[panky12345]

Hi friends.. Thats right! UPGRADE TIME!

As some of you were probably aware that an upgrade was on the cards for quite a while now.. Took a long time to decide as hard earned money was involved and wanted to audition AS MANY brands AS POSSIBLE. Pardon my limited technical knowledge in this entire thread as I'm a layman and would only describe what I felt.

So, starting one by one:

Car : Tata Indigo LS TAXI (or Radio Cab); (stop laughing Ishan)

Existing set - up : he he..Bose 3.5" front fill in dash location and this:







Actually, I didnt find time to upgrade ICE in new car.


HU : Pioneer 795O (from previous set up);

Amps : JBL 75.4 (from previous set up and NEVER wanted to change it) & JBL 1201.1 (bought some time back after listening Audison, Steg, Pio, Sony, Kenwood, JL audio & Hifonics). While each one of these had its own pros and cons including costs (Audison and Steg in particular), nothing came close to the mighty JBL 1201.1 in my budget. BEAST OF AN AMP! One has to ACTUALLY listen to this CRAZY MONSTER to believe what this amp is capable of producing of. I do not regret my decision of buying it.

1114 RMS of ming boggling RAW POWER!!




















Cabling:

Power, Ground : Finolex 50 Sqmm (0 Gauge), also used for upgrading BIG 2. Heavy duty thimbles used for connections.



Distribution block : Audiopipe; "1" 0 gauge In -> 4 "4" gauge Out





RCA cables : Monster XL-4N Pro for 4 speakers (bought from a friend);

Connection audison for SW OUT. (Payment owed to Gunbir for long! )







Front fill : Here comes the Ist difficult part.

I listened to the following:

1. DLS (U6S) : Very interesting comps.. the midrange and highs were quite detailed. Excellent built quality, sounded sweet. Rejected, way out of budget.

2. Rainbow : Looked very rich.. but the sound was so "laid back" that even after the treble was set to MAX, hardly any highs were audible in a rock #. I actually wondered if the tweeters were attached to the crossover or if there was a broken wire, but sadly that was not the case..tweets were attached :(

Average sound as its best! Rejected..never sounded ones worth the price.

3. Illusion co-ax : Good for the price, though the detail that one expects from components was missing, hence Rejected.

4. Illusion electra 6.1 : Out of stock.

5. Blau comps: Mazaa nahin aaya, pata nahin kya.. but kuchh to missing tha, hence Rejected.

6. Image Dynamics : Very sweet.. very detailed.. Rejected, out of budget even after streching.

7. Illusion Carbons : Best of the lot.. very very nice. Sounded vvvveeeeerrrrrryyyyy sweet. They rejected me, said.. panky you're not worth it. (come on..after all they need better music than chamkila/like).

8. JBL 608C : I didnt find any major change in the sound except for better cosmetic looks!

So, had no choice but to stick to my existing JBL 607C. [I'm NOT regretting it BTW]. Once Illusion 6.1 gets available, I'll audition them against my JBLs. If they'll sound better, I'll buy.



Rear fill : Since the car is mostly driven by me, decided to stick to my JBL 937s from my pervious set-up.

Subwoofers : Here comes the IInd difficult part.

I made up my mind for these:

1. Having auditioned them in US, Ist priority was JBL power series P1222 X 2, since they could not be sourced locally even after my "contacts" in JBL.. I was forced to look for options.

2. Alpine : Good subs, but power handling was an issue..getting with B & W was another problem.. Rejected.

3. Pio SPL series : Very loud, but got a headache after 10 minutes.. No Musical bass.. ONLY dhumm - dhumm.. Rejected.

4. Ground Zero (Hydrogen series 15") powered off a Steg : Mind blowing awaaz.. LBM di gaddi daa duplicate.. Very nice.. out of budget. Rejected.

5. Ground Zero (Radioactive series 12") : One word - P.E.R.F.E.C.T ; Excellent blend of SQ and SPL - S.Q.L. to be precise.

6. Image Dynamics (IDQ) : Going by the reputation, I was inclined on having them as my second priority.. build quality was good.. I powered this sub in a sealed box, through 2 channels bridged off my JBL 75.4 (284 W RMS to a 300 W RMS sub)..the output was very low when compared to the other subs.. It was playing ok nothing much great. There was absolutely no kick just a good low end. When played with the front stage, the over all experience was very bad in the songs which had fast paced music. But was good with songs with long and continuous bass.
Disaapointed.. Rejected.






Naturally, decided to settle for a pair of Ground Zero 12" radioactive series. I can very well say that its an excellent peice of SQL. As I mentioned in another thread, give them the proper power and surroundings (enclosure/damping etc).. they go EXTREMELY LOW AND DISTORTION FREE LOUD.

....contd.

[panky12345]

Enclsoure & Installation : Custom - made MDF ported enclosure, with Made - by - LBM aluminium flared ports. Since, placement of the amps was coming as an issue (given Indigo's weird boot shape),our own resident mad sikh, LBM, came up with a fantastic idea.. He cut a MDF board and instructed the installer to fix one amp on either side and fix it to the hollow space. See the pic for details.. Thanks LBM, it was indeed one of the brilliant ideas I've ever come across. Install was done at Madan's in Faridabad under expert guidance of LBM and others! Neat, clean install. I think let me allow the pics to do the talking!























