Hello all!
the title may seem a bit wacky, but upon reading my post you will come to realise & appreciate the nuance of it. won't write too long (i hope), primarily because it isn't meant to be a review, but just a plain-simple feedback on what i encountered while putting in efforts to choose, find & get the equipment installed in my car.
first of all, my heartfelt thanks to pranut, metalspree, greenhorn, sato1986, & to others as well who had posted their queries on ICE in this section of TE and to those who had replied to them (& thus assisted me hence indirectly
).
all this while while, scouring the net for more-and-more info, i had found too less information on where to source the components from at my place of residence (thane), hence, by way of this thread, i hope that people who are currently on the look-out for ICE components, and those who would do so in the future, could somehow battle the dearth of that info through this thread, people particularly from thane, as well as in general, others who find themselves confused on what to buy.
i have a baleno. it had the factory-installed Kenwood cassette-player for the past 6-7 yrs, ever since the car was bought. everytime the plan of upgrading kept getting postponed, but this time around, somehow fortunately the intentions stood their ground, and the most had to me made out of this!
about my listening-taste, i listen to almost all sorts of genres & music that pleases and/or blends in harmoniously with my mind, EXCEPT hip-hop, black-metal, and most of the romantic songs.
what all i purchased:
1. Kenwood KDC-U349R - 4800/-
2. Focal Access 690 CA1 (6"X9" 2-way Co-axial speakers for the rear) - 6300/-
3. Focal Access KIT 165 CA1 (6.5" 2-way Co-axial speakers for the front) - 4600/-
4. Universal cellphone charger for car - 250/- (but priceless, since grabbed it as a complimentary-gift :ashamed
Total cost, including labour-charges, wires, sockets, God (no offense meant, but this is what the invoice mentions for a statue of Lord Ganesha bought for the car), etc. came to about 18k.
too early to write about sound-impressions, but from whatever i have listened to, i am much pleased with the set-up. this being my first ICE set-up, i am in no position to compare it with other components, and nor should i, but i feel the sound is very crisp & clear. for eg:
1. one of the workers there put in his disk of MP3s of the usual variety (sorry, but which i despise) of the candyfloss romantic & 'seeti-maar' bollywood songs. better not to say anything about it, except for one song that i could mention ('i hate luv stories' title track) - the sound seemed very 'forward' & 'energising'.
2. i played the 'natarang' track of the movie by the same name, and the cymbals and all in the beginning were sounding very clear & clean, and when the pakhaavaj/mrudang starts, the punch of it was very satisfying & invigorating (or should i say, the soundstage seemed wide & very clean & clear).
3. am yet to listen to metal-tracks from in extremo, iron maiden, metallica, and their likes, but just played 'vertigo' from U2. now i don't like rock/metal without ample bass (that thumpy/bassy sound of the foot-drum of whatever it is called, is a must-have!). the neutral sound to it was good & with light bass, but as soon as i increased the 'bass boost' on the HU to level 1 from 0, it came alive with a bang! simply awesome! :bigok:
so what i learnt was, to listen to the kind of bass that resembles the 'thud' sound of a kick landed near-perfectly on a kicking bag (if any of you have ever practiced gruelling kicking sessions on heavy-bags), the neutral settings are good enough. but to go still deeper like the sound of the striking of the bag on one's back or chest, bass-boost is lying in wait (and moreover, there are still more options like 'bass extend', 'bass-settings', 'low frequency alter', and what-have-you, which am yet to explore!)....hehe! what analogies!
4. last song i listened to was probably 'Sher Punjabi' (on Harjit Brar Bajakhana) from Aman Hayer. again, the sound seemed quite 'forward', with ample bass which didn't overshadow the mids at all. finally i was like :hail:
some points worth noting:
# on the HU - after deciding on Kenwood, my initial choice was KDC-U449. but at the last moment, i came to know from the dealer that this model isn't available, and he called up to the company's office as well to inquire about it. the U349R being similar to U449 (except that the former doesn't officially support iPod/iPhone, and has 1 RCA pre-out pair) and both being from the same family, i accepted the U349R. about BT-functionality, i had dropped the idea of being concerned about it, as the Aux-in port could be utilised for playing songs using cellphones. also, was not concerned about ease of use with Apple's products, as i don't fancy iPods/iPhones. the HU's mdia-reading capability from discs (i haven't used a USB-drive yet) is good. about 1-2 second pause in between each track, and about 4-5 seconds waiting-time before it reads a disc. reading an audio-disc is quicker than reading an MP3-disc. i played U2's 'vertigo' audio-CD with several scratches, and it played it smoothly and quickly! whereas, i put one MP3-disc with several songs in it, and it seemed to take forever reading it, which happened with only this one MO3-disc. others read fine, so most probably the problem lies with that particular disc itself.
another thing i liked the best in Kenwood receivers is their LED-fonts/letters seem better to me than in the others
# upon coming back home (and just before writing this), i realised that i totally forgot to ask the dealer about Polk Audio's DB691 speakers! i quickly ran through google, and realised that perhaps am better off with Focals (being 2-way speakers). some say that these are bright, but they didn't fatigue me. perhaps this HU & these speakers gel well?!
