August 26, 2025 • 53 mins
Matt Kim's journey from curious high school student to innovative car audio entrepreneur reveals how passion can reshape an entire career trajectory. After installing his first subwoofer and noticing inconsistent bass response, Matt's natural inquisitiveness led him to online forums where he discovered the science behind sound quality in vehicles. Despite pursuing a biochemistry degree with medical school aspirations, he couldn't ignore his growing obsession with car audio.
The turning point came when Matt decided to follow his passion professionally, reaching out to industry leaders and securing apprenticeships at premium installation shops. His path took him from Portland to New York, working alongside legendary fabricators Nick Apicella and Kevin Mullings, absorbing invaluable knowledge about custom fabrication and tuning. Each professional step elevated his understanding of vehicle acoustics and installation techniques until he eventually found himself at AI Design, one of the world's most prestigious automotive customization shops.
What truly sets Matt apart is his revolutionary approach to custom audio fabrication through his company, Audio in Reach. Recognizing that geography shouldn't limit access to premium installations, Matt pioneered a remote fabrication process using 3D scanning and CAD design. He rents identical vehicle models locally, creates precise digital designs, and fabricates custom components that can be shipped nationwide – eliminating the need for customers to part with their vehicles for weeks. His dashboard pods and A-pillars optimize speaker positioning and acoustic properties, delivering sound quality improvements that factory locations simply cannot achieve. As Matt prepares to relocate his operation to Houston, his waitlist continues to grow – a testament to how innovation can transform a passionate hobby into a thriving business that's changing the car audio landscape. Visit www.Audioinreach.com to discover how custom fabrication can reach you, wherever you are.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome everybody to episode 5 of the SoundCue Garage
podcast.
In my last episode I had aguest that was on the cutting
edge of car audio in the 90s.
Now fast forward to 2025.
Cutting edge of car audio inthe 90s now fast forward to 2025
.
Today we're talking withsomeone who's turned a high
school curiosity into a careerat the cutting edge of sound
quality and fabrication, fromworld-class shops to launching
(00:36):
his own company.
My next guest has an incrediblestory.
My guest today is Matt Kim.
Calm down, everybody Calm down.
Everybody's excited, matt.
So for those of you, that don'tknow.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Tell us a little bit about yourself, matt, and how
you got started in car audio.
Yeah, so I kind of started howmany do?
In high school I had a friendwho installed a subwoofer and I
thought it was neat, but Ididn't really see what was so
special about it.
So eventually I got my own carwhen I was 16 and installed a
(01:21):
kicker sub from Best Buy andsomething I noticed was that
some of the bass notes were alot louder than others and some
were really quiet and I kind ofgrew curious like why was this
happening?
Why does my car sound this way?
I didn't really like it and Iwent online, looked up like why
(01:42):
does my sub sound bad?
And I eventually ended up onDIY Mobile Audio and that's kind
of where it all started I thinkthat's where it started for a
lot of us.
So you're on dyma doing researchyes, and I came across um was
it aaron hardison's thread?
It's called the essentials ofsound quality and I read through
(02:05):
the entire thing and I got alittle better understanding of
what was causing my sub issue.
So then I got a mic, I hoppedon Room EQ Wizard and made some
measurements and I slowlystarted deciphering what was
going on.
And I got my first DSP.
(02:25):
Try the best I can on the tune.
At the end of it the bass kindof leveled out.
So I was able to do some rougheq work and from then on I was
hooked.
I'm like, wow, this is so cool,you can change how it sounds
and you're, you know and allthis stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
So yeah, that's kind of how it started yeah, it is
pretty cool how you can shapethe.
You know the, the basically thesound to your taste, but pretty
much you're trying to get thatsound to be nice and clean too.
What kind of dsp did you startoff with?
Speaker 2 (02:59):
something I just saw on youtube as someone
recommended, I think it was arockford fosgate dsr1 oh yeah,
yeah, I remember that that.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I think it's still around too.
A lot of people still use ityeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
It was good to start with um.
It had, you know, parametric eq, which is pretty good.
So you know not, not what thecool kids use these days, but
good start what do the cool kidsuse these days?
The good ones helix arc audio,the mini dsp with dirac's pretty
(03:31):
good goldhorn's coming out.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I'm hearing things about them yeah, I am hearing a
lot about goldhorn.
I keep seeing it more and more.
I see some youtube videos.
What do you think aboutgoldhorn?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
It looks.
Hardware wise it looks verygood.
I've actually heard a few carswith them at SVR and they sound
great.
Seems like it's a good productto me.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, you know, one floating around too is Museway,
the Museway stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Gary Bell swears by it, and I've heard pretty good
stuff about it but hasn't quitegot caught on.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
I have a couple muse way amps sitting right here in
front of me but I haven't, youknow, touched them.
But seems like pretty goodstuff, I think muse way is a
little more.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
It seems bigger in the industry side of things,
whereas in the hobby side it'snot quite quite as popular.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
It doesn't get talked about much on the hobby side it
seems like some of this stuffis like in other countries.
