[unni246]

I need an upgrade from my old Alpine double din to a newer variant. Priorities are better sound quality and connectivity as the Alpine does not even have a bluetooth option and the USB slot has gone kaput. Currently being managed with an external bluetooth device connected via Aux.

The options I currently have (from Motorogue) are Pioneer's MVH-s329BT and Sony's WX920BT - both are within my budget of <8K.

Now my speakers are run by a 4 channel amp and Sub is controlled by another 2 channel amp. So pre-out wise from the above options Pioneer unit has 2 outs while Sony has 3 again with higher peak channel watts. What according to the audio gurus here would be a better choice?

Aesthetics and feature wise I liked the Pioneer.
Sound quality wise would Sony really excel here?

[viXit]

Originally Posted by unni246

The options I currently have (from Motorogue) are Pioneer's MVH-s329BT and Sony's WX920BT - both are within my budget of <8K.

Aesthetics and feature wise I liked the Pioneer.
Sound quality wise would Sony really excel here?

Sir, except the fast charging and Nav Button, I don't see anything that the pioneer has better than the sony.

Both these head units rely heavily on your smartphone for everything and have no feautures innate.

I would recommend the sony because

1. Better bluetooth, possibly 5.0 gen, allows two devices to connect at once, and is of better quality. 2 devices connected is immensely helpful and convenient. SAFE TOO
2. 3 Pre-Outs, This would help you make the switch from your old system a Plug and play affair. It's better in every way, More channels=Better separation=better SQ
3. The sony has built in voice command toggles, Works beautifully with Siri and Google assistant

But if I were you, I'd invest in a Headunit with at least mirror link functionality, If not Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. They have taken head unit usability leaps and bounds farther than anything ever has.

[sai_ace]

For folks looking for a great deal - the SONY DSP going at pretty much its lowest ever price - Rs 13,999 (plus offers on SBI Card). This is on Flipkart.

[gautamkhadse]

Originally Posted by sai_ace

For folks looking for a great deal - the SONY DSP going at pretty much its lowest ever price - Rs 13,999 (plus offers on SBI Card). This is on Flipkart.

Quite a few of us bought this last time. I had such a challenge getting this setup. Its not the most straight forward thing to setup.

[nura]

My installer has somehow connected my Alpine 9887 headunit which has only 3 pairs of RCA outs to an Audison C2O converter which accepts only Aux or SPDIF. (I am guessing he has used a DIY RCA to Aux cable.)
The Audison C2O converter is connected via a Toslink cable to an Audison Bit One processor & the processor is connected to an Audison Voce AV 5.1K HD amplifier via an AC Link & an AD link cables.
The system is sounding pretty terrible. When the volume knob on the headunit is totally turned down, a lot of noise can be heard.
When music from a mobile phone, connected via an AUX cable directly to the processor, is played, it is sounding fine.
My installer is recommending that I replace the Alpine headunit with a multimedia player with an optical (Toslink) out. Unfortunately, it is a no name Chinese product & although it has many bells & whistles, I am not sure about the sound quality & reliability.
With the sketchy description that I have given, is it all possible to diagnose
the problem & suggest any remedies? Alpine literature suggests wrapping some wire around the RCAs to reduce ground loop noise & there are plenty of ground loop noise isolators selling on Amazon. Are these worth a try?
Sincerest thanks in advance for your replies.

[nura]

Sorry, there's no Audison C2O converter in the above setup. There is an RCA to optical converter but am not sure of the brand.
My installer has given me a 3.5 mm to 2 RCA cable, with which I am connecting my mobile phone to the DSP & getting clean music.

[haldar_siliguri]

Folks I have recebtly opted to upgrade my OEM audio (only a speaker upgrade to Focal coaxials and components, no subwoofer) and have stumbled upon a block w.r.t availability of DSP cum Amps online as well as the stores. None of the below mentioned DSPs are in stock right now -

Pioneer DEQ-S1000A
Sony XM-GS6DSP

Would highly appreciate if anyone can help me with finding out stocks of the same (preferably in Del, Cal, Pune, Bom).

The only thing that's similar to these and on sale is the Rockford Fosgate DSR1 on motorogue, but it is slightly over my budget. Kindly advise. Thanks.

[jaunthead]

Originally Posted by haldar_siliguri

The only thing that's similar to these and on sale is the Rockford Fosgate DSR1 on motorogue, but it is slightly over my budget. Kindly advise. Thanks.