# as much as i know that in audio, speakers' power-ratings shouldn't bother an informed buyer, i was still a victim of that stupid number-fancy when comparing speakers under my budget earlier (300W/400W JBL speakers). however, after spotting the Focals, this illusion mellowed down, and after experiencing the rattling effect of the speakers on the car-doors & floor, am happy to again accept the truth of that saying!
# i guess that the speakers are perhaps underpowered until being hooked to an ext. amp. this i plan to add when the car would be changed within 2-3 years from now.
# baleno's (and for most of the new cars) fronts accommodate 6.5" size of speakers.
# about dealers in thane - sadly, thane/mumbai doesn't have a store/showroom like reliance autozone, where one could conveniently audition several ICE components. i went to 3-4 dealers. a cluster of their shops, famously, is located on L.B.S. Marg. one apart from them was Auto Looks, opp. Tatvagyaan Vidyapeeth, the only one i found with a demo-facility (an 'all-JVC' machine). the owner/salesman was good & polite. the other one i went to was Motor Land (Opp. Damani Estate, L.B.S. Marg). he too was a good chap, and gave me good prices for some components, but he didn't have my choice of HU. the dealer from whom i got the best quote & all components at once, all with B&W, was Classic Car Decor (the 1st/last shop on L.B.S. Marg, opp. teen (3) petrol pump. the place is usually crowded. owner is good & polite and helps with the inquiry & process. the installation in my case took place for about 3 hours.
so this was it. i hope to keep adding to this when i learn more about the set-up while using it. i believe this should in a minor way assist those in a dilemma about an ICE set-up. if anyone has any queries or suggestions to make, please feel free to post and/or message me, since am sure i can't gather all about the whole saga in one-go, esp. at this late hour (and this has finally become long :|)!
please savour some lousy pics
the title may seem a bit wacky, but upon reading my post you will come to realise & appreciate the nuance of it. won't write too long (i hope), primarily because it isn't meant to be a review, but just a plain-simple feedback on what i encountered while putting in efforts to choose, find & get the equipment installed in my car.
first of all, my heartfelt thanks to pranut, metalspree, greenhorn, sato1986, & to others as well who had posted their queries on ICE in this section of TE and to those who had replied to them (& thus assisted me hence indirectly
).all this while while, scouring the net for more-and-more info, i had found too less information on where to source the components from at my place of residence (thane), hence, by way of this thread, i hope that people who are currently on the look-out for ICE components, and those who would do so in the future, could somehow battle the dearth of that info through this thread, people particularly from thane, as well as in general, others who find themselves confused on what to buy.
i have a baleno. it had the factory-installed Kenwood cassette-player for the past 6-7 yrs, ever since the car was bought. everytime the plan of upgrading kept getting postponed, but this time around, somehow fortunately the intentions stood their ground, and the most had to me made out of this!
about my listening-taste, i listen to almost all sorts of genres & music that pleases and/or blends in harmoniously with my mind, EXCEPT hip-hop, black-metal, and most of the romantic songs.
1. i started on a measly budget of 6k first. in this category, what i found was that one could:
# get a decent, cheaper digital media receiver HU. there are some good VFM ones available from convex, which makes many other car-accessories too. still cheaper ones from other not-so-well-known brands could be found online/locally.
# invest in some decent speakers. getting components can't be said to be a good idea in this category, as they cost more than co-axials, and might require an ext. amp. one could instead have speakers like JBL GT6-S699 & JBL CS4 / CS5.
# in this budget, it would be wiser if one decides to move step-by-step upwards towards getting better components for the ICE set-up, whenever one's pocket allows.
# many dealers would quote you prices without B&W at first, which might tempt you since those are a bit less, but there are some who directly quote good prices WITH B&W. this being one's own prerogative on what to choose, even on being on a low budget, one should never think of saving the effort of doing some research online/offline before taking the jump!