OK! guess who's tuning my system..100 Rs. for guessing..well, its our own.. sshhh! hahaha!!





Sound Deadning:
This was the last and most difficult part. Even after liberally using the damping, the entire boot was rattling like crazy on SPL mode. All one could hear was MADDDD rattling this sub-amp combo was producing. (I'm going to write to TATAs.. I thought they used steel liberally in their cars,
ghar ki kheti jo tehri.. I was wrong..badi kamjor hai boot ki body). I came back home depressed, cauz of the rattling issue, cursing myself..
why the hell did I go for this kinda "heavy" set-up.

At that time toh I was too tired to think, came home around 1.00 a.m. and slept. Next day evening, (as usual after having 2-3 drinks)..called up LBM and told him clearly he needs to fix the rattling part else I'm gonna complain to the higher authorities (read B&T).. but Dil hai ki manta nahin.. 2 more drinks and called up Ajay (B&T).. woh mera bhai mere se bhi do kadam age tha raat ko 12 baje..patiently listened my problem and told me to remind next morning as he was busy (drinking..hahaha!). He said that he's got some professional sound proofing stuff that could help me. (sorry yaar B&T, this is ALL I remember..LOL!)

Anyways, a couple of SMSs exchanged during the day and I went to LBM's office the next day and finally got rid of 99% rattling issues.

The following pics would clearly depict what an eye for detail this guy has:










Accessories:

JBL Bass Control Knob (Thanks again for the gift SAM!).. This allows me to perfectly fiddle around with the bass settings, SQ or SPL.

[panky12345]

Rest Later.... Busy rt now!

[ramie2400]

Panky thats an awesome Install,i am sure you are loving the thump from the GZ 12XD-ALs,brilliant work by LBM ....cheers

Ramie

[hydrashok]

Nice stuff, Panky! Congrats! I like the way the enclosure looks!

From the look of things, is l_b_m is churning out those beautiful aluminium ports by the dozen, huh?

Could you post pics of the finished boot, so we can see how the amps are placed?

[Bass&Trouble]

hahaha! Great description and nice pics. Glad to hear that the rattles have 99.9% vanished. LBM was telling me it goes up blisteringly loud in SPL mode. I hope you are thoroughly enjoying it. Congrats, and Cheers!

[Sam Kapasi]

A well documentede install Panky, you sound happy and that is ALL that matters

By the way, looks like it would have wicked bass.

[iraghava]

Hahahaha....TAXI!! !!

Anyway, well documented views & pics there Panky! Keep them coming!

[navin]

Nice install.

One thing though, I would have braced and added sound absorbtion to the sub box.

[Gill]

Congrats Panky!
Enjoy the music!Must be a SPL demon!

Cheers!

[gunbir]

Congrats Panky!! That upgrade was long overdue.

Originally Posted by panky12345

Image Dynamics (IDQ) : Going by the reputation, I was inclined on having them as my second priority.. build quality was good.. I powered this sub in a sealed box, through 2 channels bridged off my JBL 75.4 (284 W RMS to a 300 W RMS sub)..the output was very low when compared to the other subs.. It was playing ok nothing much great. There was absolutely no kick just a good low end. When played with the front stage, the over all experience was very bad in the songs which had fast paced music. But was good with songs with long and continuous bass.

Bechara iDQ, lol. In the poor iDQ's defense in that box it wont give any top end at all. Thats a larger box than it needs and was meant for that specific install where the customer wanted deep lows with the less than 200w he was giving it. Eventually the customer wanted a iD12v3 for which the box was fine.

Cheers!

[hellspawn]

Damn!!!That jbl mono amp is huge!!
The install looks nice panky!!Amazing work by lBM,but i wish better pics would have been clicked.Half of them are blurred.
And yup,i think the box is too big for the IDQ.Im surprised that you aren't getting a kick from the idq!!
Waise its good...everyone shouldn't have the IDQ!

[MontyKING]

Nice illustrated install panky, CONGRATS!!!! LBM as usual is brilliant. It feels good seeing these new installs. Panky do post pics of how the final setup looks. Can you give the price breakup?

Ta

MK

[panky12345]

Result:

Perfectly satisfied panky12345, with sweeeet sound @ SQ mode and a vvviiibrrrraaatttiiinngg (yes even the front number plate vibrates with the bass; forget the cabin where it feels like a hammer in the chest) Indigo Taxi @ SPL mode.

Credits: Special thanks to Yayati Singh, who selflessly stood by the entire install and clicked the fotos all day long. Also, thanks to all others who cared to drop in.. included but not limited to smokkin, zucchero, kpzen, luckyishere. Pardon me if I'm forgetting anyone. Itna kabhi zindagi main nahin post kiya hoga yaar.. hahaha!

Cheers!! Keep your comments coming in!

[panky12345]

Some more random pics....



























I dont know why, but I like this foto a lot [posting it again]