In a vehicle environment there are lot of issues that one faces and we aren't hearing all the music due to limitations. It started with the thought of building a Setup that would sound close to its natural sound, making it sound close to its real recording, full of details and dynamics. The idea was to go with front 3 way and sub stage. We choose the Skoda Fabia due to compact size, A piller - Shape/position, it's rigid body and internal panels.
The Fabia is 2008 Elegance model. It's doors and boot layout already had double layer damping i.e. Inside and outer panel. All that was required is add another layer of damping in the wheel well, below the rear seats and flooring.
Equipment :
We decided to go with Sinfoni S Series setup and Tempo Series Amplifier. There were plans to go in add La Prima Amplifiers for the drivers however that is another project that will come up sometime in Future.
The 3 drivers S25T ( tweeter ), S100M ( midrange ) and S165W ( midwoofer ) are doing the duty for the front Stage and S1200SW for the SUB stage.
S25T Tweeter has the Resonant Freq. of 917hz and is capable of producing freq. from 800-20000hz. It's a soft dome tweeter that is capable of handling 70RMS power.
S100M Midrange is a 4" driver. The driver can handle freq. from 120hz to 5000hz and has a low resonant freq. of 115hz. The midrange is rated to handle 60 RMS of power. It is one of the cleanest Midrange I have heard including other Hi-end brands.
S165W Midbass, a 6.5' driver produces freq. from 60-6000hz with resonant freq value of 66hz. power rating of 80 RMS. The woofer is fast and plays all the details is capable to act as a dedicated Midbass.
S1200SW is Hi-quality subwoofer with rating of 400RMS is capable to play all low end and can go plenty loud. The sub is fast, transparent and blends with the midwoofer at best.
All 4 drivers can handle much more than their rated power. Sinfoni has always been known for Amplifiers, however the Drivers are one of the cleanest drivers around and is in the league of its own along with other Top of the line Hi-End brands. Sinfoni S165W rated at 80RMS is easily handling around 200RMS each.
Source Unit : The choice was simple we needed a headunit that could do 4 way active. 2 choice that we had Clarion HX-D3 and Pioneer DEX- P99RS. We choose the later which has the added features of X-over control with steeper slope, Independent EQ, Ipod Control through USB.
Amplifier : We Wanted to get the Sinfoni La Prima Prestigio, a CLASS A amplifier and run 2 of these each on the Midrange and Tweeter. Also get a Prodigio to do the duty on Midbass. However that's the setup that would be coming in future with the different system design. These had a waiting period as they are Make to order.
Initially the Midrange and tweeter were running passive on S2VX X-over and were powered by Sinfoni Presto Ad-lib in bridge mode handling close to 150RMS on each pair. This was when we were using Clarion 785USB player.
Sinfoni Presto Ad-lib : It's rated at 50x4 RMS at 12V and can do 250x2 RMS in bridge mode. We decided to use two of these one running in bridge mode on the S165W midwoofer. Each Midwoofer is handling around 200RMS.
The other Presto Ad-Lib is currently running S25T. 1 channel of each front and rear is powering the left and the right Tweeters.
Sinfoni Allegro : Rated to put out close to 95x 2 RMS at 14.4V and with no inbuilt X-over makes it ideal to run it in Active mode on the Midrange S100M.
Sinfoni Grave : We choose the Grave to run the subwoofer as it could do 650 RMS at 4 ohms in bridge mode. S1200SW is handling close 600 RMS currently.
Cables :
We decided to go with 0/1 Awg power cable from ground Zero that was available with 300A fuse. Kicker distribution block was used to power up all 4 Amplifiers with 4 gauge.
Sinfoni Cables : We used 4 of Sinfoni RC Interconnects and close to 100ft. speaker cables. These are made with OFC Copper wire and made with highest quality material. Both RC and speaker cable are using Pirelli rubber surround.
Damping : The car was damped with close to 90 sq.ft of damping along with 80 sq.ft of Open Cell close structure Acoustic Foam, we call it Rezomat which we are developing in house. What we have used is a prototype. It helped us control all the vibration and block the air-borne noise along with cancelling all the road noise and engine noise. The other advantage we noticed where all the sound remains in the car even at full volume, stand outside the car and will be difficult to know if the music running at full volume inside the car.