Try the Dayton DSP 408. Its got good reviews for an entry level DSP that has time align, 10 band eq per channel, 8 channel outs, mixing of inputs in the output channels, changing phases, parametric EQ, presets etc. Definitely recommend getting the BT adapter with it- adjust all EQ settings from your phone(android and ios) and most importantly for me it has BT aptX HD audio, beats the OEM HU audio by a huge margin. If you are going to use high/speaker level inputs from HU then use a LOC as the DSP performs better with low level signals. Only con- this does not have any inbuilt amplification.

Dayton 408 DSP
BT adapter


Please take this suggestion with a bit of trepidation as I am just an enthusiast and no pro, secondly I haven't tested this.

[haldar_siliguri]

Originally Posted by jaunthead

Try the Dayton DSP 408.

Thanks a lot will look into this

[roby_dk]

Hi Guys,
Recently upgraded my car audio system, my current sub-woofer is Sundown Ev3 12″ D2 sub-woofer (500W RMS at 4 Ohms) powered by Sundown SFB-1000D Mono Amplifier (1 ohm RMS=1000W, 2 ohm RMS=850W, 4 ohm RMS=500W)

I am planning to upgrade my sub-woofer to SA series SAv2 12″ D2 (1000W RMS at 4 ohms). Do I need to upgrade amplifier as well or this amplifier will be able to handle the new woofer.

[nura]

Originally Posted by nura

My installer has somehow connected my Alpine 9887 headunit which has only 3 pairs of RCA outs to an Audison C2O converter which accepts only Aux or SPDIF. (I am guessing he has used a DIY RCA to Aux cable.)
The Audison C2O converter is connected via a Toslink cable to an Audison Bit One processor & the processor is connected to an Audison Voce AV 5.1K HD amplifier via an AC Link & an AD link cables.
The system is sounding pretty terrible. When the volume knob on the headunit is totally turned down, a lot of noise can be heard.
When music from a mobile phone, connected via an AUX cable directly to the processor, is played, it is sounding fine.
My installer is recommending that I replace the Alpine headunit with a multimedia player with an optical (Toslink) out. Unfortunately, it is a no name Chinese product & although it has many bells & whistles, I am not sure about the sound quality & reliability.
With the sketchy description that I have given, is it all possible to diagnose
the problem & suggest any remedies? Alpine literature suggests wrapping some wire around the RCAs to reduce ground loop noise & there are plenty of ground loop noise isolators selling on Amazon. Are these worth a try?
Sincerest thanks in advance for your replies.

Attaching a Toslink cable to the Audison Bit One mysteriously got rid of the noise. Hope this helps someone.

[PankajKara]

This thread is gold! I felt the car speakers weren’t giving me enough joy and I was just curious and was thinking about some future upgrades to the sound of my car (VW Polo). I didn’t realise my head unit could be crippled that even better speakers wouldn’t make a difference. I feel my 18K B&O BeoPlay A1 Bluetooth speaker sounds richer than my car speakers ����.

If this stands true, should I ought to add a DSP like the pioneer recommended one first rather than speakers ? I have a 2020 polo which comes with the RCD 340G. Or is the RCD good enough to go for speaker swaps straight away? I do like the HU as it has CarPlay, integration with steering, etc. so not keen on changing it.

This just became one expensive project now ��.

Thanks!

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by PankajKara

If this stands true, should I ought to add a DSP like pioneer recommended one first rather than speakers? I have a 2020 polo which comes with the RCD 340G. Or is the RCD good enough to go for speaker swaps straight away? I do like the HU as it has CarPlay, integration with steering, etc. so not keen on changing it

Anything OEM be it HU or speakers will be mediocre as everything is built at a price. Audio is of least importance to the general public so manufacturers do not concentrate much on that aspect either except for Tata for the good integration using JBL system in their cars.

Depending on your budget, look for Dayton Audio DSP 408 which is a great budget-friendly DSP that I feel is better than the Pioneer one. Rockford had the DSR-1 but was not too good to use compared to the Dayton one.

What I feel is, the quality of the audio signal from the HU is what matters since that is what would be fed into the speakers and/or DSP if used. If the signal is not powerful enough, there will not be a noticeable change felt even after the speaker upgrade.