It's bigger, but you knowthey're starting to kind of
creep their way over here in theunited states they are.
I've noticed that too so you'rein high school and you're
fiddling around and so you'restarting to uh play with dsp.
What type of uh experimentingand what type of speakers did
(04:52):
you start to use and stuff likethat, like what?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
yeah, so I started with a two-way passive kit from
crutchfield.
It's like infinity kappasomething like that.
Yeah, and I installed that ofmy first setup ever.
That was nice, sounded a lotbetter than factory.
Then, after the whole dspadventure, I got the morel
(05:18):
virtus three-way set, also fromcrutchfield yeah.
Yeah, it's pretty good, that wasmy first yeah, it was my first
three way set and I remember Ibuilt these pods on my dashboard
that were god awfully ugly andI put the mid-range just
straight on axis right at me andI thought it sounded amazing,
(05:50):
went from there.
Then, after reading more andmore on DEMA, I saw audio from
as a thing.
Oh, what is audio from?
People are raving about it.
I was like, okay, that's alittle out of my price range
because for a young kid I wasstarting, I was right around
college age Like this was rightwhen I started college.
Okay, that's a little much forme.
So I sticked with the Morel andjust tuned and tuned, and tuned
(06:12):
.
So that was really my firstreal system that staged and
imaged and had a decent tonality.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, one thing about Dyma is I call it.
You know me and other people.
I'm not the only one, but wegot the forum boners.
It's funny that you mentionedthat about the audio frog,
because if you've been, along-term member over there at
Dyma, you'll notice that there'sa pattern of stuff that people
have.
(06:38):
Right now.
A lot of people are intoExcelsius and Akiton and stuff
like that.
But it's funny how, how likethey all kind of like all get in
sync with each other and yousee a lot of the dyma forum
members using a lot of the sameequipment and, like I said, I
just call that the forum boners.
Nothing, you know.
I mean it's good stuff, goodstuff is good stuff, but it's
(07:00):
just it's kind of funny likethat.
That.
You know, you talked aboutaudio frog being the the hot
thing back then and everybodywas using it, and now it's kind
of funny like that that you knowyou talked about audio frog
being the the hot thing backthen and everybody was using it
and now it's kind of died down alittle bit, not saying audio
frog is bad stuff, but I justthink it's an ironic thing like,
within reason, they're all thesame to me, it's just the
attention that's given to themby the community just changes
(07:21):
with the tide, you know yeah,yeah.
So you're in college, right, andso what are you majoring in at
that time?
What are you?
What is?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
your uh, yeah.
So I was majoring inbiochemistry, so it's like
biology and chemistry combined.
And the reason I did it was formed school.
So I was, uh, one of thosepre-med students heading towards
hospitals.
But, oh wow, it was mostly myparents like convincing me to do
(07:53):
it.
I just kind of followed what Ithought I was supposed to do and
I got about three years intocollege.
Things were going pretty well.
I started getting more into caraudio around the same time.
I eventually found myself likequestioning my career path.
Like do I even want to do this?
(08:13):
Like I love, I loved car audioso much like I couldn't do
anything else.
I was in my driveway frommorning to midnight, like days
at a time, just working on mycar, working on my car, and
after some time I eventuallydecided, you know what, like I
want to just go all in to caraudio.
(08:34):
I don't care, like I don't carewhat people say.
You know like what?
What I'm giving up.
But I just wanted to do it sobadly that I just took the dive
yeah, I think.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I think there's a saying don't quote me on it I
know there's a saying out therethat says if you do what you
love, or it's never work orsomething like that.
I'm probably tearing up thatquote, but it goes something
along those lines.
Yeah, if you're doing what youlove, it's not really work, you
know, and if you can make, ifyou can get really good at it
make money at it you love, it'snot really work, you know, and
if you can make, if you can getreally good at it, make money at
it, then you know it's notreally work.
(09:07):
So uh, yeah.
What happened after that?
So you started, did you quitschool or did you?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
So I got through school, um, just not to waste
the years and money you know,get my degree at least.
And afterwards, while I wasquote unquote supposed to find a
job, kind of did some moreresearch online and I posted on
DEMA I want to make cardio acareer.
(09:36):
Someone help me out.
Where can I go?
What do I do?
And one of the first people whoresponded was Nick Apicella.
Nick's a big name in the audiogame, definitely so.
At the time he had just openedhis new shop.
He had just kind of taken aleap.
He private messaged me.
(10:00):
He told me hey, what city areyou in?
I told him was in portland,oregon at the time, west coast.
And he said oh, okay, I know ashop down there that's pretty
reputable.
You should go over there andintroduce yourself.
Okay, maybe I'll do that.
And the shop was called musiccar northwest very premium work,
(10:21):
very good guys as well.
Um, I went over there, I beggedfor a job and eventually I got
my foot in the door as just apretty much an apprentice or
intern and yeah, I kind ofshadowed the installers there,
learned the basics, you know,just clean up, help answer the
(10:45):
phone, and just did whatever Icould to just be in that
environment of high-end caraudio.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah, yeah, Kind of nerve-wracking right.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah, it definitely was.
