folks for now. Will try and get the install pics (Damping job, wiring etc..) soon.
	() Thanks