[nightraven]

I made the following at home audio install in my 2019 Ecosport S over the course of last year making the best utilization of my COVID work from home gig with my dear enthusiastic dad. I am an audiophile pampered with Klipsch Reference Premieres speakers, SVS subwoofer for my Atmos HT setup, Boss QC 3.0/Sony WH-1000XM3 for headphones. Although stock 7-speaker Sync 3 system sounded better than lower variants, being picky about my sound and I was not very happy with the clarity, bass, resolution and high distortion at high values with stock audio. Having experienced what a DSP does to improve music to your taste on my HT setup, I got to work quickly and installed the following things in that order:

1. Puzu PZ-C31 DSP bought from Aliexpress (31-band parametric EQ, 4-IN/6-Out, 4-Out with amplifier with 20W at 0.1% THD, Max power 48W @ 4 ohm load per channel based on the Class AB IC TDA7851) - Installed through a T-harness in to stock Audio Control Module (ACM). So thankfully did have to cut any wires. Got it in 2019 well before the ban.

2. Focal acoustic insulation kit inside doors, tailgate, few areas of the floor.

3. Focal PS165V1 component speakers in 4 doors (running on the DSP amp in the interim)

4. Hertz Dieci 87.3 coaxial center speaker running on stock audio (some say center is not great in car audio, but I like it for better sound staging)

After the install, I liked the bass response and clarity. I time aligned and then calibrated the system against pink noise with a Dayton mic I use for my home audio. Ford also processes stock audio to match cabin acoustic profile, so used Forscan software to config ACM, enabled Flat EQ output and full-signal to all channels (by default it sends full frequency range only to front and low frequencies with high frequencies cut-off to rear. In case you installed components at rear then tweeters are deprived of their potential). Also at high volumes around 16 or up, stock audio will start cutting off low range frequencies to protect stock speakers. I hear this is common is most cars. So match gains and tune system accordingly so that you will not exceed this volume.

Being a EHS professional, I had calibrated Noise monitoring equipment which confirmed my readings. Center was borderline absent/inaudible as stock system was not pushing enough juice for the Hertz and at high volumes I feared the stock audio and DSP were pushing more distortion. Tweaked gain and tried my best to keep distortion lowest. I was happy but I was sorely missing the kick in the chest as much as I was missing my girlfriend.

5. Took out the Alpine MRP-F600 4-channel amplifier from dear old Verna and interfaced with the DSP. Now my components run clean and to their full potential on Alpine amp. Hurray !!!

6. Got a 12" Rockford Fosgate T1D2 subwoofer and had a speaker guy build a sealed box as per my calculations. Placed it in the boot and ran it on a JBL Club A1KW monoblock (Replaced with a locally made Interfire later as it went kaput). Low range signal was provided by the DSP.

7. Was not happy with Center speaker being useless or used less on stock system.
Puzu DSP doesn't offer audio channel mixing/summing (this did not affect sound performance but it's like an itch that won't go away). Got a Dayton DSP-408 and replaced the Puzu DSP. Sound seemed little clearer (confirmation bias, hmm?) and I didn't do audio summing, not surprising .
Pros: Interface looked polished, audio summing, remote display Cons: 10-band EQ per channel, external BT adapter

I had an extra Hertz speaker lying around (Package contained a pair for the center). It was time to let imagination run wild. Drilled a hole in rear parcel tray, placed the second center at rear. Wired the Puzu DSP now to both front and rear centers. And then I rode into the sunset happy. One small mod done by a man is a huge step for more mods. I have more non-audio mods on the line once I get back. Will keep you posted.

Being an audiophile, I have been following up this thread like a stalker from before I even got my car. It has been very informative and motivated me to do all that I did. I would like to thank all other fellow enthusiasts. I will make a more detailed ICE upgrade post or update this with pictures (I only got a few currently) at a later time as I am away.

FAQ:
1. It is a clean install. No wire cuts anywhere. I used T-harnesses, wiretaps, fuse taps, Scosche connectors etc. wherever I could. Only permanent damage I did was cuts I made to A-pillar, rear doors to install tweeters and rear parcel tray to install center.

2. Amps and DSPs were placed under the rear bootfloor tray over a MDF board. Ecosport S variant gets a height adjustable tray I placed it on first level and there was ample space down under.

3. Stock speaker cabling was retained as Ford cars have connectors with plugs between door and body. Pushing of wires through a rubber grommet is not applicable. Power runs through the battery using a 4 gauge copper wiring and connected to DSPs and amps from a distribution block.

4. Except Alpine amp from old Verna, and Puzu DSP from aliexpress, rest I carried from Germany.

[parthi.dorai]

Hi, Just wanted to check with you. You also have a Endy 3.2 which I am assuming is the one with Sync2. I desperately need CarPlay and Navigation. Any thoughts for changing this system? Is it even advisable considering AC is integrated into the system.