[greenhorn]

Hey is this the diesel or petrol version of the car?

[Samfromindia]

Originally Posted by flipflop

The breakup is as follows;

1. Utopia M(3 way + Sub) - 7,50,000
2. Brax DSP with HD USB - 7,50,000
3. Helix Conductor - 20,000
4. Ground Zero Reference - 8,25,000(2,75,000 * 3)
5. Sound Proofing - 2,55,000
6. Cables (Techrnov Gold) - speaker cables and RCA - 1,50,000
7. Fabrication, Installation and Tuning - 1,50,000

Congratulations on bringing your dreams to life

Reminds me of the old Onida advert: Owners Pride, Neighbors envy !

You have set an all time high benchmark on the ICE section, which may take decades to eclipse.

Originally Posted by GTO

I know the figure in the thread title will pop the eyes of many BHPians, but hey, it's your money and it's up to you to choose how to spend it. As long as you are happy with the end result, it's all that counts. People spend 3 crores on a new car, 20-lakhs on a solitaire, 5-lakhs on a designer bag, 1.5-crores on a wedding, 10-lakhs on a first-class flight ticket....

Preciously to the point. And I will show you a rare Nike sneaker that sells for 65L

https://stockx.com/nike-air-mag-back...ture-bttf-2016

Originally Posted by Yesterdaysnews

I wonder if the media team from TeamBHP could do a video review of the vehicle!

Given the interest that this Vehicle have garnered, it high time to organize a Chennai Team Bhp meet !

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-...meets-366.html (Chennai Team-BHP Meets)

[muneemmk]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Connecting an iPhone with a good-quality DAC and playing lossless Apple Music cannot probably justify the other equipment, and I would like to hear if someone has tried a Roon setup in cars. Roon has an Arc app recently for such usage, but I could not configure it for lack of static IP/ some restriction by the ISP.

So, how about setting up a Roon NUC in the car for such equipment?

I think Ishan has got that sorted and running , do check with him (iraghava) or Gunbir

This celestra amplifier seems to be a full Class A , correct me if I am wrong.

[yogeshb18]

Oh man! You are living your dream! Congratulations! This is probably first time I have seen someone following the passion literally! Big congratulations on that!

[dpuneet]

OMG!!! Unbelievable...I got goosebumps multiple times while going through this thread. CRAZYYY... the only word that pops up in my mind thinking of what you have done to a Sober Sonet. Read the title a few times to believe it's actually 29 lakhs and not a typo. Kudos Man You actually are living your dream life. I hope to get listen to what a 29 lakh rupees setup sounds like. Congratulations bro

[Prowler]

Congratulations FlipFlop on your dream Audio. Simply spell binding. From all your posts I can see that you fleshed out the Audio on a skeleton - your Kia Sonet. So you won't be driving long distances to savor your exquisite audio - but you will probably drive to the nearest quiet neighborhood and park the car - to let the music play.

Everyone dreams about something. But you live your dream no matter what others says.

You need some serious insurance for your dream car. There was a time people removed the faceplate of their 'expensive' player from getting stolen. Many cars were broken into because thieves spotted expensive audio gear. You built your dream audio gear around in a car.

[vagster]

Originally Posted by flipflop

flipflop

I was fortunate enough to get a chance to experience this setup during my ICE upgrade at Speedfreaks. Man, I was simply mindblown and when I got out of the car, I was saying "Now I will expect a similar staging in my Car, and you have spoiled me, Karthik "

As OP mentioned, it cannot be described in pictures or words and can only be experienced.

The quality of custom pods was top-notch (Fabrication, installation), and i almost made up my mind to let SpeedFreaks do one on my Octavia. But the warranty woes did not let me do it. This even made me plan an upgrade on my Two-way Focals to a three-way one or an active setup.

Great write-up up FlipFlip, and many thanks for letting me audition your car! This reference setup is awesome and well-designed.

[IYoungAre]

Congratulations flipflop!
I'm sure your cheeks will get a lot of excercise due to all the grinning while you enjoy your music every single time

I am not an audiophile as you are, but I do appretiate good sound when on drives. This is one of the reason I got the Volvo S90 with the B&W sound system. I have witnessed many folks who swear by their lives that this is the best "stock" sound system in the world (I tend to agree too ), and this just costs $3200, a mere 10% of the cost of your system.
Fun fact: The subwoofer is mounted to the chassis when the B&W system is fitted in the factory so that the bass is clearly noticeable in the whole car. Attaching the technical specs for the B&W system if anyone is interested.

I cannot even imagine what your system sounds like, but I just know that you and your ear drums will get to feel the ecstasy (if I may say so) every time you drive your car.
Enjoy the music!

[navin]

Originally Posted by muneemmk

This Celestra amplifier seems to be a full Class A; correct me if I am wrong.

With an idle current of 9A, it must be.

FYI, this is a good yardstick. Compare the idle current to the continuous current. If the 2 are close, the amp is normally biased in Class A.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by IYoungAre

This is one of the reason I got the Volvo S90 with the B&W sound system. I have witnessed many folks who swear by their lives that this is the best "stock" sound system in the world (I tend to agree too

Little OT but this is something you should hear when you get a chance to drive an i7. Coming to the newer cars in India from next month (8 lac increase over the earlier)

https://youtu.be/v18xaRgLPa0

[navin]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Little OT but this is something you should hear when you get a chance to drive an i7. Coming to the newer cars in India from next month (8 lac increase over the earlier)

https://Youtu.be/v18xaRgLPa0

I am a strong advocate for such collaborations.

