Car Audio Nationals

Dave Edwards of Team Hybrid's Perfect Season

BenVollmer — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:33:10 GMT

David Edwards of Virginia goes undefeated in his first year of competing in the MECA organization using front-stage speakers from Hybrid Audio Technologies.

Dave's car was one of my favorite cars to listen to at MECA Finals. His center was so strong, I kept looking for the center channel in his Camry.

It doesn’t happen very often that a competitor wins every show he attends in a season. Dave Edwards did that in his 2006 Toyota Camry – eleven shows in total – and win every competition, including the MECA ModEx Finals Championship, and seven “Bests of Show” awards throughout the year as well. What makes this achievement even more unreal is that Edwards accomplished this great feat in his first year of competing, with a “DIY” installation, in the highly-contested ModEx class in MECA.

Dave used the Legatia L631-3 component set, which includes the L6 midbass in the front doors, Legatia L3 midrange in the factory dashboard locations, and the Legatia L1 in custom-fabricated a-pillars. This great sound quality was achieved using almost all of the OEM speaker-mounting locations.

I am looking forward to seeing what Dave Edwards has up his sleeve next year for the Camry. Congrats to Dave on his Perfect Season and winning MECA's ModEx class!

Rebuilding the A4

BenVollmer — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:22:28 GMT

After having my system done in my Audi A4 for about 4 years, it is time for a refresh. There are some parts of the system that I love and some parts that have driven me nuts. And then to top it off, I blew a couple of the caps in my ancient Phoenix Gold MS Series amps. So instead of patching the system together, the decision was to redo the majority of the system to remain competitive in the classes that the car competes in.

Since my family moved recently, taking it back to Benchmark Audio in Upstate NY wasn't practical. It went from a 6 hour drive to a 15 hour drive, which isn't going to happen. So after looking at a ton of shops, the decision was made to take the car to Acoustic Images in Mooresville, NC. The crew at AI is a number of veteran competitors including Bryan Wilkinson, Jason Syner, Mark Worell and other well known industry installers.

In addition, JL Audio, Second Skin and AudioControl have all helped out with the project. We will be covering each of those sponsor's products usage in the rebuilt system.

The goals of the system were pretty easy:

Run the front stage 100% Active, getting rid of the Alpine F#1 Passive Crossover Networks
Install New Subwoofers
Replace Existing Sound Dampening Materials

Over the next couple of weeks look for pictures of the trunk being redone, the kicks and doors being rebuild and some general rebuilding of the car happening.

PPI Sold By Directed

BenVollmer — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:38:44 GMT

Precision Power back in the day made some of the coolest amps that I used to drool over on a regular basis. The Art Series was one of the coolest looking amps with the ability to tap into the hollow areas of the top and bottom of the amps to run them water cooled and get some additional creativity points. Here is the A600.2, which was 150x2 and was a benchmark back in the mid 1990's when it was released.

They have been in the Directed line of brands since Directed bought a/d/s several years ago.

The brand is now at Epislon Electronics, Inc, which already owns some well known 12 volt brands such as:

Epsilon Electronics acquired all branding rights and existing inventory. Warranty service for qualified product sold through the DEI channel will continue to be processed by Directed.

I hope that the new owners will return PPI to it's Sound Quality roots.

Mercedes Benz GLK SEMA Tuner Challenge

BenVollmer — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:48:15 GMT

This is your chance to vote for a winner in this very cool contest. BLVD Customs from Florida is competing with Brabus, RennTech and Legendary Motorcar. This site on the Mercedes site has a ton of details on the contest. If you like the BLVD Customs GLK, text GLK25 to 48457 from your cell phone. Here are some pictures of the finished product. You can also catch more pictures and the entire build process on the BLVD Customs website. http://www.dupontregistry.com/blvd/Finished.aspx

The BLVD Custom Urban Whip was unveiled at the Wynn Casino & Resort in Las Vegas on November 3rd by Mercedes-Benz at a press event with over 100 world-wide media attendees. The Blvd. Customs Urban Whip quickly stole the show, and has been receiving press and praise for its aggressive blend of cutting-edge styling infused with the classic Mercedes Benz inspired design. Blvd. Customs didn't hesitate to push the envelope on the Urban Whip design and proudly display our GLK with signature Blvd. Customs styling cues including a one of a kind widebody kit, motorized speedster cover, hand-crafted mesh grille collection, 26" wheels and tires, and custom stereo and interior just to name a few of the modifications. With a build theme required to 'turn heads and rule the road' it seems to be unanimous that we did just that!

