ICE bug caught me as well - Swift

ramkris · 20th November 2009, 07:02

After being a member of this forum for over 2 years, I think the ICE bug has really caught me.

Initial setup:

HU - Sony GT670US
Front - JBL GT5 Comps
Rear - JBL GT5 Coax
Sub - GT5-12
Amp - GT5-604

This was done a year ago.

The sound was really not ok, i would say. No midbass to speakoff and a bit too harsh for my taste. The sound was felt coming all the way down from the foot wells. Felt, the components only handled the Highs. I had always rated my Maruti 800 with pioneer 3050/JBL 4inch/JBL 6x9 better than the above setup. I had checked the polarity umpteen times, swapping it etc., to no effect.

So now that I had performed the upgrade , will let you guys guess it, when I get my photos of the upgrade in place.

The upgrade took a leisurely 5 1/2 hours, for an initial clue.
Sathya please excuse

ramkris · 20th November 2009, 11:58

Its really difficult to guess the upgrade as it has made all my other gears such as the speakers and amp a bottleneck now.

First of all I went for damping on the front doors, which improved the mids and reduced a harshness a bit.

But the real deal is the picture below.

With this the Sub has disappeared and the imaging is spot on with couple of hours for tuning alone done along with Sathya.

I find the sound at any volume now to be mellow and not even a single bit harsh and changed the JBL GT5 component's character.

No pictures of the damping, but both the inner sheet metal and the doors were done with Accumat taking 5 sheets for the front 2 doors.

SPARKled · 20th November 2009, 12:39

Wow!! Thats a good start. The wait is going to be excruciating

. Congrats.

Epic · 20th November 2009, 15:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by ramkris

After being a member of this forum for over 2 years, I think the ICE bug has really caught me.

Initial setup:

HU - Sony GT670US
Front - JBL GT5 Comps
Rear - JBL GT5 Coax
Sub - GT5-12
Amp - GT5-604

This was done a year ago.

The sound was really not ok, i would say. No midbass to speakoff and a bit too harsh for my taste. The sound was felt coming all the way down from the foot wells. Felt, the components only handled the Highs. I had always rated my Maruti 800 with pioneer 3050/JBL 4inch/JBL 6x9 better than the above setup. I had checked the polarity umpteen times, swapping it etc., to no effect.

So now that I had performed the upgrade , will let you guys guess it, when I get my photos of the upgrade in place.

The upgrade took a leisurely 5 1/2 hours, for an initial clue.
Sathya please excuse

Hi Ramkris,

After reading your post, I am convinced that JBL components lack mid bass. They are just not up to the mark. I also have the JBL GTO 606Ce in my Swift and I just cant seem to feel that there are speakers in front as they are totally drowned by my JBL GTO 693s at the rear.

esteem_lover · 20th November 2009, 15:35

Good choice of HU there. Congrats & Sathya is the right man to go.

ramkris · 20th November 2009, 15:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Epic

Hi Ramkris,

After reading your post, I am convinced that JBL components lack mid bass. They are just not up to the mark. I also have the JBL GTO 606Ce in my Swift and I just cant seem to feel that there are speakers in front as they are totally drowned by my JBL GTO 693s at the rear.

I dont know the other components in your car, but try damping the doors, it makes a lot of difference in the midbass. Thats what helped me partly apart from the HU upgrade.

greenh0rn · 20th November 2009, 16:40

Congrats Ramkris. I have only heard really good things about the sound of Eclipse head units (and some gripes about UI and display), but one should buy one's HU for sound and this one must be sounding heavenly! Just a question, how much did it cost?

Ramsagar · 20th November 2009, 16:44

Nice HU. How much did it cost you?

abhinav.gupta88 · 20th November 2009, 22:27

Great choice of HU. Do give us a detailed review of it.

Congrats and enjoy

NOTORIOUS · 20th November 2009, 22:39

only hu is changed or anything else also ???

pranava999 · 20th November 2009, 23:16

Nice to see some one opting for the Eclipse 5030. Waiting for more. Would appreciate a review of the 5030; a rare choice on the forum and any review of the same should be very useful.