2. however, with time, as i tried to find more, my budget too increased (i was already on a 'flexible' one as it is ). now at 8k:
# not much different than the above, but i realised that i could invest in a better HU now; say some budget-ones from JVC, JBL, Pioneer, etc. (such as JVC KD-X30 [2011], JBL GT-X333 [slightly older], Pioneer MVH-159UI [2012-2013]).
# some people are of the opinion that while selecting an HU, settle with the one that has features that you want, is decent in SQ, and that's it! i was also told that listening to one HU from the brands of your choice each would help you in understanding what each brand's line-up of HUs has to offer in terms of SQ. but upon realising that it is tough to audition HUs, it was more of reading up online to choose what could you have. for eg, i read that Kenwood provided a cleaner sound since it has a better DAC (also, probably the higher-end HUs from Kenwood have Burr-Brown DAC), but it costs more. hence one has to try to find a balance between good sound & features to get a VFM HU.
# it is advised to lay more emphasis on speakers. listening to sound being a highly subjective experience, and the lack of proper auditioning facility in most of the stores, here too, one has to rely more on word-of-mouth and online posts & feedback to know more. for some, JBL speakers provide cleaner sound, while for others they may sound bass-heavy/muffled, etc. when i was stuck on this budget, i still had JBL in my mind because of the kind-of music i listen to.
3. at just about the same time, i realised that spending a few bucks more to about 10k, i could have little better equipment, i found:
# that now i could think of more features in my HU, like CDP (instead of just having USB receiver), BT, etc.
# for speakers, i didn't spare much thought, except that i changed my idea of rear speakers to JBL GTO 949 now.
# some may wonder, that all this while why didn't i mention the name of 'Sony' or 'Xplod'. this is because i read umpteen posts telling that those are mostly hyped products from Sony (as in other A/V or HiFi products from the brand) and are plagued by several problems like overheating, bad SQ, bad inbuilt amp in HUs, bad media-reading capability, etc. (however, Sony's ext. amp is said to be quite good). however, it should be noted that if from personal experience, someone has had a chance to listen to Sony's ICE set-up and happened to like it, all such info would stand null-and-void in front of him; simply because, as i wrote above, music is a highly subjective matter!
4. at this point, someone threw different varieties of speakers on my face(and it all again went 2 notches upwards, to 12k):
# now i came to know that well-known names in home-audio, like Polk Audio (DB691), Boston Acoustics, etc. too have very good car-speakers, as well as some other brands like Kicker, Rockford Fosgate, etc. i decided to delve more on this.
# came to realise that most of these could well set me off my budget. either i will have to sacrifice on the HU front or spend more. however, there were still some affordable ones for me, namely the 'prime series' (R1693 for ~4500/-, R142 for ~1900) from Rockford Fosgate.
# by this time, i had almost decided on my choice of HU & speakers, and changed the speakers at the last moment. earlier, it was a Kenwood HU (pioneer, i was told, would sound harsh; JVC KD-X40 wasn't available locally, and had dropped the idea of having a KD-X30. Also, thought Kenwood would somehow better suit my car, as JVCs, Pioneers, etc., atleast lookswise, suit smaller & sporty-looking cars like swift, figo, beat, i10/i20, etc).
# came to know that only one dealer, incidentally from whom i had decided to get the job done, had/could get those RF speakers. but now, something happened, which had to happen eventually!
my eyes fell on Focal speakers in the shop, and i recalled the words of many people recommending these to me (and in discussions on various forums on the internet), and i thought let's jump the gun! inquired about the price, and was told 7500/-! i went into a thoughtful expression & mood, and after awhile, the dealer by himself quoted my 6300/- for them and seriously suggested me to take these instead. so i decided to have Focal speakers for the rears and fronts.
# get a decent, cheaper digital media receiver HU. there are some good VFM ones available from convex, which makes many other car-accessories too. still cheaper ones from other not-so-well-known brands could be found online/locally.
# invest in some decent speakers. getting components can't be said to be a good idea in this category, as they cost more than co-axials, and might require an ext. amp. one could instead have speakers like JBL GT6-S699 & JBL CS4 / CS5.
# in this budget, it would be wiser if one decides to move step-by-step upwards towards getting better components for the ICE set-up, whenever one's pocket allows.
# many dealers would quote you prices without B&W at first, which might tempt you since those are a bit less, but there are some who directly quote good prices WITH B&W. this being one's own prerogative on what to choose, even on being on a low budget, one should never think of saving the effort of doing some research online/offline before taking the jump!
2. however, with time, as i tried to find more, my budget too increased (i was already on a 'flexible' one as it is
). now at 8k:# not much different than the above, but i realised that i could invest in a better HU now; say some budget-ones from JVC, JBL, Pioneer, etc. (such as JVC KD-X30 [2011], JBL GT-X333 [slightly older], Pioneer MVH-159UI [2012-2013]).
