My ICE journey started way back in 2002 when I installed a Sony XPLOD Cassette Player and a gray market JBL ovals in my Indica in Bangalore. It sounded great back then and the Sony was one of the best SQ cassette players I have ever heard. Much better than Pioneer and Kenwood back in those days.
My Indica turned out to be a bit of a lemon and I was tired of frequent visit to T.A.S.S. I got rid of the car just after the warranty got over, but I retained the ICE. The same ICE then went into my new M800 and it still sounded great.
After a while cassettes were getting harder to find, so I replaced the Sony with a Pioneer MP3 player with USB. SQ went up by another level and I was happy with what I was hearing. The old JBLs at the back still performed flawlessly.
Then I bought the Fiesta in 2009 and it came with one of the best OE ICE in that price segment. Superb clarity, but hardly any bass. And the 2 DIN HU was extremely basic. It did not have a USB and the sound via the Aux did not sound good at all.
By this time, I was auditioning ICE installed by TBHP-ians and I was particularly impressed by the sound in Sathee46's and Bakiya's cars. These guys had put in a lot of effort into their ICE and they sounded superb. Since then I have been toying with the idea of upgrading the ICE on my car.
I am not an audiophile and what matters more to me is what I am hearing rather than how it sounds. But having been a drummer of a rock band, I could easily tell good sound reproduction from bad.
Around that time, a friend of mine had installed ICE worth 1.5L in his Swift. I went to audition it and I was extremely unimpressed. The components were all pricey but they were not gelling together well and sounded rather confused. I had heard much better SQ in 25K setups.
Then it struck me that the budget did not matter as much as getting components that were well matched and played together seamlessly to create good sound.
Then I started some serious research. I was going to settle for something in the 25K range myself when I got some good advice from Nitrous. I decided to up the budget and get something that would sound good and last for 10 years. A low budget set up would most probably mean I would end up upgrading again when the components started hitting their limitations.
My initial plan was to retain the OE HU for now and get a good aftermarket HU from abroad. I wanted to put component speakers, a 4 ch amp and a sub. After some deliberation and consulting with various people, I narrowed down to the following.
JL Audio XR 650 CSi component speakers.
Focal 4 channel amp
Infinity Ref sub woofer
The install started at Power Zone on Monday morning. I had been searching for a good ICE installer for a while and Power Zone seemed the most knowledgeable and most impressive. The installation was done meticulously and high level connectors of the Focal were used as I was retaining the OE HU.
I kept myself occupied by generally gaping, going to the 'nair shop' and reading brochures. I must say the Infinity brochure was a class apart. I was not surprised to see 'Created by Sam Kapasi, 2009' on the last page.
The install finished around 3 pm and we started listening to the sound. It was immediately apparent that the OE HU was a major spoilsport. Low bass was missing. The infinity was being driven only when bass came mixed with the stereo and completely missing the separate sub woofer track. When the gains on the rears were increased to drive the sub, the amp was cutting off. The installer tried all kinds of tricks including connecting a separate Scosche high level adaptor for the sub, but it did not make much of a difference.
We were wondering what to do and the only option remaining was getting rid of the OE HU and getting an aftermarket one. Several Ks were already down the line and I did not want to go home with a system that was performing less than its best. Started looking at HU brochures again.
The installer asked me if I wanted a bluetooth HU and I said no. The choice became obvious. It was the Kenwood KDC-X7013. What a beautiful SQ HU. Super clean is how I would describe it.
Pr_007 had joined me by then and he was kind enough to drop me home as I had some work to do. He picked me up again around 9:30 pm when the work was over. We went there and got in the audition. We were STUNNED! We could not believe how much difference the HU and low level connectors had made. The JLs were playing to their full potential and the mid bass and vocals were rocking. The sub was blending in beautifully as well.
I had described the kind of sound I had wanted just before I left at 4 pm and the installer had tuned it exactly how I had wanted it to sound. I was blown away. Songs from Enthiran which I had hated were sounding too good and the kind of effort that Rahman has put to create the futuristic sound was immediately apparent.
Then we started playing some hip hop and the bass started hitting us low and hard. We were grinning like fools and I knew then I had the sound that I had always wanted. Any kind of song irrespective of whether it is Tamil Rock, Hip Hop or Electronic now sound good to my ears. Even the GTO 948 now connected to the HU sounded perfect when playing the mids and highs. No low bass is sent to them. Peace!
I must thank Power Zone for the wonderful install. He had to re-wire my car twice but charged me the same install price that he had quoted previously. Saravana Prabhu, you rock dude!
Final list
Kenwood KDC-X7013U Head Unit
JL Audio XR 650 CSi Component Speakers
Focal Solid 4 Amplifier
Infinity Reference 1260W Sub Woofer
JBL GTO 948 Coaxial Speakers (I installed these 2 months ago and they are rocking only now)
I must thank a lot of people on this forum for patiently answering some of my atrociously noob-ish questions. Among them, Nitrous, sathee46, Bakiya, Pr_007, Mi10, Invinsible, Greenhorn and Naughty. Thanks guys!
Some pics from the install.