I was a fish out of water.
I had no automotive experience,hardly any car audio experience
, hardly any work experience,even, yeah, and it was
completely, just a completelydifferent environment that I was
thrown into.
But I was excited and I lovedevery day of it, so no regrets.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, so Nick recommended that shop, kind of
like because he wanted you toget experience first before
coming over to him.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I don't.
I don't think he was planningthat far ahead.
I think he wanted he justwanted me to be exposed to
something more than just forumsand, like you know, mom and pop
shops.
I think he wanted me to seewhat high end audio looks like
in person and gain thatexperience.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah, so you're basically an.
You started to become aninstaller over there.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
No, actually I never got the chance to install while
I was there.
I was too green.
They didn't trust that I couldyou, you know work on these
expensive premium cars.
And looking back, I agree Idon't think it would have been
safe for me to do so yeah, yeah,it is it is yeah, it is kind of
(12:16):
hard.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
It's not like so since this was a high-end shop,
I'm assuming they had likelambos and porsches and stuff
like that.
So exactly a porsche door paneldoesn't exactly cost 40, 50
bucks right right the most I didis sound deadening and wiring.
I think that was the extent ofmy labor in a way, you kind of
got thrown into the deep end.
(12:38):
If you're working at a high-endshop, normally people start off
at like a best buy and worktheir way up and, you know, gain
experience.
But yeah, getting thrown intothe deep end.
What type of things did youlearn?
A?
Lot though did you.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Some of that experience must have rubbed off
on you though I would say thefirst thing was just a reference
of what proper installationlooked like, and you won't
really learn that from lookingat pictures online.
So just it.
It changed my standard of whatis correct and what is not in
(13:11):
terms of you know wiring,mounting things securely to the
vehicle, how to take panelsapart correctly, how to treat
and protect the vehicle thesesorts of considerations that
most people don't think about.
I was.
It was drilled into my headthat these are, first and
foremost, the most importantthings.
(13:31):
Also, kind of more of a, I gotopened or exposed to custom
fabrication.
The shop that I was at is, Iwould arguably say, still one of
the best custom fabricationshops in the country.
Even looking back now they'restill the best, and I was very
lucky to witness in-person thembuilding, you know custom panels
(13:55):
, custom sub-enclosures, youknow controller mounts, all
these crazy things that Ithought were impossible.
I saw them do it firsthand.
So it kind of gave me theinspiration to know that, hey, I
can kind of do this too.
It's possible, and I think thatwas a really, really valuable,
valuable experience so are you afast learner or I?
(14:18):
yeah, I would say that I'm Ipick things up pretty well after
.
I remember I would see theinstallers work on the on the
router table and I just observethem really closely and I would
go home I got my own routertable, I build it myself and I
would try to copy exactly whatthey did and kind of learn
(14:39):
myself.
And I did a lot of that just onmy own time.
I would experiment, breakthings, try new things, and
that's kind of how I've alwayslearned is just by observing and
experimenting myself so fromoregon.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Where did you pivot from there?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
uh, after you got that, yeah, your toes went with
the yeah so actually after musiccar I went to a normal shop to
get more experience with normalcars, if that makes sense so you
dove into.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
So, if we were to put this into skiing terminology,
you went for the double blackdiamond first, and now you're
into bunny slope.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yes, okay it's a little backward, but it all
worked out.
I mean, I got my hands on, youknow, normal cars and got a
sense of how to work quickly,under pressure and was you know,
(15:50):
I was exposed to a lot ofvariety, but at the same time I
I worked on higher end projectson my own.
So on my own vehicle, I wouldtry the craziest custom
fabrication I could and I wouldtune, and tune, and tune, and I
do all this stuff on my own timeso that I had a balance between
fast car audio and more premiumcar audio that makes sense yeah
(16:12):
, yeah, oh, it makes perfectsense yeah so tuning is an art
itself.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Are you?
Were you teaching yourself howto tune, or were you?
Did you have any?
Buddies around that were moreexperienced in tuning, because
that's an art in itself.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
It is the first few years of my tuning is all just
reading forms.
It was I try this, see how itsounds, try that, see how it
sounds.
And it got me to a certainplace.
I would say is the objectiveportion of tuning meaning taking
a measurement, interpreting themeasurement, making your EQ
(16:47):
changes and doing your timealignment, those sorts of things
.
I had down decently.
It was the listening portionand the subjective evaluation.
That's the part I couldn'tlearn online.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
It's literally freaking a dark art, because I
literally tried it for likeeight months myself and I was
just like throw, throw in thetowel and have somebody help me,
because it was just like yeah,you know, you'd be tuning for
four to five hours sitting inyour car, sweating bullets and
you're like I got this great, Igot this awesome tune and then
(17:25):
you get in the car the next dayand you're like this sounds
awful yeah, I, I totally agreethat having someone who knows
what they're doing teach you isso valuable.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
You skip so much error and mistakes you know so
you're at the normal shop.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
What, what happens from there?
What's the next step?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, so from there.
