Table of contents for Issue 1 - 2018 in InCar Entertainment

Pioneer’s latest Z series of automotive speakers follow the company’s ‘Open and Smooth’ sound philosophy, featuring smooth off-axial frequency response, superior directivity and an extended frequency range engineered to “achieve unprecedented audio artistry” in your vehicle. “Your vehicle will always be one of the most enjoyable environments to listen to music,” says Pioneer Electronics Australia’s Product Manager Benjamin Crawford. “During Pioneer’s remarkable 80-year history, our loudspeaker technology has advanced the limits of quality sound reproduction, transforming the musical recording into reality and offering an experience that only we can provide.” The Z Series use a 29mm aluminium-alloy balanced dome tweeter, developed using HSDOM (Harmonized Synthetic Diaphragm Optimum Method) computer analysi to deliver accurate control of differential vibrations produced by the diaphragm, and improves high frequency dispersion, while the aluminium-alloy allows…

‘Repair Bot’ is using 3D printing and robotics to deliver an automated rapid repair service for plastic car parts, including some which were previously considered unrepairable. The project brings together Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne with the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (IMCRC) and repair solutions company Tradiebot Industries with the longterm goal of transforming automotive repairs. Indeed Tradiebot’s founder Mario Dimovski believes the project’s potential benefits go far beyond the automotive collision industry. “The ability to repair previously non-repairable parts using world-first technology will reduce overall repair times and repair costs,” he says. “It will also create real and significant export opportunities and has flow-on benefits for the environment by reducing land-fill.” While the merits of 3D printing are well established, there are hurdles of performance and compliance…

We reckon readers of Australian Incar will be in two minds about the rise of the autonomous car. On the one side, it takes the joy of driving out of our hands – or at best, there’ll be driver selectability, and we’ll be encouraged by THE MAN to let the computer do the driving, “because it’s safer, and it’ll reduce your insurance”. But on the other hand, here at Australian Incar we’re all about in-vehicle entertainment, and that has the potential to be entirely transformed by autonomous vehicles. Who needs rules about no phones, no motion video in the eye-line of the driver… when you have no driver? The entire cockpit could become one great zone of relaxation (or, more boringly, work). Unsupervised autonomous cars have the potential to revolutionise…

Ever dreamt of being a car audio shop owner? This vehicle is the proud toy of one of these lucky people — Sang Tran has owned Street Sound and Vision (SSV), based in Mitcham Victoria, for four years now. But his love affair with car audio started around 15 years ago. Owning SSV must present its own problems, of course. As an ambassador for all things mobile audio, one can’t be seen driving a TD Gemini with a Voxson LED EQ/booster in it. (Look it up, people — it really did exist.) The pressure will be on to drive something that exemplifies what can be achieved in today’s automotive environments. Now, your humble correspondent here is rather old-school in his ways — if I could figure out a way to…

If you were styling a classic mystery spy thriller series for TV, would you put your hero in, er, a Volvo? Well perhaps, if the Volvo in question was not a 1970s’ 140 Series ‘tank’, but rather a nifty 1967 1800 S. And that was the choice made for (and by) Roger Moore, starring as The Saint in the ITC series which ran from 1962 to 1969. The 1800S was quite late to the party, making its debut in an episode called ‘A Double in Diamonds’ in February 1967. Although, truth be told, the producers wanted an E-Type. But when Jaguar turned them down, Volvo was delighted to jump in and promote its sports car offering, especially since its previous effort, the 1900, had sold a grand total of, er,…

Why double up on your smarts? You already have all the navigation and entertainment and connectivity power you need in your pocket, so it seems a bit silly to buy the same stuff to put in your car. Especially as you’ll probably update your phone every year or two, but you’ll be hoping your car entertainment system lasts as long as your car, give or take an upgrade. And you’ll certainly be hoping that will be more than a year or two. So it was a smart decision in itself that the cleverest functions of Mongoose Automotive Technologies Australia’s latest premium head unit — the Mongoose Q2CA — rely entirely on your smartphone, taking advantage of its powerful inbuilt computer, which Mongoose then leverages via Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.…

