[rjstyles69]

It's been close to 2 years of my Scorpio ownership and the ICE upgrade was a long pending one. I have always been inclined to SQ than SPL and being an SQ addict I wanted my mids and lows no matter what.

My quest for an SQ setup started and led me to posting this thread . The setup on my scorp was

• Head Unit > Kenwood KDC-BT7043U
• eFX components for the front doors.
• Boston Acoustics sxi 606 compo's for the center door.
• efx 4200 ( 4 channel amp) powering the compo's.
• Volfenhag ZX-8100(2 channel 800Watts ) powering my 12" sub.
• 12 " Subwoofer from Hifonics in a ported box

It sounded good, however you never run short of excuses and find ways to go in for an upgrade so that you can get a little better sound. I started off with a 15k budget and it went way above that .
Time and again I would revisit this page , console myself saying ok we wont go above 15k, then again during my next visit next visit after some research I promise myself that we would stay in the 20k budget . Well it looked like none of this was gonna hold good.

I post the thread in April for suggestions and I get a call from my boss saying that I would need to travel to the US. I knew this was the chance for me to lay my hands on stuff for cheap. A quick mail to satya asking for options and fixed my budget at 400$'s for a set of components and a monobloc.

We zeroed down on following components

• Alpine SPX-17REF
• JL Audio C2-650
• Rockford Fosgate T2652-S
• Boston Acoustics SR60

The SR60's were ruled out coz they were selling at 300+ $'s and I had a budget of 200 which could stretch till 250 for the components. The Alpines had some pretty good reviews. Once again had to ditch the Alpines for the fact that the speaker dept was a little too high and accommodating one in the Scorpio's front door was gonna be a tough call.

Went ahead and ordered for the JL Audio C2 650 components. Was shipped in flat two days to my apartment in Houston, paid 151 USD including shipping.
For the monobloc I decided on the Hifonics Brutus BRZ1200.1D and costed 192 USD including shipping. Allz well and both fell right within my budget.

Fast forward got back to India and then could never find time to get the ICE install done. It took me close to 3 months to get everything in place and upgrade the ICE.

The plan was pretty straight forward, install the c2 650 components on the front door and move the eFX components to the center door. Now if you guys remember I had done a DIY with FG for the speaker enclosure, which was posted here. There was a small problem, the eFX mid bass speaker was a tad bit big and wouldn't sit in the same FG speaker pod. Also the tweeters weren't flush mounted on the center doors.

Time for another DIY and we fabricated a new speaker and tweeter pod for the center doors. Satya went ahead and did the DIY using FG and made a custom pod to accommodate the mid bass speakers.

With everything in place it was time for the install. The final list of equipments looked like this

JVC KW-XR816 2-DIN CD Receiver
JL Audio C2 650
Hifonics Brutus BRZ1200.1D monobloc
eFX components (retained from the old setup)
efx 4200 4 channel amp retained(retained from the old setup)
Hifonics 12 inch sub-woofer in a ported box(retained from the old setup)

The amps have been installed beneath the driver and the co-drivers seats. Haven't clicked any pictures of it, will stop my rant for now and let the pictures do the talking.





The JVC double din HU. Has multiple back light choices, for now I have retained the blue color.





The tweeters flush mounted on the right and left front doors.





Custom made tweeter pods for the center doors.





FG pod made for the mid bass speakers.



Added some bling too with a few LED's.



The sub-woofer control knob.



The HU is BT enabled and has a mic too. You can make/receive phone calls, a nice feature and something that I really need.



The Sub-woofer



The 6x9's installed on the last door.



The remote and yeah its tiny.



Will be getting a steering wheel remote in the coming week. The price breakup is as below

1. JVC KW-XR816 2-DIN CD Receiver --> 10,800/- Rs
2. JL Audio C2 650 --> 6800/- Rs (picked up in the US)
3. Hifonics Brutus BRZ1200.1D --> 8600/-Rs (picked up in the US)
4. Speaker and tweeter pods --> 3500/-Rs

The system sounds great and no boomy bass, perfect tight bass which suits my ears.

[yajaman99]

Hi Riju, this looks really super and must sound even better. Will have an audtion someday . By the way the "bling" factor is cool.

[theMAG]

Any new damping/cabling done ?

[theexperthand]

I saw these fiber pods when i went to ICE my Punto and was wondering who will be the guy using it

Neat install

OT: Can you please tell me which is the grill you have used for the mid bass on the center door (the fiber pod)? I remember the logo, but can't really place it.

[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by yajaman99

Hi Riju, this looks really super and must sound even better. Will have an audtion someday . By the way the "bling" factor is cool.

Car is in office today and please be my guest,.

Originally Posted by theMAG

Any new damping/cabling done ?

swamy we used normal foam for damping and cabling was hardly anything coz most of the older cabling was retained.

Originally Posted by theexperthand

I saw these fiber pods when i went to ICE my Punto and was wondering who will be the guy using it

Neat install

OT: Can you please tell me which is the grill you have used for the mid bass on the center door (the fiber pod)? I remember the logo, but can't really place it.

Thanks man. Those grills are from Diamond Audio. The polk grills is something I was looking at and couldn't find one.

[motomaverick]

Nice upgrade, the setup sure looks bling, was wondering how much you paid for the kenwood receiver, i guess that model has been replaced by 7046BT now. I was planning to upgrade my cars HU as well.

Are there any good options under 10k for a 2 -din kenny?

[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by motomaverick

Nice upgrade, the setup sure looks bling, was wondering how much you paid for the kenwood receiver, i guess that model has been replaced by 7046BT now. I was planning to upgrade my cars HU as well.

Are there any good options under 10k for a 2 -din kenny?

The Kenwood back then was about 12/13k IIRC and the model was BT7043U . IMO was a pretty good head unit and my only gripe was that it wasnt a double DIN.

BTW if you have 10k to spend then look at the same model of JVC i picked up, Satya quoted 10,800/- for it, 800 bucks shouldn't burn much of a hole in your pockets if 10k is the upper limit for your upgrade.

Kenwood double DIN starts off at 13/14k.

[motomaverick]

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

The Kenwood back then was about 12/13k IIRC and the model was BT7043U . IMO was a pretty good head unit and my only gripe was that it wasnt a double DIN.

BTW if you have 10k to spend then look at the same model of JVC i picked up, Satya quoted 10,800/- for it, 800 bucks shouldn't burn much of a hole in your pockets if 10k is the upper limit for your upgrade.

Kenwood double DIN starts off at 13/14k.

I did not quite like the design with the huge knob, so thats why thinking of remaining in single DIN. Though a double DIN would be good for my Manza as it would occupy all of the OEM system space.

[predatorwheelz]

Congrats! Nice, sensible setup. Will look forward to a detailed review of the JVC XR816, since I also plan to install the same HU in my planned ICE setup.

[invincible7]

Congrats Nice work with the FG.