So I built what I consider myfirst true custom system in my
personal car is a Kia Optima atthe time and it had laser cut
panels and crazy Moscone ampsand Focal Utopia speakers and
(18:09):
everything was custom that youcould possibly imagine Kick
panels, front sub pillars, sailpanels, everything I could get
my hands on that I couldcustomize.
I did Just for the sake ofpractice, you know, and I posted
that build online the firsttime.
I hadn't really posted anythingbeforehand and it got quite a
(18:31):
bit of traction because I wassome unknown young kid that
nobody knew about.
It kind of shocked people likewow, that's pretty crazy for
someone that doesn't have muchexperience.
And Nick, it kind of caught hisattention and he messaged me.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Long story short, he offered me a position at a shop
so from Oregon to New York,right, because that's where new
Nick yeah, yes, yes, I was.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
That was quite the move.
I pretty much packed up all mybelongings and drove cross
country from Oregon to New York.
That was quite the adventure.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I mean, most people don't have the guts to do
something like that.
You must have had a goodsupport system behind you,
though, right?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, it was.
It was definitely scary and I,you know, I talked to my family
about it, especially my dad, andyou know he just told me, if
this is how you're going to growin your career, then it's worth
the risk.
And yeah, it's worth the riskyou're taking and that I should
(19:43):
just go for it.
And I was 25 years old at thetime, still young, so I didn't
have much obligation back home.
I could go anywhere I wanted,so I just decided to take that
leap.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
So you landed in New York and now you're working with
Nick, and what's that like?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah, that was another eye opener Because the
level of sound quality that hewas doing was completely
different from what I was usedto back home.
So I kind of shopped like wow,like the cars that are coming
out of the shop sound milesbetter than what I was used to.
(20:23):
So it kind of kicked me intogear like pick up the pace.
You need to get with theschedule here.
So it was a really, reallyeye-opening experience at the
start.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yeah, Nick's like an audio savant.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, definitely, definitely learned a lot from
him.
So, yeah, the first six monthsor so at nick's shop I was kind
of just getting used to theculture shock of being in new
york and getting my lifetogether, starting to settle in
and I was starting to work onprojects that were out of the
(21:06):
scope of my comfort level.
So a good example would be whatwas it?
It was a s-class mercedes thatcame in and I don't think I had
ever worked on a car that nice.
We wanted to do custommid-range mounts on the door
panels.
(21:26):
This particular trim ofmercedes had this carbon fiber
panel that was worth about fourthousand dollars.
I was scared to do anything butyou know, the work had to get
done and I just powered throughit and it turned out pretty good
.
I was very happy with what itwas.
(21:47):
You know, and that's just kindof how I learn and how I grow.
I just push myself into newchallenges and it just ends up
working out, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yeah, Cars like that, I think would make anybody
nervous.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yeah, I mean yeah yeah, you don't grow without a
challenge.
So, yeah, exactly, every carnick shop was just high-end
build after high-end build, andwe always had to innovate and
try new things and makeimprovements to our process and
our install practices and it wasjust.
It was just that all day, everyday so how big was uh nick's
(22:27):
team?
Speaker 1 (22:27):
how many guys were there at that shop?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
um, I think it was at the beginning, it was nick,
kevin mullings and myself, sothree at the time oh, okay, yeah
, and kevin's quite thefabricator too oh, definitely,
yeah, I learned.
Yeah, I didn't.
I didn't work with him for thatlong, but I definitely learned
(22:52):
a good chunk of custom fab fromhim, namely how to make a
pillars and custom a pillars.
Yeah, he was.
Yeah, nick and kevin were kindof mentoring me through my first
a pillar.
That was very, very fun andexciting to do.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
That's awesome I imagine most people would be
loving it to have not just onlynick but kevin.
You got two world-classfabricators there, that some of
the best in the country, soyou're getting golden nuggets
from both of these guys, Iimagine yes, yeah, definitely
(23:29):
yeah I know kevin's got his ownshop now.
So, yeah, you're trucking alawn and uh, what happens next
after that?
What do you?
Uh, what was the next step in?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
your journey.
It was about a year year and ahalf two years of working at
Nick's shop.
We expanded and mergedbusinesses with another local
car audio shop and that wasVanguard, if you've heard of
(24:00):
that.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah, yeah, I remember when Nick.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Yeah, so Vanguard was kind of the next chapter, so to
say, and it was a continuationof the high-end work we did,
with a little more focus on.
It was a little bit morepremium, I'd say, more
professional, got polished andmore of that.
I know there are things thathappened with Vanguard that are
(24:25):
probably best kept unsaid.
Yeah, so after Nick leftVanguard I was sort of in a
state of confusion.
I didn't really know where mycareer was going and I was going
through the motions, doing mynormal installs.
Cardio was kind of starting tofade for me at the time.
(24:48):
I started caring a little moreabout you know, like where I'm
living, like hanging out withfriends, kind of normal life
stuff, and cardio was on theback burner for a couple months
or so.
Out of the blue, I got a phonecall from the owner of a shop
called AI Design, and this shopis arguably one of the best
(25:14):
shops in the entire world in myopinion.