Alpine took out a 2018 Sound+Image Award with one of its X-Series speaker splits — and now the company has extended the X-Series performance to new high-res heights with an all-new X-Premium series, which it says are “among the finest speakers ever crafted by Alpine”. New materials are key to the X-Premium range, with new carbon-graphite tweeters promising high frequency range extension to 66kHz, making them ideal for reproducing high-res audio files such as 24-bit/96kHz and beyond, while the nano-fibre woofer diaphragms Alpine says maintain high clarity and realistic sound while delivering extremely fast response speeds and dynamics. The diaphragms are now secured with a concertina-like double-gazed edge rather than a traditional roll surround, allowing lower distortion under high inputs, and the radial ring magnets have evolved from conventional neodymium…

Through a successful Kickstarter campaign, the Boston-based company Waylens created the next big thing in automotive technology. Introducing, the Waylens Horizon performance camera system. More than 1600 backers pledged more than US$600,000 for development, and the final product has now moved in to production and has distribution throughout Australia. Not just a dashcam, the Waylens Horizon is a state-of-the-art vehicle performance logger, lap timer and premium video camera for driver and engine performance analysis for automotive, 4WD and motorsport enthusiasts. Some performance loggers on the market need to be professionally installed and can cost thousands of dollars. The Waylens Horizon can deliver most if not all of the functionality of the higher priced units at a fraction of the price. And no professional installation required, as it is a simple…

0 NO AUTOMATION Human in charge. This is you, now. 1 DRIVE ASSISTANCE (HANDS ON) Mode-specific execution of either steering or acceleration/deceleration. 2 PARTIAL AUTOMATION (HANDS OFF) Mode-specific execution of both steering and acceleration/deceleration. 3 CONDITIONAL AUTOMATION (EYES OFF) Mode-specific automation of all aspects of the dynamic driving task with the expectation that the human driver will respond appropriately to a request to intervene. 4 HIGH AUTOMATION (MIND OFF) Mode-specific automation of all aspects of the dynamic driving task, even if a human driver does not respond appropriately to a request to intervene. 5 FULL AUTOMATION (STEERING WHEEL OPTIONAL) Full-time automated driving under all roadway and environmental conditions that can be managed by a human driver.…

Two things go together really well in car audio — American music muscle, and hard rock. There is nothing better when you want the music clean, and yet so loud that you can feel your heart beating when the music stops. If this is something that cranks your tractor… then read on, fellow enthusiast. LET THERE BE ROCKFORD As regular readers will know, we have featured some pretty special cars throughout the fine pages of Australian Incar over the years. Now in this particular case the automotive specs of the vehicle may not be as impressive as some. However…. the specs of the car audio system, installation and overall presentation of this ride are all well and truly Incar-worthy. And overarching this whole installation is the clear-minded focus of the…

Many moons ago I read an article stating that amplifiers have zero bearing on sound quality, and that speakers alone were to be the source of primary concern. I remember at the time thinking that this sounded a little insanus cogitandi — and thankfully nowadays many know better. Though not everyone, as those in the business of selling high-end amplifiers will tell you. Yet really, it’s the speakers that are the intrinsically ‘dumb’ devices, for lack of a better term. They sit prone, doing absolutely nothing until they’re instructed what to do, and while of course speaker design and quality play a very important role in the reproduction of quality sound, it’s the amplifier that tells the speakers in which linear direction to move, how far — and, most importantly,…

One of the subtitles employed by American company Polk Audio is ‘The speaker specialists’. And while in this modern marketplace boastful by-lines are not uncommon, I don’t need to tell you that this one wasn’t one acquired by chance. Native to Baltimore Maryland and conceived back in 1972 as a humble yet specialised audio company, Polk Audio soon gathered momentum as astute customers began to take notice of a company whose products performed within the higher end of the market yet somehow managed to avoid the inherently higher-end price tags that so often accompanied other brands. It’s a phenomenon that Polk Audio (commonly referred to simply as Polk) has mastered over the years, and today the company still produces components aplenty which not only outdo much of the competition, they…

Clarion’s $899 VT1020A motorised rooftop monitor should put at least a temporary stop to the cries of ‘Are we there yet?’. With two-zone playback support, a head unit can send audio and video to the monitor without distracting the driver, while two rear-seat passengers can use infra-red headphones connected to the monitor, keeping the front seats entirely isolated from the entertainment being used to keep those back-seat passengers in their own little world. The monitor itself is a 1280x800 HD TFT active LCD screen with LED backlighting, ready to play back high or standard definition movies from the head unit via HDMI or composite AV connections. There’s also support for USB and a second HDMI input, enabling local use of alternative media sources such as video game consoles or portable…