NEXT COMING UP SYSTEM DESIGN..
The Fabia is 2008 Elegance model. It's doors and boot layout already had double layer damping i.e. Inside and outer panel. All that was required is add another layer of damping in the wheel well, below the rear seats and flooring.
Equipment :
We decided to go with Sinfoni S Series setup and Tempo Series Amplifier. There were plans to go in add La Prima Amplifiers for the drivers however that is another project that will come up sometime in Future.
The 3 drivers S25T ( tweeter ), S100M ( midrange ) and S165W ( midwoofer ) are doing the duty for the front Stage and S1200SW for the SUB stage.
S25T Tweeter has the Resonant Freq. of 917hz and is capable of producing freq. from 800-20000hz. It's a soft dome tweeter that is capable of handling 70RMS power.
S100M Midrange is a 4" driver. The driver can handle freq. from 120hz to 5000hz and has a low resonant freq. of 115hz. The midrange is rated to handle 60 RMS of power. It is one of the cleanest Midrange I have heard including other Hi-end brands.
S165W Midbass, a 6.5' driver produces freq. from 60-6000hz with resonant freq value of 66hz. power rating of 80 RMS. The woofer is fast and plays all the details is capable to act as a dedicated Midbass.
S1200SW is Hi-quality subwoofer with rating of 400RMS is capable to play all low end and can go plenty loud. The sub is fast, transparent and blends with the midwoofer at best.
All 4 drivers can handle much more than their rated power. Sinfoni has always been known for Amplifiers, however the Drivers are one of the cleanest drivers around and is in the league of its own along with other Top of the line Hi-End brands. Sinfoni S165W rated at 80RMS is easily handling around 200RMS each.
Source Unit : The choice was simple we needed a headunit that could do 4 way active. 2 choice that we had Clarion HX-D3 and Pioneer DEX- P99RS. We choose the later which has the added features of X-over control with steeper slope, Independent EQ, Ipod Control through USB.
Amplifier : We Wanted to get the Sinfoni La Prima Prestigio, a CLASS A amplifier and run 2 of these each on the Midrange and Tweeter. Also get a Prodigio to do the duty on Midbass. However that's the setup that would be coming in future with the different system design. These had a waiting period as they are Make to order.
Initially the Midrange and tweeter were running passive on S2VX X-over and were powered by Sinfoni Presto Ad-lib in bridge mode handling close to 150RMS on each pair. This was when we were using Clarion 785USB player.
Sinfoni Presto Ad-lib : It's rated at 50x4 RMS at 12V and can do 250x2 RMS in bridge mode. We decided to use two of these one running in bridge mode on the S165W midwoofer. Each Midwoofer is handling around 200RMS.
The other Presto Ad-Lib is currently running S25T. 1 channel of each front and rear is powering the left and the right Tweeters.
Sinfoni Allegro : Rated to put out close to 95x 2 RMS at 14.4V and with no inbuilt X-over makes it ideal to run it in Active mode on the Midrange S100M.
Sinfoni Grave : We choose the Grave to run the subwoofer as it could do 650 RMS at 4 ohms in bridge mode. S1200SW is handling close 600 RMS currently.
Cables :
We decided to go with 0/1 Awg power cable from ground Zero that was available with 300A fuse. Kicker distribution block was used to power up all 4 Amplifiers with 4 gauge.
Sinfoni Cables : We used 4 of Sinfoni RC Interconnects and close to 100ft. speaker cables. These are made with OFC Copper wire and made with highest quality material. Both RC and speaker cable are using Pirelli rubber surround.
Damping : The car was damped with close to 90 sq.ft of damping along with 80 sq.ft of Open Cell close structure Acoustic Foam, we call it Rezomat which we are developing in house. What we have used is a prototype. It helped us control all the vibration and block the air-borne noise along with cancelling all the road noise and engine noise. The other advantage we noticed where all the sound remains in the car even at full volume, stand outside the car and will be difficult to know if the music running at full volume inside the car.
NEXT COMING UP SYSTEM DESIGN..