They're a very specializedautomotive shop, so they don't
only do car audio, it's allautomotive customization, from
wheels to body, to exhaust, tointerior design, fabrication and
, of course, audio.
So that was a new experiencefor me.
(25:36):
And where are they out of?
They're in Westchester County inNew York of they're in
westchester county in new york,so still, yeah, so I was over
there.
I was the main tuning guy andaudio technician that's what I
originally came on the team forand I event, I kind of expanded
(26:07):
my responsibilities tofabrication and design and
that's really where I kind ofhoned my cad skills.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I'd say is at that shop.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
So you started, you started dabbing with cad at that
point.
Um, I had yeah, prior to that Ihad only done cad for laser
cutting.
So the difference being cad forlaser cutting is all in 2D.
So it's just a flat canvas thatyou draw your lines and the
laser will kind of cut to thoselines.
So I had experience with 2D CAD, but 3D CAD was completely new
(26:36):
to me.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
I had to learn that from scratch, and that seems to
be what the industry industry isgoing, the direction that it's
going with all these newtechniques and new hardware and
computer-based stuff that'spretty amazing compared to what
people could do back in the day,and even what with the 3d
scanners and stuff like that itis changing the game.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I'm I'm seeing it happen live like shops,
hobbyists, everyone, the.
The accessibility to cad and 3dhas gone up so much lately that
it's kind of exploding in thein the car audio space so what
do you think in in terms of like3d, cad and stuff like that?
Speaker 1 (27:18):
does it just help you build a faster product?
I know it builds a product thatlooks pretty much seamless once
done but is it speeding up theprocess for you guys or is it
just giving you just an awesomefinished product at the end of
the day?
Speaker 2 (27:37):
It depends on what you're doing.
There are actually instanceswhere doing it by hand is a lot
faster.
You have to use your judgmenton what CAD is used for.
So let's say you're making justa circular speaker adapter, you
could cut that on a routertable in probably 10 minutes,
(27:58):
versus CAD designing it andwaiting for it to get 3D printed
.
It'll take a whole day.
So there are things that can bedone faster by hand.
But on the flip side, there aredefinitely things that are
(28:27):
faster in cad than it is.
You know, putting on the bodyfiller and this fiberglass,
waiting for it to dry andsanding it and sanding it again
and body filling it again andsanding it again.
It definitely makes thatprocess more efficient, if you
know what you're doing Saves alot on manual labor.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Time is money, so more profit at the end of the
day.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Yeah, yeah, it's a product that is a one solid
piece of plastic versus 20pieces of body filler and wood
stuff like puzzled together Moreof a robust end product.
It also lets you.
One of the main strengths ofCAD is that you can design and
(29:12):
plan every aspect of the projectbefore you even touch anything
physical.
You can design the angle wherethe speaker is aiming, you can
design where it is located, youcan design what the grill is
going to look like, the endresult of the aesthetics, or you
can design how much airspace isin the past.
(29:35):
You can do all in cad and knowfor sure.
Okay, from a to z, this is howit's going to turn out and
there's no guesswork involved.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Yeah, some of the stuff, some of the stuff that
I've seen like online and I seelike the 3d renderings and
they're seeing they're theyalready have a picture of what's
going to happen before it'seven happened.
Exactly.
Because some of the work thatI've seen like from I see a lot
in the Asian market.
They use the 3D CAD and I'mlike how come a lot of this
stuff hasn't come over here inthe US?
(30:15):
Peter was actually talkingabout that how these guys can
like build a huge system on acar in one day over there at the
asian market yeah, I see thaton instagram.
I'm like, wow, these guys arefreaking, doing some works of
art, and but he said that a lotof them don't don't do like
(30:36):
sound treatment and stuff likethat, or um, they're not big on
front front woofers yet, but hesaid some of those guys like uh
mop the floor with some of theinstallers over here from the us
I could see that yeah you haveto keep in mind that design and
manufacturing extremely it'sextremely well represented over
(30:59):
in asia.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
That's where everything's built and
manufactured.
So their skill set in cad and3d printing and manufacturing is
miles above what we have overhere.
So it makes perfect sense thatthey'd have that kind of talent.
We're not competing againstthat right now, but hopefully in
the next coming years some ofus americans can level playing
(31:25):
field.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
We'll see well, the thing is is like you know.
So you know, I know you spokeabout kia and toyota earlier,
but when you have like alamborghini or a mercedes, or
people can make some amazingstuff by hand.
But when you can have something3d CAD printed or you know,
printed, uh, and it literallylooks like it came like that
(31:50):
from the factory, it that'spretty amazing.
You know what I mean.
And if you can afford somethinglike that, most people are
going to side with somethinglike that, where it, where it
integrates with the car, whereI've seen some of this stuff,
some of this stuff, some of thethe cars from morel looks like,
you know, it came like that fromthe factory.
So it's pretty amazing, uh, todo something like that where it
(32:12):
doesn't look tacked on or itdoesn't look custom, so to speak
, it looks literally, looks oem,which is amazing.
You know, some people love that, that custom look.