In the early 80s, Bose teamed up with GM and Delco to produce one of the first systems designed to compensate for the car's acoustics using DSP (time alignment and equalization). The 1984 Chrysler Le Baron was one model sold with a GM-Delco-Bose option. I was impressed, especially when pretty ordinary-looking equipment made a decent sound. I am sure car audio manufacturers have upped the game since.

For the record, before the GM-Delco-Bose collaboration, Becker worked with Mercedes, but they did not use DSP, nor did they design the equipment to accommodate the car's interiors.

[flipflop]

HELIX V BRAX DSP
The Helix DSP ultra is one of the most sought out and the most liked DSP by many. Infact, the Ultra has enough channels and processing powers, with very good OPamps and DAC too. So obviously, the reason for me change to BRAX DSP was nothing more than to satisfy my curiosity and also due to some very high ratings from audiophiles who had the chance to listen/install them.

The BRAX DSP is customizable. with various I/O options and I chose 2 analogue and 2 digital inputs and all analogue outputs. After a wait of almost two months, it arrived. seriel No. 1135

If helix ultra is well built, it dwarfs in comparison to the Brax. The brax is built like a Tank and is almost thrice the size of the DSP ultra. It feels as if it weighs a TON. The sheer quality of the build is amazing. Its sad we had to install it under the drivers seat and not on the boot. The fabrication would take days and also i dont want to loose out any more space in the boot.

The audio presets from the Helix Dsp could be used in the BRAX and as soon as the install was finished, we loaded the preset from the ultra onto the Brax, just to get an idea of how it would sound.

Sound staging has a few parametres like imaging, depth, height and width. And i always felt that, the width of the stage in a car will always be restricted by the physical presence of the drivers. And to get a better width, some midranges in hig-end installs are being done on the sail panel. However, the same was not an option in the Sonet because the Dashboard corners kind of cramp it. And thats the reason, both my midrange and tweeter are installed in the A Pillars.

But to my surprise, as soon as the Brax was connected, and i played my favorites' track, the first major difference that was evident to both me and Mr Karthik was the Width. The soundstage appeared to stretch to the RVMs and i am not exaggerating this here. And with much happiness and greater anticipation, the RTA process began.

Earlier with the Ultra, it needed a bit of EQing as there were a few peaks and cuts. What amazed with the Brax is, it was outputting the pink noise with much lesser peaks or dips. Also the EQ response was phenomenal. Overall, the Brax was much easier to tune and more responsive than the Helix, when it came to responses to EQ.

So finally, after a grueling 7 hours of tuning and calibration, it was time for the fine-tune to my liking. And that took another 3 hours to nail a proper tune to my liking.

As i had mentioned earlier, if the first impression was increased width, after the proper tune, the imaging got better. The imaging, was dead Centre to the point while at the same time, the width and height got better. Also a few tracks where in sometimes it was more on my face got warmer and more relaxed(i thought this 'in my face' or harshness or brightness was due to the beryllium).

I liked the Lows in the Helix better. It had a slightly more pronounced sub-bass and upper mid frequencies. But Brax is very balanced across spectrums and it needed a couple of days of listening for the sound to grow up on me.

The tuning was done from my earlier DAP, the ibasso DX320, which has been replaced by the Cayin N8ii and the Astell and Kern SP3000. So Mr.Karthik wants to do another couple of tunes for these DAPs. I will soon post about the differences between the ibasso, the cayin and the AK soon.

Overall, i am very happy with the outcome. Am not saying this because of any placebo or ownership bias. I will have no qualms about accepting a bad purchase, albeit expensive. (Made a lot of them ) but the 7.50 lakh spent on Brax is definitely worth every penny.

[Ashutosh]

@flipflop Much admiration and respect Sir.

The dedication, research, patience and commitment is amazing to witness. Music has multiple purposes: focus / serenity / mood neutrality / peace of mind it brings when driving, specially in intense traffic, demanding situations.

You and the team have created a legend! An investment in time and money that will outlast us all and still serve. Thank you for sharing detailed technical and other information for the world's perusal.

Very inspiring to see the efforts and thought put into each aspect of the installation. I am sure the audio design team back at KIA HQ (and others) would be inspired / pleased about their product being refined to another level with this upgrade.

Wishing you many pleasant and inspiring journeys ahead!

[shibulijack]

Wow. Posts like these remind me that this is a car enthusiasts forum. Next time I visit Chennai, I’d like to meet you just to experience this monster setup.

Off topic: Hope you didn’t attend the recent ARR concert that was in the news for all the wrong reasons. I’m sure your in-car music experience would exceed most open stage concerts.

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by flipflop

HELIX V BRAX DSP

Almost every word besides plain English was a bouncer for me. Better and faster than one bowled by Shoaib Akhtar at that

But love reading about different things and to realise/understand how different things bring nirvana to different people.

Rock on flipflop

Cheers