The winner of the SEMA GLK Tuner Challenge will be decided by a combination of online and mobile phone voting which runs from November 3rd through November 30th, with the winner being announced this December 2nd, and BLVD Customs is the only tuner that specalizes in the whole package, including the 12v system. Blvd. Customs is competing against some well-respected competition (one competitor has over 350 employees!) and every vote will make a difference in helping us with our bid to win the 2008 GLK SEMA Tuner Challenge. Show your support for Blvd. Customs by clicking on the link below now, and making your vote count for the Blvd. Customs Urban Whip GLK!

Video after the jump!

Tweeter Sold to a Liquidator

BenVollmer — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:38:08 GMT

Founded in 1972, Tweeter was a national specialty consumer electronics retailer providing home and car entertainment solutions. Just two weeks after CEO George Granoff has parted ways with the chain, Tweeter was purchased by a liquidator Thursday night after closing all of its distribution centers and pushing all inventory out to its stores, TWICE is reporting.

Schultze Asset Management Group acquired the former Tweeter Home Entertainment Group for $38 million in a bankruptcy auction last year. They employed more than 2,400 employees and operate over 100 stores under the Tweeter, Sound Advice, HiFi buys and Showcase Home Entertainment names.

It looks like they have already started a clearance on stuff over on www.tweeter.com with the ability to search on each of the store's clearance stock. I wish all of their employees well. Several fellow competitors worked at Tweeter and we hope that they land on their feet.

Maestro Badenia Coming to the US!

BenVollmer — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:14:36 GMT

A new company is coming to the US, with a very familiar management and product set. Maestro Badenia has announced that they will begin to do business in the U.S. mobile electronics and marine markets under the brand name German Maestro offering high quality, high performance amplifiers, speakers, component speaker systems and subwoofers. (You can read a recent review of the speakers at this link.)

GermanMAESTRO is a premium audio brand founded by members of the management and leading employees of the German MB Quart Enterprise. GermanMAESTRO will continue the proud tradition of best-in-class loudspeaker design and manufacturing in our renowned Obrigheim, Germany facility

Maestro Badenia is a new company headquartered in Obrigheim, Germany comprised of industry experts who were the marketing, engineering and manufacturing strength behind the original German-made MB Quart products when that brand enjoyed significant market share, great brand image and a loyal consumer following. Maestro Badenia occupies the original MB Quart manufacturing facility.

German Maestro expects to ship products in December 2008.

The products for Car, Marine and Home Audio can be viewed at their website at: www.german-maestro.de

Pioneer's Taste of Bass

BenVollmer — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 02:40:28 GMT

I was over at Sound Sensations today to grab James Stanton and drag him to lunch. (Oh yeah, and check on the Acura too!) While walking through the normal installation bays, Jeff pointed out to me a new contraption that Pioneer just sent their dealers. At first, I thought it was some of the installers having fun. It looked like a sub mounted to a cardboard box. And then when you tapped the box, it was solid. Then Jeff pointed out the FM Modulator on the back of the bottom box.

Pioneer designed this to give consumers a test drive of some bass in their ride. You put a CD into the CD Player in the unit and tune the customers radio and then hook up the sub. The sub is sized just under a cubic foot. Was one of the slickest things I have seen in a while to demo to customers. What do you think?

Weekend Plans - Greg Welch Memorial Show

BenVollmer — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:54:14 GMT

If you are anything like me, it is about three weeks from MECA Finals and you ALMOST have enough points to qualify. But not quite. So this Saturday, I am headed to North Georgia for the last non State Finals event on the MECA Event Schedule. In addition to MECA being there, Tim and Alison Brown also have a IASCA 2x Event with Moe and Terry being there for iDBL World Records to be broken.

The show starts at 1 PM and is one of the most affordable shows I have seen all season. It is $15.00 plus a toy to get into the show area and then $10.00 for each event you do. So if you do IASCA and MECA Sound Quality, it would be $35.00 plus one toy as a donation to Toys for Tots. Which is what most shows charge for one class.

For MECA, we will be having me doing SPL and Jeff Smith as the Sound Quality Judge. Click Here for a printable brochure!

Here are a few pictures of other shows that Tim and Alison have produced earlier this year. Look forward to seeing you this weekend!

Installations Unlimited Pioneer Build Off 300C now on eBay

BenVollmer — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:19:18 GMT

I last saw this car at Tuner Evolution in York, Pa this spring. It was fresh from it's Pioneer Build Off Debut. The installation on this 300c was stellar. The team over at Installations Unlimited did the install for a customer, who is an automotive broker. You can see more about it in their video from the Build Off below.