But I'm kind of a OE plus pluskind of guy.
And when you can make somepillars that literally look like
.
You know, if you sit somebodyin there and they're like those,
(32:35):
don't.
Those don't look custom at all,that looks OEM.
That's got some value to it, inmy opinion, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Absolutely Not to discount guys that can build
well by hand.
I have worked with installersthroughout my career.
They could create things thatlook very OEM all by hand, but
that skill set is very rare andhard to come across in the
industry.
Um, it cad definitely makes itmore possible because you don't
(33:08):
need the fine hand skill tocreate those types of things you
could.
If you can imagine it, thenthere's a possibility that you
can design it and print it, soit kind of just makes it more
accessible to more people.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Oh, yeah, yeah, I've seen.
I mean, you know, take Kevin,for example Some of the pillars
that he does.
They look like works of art.
I'm not discounting anythingthose guys do Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
It's actual sculpture .
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Yeah, but it's labor intensive and I'm sure.
Kevin, if he can make somethingthat's even better looking from
, you know, from computer aideddrafting, he's going to welcome
it because it's.
It also gives him a higherprofit margin to be able to to
do something like that.
(33:54):
He could probably even demandmore money for that type of.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I'm of the opinion that you should charge Based on
the end result.
So if you could get a betterend result using CAD, you should
charge more for it, becauseit's that much better.
Of course, yeah, it doesn'tmatter that it took less time or
it was less sweat and tears tobuild.
(34:18):
I think that if you'redelivering a product of a
certain level or caliber, thenyou could charge what that's
worth.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
So you're at that shop.
What was it again?
It was called AI.
Yeah, the shop name is AIDesign.
Now are you still there or didyou move on from that shop?
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Yeah, so I think what was it?
March of this year I made thedecision to start my own company
.
And what's it called?
Yes, so it's called Audio inReach.
And pretty much the reason Istarted it was to get back to my
(35:03):
roots.
I came into this industry, orstarted car audio as a career,
mainly because I wanted toimprove my skills, learn and
just get better so that my cargot better.
I know that sounds kind of odd,but that's really the reason I
(35:24):
started.
This is for the love of audio,just to get a better sounding,
better looking car audio system.
And after all the experiencesI've been through and um shops
I've been to cars I've worked on, I was starting to lose sense
of that original purpose and mypassion was kind of dying for
(35:46):
audio.
I didn't care as much aboutsound quality and you know the
little details and all thelittle nuances that we care
about in this hobby.
I started, you know I startedmissing it, so I decided, you
know I'm going to do somethingthat's more aligned with what I
want to do, what I'm morepassionate about, and that's
(36:10):
exactly what Audio Reach is.
So we pretty much only do audiowork.
You know that's what I want todo is pure audio at the highest
level that I possibly can, soare you a?
Speaker 1 (36:23):
solo act or you got guys working with you over at
audio and reach.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yeah, right now I'm solo.
Um, the business is very new,probably five months in, yeah,
and I kind of just saw anopportunity to change the way
that people look at customfabrication.
Um, usually you have to dropyour car off at a shop for weeks
(36:51):
at a time months sometimes andsometimes people don't have
shops that are close to them.
They have to drive bays or haveto ship their car something
wild.
And I thought, okay, how do weget custom work to more people?
Okay, wait, I have this CADthing.
(37:13):
Maybe this CAD thing can help,okay, and I kind of just put the
pieces together, came up with agame plan of how I can do
things remotely and once thatclicked, I can scan cars, build
things remotely for people andship them things, all without
(37:34):
having their actual car with me.
And that idea kind of spiraledand grew into what the business
is now.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Okay, I'm getting what you're putting down.
That's why you call it audio,and reach.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Okay, yeah, that's a great, that's a great idea yeah,
that's really yeah, it's, thatwas the the main purpose of the
company while I worked.
So I worked at these high-endshops and we had great clients.
Sometimes it felt kind of weirdwhen we would spend months upon
(38:11):
months on one car and deliverthe end result to the client and
they're like oh cool, thanksBye, I'm like what, come on.
We put our blood, sweat andtears into that project yeah, I
was kind of like not reallysatisfied with that experience.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
So I wanted to work with clients that are more that
would be more appreciative of,of custom work and that's kind
of more of the hobbyist space sohow do you get like, let's say,
I have um 2025 toyota camry,for example, and it's got a new
you know, let's say toyota for2025 or 2026.
(38:54):
They they changed up the dashand the pillars aren't like the
2024 version.
But I'm all the way out in LosAngeles, california, and I want
some pillars.
From the famous Matt Kim Do Isay hey, matt, I want some
pillars, this is what I want.
I know your CAD machine is allthe way down east in New York.
(39:17):
So what do you do?
Do you rent?
Do you find somebody with thatmake and model and 3D scan that
car?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Yeah, you're pretty on the dot.
So when someone reaches out tome asking for something
particular in their car, thefirst thing I do is I research
that vehicle because I need toknow that it's accessible to me
locally.
There have been many timeswhere someone has a rare, old
(39:51):
classic car that is that's inLos Angeles and I can't do
anything for them.
