| Scorpio- M Hawk VLX - ICE- Bangalore
I took my Scorpio Delivery on Nov 11 and spent the next coming weekend
to get it ICE fited on my vehicle .
The present system in Scorpio VLX 2.2 M Hawk
Scorpio VLX comes with a company fitted Nippon Double din( Looks Double din in the front , is actually a single DIN cleverly designed for a double din ) .Ratings was not available , but should be 50W X 4 .
It has a CD MP3 Player with USB & SD card slot .The HU look and feel is okay but is not well supported on the speakers end . The speakers are a 6 inch mid range which can also do some mid bass .
Two schools of Music - American - Europe ....
The whole fitting of my ICE was done in Audio planet ( 1st cross on back side of KML BDA complex in Kormanagala ). Kumar and latha (Husband & Wife) who take care of audio planet are both Audiophiles and have fairly good knowledge of all the Audio systems available in the market . After having discussed with me on my music tastes , there were two options available for us . The 2 options are more related to two schools of music
1. American
2. European
1.
American
The first option is American school of Music . We get the following type of music in this option
1. Higher bass
2. Typically Ovals used in the back or with 12+ inch woofers
3. All American company setup ( Say J BL )
4. Mid to high bass output from the front end
5. Heavy thump on the back
6. Middle row of Scorpio is filled with very high bass from the back and also front
7. High to very High vocal range
This fits to people who listen to
1. Rock
2. Metal
3. High decibel pop
4. Hindi - Jhankar beats kind of music
2.
European
The second option is European school of Music . We get the following type of music in this option
1. The three range of any audio is Bass , Mid range & treble
2. European style of music tries to fill all the range without making it sounding it from one speaker . The whole image of the sound is created for perfect stereo where music is always played in 2 standing towers from a 2 channel amps .( American music school might also create the 2 channel stereo , but music is not clear )
3. The European school of music emphasis is more on vocal clarity , good bass to fill the car and decent high frequency
This fits to people who listen to
1. Carnatic or Hindustani classical - Pure vocals
2. Ghazals
3. Soothing pop music ( Like Titanic OST song)
4. Clarity on all three parts of music - Bass , treble , mid range
My school of music
I Listen to lot of Carnatic classical ,( Big Fan of Bombay Jayashree , MASS and others ) and also listen to slow pope , country music , soothing numbers from old movies ( Hindi , Tamil , Telugu , and Kannada )
So my choice was the latter and went to the European school of music
What i have added now for the new ICE ?
1.Head unit ; Pioneer 6050 USB :
2.Speakers - Front End - Mutant - Euphony series - High end 6 1/2 inch
3.Speakers - Back door Mutant - components
4.Speakers - Sub woofer - Down siding Box with Polk 8 inch Sub woofer
5. 4 Channel Amp - J BL
6. Dampers : Front doors
7. Back door : Dampers
8. OFC cables : App 7-10 Mts
Head unit ; Pioneer 6050 USB :
Pros
Mainly selected for Pioneer after sales and service, connectivity with i pod and i phone is seamless .2 DIN Fits good for my car perfectly .
Cons
No USB connectivity in the Head unit . We need to connect a cable and place it in front of the system
Speakers - Front End - Mutant - Euphony series - High end 6 1/2 inch
Pros
The best sounding mid range speakers available in the market. Mid and highs are crystal clear.
Very good cross over. High quality stuff compared to others
Cons
Highs are a bit on higher end , might have to cut it down in the settings
The cover for the Mutant speakers are bare min. Water can enter as this is on the lower end door position in any car .
Kids can create or poke at this speaker as no proper grill to cover the speakers
Speakers - Back door Mutant - components -
Pros
Used to just fill the music
Used 51/2 inch
Cons
Can be better for the price we have paid .
Speakers - Sub woofer - Down siding Box with Polk 8 inch Sub woofer
Pros
Decent sounding sub
decent spacing box .
Can be kept on the back portion of the Scorpio
Cons
Work as a 8 inch drive .
Not to heavy on the bass.
Tight bass not available
4 Channel Amp - JBL
Pros
The best rated amp in the market today
Can control all the range from the JBLs
Cons
Typical US school of music amp
Odd man out in the whole setup
But had to buy this as it matched with Mutant ..
6. Dampners : Front & Back door :
I am not able to recollect the company brand we used for dampers . Its done for both front doors with sponge also added to cut down any other noise . ICE team in AP - showed me the places where dampers have been used to cut down noise from the engine bay . Its amazing that Mahindras have done a good job on this front . The vehicle is silent @ 80-100 Kms . .
Connections:
The Head unit has 2 RCA outs .The Head unit is connected to the Amps and the amps would drive the front 2 Mutant speakers , tweeters along with the Sub woofer . The back side speakers are connected using the Head unit. A separate power supply is connected from the battery unit to the amps . Monster cable with fuse has been used to connect the head unit .
As a part of the ICE setup , i also got complete acrylic sheet on the existing beige color floor of the Scorpio . This way the fabric does not get spoiled if there is a spill in the car .
Installation :
Be a bit patient if u need to go to Audio Planet . They took a lot of care in making sure no hammering going on the new car .
The speakers fixed by Scorpio on back door is in a bad position ( L+ R sit one feet apart) . No differences can be made out . The audio planet then took the car to the nearest garage and did a hole to place the back door speakers using metal cutting systems . This way no hammering of the car on the back door ( This what happens in JC Road ) I felt AP team more professional in this regard .
Calibration :
Audio planet team also deals with Audio and HT stuff . So with this background , they do Real time calibration of the whole Audio setup in the car . A Lab top loaded with a calibration setup is used for the setup . The microphone is connected to the laptop
Real time calibration is to send some sound patterns from all different speakers and to test the out put dB gain .
Based on the feedback , the software actually shows the input dB for each of the 7 bands of equalizers and setting can be done on the exact sound output from the front , back and the sub woofers .
The end result has been superb . We can lock a i pod or i phone to the system and get the complete Play lists. The play list on i Pod is now entirely loaded on the Pioneer system .
I will be adding the photos of the system shortly | 
19th November 2009, 14:10
. But even being new on the board it is nice to see a good review of things. way to go dude
. So when are you starting the initial ownership report and travelouges.
