My ICE Setup

When I started planning to improve the sound systems (the local like to call it to ICE the car) of my giant I initially was planning to bring over the ICE equipment I had in my old car. But then I was conscious of the space it would take up to mount all the equipment given the size of some of my old ICE equipment, I decided to take a different approach. I started by reviewing what I need and where potentially I can put each of the equipment before I start on acquiring them.

My priority on my ICE setup was to have audio and video capabilities coming from a single source. Since I have already have an 8-inch LCD in the HU and another 9-in roof-mounted LCD, All I need is to get a better source to replace the radio and CD/DVD functions on the HU. Given that the standard HU is fully functional I decided to take a slow approach to acquire the equipment.

On one of the trip to Singapore I managed to buy a DVD Receiver and a 5-channel amplifier at steeply discounted price. The only thing I brought along from my old car is the subwoofer.

My ICE setup includes the following:

Pioneer DEH-P4150UB DVD Receiver (bought from Singapore)
Pioneer TS-C171PRS Component Speakers (bought from the ICE installer)
Eclipse XA5000 5-channels amplifier (bought from Singapore)
Bazooka 8-inch tube subwoofer (brought over from my old car)

Overall the new sound system setup is pretty decent compared to my previous setup. The major contributing factor is the TS-C171PRS component speakers. The rich natural midrange a wide sound staging with very clear and sharp tweeter output. The smoothness and linearity of the sounds is so much better than the Eton A160 I used to have in my old car. I think there is still room for improvement as the source (DEH-P4150UB) is a DVD receiver which never be able to provide the pure sound output of a Component CD Receiver. Since I don’t really use the DVD function that often, I might replace the DVD receiver with a component CD receiver. I haven’t decided which model to go with yet but I have narrow it down to either the Pioneer DEH-P80RSII or the Alpine 9887.


In the next post I will share some photos of the installation process.