It's it's a one-of-one car.
I have no way to get to it andunfortunately I can't do that
remotely.
I would need to be there inperson.
So once I confirm that okay, Ican easily find this car on
(40:12):
Enterprise or Turo or Hertz.
Then we kind of talk about whatthey want, what speakers
they're using, how it'll fit,how it'll'll look, and we kind
of go through a littleconsultation on that and, yeah,
then I rent the car, do my 3dscanning and once I get into the
(40:35):
design phase I we work with theclient to to kind of finalize
exactly what they want.
And so far the clients havebeen really great to work with.
Most people are pretty cooljust letting me take the reins
and choose a design and choosehow the speaker is going to
(40:57):
mount and all the little finedetails.
They just let me work it outwhich has been nice, um, yeah
and that, and then it goes offto the 3d printer and then I
finish by hand.
I think this portion is whatpeople don't.
(41:20):
They don't get to see is fromcad to finish.
They don't get to see what'sinvolved.
I think there's a misconceptionout there that just because you
can do it in CAD means thatit'll magically turn into this
amazing custom finished productin a car, and that's pretty far
(41:41):
from my experience.
I basically have to use or Ihad to use, all the years of me
learning manual fabrication inorder to get to bridge that gap
between CAD and a final product.
And there's.
So there's still sanding,there's still cutting and
grinding and upholstery and youknow all the other things
(42:04):
involved.
But yeah, that's the generalgist or workflow of a typical
project.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
That's awesome, that's really.
I could see that change in thegame.
So you're saying with the CADdesign it gets you about 75, 80%
there, and then you have to getin there and do it the
old-fashioned way.
Quote unquote exactly, and startsanding and fabricating and
finishing upholstering orpainting and stuff like that to
(42:33):
give them the finished product.
So what?
What is your typical turnaroundtime on uh like, let's say, a
pair of pillars for a car for aprospective buyer out there
that's out in alaska and he'sgetting his uh tesla delivered
soon and he wants a pair ofpillars from matt kim so the
(42:55):
turnaround time once I actuallystart the project, I'd say about
one to two weeks is an average.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
um, it goes by pretty quickly at this point because
I've been able to kind of honein on a on a workflow and you
know, you see patterns in theworkflow and like, okay, I can
make it more efficient by doingthat and I can scan it this way
so I can get a cleaner scan andI can print it in this way, so
(43:27):
it's less sanding later.
And I've gotten my process downto a point where things are
pretty streamlined and it justfrom A to B to C to D.
However, the caveat is that'swhen I start the project.
so right now I have quite a longbacklog of projects that are
(43:49):
waiting to be done yeah and it'sjust consistently growing and
growing and there was a periodof time where I just stopped
taking jobs on.
I can't guys, I can't take onanymore.
There are too many peoplewaiting on me.
I can't keep on adding peopleto the wait list.
Yeah, so I, for a good threemonths or so, I just completely
(44:10):
stopped taking uh deposits.
Wow, but yeah, um slowly gettingthrough them three months,
three to four months in advancealready, huh yeah, and I I try
to keep it capped at threemonths because you know you
can't predict the future.
Yeah, things can go wrong,timelines can get stretched and
people start getting antsy likehey, when are you going to start
(44:32):
mine?
You know I've got 10 other onesI've worked on first.
Sorry, yeah so it's.
It's that's really the battle isschedule and getting projects
done at a high level of finish,but also trying to meet time
expectations and time frames,and that's really been the
(44:54):
challenge of business thus faryeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
So, but you, you're solo right now.
Have you considered like, maybepicking up like a, like
somebody, a protege, or you knowa new up and coming, matt Kim,
that's that's you know, kind oflike where you were, you know,
when you were 24, 25?
.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Yeah, the thought has crossed my mind.
I do need, I think I need toset up my business a little bit
more, a little bit moreprofessionally first, which is
I'm in the process of doing so.
So I'm moving to Houston, texas, very soon.
(45:40):
Oh wow, for anyone that hasn'theard everybody's going to texas
.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
What's going on, man?
What's in the water over there?
Speaker 2 (45:48):
I know miguel rios just moved out there too, right
exactly yeah, yeah, when he, wealmost came to the same decision
at the same time.
So we were talking and he'slike, hey, I'm going to college
station, and right at the sametime I decided, hey, maybe I
should go to houston and it'llbe a good place to kind of to
(46:10):
grow the business and establisha like a professional scene
there.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
Yeah, and it's dead center in the country now I know
, I know why miguel went outthere but yeah what made you
decide texas of all places?
Like what?
Speaker 2 (46:29):
so one.
I have family there and itmakes the decision easier okay I
have a nice support system.
Um, I can always like lean on mydad for help.
He's actually probably going tobe my first employee.
He's going to do some socialmedia content, help me make
(46:51):
videos, take pictures and helpwith the marketing aspect of the
business Just kind of exposemore people to what I'm doing.
Because it's hard, because I'msolo.
I'm focused on finishingprojects.
