A 2.5L Turbo-charged Home Theatre System in a 2007 Subaru Impreza WRX STi

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Late last year we posted about a R15 000 Sound system in a 2007 Subaru Impreza WRX STi - a very respectable vehicle passionately driven by South African Subaru enthusiast Malan Strydom. Malan put a hefty amount of effort (and money) into pimping out his Scooby with one of the sickest sound system setups we have ever seen, resulting in what he refers to as a “2.5L turbo-charged home theatre system…”

A while ago he mailed us to let us know that he’d UPGRADED his already-rocking sound system even further! Now he’s installed a new head unit, iPod interface and a rear view camera.

Here’s a few words from Malan about his Subaru sound system upgrade:

“The system sounds better than ever, due to the sound processing capabilities of the Sony WAV-W1 head unit. It features a complete Dolby Digital ProLogic processor which delivers crystal clear, dynamic 5.1 channel surround sound! The processor also decodes DVD movies’ audio, providing me with a 2.5L turbocharged home theatre system…

It also features a 7 band equalizer, this enables me to tune the system to perform optimally at any level, with 6 customizable presets to suit any genre, all types of music.

As if all of these bells and whistles aren’t enough, I’ve fitted in iPod interface/charger. With an 80GB iPod classic, which I can now control straight from the head unit, with the iPod stashed away in the glove compartment, there is no need to have CD’s in my car, except for DVD discs!

But wait, there’s more… I saw that the head unit could accommodate a rear view camera, I thought, what the heck? I’ve done it all the right way thus far, why not use that feature too? The head unit automatically displays the rear view picture when reverse is engaged, with three distance gauges to show how far objects are behind you. Viewing your surroundings at night is made a pleasure by the camera’s infrared night vision, again engaged automatically when needed. A 120 degree wide angle lens gives a panoramic picture to view even the most concealed obstacles.

There are many other characteristics that I failed to mention (SACD, Karaoke, Zone x Zone ect.), however, the above are the most attractive to me.

If I were to recommend an audio component to be changed before anything else, it would certainly be a decent sound processor (Rockford 3.Sixty) or aftermarket head unit that has an integrated processor. I had to fork out R7000 for the hardware and installation, a rather costly addition to an almost already exorbitant car stereo system. But then again, if I were a man of reason, I would have never considered buying an STi.

Malan - RESPECT! It’ll be a while before we come across anyone with a Subaru sound system (well - home theatre system!) that blows us away quite like this one does!