Mitisubishi Chariot Spacewagon-Mobile Home Theater
The fame of Chariot hails from the time of Ben Hur, Gladiators and the Roman Empire. They are the first of the armoured calvary so as to speak. In that sense, the adaptation of the name ‘Chariot’ for the Mitsubishi second generation Space Wagon is blasphemy to the pride and nobility of that commode of war. Instead it is an ungainly and cumbersome mode of transport designed for those with the notion of ‘birth control’ is as alien as the motor car in the era of blood and gore of the Great Roman Empire.
If you have got a bunch of brawling kids in the back seat, you have to find a way to prevent their enaction of the Great Gladiator Games. What would be better than watching Pokemon in the trips between the Nanny’s place and home? Welcome to the era of Mobile Home Theatre (MHT).
Essentially, MHT is an extensionof the CAS – Car Audio System. A LCD monitor (or three in this) and a VCD changer would suffice. In this case the Alpine CVA-1005E system control incorporates a flip out 6.5 in LCD display. That would be adequate for the front passenger, so two additional TME-M006SE LCD monitors are custom fitted behind the front seat head rests. That should keep the kids occupied! A 6 disc VCD changer the Alpine VPA-S001 provides the source is mounted under the driver’s seat.
A 4-channel Naka amplifier PA-504 powers the front and rear component is mounted under the front passenger seat. The PA-504 is a 50 X 4 channel amplifier, which uses Mosfets for power supply, but revert to conventional bipolar transistors for the output stage. An interesting feature of the amplifier is the exclusion of the output inductor coil, which could mar transients and reduce the damping to the speaker.
As the owner would not like to ‘customised’ system, the installer has to make do with the supplied speaker-mounting orifice. Front and rear speakers are the Nakas SP-S652. The mid/bass drive units are quite unique as they utilizes a new molding material called ‘glass polyamide’ for the basket and is said to be non-resonant. The driver cone is made from polypropylene with rubber surrounds. The tweeter is surprisingly; soft domes rather than the oft-used screechy metal domes (especially found in cheap speakers, they are horrid!). I approve! There is no subwoofer in the system.
Sonically, the system is predictably, an ordinary sounding setup. There is sufficient clarity to make out
the dialogue and music is just, well, a little too ordinary. A good subwoofer system here will definitely
transform the quality of sound. Luckily, the Mit Chariot is a fairly well sound proofed car (probably to
keep the din ‘IN’) so we do not have to crank up the volume to have sufficient clarity of the dialogue.
Understandably, without the low-end reinforcement, the impact of those action movies we played is
subdued and tame. We felt that the sound quality can be further improve with a good sub system. There is sufficient space in the cabin for creative installation of a sub or two.