The car is currently on eBay with no bids starting at $35k with a Buy It Now of $68k.

eBay Motors: Chrysler : 300 Series (item 260296956871 end time Oct-16-08 15:05:35 PDT)

You can also check out our coverage of Tuner Evolution to see this and a bunch of other cars that invaded York, PA this summer to compete in an IASCA Sanctioned event thanks to Greg from Town Sound.

Azentek SmartMirror Review

BenVollmer — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:57:28 GMT

A few weeks ago, I posted a blog post with a video to a product from Azentek called a SmartMirror. Well, I bought one. :-) And man am I happy I did. The box came and I was so excited. Upon opening the box, it contains the mirror, different mounting brackets for different types of windshield mounts, a microphone and power cord assembly. The unit has a getting started manual for using the product, but the users manual is supposed to be online. After poking around for some time on the Azentek website, I still couldn't find the manual. So much of my discovery was make just from poking around.

The unit feels OEM. It doesn't feel like other units that are cheesy, rather this one is as solid as they come. On the passenger side there is a SD Card Reader that is used by Navigon to provide the maps and programs required for the GPS.

So here is the unit hooked up to my trusty Astron power supply in the Ferrari Garage.

Bootup is quick. In less than 5 seconds the unit was on the main menu.

From there you have four different options. One is for the Navigation, one is for Bluetooth, Media and System Setup. We are going to focus on the GPS and the Bluetooth. Let's start with GPS.

Startup for the GPS portion takes a couple of seconds. Not a big deal, but don't expect to click on it and have it pop up on the first run.

We are going to give it a new destination.

You can either enter an address or do a Point of Interest. We will put in an address.

Here is the screen. While it is missing the nice feature that Garmin and Alpine's BlackBird of limiting characters only to those you can select, it does do an awesome job of auto-filling your choices.

From there, click Start Navigation and the Navigation screen takes over. It has some awesome features like the ability to be able to display the speed limit for the area you are in. Killer if you have a lead foot like I do.

The Bluetooth setup with my Samsung BlackJack II was painless. Took no time at all. The only feature missing from Bluetooth was the ability to sync my contacts from my phone to the unit and then share them between the phone address book and the GPS address book. That right there to me was the sole missing piece to make this piece perfect. Microphone picked up well. Speakerphone was loud and clear and overall was a great experience.

The number one concern I heard when talking to people about it is that they don't like the way other mirrors look in the car. They tend to look cartoonish and not very OEM like. So I backed the Audi out and did some side by side comparisons.

Here is my OEM Mirror.

Here is the Azentek placed over my OEM mirror.

And here they are side by side. As you can see, not that much difference in size at all.

So if you are in the market for a GPS and want something discreet and good looking, I would highly recommend taking a peek at the Azentek SmartMirror.

Car Audio Nationals - IASCA Results

BenVollmer — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:33:46 GMT

Rookie
Darren Alcorn	217	1
Kentus Abraham	185	2
Jack Duda	184	3

Amateur
Jeff Kidwell	446	1
Julius Pyles	425	2
Brett Nelker	417	3

Professional
Daryl Trammell	475	1
David Brooks	422	2

Ultimate
John Marsh	572	1
Mark Eldridge	559	2
Chris Ott	545	3

MACS
Stewart Cunningham	95	1
Daryl Trammel	86	2
David Brooks	78	3

SQC One Seat
Darren Alcorn	239	1
Kirk Profitt	234	2
Jake Duda	232	3
David Brooks	232	4
Milton Fisher	231	5
Jeff Kidwell	230	6
Bobby Brown	220	7
Lee Chavers	199	8

SQC Two Seat
Eddie Dejesus	240.5	1
Chris Ott	239	2
Davy Hay	235.5	3
Jack Everett	228	4

Rookie Installation
Darren Alcorn	80	1

Professional Installation
Daryl Trammell	235.0	1

Car Audio Nationals - MECA Best of Show Results

BenVollmer — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:09:50 GMT

Best of Best of Show	Dave Brooks	Hybrid
DBSPL Best of Show	Benjamin Sales
SPL Most Improved	Benjamin Sales
Phat 12	Micah Boozer
Phat 15	Dave Brooks	Hybrid
SPL Phat Car	Colt McDaniel
Phat ICE	Benjamin Sales
SPL Phat Install	Scott Snellgrove
SPL Phat Truck	Benjamin Sales
SQL Best of Show	Mark Eldridge
SQL Phat Car	Brian Mays
SQL Most Improved	Brain Mays
SQL Phat Truck	Darren Alcorn	ADATL
SQL Phat Truck	Eddy DeJesus