Epic · 22nd November 2009, 17:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by ramkris

I dont know the other components in your car, but try damping the doors, it makes a lot of difference in the midbass. Thats what helped me partly apart from the HU upgrade.

I have damped the doors & mid bass has improved though to a very marginal extent. Still not happy with them.

ramkris · 23rd November 2009, 11:38

I drove 500 kms listening to the new Eclipse this weekend to get a good idea of what I am dealing with, before coming up with a review.

So here it goes.

I initially started my hunt with ubiquitous DXZ785USB, but couldnt find great deals on it. I could get only a best deal of around 180 - 190 USD. Hence I thought, lets go with the Kenwood X693. Realizing, why not go with its big brother X993 which is the same as X693 with the additional bluetooth module.

The competitors to the X993 at the price range where the Eclipse 5030 and the Alpine 9887. Alpine 9887 was ruled out as it needs additional modules to get iphone 3gs support and even then it is hit and miss.

X993 generally had great reviews across, and had very few limitations such as the lack of number buttons to select the preset tuning stations. It even has the ability to match the illumination to the car's illumination color. It has the usual midrange capabilities such as time alignment and PEQ (3 Band I guess) as well, but no auto TA, auto EQ.

I would have gone with the X993 but I was hesitant on the kenwood brand and hence went with the Eclipse which is supposed to be a better name

Coming to the Eclipse 5030, the difference in sound compared to the Sony GT670US is night and day, in my opinion. When we switched on the unit for the first time I was overwhelmed. Sathya on the other hand was not quite happy with the unit. He said the build quality compared to older Eclipses has gone down a bit, and the SQ compared to say 9887/7200 is not so good. But the other components in my car are the bottlenecks as I said in the earlier posts. And even the sealed box for my sub box is too big as per his view. I will have to change to a small box to get better Bass response in the near future.

Compared to the kenwood it has better audio tuning capabilities such as 7 band PEQ, Auto TA and Auto EQ. This needs an additional MEI100 mic to be hooked to the aux port. Once we start the auto tuning, it does a count down and allows us to get out of the car, while the HU does the TA by using pink/white noise. Same goes for the auto EQ as well. Sathya did one round of tuning himself, then we did the auto tuning and an additional round of manual tuning. The manual tuning involved measuring the distance between each speaker from the listening position and coming up with the time delay for each speaker. I had noted down the measurements, just in case, I accidentally change the settings in the future.

The TA/Auto EQ really helps, but of the 3 methods above, the manual tuning using the measuring tape and calculating the distance was the most I favoured. With this setting, the staging is right in front of the drivers seat and the subwoofer literally disappeared. Earlier, the sub and the mids were disjoint, and I could hear the sub firing from the back. Overall the SQ is excellent in my opinion comparable/better than most home setups I have heared. The sound is smooth and transformed the JBL GT5 into a midbass/midrange wonder from a high frequency torturers. With better speakers and amp the HU will better come to life in my opinion. But that is for a later review in the medium term when i go for the upgrades.

The usability of the HU is great with 2 illumination colors (Red, Blue). I liked the red color. The display is clear as well. It integrates well with my Iphone3GS, but there are some bugs in the iphone 3.0.1 OS that I am currently running causing some trouble. The controls are easy to use but not so easy to do when driving. The bluetooth audio is the best I have heard. I did half of my trip using the bluetooth audio connected to my iphone and the sound is good. When I switched back to the iphone cable option the sound significantly improved and the response is great.

With the 2 layers of damping I had done, the mids are kicking really well. The midbass is excellent compared to the non-existant mids earlier without the damping. But after doing the damping there are some rattling creeping up in the doors. Probably some wires are left loose when the door was opened to do the damping.

Only disappointment was the bluetooth phone option. It provides phone book option but it couldnt download the phonebook from my iphone or the MotoRazr phones. Also, the person on the other end, is not able to hear me very well, after trying various positions such as the visor for the supplied microphones. I had contacted Eclipse support and am awaiting response on this.

drvhplyevraftr · 23rd November 2009, 19:12

Can you please let us know of the price for this HU along with the microphone (for auto TA)?.

