Just got back from Vegas after 3 interesting and tiring days lol...it was greating seeing the old faces again as well as meeting some new ones.

Had a chance to gather my thoughts, download and organize the pics i took, and give it a go...

Firstly, after the long hours and series of setbacks, I was elated to get the rainbow/sinfoni BMW done for the show...and while it is by no means the flashiest or best sounding

install at the show, I did hear a few compliments from people and especially fellow installer friends...one even said that the car was the most clean and classy install at the

show, while that may not be the truth, it did feel good nonetheless, to know that almost all the work came out of my two hands and it was getting some respect at the show,

among my peers, many of whose installation talents far exceed my own. Of course, none of this would be possible with the help from friends like Kenny at autosound specialists

in union city, Don Amman, and the owner Marquies to name a few.

anyway, here is my posing with the bimmer and the car itself:







This year, at our DLS booth, we had again, IMHO, and not saying it just becuase i am with DLS, the two best sounding cars at the show. and once again, we had the cool

combinatoin of european Emma world champion, Per Soder's lime green beatle (if you own a DLS catalogue you probably have seen this car), and 08 Iasca ISQC (two seat judging)

world champion Eddie De Jesus's Blue S-10 pickup. both cars feature awesome work and sounded wonderful, though in completely different ways. the Beatle, being a Emma car,

featured phoenominal detail and tonality, while the S-10 blew me away wtih the clarity and dynamics, it imaging, staging was maintained fully even at very high volumes playing

very dynamic music.

What really impreseed me was the detail in Per's beatle that you cannot see, its simply mind boggling, i mean, the amount of time he spent on securing the various components

in the car probably far exceeded my entire install time on the bmw! the install is already clean and classy to begin with but once oyu flip through the install log booklet, you

realize the work done behind the scenes is 10 times more impressive...to name just one such detail, you can see no visibile screws anywhere...all the screws on the amp's tpo

were removed and the amps polished, he made his own mounting system for hte mid and tweet so the speakres twist into a custom made cup, etc etc...wow...

unfortuantely i didnt get a chance to tak pics of Eddie's truck as people were constantly in both cars demoing them, but i did get a few snaps of the beatle:














One car that really caught my mind was a all black shelby mustang done by my good friend, Chris Merrill up in Redding...at the Arc audio booth. a few things stood out. first of

course, is the new Arc KAR series mini amps, tiny little packages that putsout 2x70 rms and 1x250 bridged. just TWO of these TINY amps power the entire system... most

people though they were capacitors or xovers lol



the other is the subbass...when i heard the car, like everyone else, though the car at least two 10s or 12s, as the bass was solid, it went VERY low, and at high volumes, fully

maintained their composure...i was shocked to discover that just two free air 8"s provided bottom end, poewred by just ONE of hte tiny amps no less, and i heard the system

with the trunk completely open! seriously blew my mind I think for cars iwth very little room to spare, these new Kar mini amps will be a great thing, and they arent super

expensive either carry msrps of low to mid 300 dollar range, a 4 cahnnel and a mono block, both whcih are only marginally longer with the same width, are slated to join the line

up soon.





i then ventured to the alpine room and checked out their new project for this year, a speedboat with an entirely fabbed interior...as suauly, awesome work, with motorized amp

racks flipping out of hte dash area...my only gripe is that since i peronally arent famalair with boats, its harder for me to appreciate the transformation...and it was not

avaiable to sit in or at least peak you rhead in...so i coudlnt appreciate the finer details of the install...but it was impressive nonetheless...there is also the new Imprint, whcih i

dont know a lot about, but according to a few installer friends of mine who has demoed it, it does wonders for imaging and staging in a car with less than optimal locations.

there is also, of course, the 505, but so many people were standing infront of it i didnt take a picture of it, details i am sure can be found elsewhere on the web:





another thing that caught my eye was the new oem interface by kenwood, it caught my attention simply because the guys at audison decided to use it, it interface with the

stock system on their G37 show car...while i didnt get to listen to it, from all accounts it sounded awesome... it features a large lcd interface and a central control module, i

took home some literature and will be studying it more soon...but definetly could be a great addition to the OEM- interface SQ market:





next up is Mark Eldridge's Nascar SQ comp vehicle...a used nascar was bought and compeltely transformed into a SQ comp car and show vehicle...as with anything from him, the

install is quite insane and impeccable. i believe its all JL but i cant be sure, but the amps are for sure similar to his four runner, some of hte speakras are located BEHIND the

firewall in the hood! imagine the depth of this install!! too bad i didnt get a chance to listen to it...

















