In-car entertainment

You have got your car and unfortunately, your car doesn't have a factory fitted music system. It is best to opt for a music system from outside and not from your dealer. Lets explore the various parts of a good ICE and also the options we have in the market.

Head-unit:

The is the brain and heart of your system. Local unbranded stuff start at 1500/-, which offer basic pen drive support, Touch screen units start at 8000/- and go all the way upto 50,000/-. Android HUs offering 3GB Ram & 32 GB storage are available starting 12,000/- . High end tablet based HUs cost closer to 50,000/-. Select one which fits your budget and satisfies your requirements.

Speakers:

The output of the infotainment system / HU is fed to speakers. Speakers start at 800/- and go all the way upto 8,00,000/-. Speakers are of two types - Coaxials & Components. Coaxials are a single piece speaker which might have an integrated tweeter in the center. Components are those systems which have a three-piece setup. They consist of a crossover, the actual speaker and a smaller speaker called tweeter.

Tweeters

This part of the speaker is often incorrectly pronounced as Twitter. Tweeter is used to enhance high frequency sounds such as "laser" sound in a movie or the typical "SSS" sound in a song. Local unbranded tweeters start at 350/- and high end dome tweeters costs as much as 12,000/- . Tweeters really add to the completeness of the system.

Subwoofer:

Subwoofer is a speaker that can reproduce low frequency sounds. This is typically used to produce that "boom boom" effect or bass effect. There are four parts to a subwoofer setup.

  1. The actual subwoofer

  2. The Enclosure of the subwoofer

  3. The wiring

  4. The amplifier

The actual subwoofer is the speaker that produces bass. These start at 2500/- and real high end ones cost 1,00,000/-. For Nexon the subwoofers in the range of 8000/- to 10,000/- is good enough. Almost all brands who manufacture speakers, manufacture subwoofers too.

The enclosure is the box on which the subwoofers are fit. Many options, like the ones from pioneer, come with a factoryh fit enclosure. Aftermarket local unbranded ones are in the price range of 1000/--3000/-.

Select a good subwoofer wiring kit will make the subwoofer sound and perform its best. Buy only branded 4-gauge wiring kits from reputed brands. Use cerwin vega for a good experience.

Subwoofer cannot be used without an amplifier. Period. A good mono class D amplifier bring best results on a subwoofer. Many are known to use a bridgeable AB class 2-channel amplifier also. Using AB class bridged wouldn't sound the same as a Class D mono. Choose an amp depending on your budget.

Wiring

Many people skimp on wiring and usually opt for the cheapest wire or in common words "finolex" wire. Audio cables are the ones carrying the pulse from the HU to the speaker and they better be good. Imagine having an F1 car and an F1 track but the tyres of your car are that of a bicycle. Use at least 16 gauge pure copper / 100% copper oxygen free copper (OFC) wire. Dont use aluminium wires with a copper coating on top. Use local wire only if you extremely tight on a budget, however, I dont recommend that

Damping:

One of the most ignored things is damping. People for some reason don't care to damp their rides. Damping all five doors makes a sea of difference in audio quality. We recommend double damping on each door, meaning inner-side of the out panel and the inside facing side of the door panel. The damping sheet will help the speaker to fire the audio inside the cabin thereby increasing audio quality. The damping sheets drastically reduce vibrations and road noise.

There are lot of options available but the best are the ones with warranty. The price is approximately 1200/- per sheet including labor, taxes & 3-year replacement warranty. Nexon needs about 12-13 sheet for all 5 doors. If money isn't a problem, we recommend you to get the entire cabin damped, including floor, roof & spare-wheel well. This will take another 15 sheets, in addition to doors.

Silica rings / Plastic rings

The silica or plastic rings are used to mount the speaker on a door and they offer dual duty when installed. they protect your costly speakers from water ingress and also help to focus the sound of the cone inside the cabin. This increases your sound clarity, especially of that of vocals. These are definitely much much more efficient than wooden rings as wood absorbs moisture and can become soft over a period of time. Silica rings are waterproof and 3-dimensional.

Sounds Processors/DSPs

This is specifically for top end owners, who are locked with the factory HU & cant upgrade the HU as they would lose many features of the car. How do we get a better quality from the factory speakers? DSPs are your best friend to enhance the sound output of your factory HUs