Thank you.

ramkris · 24th November 2009, 12:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by drvhplyevraftr

Can you please let us know of the price for this HU along with the microphone (for auto TA)?.

Thank you.

The price of the HU is 299 USD at crutchfield. You get better prices on ebay (for around 250, I guess), but I felt secure going with the crutchfield. At crutchfield you get $20 off using a reference coupon for first time buyers and an additional 25$ gift card as well. So its almost equal to elsewhere.

Regarding the TA mic, it retails for around 15 - 20 USD in places such as sonicelectronix and even at crutchfield.

20th November 2009, 07:02	#1
ramkris BHPian Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 122 Thanked: 20 Times	ICE bug caught me as well - Swift After being a member of this forum for over 2 years, I think the ICE bug has really caught me. Initial setup: HU - Sony GT670US Front - JBL GT5 Comps Rear - JBL GT5 Coax Sub - GT5-12 Amp - GT5-604 This was done a year ago. The sound was really not ok, i would say. No midbass to speakoff and a bit too harsh for my taste. The sound was felt coming all the way down from the foot wells. Felt, the components only handled the Highs. I had always rated my Maruti 800 with pioneer 3050/JBL 4inch/JBL 6x9 better than the above setup. I had checked the polarity umpteen times, swapping it etc., to no effect. So now that I had performed the upgrade , will let you guys guess it, when I get my photos of the upgrade in place. The upgrade took a leisurely 5 1/2 hours, for an initial clue. Sathya please excuse
	() Thanks

20th November 2009, 11:58	#2
ramkris BHPian Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 122 Thanked: 20 Times	Its really difficult to guess the upgrade as it has made all my other gears such as the speakers and amp a bottleneck now. First of all I went for damping on the front doors, which improved the mids and reduced a harshness a bit. But the real deal is the picture below. With this the Sub has disappeared and the imaging is spot on with couple of hours for tuning alone done along with Sathya. I find the sound at any volume now to be mellow and not even a single bit harsh and changed the JBL GT5 component's character. No pictures of the damping, but both the inner sheet metal and the doors were done with Accumat taking 5 sheets for the front 2 doors. Attached Thumbnails Last edited by ramkris : 20th November 2009 at 11:59.
	() Thanks

20th November 2009, 12:39	#3
SPARKled Senior - BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Navi Mumbai Posts: 1,110 Thanked: 656 Times	Wow!! Thats a good start. The wait is going to be excruciating. Congrats.
	() Thanks

20th November 2009, 15:35	#5
esteem_lover Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Madras/Py Posts: 7,556 Thanked: 502 Times View My Garage	Good choice of HU there. Congrats & Sathya is the right man to go.
	() Thanks

20th November 2009, 16:40	#7
greenh0rn BHPian Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: New Delhi Posts: 427 Thanked: 149 Times	Congrats Ramkris. I have only heard really good things about the sound of Eclipse head units (and some gripes about UI and display), but one should buy one's HU for sound and this one must be sounding heavenly! Just a question, how much did it cost?
	() Thanks

20th November 2009, 16:44	#8
Ramsagar Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: BLR_Nellore(AP) Posts: 1,396 Thanked: 252 Times View My Garage	Nice HU. How much did it cost you?
	() Thanks

20th November 2009, 22:27	#9
abhinav.gupta88 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Delhi , India Posts: 4,092 Thanked: 325 Times View My Garage	Great choice of HU. Do give us a detailed review of it. Congrats and enjoy
	() Thanks

20th November 2009, 22:39	#10
NOTORIOUS BHPian Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Delhi Posts: 808 Thanked: 124 Times View My Garage	only hu is changed or anything else also ???
	() Thanks

20th November 2009, 23:16	#11
pranava999 BHPian Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: BANGALORE Posts: 845 Thanked: 23 Times View My Garage	Nice to see some one opting for the Eclipse 5030. Waiting for more. Would appreciate a review of the 5030; a rare choice on the forum and any review of the same should be very useful.
	() Thanks