# some people are of the opinion that while selecting an HU, settle with the one that has features that you want, is decent in SQ, and that's it! i was also told that listening to one HU from the brands of your choice each would help you in understanding what each brand's line-up of HUs has to offer in terms of SQ. but upon realising that it is tough to audition HUs, it was more of reading up online to choose what could you have. for eg, i read that Kenwood provided a cleaner sound since it has a better DAC (also, probably the higher-end HUs from Kenwood have Burr-Brown DAC), but it costs more. hence one has to try to find a balance between good sound & features to get a VFM HU.
# it is advised to lay more emphasis on speakers. listening to sound being a highly subjective experience, and the lack of proper auditioning facility in most of the stores, here too, one has to rely more on word-of-mouth and online posts & feedback to know more. for some, JBL speakers provide cleaner sound, while for others they may sound bass-heavy/muffled, etc. when i was stuck on this budget, i still had JBL in my mind because of the kind-of music i listen to.
3. at just about the same time, i realised that spending a few bucks more to about 10k, i could have little better equipment, i found:
# that now i could think of more features in my HU, like CDP (instead of just having USB receiver), BT, etc.
# for speakers, i didn't spare much thought, except that i changed my idea of rear speakers to JBL GTO 949 now.
# some may wonder, that all this while why didn't i mention the name of 'Sony' or 'Xplod'. this is because i read umpteen posts telling that those are mostly hyped products from Sony (as in other A/V or HiFi products from the brand) and are plagued by several problems like overheating, bad SQ, bad inbuilt amp in HUs, bad media-reading capability, etc. (however, Sony's ext. amp is said to be quite good). however, it should be noted that if from personal experience, someone has had a chance to listen to Sony's ICE set-up and happened to like it, all such info would stand null-and-void in front of him; simply because, as i wrote above, music is a highly subjective matter!
4. at this point, someone threw different varieties of speakers on my face
(and it all again went 2 notches upwards, to 12k):# now i came to know that well-known names in home-audio, like Polk Audio (DB691), Boston Acoustics, etc. too have very good car-speakers, as well as some other brands like Kicker, Rockford Fosgate, etc. i decided to delve more on this.
# came to realise that most of these could well set me off my budget. either i will have to sacrifice on the HU front or spend more. however, there were still some affordable ones for me, namely the 'prime series' (R1693 for ~4500/-, R142 for ~1900) from Rockford Fosgate.
# by this time, i had almost decided on my choice of HU & speakers, and changed the speakers at the last moment. earlier, it was a Kenwood HU (pioneer, i was told, would sound harsh; JVC KD-X40 wasn't available locally, and had dropped the idea of having a KD-X30. Also, thought Kenwood would somehow better suit my car, as JVCs, Pioneers, etc., atleast lookswise, suit smaller & sporty-looking cars like swift, figo, beat, i10/i20, etc).
# came to know that only one dealer, incidentally from whom i had decided to get the job done, had/could get those RF speakers. but now, something happened, which had to happen eventually!
my eyes fell on Focal speakers in the shop, and i recalled the words of many people recommending these to me (and in discussions on various forums on the internet), and i thought let's jump the gun! inquired about the price, and was told 7500/-! i went into a thoughtful expression & mood, and after awhile, the dealer by himself quoted my 6300/- for them and seriously suggested me to take these instead. so i decided to have Focal speakers for the rears and fronts.
what all i purchased:
1. Kenwood KDC-U349R - 4800/-
2. Focal Access 690 CA1 (6"X9" 2-way Co-axial speakers for the rear) - 6300/-
3. Focal Access KIT 165 CA1 (6.5" 2-way Co-axial speakers for the front) - 4600/-
4. Universal cellphone charger for car - 250/- (but priceless, since grabbed it as a complimentary-gift :ashamed
Total cost, including labour-charges, wires, sockets, God (no offense meant, but this is what the invoice mentions for a statue of Lord Ganesha bought for the car
), etc. came to about 18k. too early to write about sound-impressions, but from whatever i have listened to, i am much pleased with the set-up. this being my first ICE set-up, i am in no position to compare it with other components, and nor should i, but i feel the sound is very crisp & clear. for eg:
1. one of the workers there put in his disk of MP3s of the usual variety (sorry, but which i despise) of the candyfloss romantic & 'seeti-maar' bollywood songs. better not to say anything about it, except for one song that i could mention ('i hate luv stories' title track) - the sound seemed very 'forward' & 'energising'.
