Hola! I am from India.
A few days ago, I procured a used Honda Civic Automatic, which has been successfully converted to run on CNG now. I intend to use this car extensively (the earlier car, Ford Fiesta ran only 20k km in 3 years) and that meant it should have the best in car entertainment system that I could afford. I had a lot of equipment in the Fiesta which I removed when the car was sold. The equipment is as follows:
1. Eclipse CD7100 head unit
2. Illusion CH-1 Compression drivers and horns
3. Hybrid Audio Legatia Series L6
4. Morel Tempo coaxials run off the head unit
5. Adire Koda 10" subwoofers X 2
6. DLS Ultimate A3 amp for the mids
7. DLS Ultimate A2 amp for the horns
8. Clarion DPX11551 mono for the 2 subs
9. Monster XLN401 rca cables
10. Heavy Duty Polycab 0 gauge Home Wiring for powering the amplifiers
11. Noisekill damping in all doors and boot
That was one HUGE amount of equipment dismantled from the car in one day!!!!!!
Anyway, most of this equipment was stored for less than a month, after which it was taken out yesterday and piled into one huge heap and carted off to Sounds Good India (Ajay Kamath) for installation in the Civic.
The changes in equipment:
1. The Eclipse is the BEST sounding head unit I have ever owned (I have owned 2 Eclipses) but I needed something that was more versatile over USB and also did Bluetooth since I will be travelling over long stretches of traffic and I have a tendency to answer a lot of calls while driving.
So the most logical jump from the CD7100 was the next best head unit, the Pioneer DEH-80PRS with WAV over USB and Bluetooth built in. I am not a fan of the looks of the head unit and the build quality is nowhere near the Eclipse but I guess that trade-off for more practicality made more sense.
2. The second thing I changed was the damping. I always read that cars with the best of ICE had dynamat Extreme damping in their doors and hence decided to go in for the same for the front doors. The damping has made the doors heavier and I hope noise insulation from the road and outside traffic is improved. The boot will be damped with the regular Noisekill (a locally made damping material.)
3. The Civic comes with a (very luxurious feature) remote in the rear armrest, for the stock audio system. I had requested Ajay to try to keep these controls functional even for the Pioneer and he has obliged. An interface adaptor with an IR receiver pointing to the head unit has been installed.
4. The subwoofers were earlier in 2 identical 1 cu ft enclosures in the boot. The enclosures were convenient, as they could be removed when we needed boot space in the Fiesta, but this time around there IS no boot space left after the CNG tank installation. Ajay decided to fabricate 2 fiber glass enclosures in the corners of the boot where the 2 subs would be mounted. This would free up some space and also prevent the enclosures from hitting the amps which were mounted in a rack in front of the tank. I know, I know, it's going to be very tight and I am not going to have much luggage space, but a guy's gotta make space for his ICE. I am very passionate about my ICE and I don't want to make any compromises here.
The boot was damped with Noisekill.
Post Installation:
The system, though almost completely a carry-over from the Fiesta, sounds totally different. It has it's strengths but also a few weaknesses.
The doors are not as sturdy as the Fiesta and the doorpads buzz (resonate) when the mids are playing extremely low. This isn't intrusive but irritates since I am comparing a 16 lac rupee car to an 8 lac rupee car and the cheaper car still trumps it in terms of build quality. The quantity of bass is still not very convincing and there are SO many tweaks in the head unit that I will actually take a few weeks before I arrive at the sweet spot.
The things which haven't changed (and that's a good thing) are the detail from the horns, the kick from the mids and the fabulous soundstage that convincingly 'originates' from the windshield. Time alignment also helps to achieve this.
The subs are in fibre glass enclosures and they are playing quite well. Didn't have much bassy music in the car today and will transfer some to USB drive tomorrow and test it out.
The head unit is a superstar. It plays WAV off USB. This head unit has so many features, settings and some really versatile and convenient features (like 2 USB ports and 2 AUX ports) that I being the complete technophile, STILL couldn't try out many of it's features and convoluted menus. Overall, it's a stellar performer with FAST usb and cd read times and very clean signal to the amps. Auto EQ and Auto Time alignment is something I haven't tried in a car ever, but considering the positive results at home (Audyssey Auto EQ) with my Denon receiver, I am sure to experiment with it sooner than I think.
The day was long. The minute I got the car, I drove off with it and covered 120 kms in a few hours. There was no ELD issue and the car was idle at the signal many times. Music was playing at high volumes and there was no dipping or drop of voltage even with the headlights on (my DEH-80PRS head unit has a built in voltage indicator )
This was an honest review and there will be lots of feedback coming soon. Remember, this is my Practical Workhorse and I shall be covering a lot of kms. in this car (much more than the Fiesta) so I shall be using the audio system a lot. Hence, more tweaks and maybe, just maybe, I might achieve what I had set out to achieve, the sweet spot. Difficult, I confess but I am pretty close to it!!
Pictures to whet your appetites. Lots of them. With special attention to the dashkit and the horn installation and moreso, the boot to show you the boot space remaining after the CNG tank and audio equipment.
