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....