2. i played the 'natarang' track of the movie by the same name, and the cymbals and all in the beginning were sounding very clear & clean, and when the pakhaavaj/mrudang starts, the punch of it was very satisfying & invigorating (or should i say, the soundstage seemed wide & very clean & clear).
3. am yet to listen to metal-tracks from in extremo, iron maiden, metallica, and their likes, but just played 'vertigo' from U2. now i don't like rock/metal without ample bass (that thumpy/bassy sound of the foot-drum of whatever it is called, is a must-have!). the neutral sound to it was good & with light bass, but as soon as i increased the 'bass boost' on the HU to level 1 from 0, it came alive with a bang! simply awesome! :bigok:
so what i learnt was, to listen to the kind of bass that resembles the 'thud' sound of a kick landed near-perfectly on a kicking bag (if any of you have ever practiced gruelling kicking sessions on heavy-bags), the neutral settings are good enough. but to go still deeper like the sound of the striking of the bag on one's back or chest, bass-boost is lying in wait (and moreover, there are still more options like 'bass extend', 'bass-settings', 'low frequency alter', and what-have-you, which am yet to explore!)....hehe! what analogies!
4. last song i listened to was probably 'Sher Punjabi' (on Harjit Brar Bajakhana) from Aman Hayer. again, the sound seemed quite 'forward', with ample bass which didn't overshadow the mids at all. finally i was like :hail:
some points worth noting:
# on the HU - after deciding on Kenwood, my initial choice was KDC-U449. but at the last moment, i came to know from the dealer that this model isn't available, and he called up to the company's office as well to inquire about it. the U349R being similar to U449 (except that the former doesn't officially support iPod/iPhone, and has 1 RCA pre-out pair) and both being from the same family, i accepted the U349R. about BT-functionality, i had dropped the idea of being concerned about it, as the Aux-in port could be utilised for playing songs using cellphones. also, was not concerned about ease of use with Apple's products, as i don't fancy iPods/iPhones. the HU's mdia-reading capability from discs (i haven't used a USB-drive yet) is good. about 1-2 second pause in between each track, and about 4-5 seconds waiting-time before it reads a disc. reading an audio-disc is quicker than reading an MP3-disc. i played U2's 'vertigo' audio-CD with several scratches, and it played it smoothly and quickly! whereas, i put one MP3-disc with several songs in it, and it seemed to take forever reading it, which happened with only this one MO3-disc. others read fine, so most probably the problem lies with that particular disc itself.
another thing i liked the best in Kenwood receivers is their LED-fonts/letters seem better to me than in the others
# upon coming back home (and just before writing this), i realised that i totally forgot to ask the dealer about Polk Audio's DB691 speakers! i quickly ran through google, and realised that perhaps am better off with Focals (being 2-way speakers). some say that these are bright, but they didn't fatigue me. perhaps this HU & these speakers gel well?!
# as much as i know that in audio, speakers' power-ratings shouldn't bother an informed buyer, i was still a victim of that stupid number-fancy when comparing speakers under my budget earlier (300W/400W JBL speakers). however, after spotting the Focals, this illusion mellowed down, and after experiencing the rattling effect of the speakers on the car-doors & floor, am happy to again accept the truth of that saying!
# i guess that the speakers are perhaps underpowered until being hooked to an ext. amp. this i plan to add when the car would be changed within 2-3 years from now.
# baleno's (and for most of the new cars) fronts accommodate 6.5" size of speakers.
# about dealers in thane - sadly, thane/mumbai doesn't have a store/showroom like reliance autozone, where one could conveniently audition several ICE components. i went to 3-4 dealers. a cluster of their shops, famously, is located on L.B.S. Marg. one apart from them was Auto Looks, opp. Tatvagyaan Vidyapeeth, the only one i found with a demo-facility (an 'all-JVC' machine). the owner/salesman was good & polite. the other one i went to was Motor Land (Opp. Damani Estate, L.B.S. Marg). he too was a good chap, and gave me good prices for some components, but he didn't have my choice of HU. the dealer from whom i got the best quote & all components at once, all with B&W, was Classic Car Decor (the 1st/last shop on L.B.S. Marg, opp. teen (3) petrol pump. the place is usually crowded. owner is good & polite and helps with the inquiry & process. the installation in my case took place for about 3 hours.
so this was it. i hope to keep adding to this when i learn more about the set-up while using it. i believe this should in a minor way assist those in a dilemma about an ICE set-up. if anyone has any queries or suggestions to make, please feel free to post and/or message me, since am sure i can't gather all about the whole saga in one-go, esp. at this late hour (and this has finally become long :|)!
please savour some lousy pics