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A few days ago, I procured a used Honda Civic Automatic, which has been successfully converted to run on CNG now. I intend to use this car extensively (the earlier car, Ford Fiesta ran only 20k km in 3 years) and that meant it should have the best in car entertainment system that I could afford. I had a lot of equipment in the Fiesta which I removed when the car was sold. The equipment is as follows:
1. Eclipse CD7100 head unit
2. Illusion CH-1 Compression drivers and horns
3. Hybrid Audio Legatia Series L6
4. Morel Tempo coaxials run off the head unit
5. Adire Koda 10" subwoofers X 2
6. DLS Ultimate A3 amp for the mids
7. DLS Ultimate A2 amp for the horns
8. Clarion DPX11551 mono for the 2 subs
9. Monster XLN401 rca cables
10. Heavy Duty Polycab 0 gauge Home Wiring for powering the amplifiers
11. Noisekill damping in all doors and boot
That was one HUGE amount of equipment dismantled from the car in one day!!!!!!
Anyway, most of this equipment was stored for less than a month, after which it was taken out yesterday and piled into one huge heap and carted off to Sounds Good India (Ajay Kamath) for installation in the Civic.
The changes in equipment:
1. The Eclipse is the BEST sounding head unit I have ever owned (I have owned 2 Eclipses) but I needed something that was more versatile over USB and also did Bluetooth since I will be travelling over long stretches of traffic and I have a tendency to answer a lot of calls while driving.
So the most logical jump from the CD7100 was the next best head unit, the Pioneer DEH-80PRS with WAV over USB and Bluetooth built in. I am not a fan of the looks of the head unit and the build quality is nowhere near the Eclipse but I guess that trade-off for more practicality made more sense.
2. The second thing I changed was the damping. I always read that cars with the best of ICE had dynamat Extreme damping in their doors and hence decided to go in for the same for the front doors. The damping has made the doors heavier and I hope noise insulation from the road and outside traffic is improved. The boot will be damped with the regular Noisekill (a locally made damping material.)
3. The Civic comes with a (very luxurious feature) remote in the rear armrest, for the stock audio system. I had requested Ajay to try to keep these controls functional even for the Pioneer and he has obliged. An interface adaptor with an IR receiver pointing to the head unit has been installed.
4. The subwoofers were earlier in 2 identical 1 cu ft enclosures in the boot. The enclosures were convenient, as they could be removed when we needed boot space in the Fiesta, but this time around there IS no boot space left after the CNG tank installation. Ajay decided to fabricate 2 fiber glass enclosures in the corners of the boot where the 2 subs would be mounted. This would free up some space and also prevent the enclosures from hitting the amps which were mounted in a rack in front of the tank. I know, I know, it's going to be very tight and I am not going to have much luggage space, but a guy's gotta make space for his ICE. I am very passionate about my ICE and I don't want to make any compromises here.
The boot was damped with Noisekill.
Post Installation:
The system, though almost completely a carry-over from the Fiesta, sounds totally different. It has it's strengths but also a few weaknesses.
The doors are not as sturdy as the Fiesta and the doorpads buzz (resonate) when the mids are playing extremely low. This isn't intrusive but irritates since I am comparing a 16 lac rupee car to an 8 lac rupee car and the cheaper car still trumps it in terms of build quality. The quantity of bass is still not very convincing and there are SO many tweaks in the head unit that I will actually take a few weeks before I arrive at the sweet spot.
The things which haven't changed (and that's a good thing) are the detail from the horns, the kick from the mids and the fabulous soundstage that convincingly 'originates' from the windshield. Time alignment also helps to achieve this.
The subs are in fibre glass enclosures and they are playing quite well. Didn't have much bassy music in the car today and will transfer some to USB drive tomorrow and test it out.
The head unit is a superstar. It plays WAV off USB. This head unit has so many features, settings and some really versatile and convenient features (like 2 USB ports and 2 AUX ports) that I being the complete technophile, STILL couldn't try out many of it's features and convoluted menus. Overall, it's a stellar performer with FAST usb and cd read times and very clean signal to the amps. Auto EQ and Auto Time alignment is something I haven't tried in a car ever, but considering the positive results at home (Audyssey Auto EQ) with my Denon receiver, I am sure to experiment with it sooner than I think.
The day was long. The minute I got the car, I drove off with it and covered 120 kms in a few hours. There was no ELD issue and the car was idle at the signal many times. Music was playing at high volumes and there was no dipping or drop of voltage even with the headlights on (my DEH-80PRS head unit has a built in voltage indicator )
This was an honest review and there will be lots of feedback coming soon. Remember, this is my Practical Workhorse and I shall be covering a lot of kms. in this car (much more than the Fiesta) so I shall be using the audio system a lot. Hence, more tweaks and maybe, just maybe, I might achieve what I had set out to achieve, the sweet spot. Difficult, I confess but I am pretty close to it!!
Pictures to whet your appetites. Lots of them. With special attention to the dashkit and the horn installation and moreso, the boot to show you the boot space remaining after the CNG tank and audio equipment.
