AUDIO
PICHET WONGNAK
All the major car audio shops flock to the two main automobile shows in Thailand which are the year-ending Motor Expo and the Bangkok International Motor Show held in the second quarter of every year.
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| Total price of the audio system adds up to about B1m. |
This is a great opportunity for enthusiasts to have first-hand experience with demonstration cars fitted with serious audio systems. Spectators get to see a multitude of audio set-ups and installation techniques. Let's just say that it's worth coming to these events.
This week's highlight is a system in a Toyota Wish that gets the honour of being exhibited at the Suchart Sound booth at Motor Expo which kicks off tomorrow.
Actually the owner of this car pioneered the wishmania.com web site that caters to activities for Toyota Wish owners. It's like a Toyota Wish community where owners get to exchange views on accessories and maintenance.
Components
The system in this Wish uses top components worth about B1m - nearly the actual cost of the car itself.
The details are explained in the diagram but the highlight, that is the reason for the sound quality of this system, are the 6-inch Focal Utopis BE front speakers.
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| McIntosh and Focal are paired match. |
These speakers use a crossover which is in a pretty large box - as big as a power amp. It comes in a aluminium-colour tone with handles on the top. The price of the speakers is a little over B100,000.
I don't think it's too expensive when you consider the sound quality it delivers in comparison to other speaker brands which are much pricier, have a vague history with regard to production origins and are packaged to look hi-end.
I strongly suggest you shop around carefully by studying the parts and inner workings of the brand. Sometimes it might just be a hyped-up brand with a jacked-up pricetag.
Shifting gears back to the system's highlight, I think the McIntosh MCC404 power amplifier used to drive the Focal speakers is what I call a great "paired match".
In short, the McIntosh-Focal team delivers better sound quality than using McIntosh speakers with a McIntosh amp or even Focal speakers with Focal amp.
Installation
The last row of seats had to go in order to make room for the large Sound Concept designed for speakers and power amplifiers.
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| Mid and tweeters installed perfectly. |
The highlight of the installation is in the front speakers at the newly-made A-pillars which give the speakers just the right angle and position. The result is optimal listening position and great acoustics.
The new A-pillars have the mid-frequency speakers installed nearby, while the tweeters are further away - which is the correct sound engineering principle because lower frequencies travel slower than higher frequencies.
The design of the A-pillar aids in time correction and time alignment. In other words, there is no need to set the DSP parameters, which allows for sound purity.
Having the mid-frequency speakers in front of the tweeters doesn't mean that the former will dominate the latter.
As a matter of fact, most installations favour preserving the aesthetic look by compromising on sound quality and banking on time alignment.
If you test sound systems that use time alignment, then what you get is an artificial sound with too much of high frequency sound in your ear.
Another highlight of this car is the damping which emphasises on the quietness of the listening dimensions. Very little exterior noise is able to get in which is why microdynamic details can be appreciated.
User-friendliness
The touch-screen with the Alpine PXA-H701 allows for every detail to be communicated on the monitor. But that doesn't mean it's easy to use if you don't use the instruction manual or rely on an experienced technician.
I strongly recommend that you refrain from setting the X-Over parameters. If you don't get it right, then a few speakers will be damaged.
A total of six memories can be stored to match every type of listening style. For example, "surround" for watching movies can be done with a mere touch of the button on the PXA-H701 component.
Sound quality The more I listen to the sound, the better it gets because of the variety of music styles. Just minor adjustments of the time alignment. And the image, sound stage and focus are just right, clear and accurate.
But I have to comment that the high frequency signal is able to give details continuously up to about six or seven layers. I've listened to expensive systems in my lifetime and the best I've heard is up to four or five layers of details.
Secondly, I can actually focus on the position of each musical instrument with regard to low frequency signals. You can feel it in your skin.
The overall sound quality is excellent. I think I'm going to the Motor Expo to have another go at this sound system by Suchart Sound.
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