Image Dynamics brough a pretty crazy lookin Mercedes CL600 (or 65 amg), wtih wild graphics, CF spoke rims, and a fully done up interior...i heard it on the first day, with not

very much tuning on it, and it sounded decent, i mean just interfacing with the crazy array of electronics on the car is impressive

the other main thing at ID was the new amps, whcih i think i will be trying out sometime soon in an install, but i like the understated, black look of them.







here i took a few pics of the line up from rainbow and sinfoni, among htem new sinfoni components, and the well over 10k sinfoni desiderio (sp) two channel monster weighing

more than 40 lbs.













a product i cant wait for is the new JL flat subs...with my love for stealth installs, these can do wonders...and they are truly flat, unlike some other subs which features a very

vrey small and wide motor structure hanging down or a front mounted motor...details are on the spec pics i took:









Morel was there, though without a demo car, and their line up looks great as usual...even got a chance to snap one of hte top of the line ultimo comp set...though i didnt see

any of hte much touted ultimo subwoofers on display:

 

next up i went to the zapco booth, met Robert, jeff Smith and Kirk in person, and they were great...i had a listen to Kirk's Meca world champion Acura TL, and ti was a great

experience, the dynamics on that car is something else look for more TLs from me soon, perhaps feature more DC-reference amps their line up of high output subs also

looks great. This Merc SL i also liked, featuring an extremely classy isntall in the trunk, something i would love to do myself:













then there is the much talke about Azentek booth with their in car computer headunits, as well as having Jay Leno's jetpowered car there...I dont know much about the

headunits, so i am waiting to see how they are in real world usage:











next up is the audison booth, and i snaped a few pics of their gorgeous amps...their G37 was also beautifully done, and is one of hte rare installs featured a jam packed trunk

that i acutally liked, note the kenwood oem interface screen on the center console in the last, fuzzy pic















so thsoe are the things that really caught my eye at the show, overall attendance wasnt very good, and quite a few manufacturers were not prsent. i didnt get to do much

venturing beyond northhall and the alpine booth, as well sa the pioneer booths in the central hall so i know i missed a few things such as the pioneer ODR stuff at the hilton.

here is a slew of random pics i took, some feature clean and classy installs, while others feature IMO ugly and over the top "lets jam everything everywhere" type of installs,

often with subpar equipment brands...but i will let you guys judge for yourself







































thats it

 

Cool stuff, Bing. Thanks for the update.

 

the JL flat subs look cool... are they any good tho?

 

WOW! thanks for the great recap. I have gotten some good ideas for my upcoming audio revamp.

 

thats bad ***..if you need a ZR to mess with nexxt year i will gladly volunteer mine, I was in vegas too for CES but i was there for meetings and stuff

-MO

 

i am hoping hte jl flat sub is good...meaning good output, low freq extension and small box requirements...but we wont know until its out i wont expect it to be anyhting like a idq interms of overall performance, but if it comes close, for those tight installs, it should be worth a shot

b

 

That JVC Arsenal sub is a beast, huh?

 

Bing ~

Wow! Awesome post. Amazing pics. Great info. But......

(there's always a but, right?)

.....seriously, dude NO "booth babe" pics? WTH?

Dude, we seriously have to get your priorities in order.

 

+1 on the JL flats..those look amazing....you could fit those under the seats.

 

i dond think i want to fit any sub under a seat the sub can fit, but very few real enclousres can hehe

boothbabes? blah...not my style hehe...plus there is always a line infront of htem...i am sure plenty of those pics are up already anyway lol

 

I didnt know Image Dynamics were into building amplifiers. I wonder how those will sound and how much it will cost. The new speakers that ID came out with are far more expensive than anything else they carry.

The 12" JL subs only needs is really expensive. It BETTER sound good at that price.

 

damn so nice

 

Great update/pics Bing. Wow,, I will have to go back and read everything again. I know your mind was all over the place, thinking of what install's you could design with the new products. I am really interested in the Mini Kar amp's. It seems those would be perfect for a stealth install in the Z, plus saving weight. Sorry for the rambling post here,,but being an Accountant and Tax Season,,,no sleep nor rest here.....Good Job Reporter Bing..LOL

 

what speakres are you speaking of? i mean, 10 years ago, a pair of ID cd2 horns would be well well over 1000 bucks and the chameleons, whcih has been out for around 10 years now? has stayed around the same price range.

just curious...

as for tje jl sub's price, given the engineering in that thing is completely justified...if you read the spec sheet, you will notice a few very cool things, such as a 5.5-7' voicecoil!!!! and enclsoure sizes of .65-.7 for a 12" and 13" respectively...and thats just the start of it...it seems like (and I hope this is the case), that JL has finally taken the time, to do a shllow sub the RIGHT way, unlike many many previous attempts...we will let the product speak for itself when it comes out...but if what i am seeing and reading about is correct, then the price is more than justified...remember those are MSRP prices, you can probably get it at a dealer for slightly less.

 

Did you happen to check out the Realm audio booth? I've heard good things about their products...

 

haha did you happen to check out any other stuff? like the 27" OLED LCD BY SONY?!!

 

well, keep in mind CES is acutally work for me...not going as a visitor to browse everything so i didnt have a chnce to visit every thing...

 

Wow nice cars and setup there. glad u had fun.

Also, your mail box is full and I am free on Monday.. just give me the time and place