Sony is building upon the success of its XAV-AX200 with the new AX205DB DVD receiver, due in Australia for a May release at $799, keeping traditional sources while adding both DAB+ radio and the latest in-car connectivity with both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto built in, so that all smartphone users can take advantage of seamless integration of phone and dashboard, with apps displayed and controlled from the 16.3cm (6.4”) 800 x 480-pixel full-colour touch screen. Apple CarPlay integrates compatible iPhones with the car audio’s display and controls, allowing phone calls, music access, directions and more, while Android Auto extends the Android platform into the car with a simple and intuitive interface and powerful new voice action. But this Sony hasn’t jettisoned traditional entertainment to include the new. The head…

Pirelli is set to get its tyre-monitoring ‘Cyber Car’ system into vehicle releases as early as next season, according to the company’s reps at the Geneva International Motor Show in March. ‘Cyber Car’ sounds a little grand, perhaps, given the application is entirely restricted to the tyres, but it extends Pirelli’s Cyber Technologies platform into consumer vehicles following on from its Cyber Fleet system for commercial vehicles, and also the Connesso system, which launched last year on the American market and is about to debut in several European countries. While Connesso sends pressure and temperature information to its app when the car is parked (based on a sensor placed on the inside of the tyre), Cyber Car goes further, communicating with the car’s on-board systems as well as an app,…

With 105,000 people through the turnstiles of Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC), and a second year with more than 2,000 entrants to its competitions, Summernats 31 once again provided four days of high-octane entertainment, preceded by the Day 1 City Cruise rumbling down Northbourne Avenue under perfect weather conditions. Pictured opposite (bottom pic) is the winner of the most prestigious Summernats award – Street Machine Summernats Grand Champion – which for 2018 went to Grant Connor and his immaculate candy-coloured 1967 XR Falcon, which debuted back at Summernats 29 and became People’s Choice. Grant is from Orange, and reckons he’s spent something like $300k on his ‘Bad Apple’ Falcon. As usual The Summernats Burnout Championship Eliminations were an action packed, high-octane showcase of power, beginning Friday and continuing through Saturday,…

There are a number of brands that inspire the enthusiast who seeks the ultimate in high quality sound. In the upper echelons one of the most revered is Italy’s Audison. And in this Ford GT, owner Paul Laurence has chosen a mostly Audison system to crank out the tunes to their utmost fidelity. MARVEY-LOUS INSTALL So let’s start with that audio system. The signal flow starts here with a Kenwood DDX403BT multimedia head unit neatly integrated into the dash (the system has been beautifully installed by Marvey Tech Car Audio & Security). An Audison bit One has been used to massage the sound and align all acoustic outputs, with the controller handily placed by the centre console for easy reach. Amplification is by way of Audison’s LRx 4.5 4-channel amplifier…

Hertz: it’s a technical unit for cycles per second, but it’s also an Italian car audio equipment marque, established 20 years ago this year, and sharing a stable under Elettromedia with Audison. Here we’re looking at a pair of component speakers from the Hertz Mille range, the Pro MPK 165.3 two-way speaker system — which is about midway up in the Mille range. Below this is a two-way coaxial unit, above is a three-way system (and above that Hertz’s Mille ‘Legend’ offerings). The MPK 165.3 comes in a pack with two tweeters, two bass/midrange drivers, two crossover networks, along with grilles and hardware. The hardware includes both flush and raised mounts for the tweeters. TALKING PARAMETERS We’ll look at all these bits individually in a moment, but first I’d like…

Yes, the company is called Rainbow. Make your peace with it. In high-end car audio circles there are some eclectic brands that elect to remain modestly sized and out of the mainstream spotlight, and German manufacturer Rainbow is a perfect case study. “What’s its name again?” is something I hear ceaselessly. Yet this astute little prodigy has been designing, developing and (unlike many wholesalers) actually manufacturing its own high quality audio components for decades now, in the process firmly anchoring itself within the upper echelons of car audio worldwide. WHAT NEXT? So a few years back, Rainbow’s head designer Paul Jelko was faced with a conundrum. What to actually design next? The Rainbow stable already held its bases covered with the entry-level ‘Experience’ range, and above that what are arguably…