The Ultimate In-Car Entertainment System

You must have figured out that we at Tech 2.0 are doing an ‘on the road’ series, with each writer talking about some aspect of portable tech. I wondered what to do with my beat (audio/video), and then it dawned: why not get the whole system into a car?

I’m not just talking about audio; I like pushing it all the way, so I decided to have a video system and a gaming console. The car’s backseat could double as the couch; and it basically makes the whole AV entertainment system portable. This setup is perfect for both car fanatics and tech fanatics, but I'd say being both a car and tech fanatic is the ultimate!

Before we start, I must tell you this is not just theory; we actually went on the road and interviewed a top-notch professional installer. His name is Ajay Kamath, and he's chief of operations for an outfit called Hermit Audio. The company is the distributor for high-end audio brands for both home and car, and each brand mentioned in this article was made available by Hermit Audio.

We shot a video of the process of installation at the company outlet in central Mumbai, with Ajay providing some valuable gyaan as he did up the car. The car was provided by Sound Factor, an authorized dealer of Hermit Audio. Be sure to check out the video and photo gallery!

Audio System
Our main car stereo head was from Pioneer, but more about the head later. For the audio we used Ground Zero through and through, from the speakers to the amps and woofers. For design purposes we placed the amps inverted in MDF cabinets with a thick plastic transparent covering, to expose the interior electronics.

No coaxial speakers up front; we had a crossover for separating the mids and tweeters, both of which are attached on to the doors. After all, sound quality is of topmost priority here. In the rear we had 6x9 speakers and finally the 12-inch dual monster subwoofers.

Now, all of us who own cars will no doubt have an audio system installed. I'm talking about really going all the way by putting in video and gaming as well, so the next time you get a bonus or raise you can check these killer brands out, and soup up your chariot.