Flurry...

It was a flurry of activities since beginning of last week. Hahaha... I have to complete the proposal within time frame, and yes folks, its done. Now time for some fine tuning session for my designs. Hahaha...

Anyway... It was a bag of emotions too. I lost my first amplifier. Rogers RSA-428. I dont know whats wrong but somehow, the amp just cant give consistent operation. So out it goes and in another amp goes... Hahaa.. The Rogers was with me for less than a year. It was a good piece of engineering and a good piece of amp for beginner ICErs. The amp is able to push, it has enough juice to detail out the music. But of cos being a beginner models, it will always be shadowed by better amps. For less than 1K, this amp definitely rock. I had it tuned bias to SQ and it can play. Only thing is, the reproduction has limited range. With certain CDs, the music actually still stick to the wall(A term ICE people use) Well, it was pretty sad to see the little fella go. I was kinda sad.

Then I tried out the PHD, said to be audiphile stuff. KNN, IT IS AUDIOPHILE stuff. It can play most of my audiophile CDs but not all da chapalang CDs(Ori CDs) and he play them perfectly. Nabeh... Italian babe really choosy over what to play. Hahaha.. The PHD I tried was the PHD-4075 model, which has 75W RMS rated at 13V odd. Depending on the car voltage. When I first plugged it in, I dont like the sound. Its not harsh, but it is brash and there is no way my buddy can tune it down. Cos during the period of tuning, there are certain details that we cant bring out cos we will lose some otehr details. Really cheepet... So after some askin around, apparently Europeans these days are going nuts and going back old school. They are not gonna use any active X-over to manipulate the signals, rather they said,"If your amp is good, then you can play my speakers perfect, and if your speakers are perfect, my amp will play the fella even more perfect" Yeah, what a pathetic way of saying,"Shit! We ran out of ideas for ICE components!" Anyway, my setup is using mostly SPL stuff so plugging in a SQ amp was pretty much a rubbish idea. So the PHD was taken out...

Coming to this stage, me and my buddy really dont know what other route we could take. We cant play audiophile stuff or any European stuff. They are nuts.

After much deliberation and discussion, we finally settled for a Steg Q-Mos 4X75. Basically an entry level Steg amps. Yeah, Steg amps are great. They are known to be warm and EXPENSIVE. Hahaha.... I wanted the K-Series which is competition grade but the difference would be very big in term of cash... XD

I was assured that the Steg will play perfectly. Yeah it will. I did some research on the motherfucka and it rocks. Basically what it puts out is not what is listed in the paper. Hahaha. It is good enough for my setup to take to provide me with good vocals and livelier music. So while waiting we have a look see look see session in the shop and whoa! We found a Soundstream Picasso 4.880! Whoa! The most keng chau 110W RMS x4 amp, and it gives consistent rating AND when 2 channels are brigded they give more than 400W RMS of PURE HORSEPOWER!!! Yeah, so we asked the fella can see see anot... We took it out and straight plug it in my car. When I on the HU, I was amazed by the sound it produces and that was before the amp was tuned. Correct staging, livelier music but lack soul and feel. Haha, thats what you get with an amp that can do SPL and SQ together... So now Iam very satisfied. But need to return to fabricate the mount for my new amp... Hehehe.. I havent got the manual and specs so I dont really know the amp. A search on the net dont reveal much.. But Iam very satisfied. Cos now the music is even livelier! Hehehe.. I think this amp will stay with me very long, its powerful enough and it is Soundstream. The Mother of Amps. I think my next upgrade would be SPX-177R or the formidable SPX-Z15T.... A good speakers.... *Two thumbs up*

Anyway, just to share with you all... This is what my car is running.....

HU - /////Alpine CDA-7893R
Front Components - /////Alpine SPR-176A
Amp - Soundstream Pic 4.880
Subwoofer - /////Alpine SWS1242
Cables - RCA - Stingers Bullet Series, Speaker cables - Stingers HPM 12Gauge Series
(I found out from the net, most people use the cables for SPL competition, believe me, these cables are able to reduce the sharpness...)

Dont ask me how much I spent.

Kekekeke.... XD