[macwanj]

Hi folks,

I just wanted to say hi to all the folks on the forums and commend the moderators for keeping all the threads so organized. This forum is packed with information and its been an enjoyable read!

A little about me: I'm a 25yr old from Mumbai. I finished college in the US and have been living and working in L.A for the past 3 years as a sound systems engineer for a company that does the live sound for the Oscars, Grammies, Superbowl etc etc.

I'm finally moving back home to Mumbai in July to do the same kind of work there in Indian television. I'm going to need a car as soon as I'm there and pretty much decided on the Swift. most cars in the 10L segment do not inspire me and this was the closest fit to my requirements for these reasons. I was also considering the Civic but decided against it for reason 3 below:

1. Established after market mods
2. Eco friendly and efficient; I'm a semi tree hugger ; )
3. Small size; will be easier for me to drive and get used to the Indian road and traffic conditions; I haven't been back for the past 6 years!
4. Has a nice young persons feel to it.

I have always been partial to hatchbacks (my car in College was a 2005 VW GTI). If only VW offered the Golf GTI in India; I would not have minded paying 8L or 9L for the car.

The Swift however will do for now although admittedly, I plastics look cheap and so many users have complained about rattles. One of the first things I'm going to do is damp all the panels. I guess my mods are going to be a 50/50 in aesthetics and performance.

Also yesterday I found out that the building next door to my work place is none other than Sonic Electronix Some of my colleagues walked next door during lunch and picked up some HU's for their car!

Anyways, enough of my ranting; happy motoring to you all and I'm excited to be back home soon...

PS: are we expecting a heavy monsoon this year (in Mumbai?)

Cheers,
Jason

[Dippy]

Hi macwanj

Your profession sounds really cool. Tell us more about the work you do for these super biggie events. Should make for a fantastic read. As far as your car in India goes, you should be safe with the Swift at the same time i would advise you to test drive the numerous hatches on sale before making a decision.

Take time to go through the Rules section to understand the forum protocol.

Welcome to Team BHP

[vijaypalsingh]

Welcome onboard Jason

Your profession may interest one of our Senior BHpian, SAM KAPASI.

As Dippy above has laredy mentioned there is huge market for hatces in India now. You may like VW Polo & Hyundai i20 once you have tested them. Swift has aged now & MS is planning to launch a newer version but am not very sure. Keep watching Team BHP.

With warm regards,
Vijay

[macwanj]

Originally Posted by Dippy

Hi macwanj

Your profession sounds really cool. Tell us more about the work you do for these super biggie events. Should make for a fantastic read. As far as your car in India goes, you should be safe with the Swift at the same time i would advise you to test drive the numerous hatches on sale before making a decision.

Take time to go through the Rules section to understand the forum protocol.

Welcome to Team BHP

Hey Dippy and Vijay, thanks for welcoming me to the forums. Working here in L.A isn't as glamorous as it is made out to me. However, getting to see Heidi Klum backstage makes the job a little easier . My work includes a fair amount of acoustics, electrical engineering and audio engineering. In the lab, I help design professional audio gear like transformer based power distribution and audio signal splitting systems. I studied Physics and Music is college so I had to teach myself a lot of the electrical stuff. Being a major geek and wanting expensive audio gear (which I couldn't afford), I resorted to building the gear myself and eventually went on to design mixers, tube guitar amps, horn loaded speakers amongst other things. I also do the acoustical design, calibration and tuning of show systems which includes deciding where speakers get rigged taking into account room acoustics, power requirements, speaker coverage etc.

Unlike live sound for a rock show, live sound for television is relatively complex as these systems need to interface with the room sound system, stage monitor systems, broadcast trucks, press rooms and sometimes a red carpet system. For example, at the Super Bowl, the arena is so big that it becomes impractical to run analog audio signals over lengths larger than 350ft. This is often required for the broadcast trucks. Each TV channel usually has one of their own and with the international coverage of these events, there can be at least 10 trucks A better approach to do this is to use fiber optic cable and route digital audio over an audio network that utilizes the Ethernet protocol and ip addressing.

Ironically, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to the latest consumer/car audio products. After 8 (sometimes 12) working hours of audio, I come home not wanting to do anything audio related. The ICE section on the forum has been a good educational read though!

Originally Posted by vijaypalsingh

Welcome onboard Jason

Your profession may interest one of our Senior BHpian, SAM KAPASI.

As Dippy above has laredy mentioned there is huge market for hatces in India now. You may like VW Polo & Hyundai i20 once you have tested them. Swift has aged now & MS is planning to launch a newer version but am not very sure. Keep watching Team BHP.

With warm regards,
Vijay

Vijay, I keep swinging back and forth between the i20 CRDi and the Swift Zxi. I suppose a test drive will finally clear things up but I have to say that the reports of the electronic steering on the i20 concerns me. Ultimately, I'm willing to sacrifice some features for a more enjoyable drive. The Punto and the Polo just don't appeal to me that much in terms of aesthetics and performance but anyhow, I'm going to TD them nonetheless. The Polo would have been a strong contender had they given better engine options. I figure getting the Swift Zxi would be a good compromise on engine performance and features. If I can mod it to give me 95-100bhp it would be more than adequate.

[MX6]

Pretty impressive cv you got there! Welcome on board. Nice to know we have another tree hugger. The choices of small cars in India are limited (when it comes to quality small cars). However, the segment is seeing loads of changes off late. Come down, have TDs of all the cars. You never know finally which one will possess you!

[Rehaan]

Pretty fun sounding job there macwanj.

I'm sure navin and others on the ICE section would have a lot to say about the stuff you have been building.

Originally Posted by macwanj

...PS: are we expecting a heavy monsoon this year (in Mumbai?)

I hope so!

cya
R

[macwanj]

Thanks guys; MX6 I see you are from Pune. I did my 11th and 12th there(on the outskirts of the city, near Paud village) and absolutely loved the city. I have fond memories hanging out with friends on MG Road, German Bakery and the like.