23rd November 2009, 11:38	#13
ramkris BHPian Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 122 Thanked: 20 Times	I drove 500 kms listening to the new Eclipse this weekend to get a good idea of what I am dealing with, before coming up with a review. So here it goes. I initially started my hunt with ubiquitous DXZ785USB, but couldnt find great deals on it. I could get only a best deal of around 180 - 190 USD. Hence I thought, lets go with the Kenwood X693. Realizing, why not go with its big brother X993 which is the same as X693 with the additional bluetooth module. The competitors to the X993 at the price range where the Eclipse 5030 and the Alpine 9887. Alpine 9887 was ruled out as it needs additional modules to get iphone 3gs support and even then it is hit and miss. X993 generally had great reviews across, and had very few limitations such as the lack of number buttons to select the preset tuning stations. It even has the ability to match the illumination to the car's illumination color. It has the usual midrange capabilities such as time alignment and PEQ (3 Band I guess) as well, but no auto TA, auto EQ. I would have gone with the X993 but I was hesitant on the kenwood brand and hence went with the Eclipse which is supposed to be a better name Coming to the Eclipse 5030, the difference in sound compared to the Sony GT670US is night and day, in my opinion. When we switched on the unit for the first time I was overwhelmed. Sathya on the other hand was not quite happy with the unit. He said the build quality compared to older Eclipses has gone down a bit, and the SQ compared to say 9887/7200 is not so good. But the other components in my car are the bottlenecks as I said in the earlier posts. And even the sealed box for my sub box is too big as per his view. I will have to change to a small box to get better Bass response in the near future. Compared to the kenwood it has better audio tuning capabilities such as 7 band PEQ, Auto TA and Auto EQ. This needs an additional MEI100 mic to be hooked to the aux port. Once we start the auto tuning, it does a count down and allows us to get out of the car, while the HU does the TA by using pink/white noise. Same goes for the auto EQ as well. Sathya did one round of tuning himself, then we did the auto tuning and an additional round of manual tuning. The manual tuning involved measuring the distance between each speaker from the listening position and coming up with the time delay for each speaker. I had noted down the measurements, just in case, I accidentally change the settings in the future. The TA/Auto EQ really helps, but of the 3 methods above, the manual tuning using the measuring tape and calculating the distance was the most I favoured. With this setting, the staging is right in front of the drivers seat and the subwoofer literally disappeared. Earlier, the sub and the mids were disjoint, and I could hear the sub firing from the back. Overall the SQ is excellent in my opinion comparable/better than most home setups I have heared. The sound is smooth and transformed the JBL GT5 into a midbass/midrange wonder from a high frequency torturers. With better speakers and amp the HU will better come to life in my opinion. But that is for a later review in the medium term when i go for the upgrades. The usability of the HU is great with 2 illumination colors (Red, Blue). I liked the red color. The display is clear as well. It integrates well with my Iphone3GS, but there are some bugs in the iphone 3.0.1 OS that I am currently running causing some trouble. The controls are easy to use but not so easy to do when driving. The bluetooth audio is the best I have heard. I did half of my trip using the bluetooth audio connected to my iphone and the sound is good. When I switched back to the iphone cable option the sound significantly improved and the response is great. With the 2 layers of damping I had done, the mids are kicking really well. The midbass is excellent compared to the non-existant mids earlier without the damping. But after doing the damping there are some rattling creeping up in the doors. Probably some wires are left loose when the door was opened to do the damping. Only disappointment was the bluetooth phone option. It provides phone book option but it couldnt download the phonebook from my iphone or the MotoRazr phones. Also, the person on the other end, is not able to hear me very well, after trying various positions such as the visor for the supplied microphones. I had contacted Eclipse support and am awaiting response on this. Last edited by ramkris : 23rd November 2009 at 11:45.
	() Thanks

23rd November 2009, 19:12	#14
drvhplyevraftr BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Hyderabad Posts: 331 Thanked: 57 Times	Can you please let us know of the price for this HU along with the microphone (for auto TA)?. Thank you.
	() Thanks