That's my main concern rightnow and I don't have three hands
(47:13):
to work on the social mediaside and post pictures and
engage with the community.
I can't do it all, so it'll benice to have someone helping me
with that.
I think it'll help show morepeople what's possible with what
I'm doing.
So I'm really excited for that.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
Yeah, it's good to have somebody you know family or
a loved one, or even a spouseor a girlfriend you know, or a
significant other to take someof the lighter stuff off your
hands so that you couldconcentrate on, you know, not
the real work, but you know, thework that requires your
specialized skills, so thatthat'll free you up to get these
(47:56):
things done quicker.
So, besides pillars, what elsedo you offer?
Like I know you, uh, I know youdid a front woofer for Mike,
like what, what type of thingsis uh audio and reach doing for
the people out there?
Speaker 2 (48:11):
So right now my main, my main category has been
pillars and mid-range dashpods.
We already kind of talked aboutpillars, but the dashpod idea
it actually came from my ownvehicle, yeah.
So the way this all started wasI wanted to build dash mounts
(48:39):
for a mid-range in my car and Ineeded a way to control the
angle of the speaker, how it'sreflecting off the glass and
what kind of enclosure that it'sin and how it's going to look.
I needed a way to do that.
So I turned to CAD in my owncar.
(49:01):
This was probably a year and ahalf ago and I was able to
create a mid-range install thatI was really happy with and it
sounded great and looked great.
It was all built in CAD.
So I posted that online onthink strictly sound quality,
yeah, and it got a good amountof traction and I had a few few
(49:25):
guys reach out to me asking if Ican do that in their car.
So I think my first customer,um, had a toyota tacoma and he
wanted to fit his mid-ranges andhis dash location in a way
that's more acousticallyfavorable.
So a lot of cars do have OEMlocations for mid-ranges, but
(49:48):
most of the time they're kind ofsunken down in there and
they're behind a little two anda half inch opening and the
sound can't get out freely.
So a lot of my clients, theywant the best from their speaker
so they need an install that'llrespect the caliber of speaker
(50:11):
they're using.
So that's kind of where thisCAD mid-range sort of idea came
about.
So basically I'm buildingdashpods that mount the speakers
in a better orientation interms of how they're angled or
how far they are from thewindshield.
(50:32):
Because, yeah, the reflectionthat a speaker makes off the
windshield, that behavior isvery important to consider,
especially in your mid-range.
So moving it higher or closerto the windshield it makes the
reflection very similar to thedirect sound wave coming out of
(50:56):
the speaker.
They're so close together thatit almost behaves as one sound
versus two distinct reflectionsor a distinct reflection, so to
say.
So yeah, I've been doing lotsof custom dashpods with that
idea and so far it's been it'sbeen working well.
(51:17):
I've sent out a good dozen orso out in the open and I think
people have had very goodresults with, like acoustically,
with with my dash mounts yeah,I've been seeing that a lot
lately.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
Um, because I'm on, uh, sq sound quality only too,
and uh, I've noticed, you know,I think a lot of people are
starting to uh, uh, not steeraway from the pillar builds, but
they're starting to.
I I'm seeing a lot more cleanerinstalls because it looks, it
looks more oe-ish when you putthe, the, uh the speakers,
(51:57):
because, because some peopledon't even have dash mount
locations and your dash mountpods can offer that type of
install for somebody who doesn'teven have a hole in their dash
right.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
Right, yeah, there have been times.
A good example is the GrandCherokee Luke's working on.
Yeah, so that car has nothingthere, it's just straight vinyl
or leather dash, no hole,nothing.
In those types of situations,the CAD work is very, very
powerful.
(52:33):
I'd say, yeah, powerful.
I'd say yeah, um, yeah, itpretty much allowed us to create
a pod that'll sit on the dashbut mounts from the underside of
the dash, so it's pretty muchrock solid and will never go
anywhere, and without cad that'svery difficult.
So, and for instances like that, it's been great.
(52:56):
Um, so, for instances like that, it's been great.
Speaker 1 (53:03):
I mean not to discount the amount of labor it
takes to do a dash mount.
Oh no, If you have a car.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
Yeah, I've seen people remove windshields
Exactly.
Yeah.
If you have a car that has noOEM hole there, then it's either
you remove the windshield orremove the dash from the car to
do it right.
Yeah, and I think that'ssomething important to mention
is people see, they see thesebuilds online and they're like,
(53:30):
oh, I want that too.
And they reach out to me hey,can I have dash pods in my xyz
car?
Yeah, and I said, sure, I cando that, but I just want to.
You have to keep in mind what'sinvolved in a dash mount
install.
So it's either a windshield orit's coming out of the dash.
Yeah, and I think people therethere are people out there that
(53:54):
don't wrap their head aroundthat.
But building the pot is onething, but installing it
properly is a whole other beast.
Speaker 1 (54:04):
Yeah, that's the easy part, because I know.
I'm in the car business.
So I know that if you remove awindshield on a modern car these
days it's a, you know it's notjust hey, safe, like can you
come and remove this, thiswindshield, and, you know, come
back a week later and remount it.
They have to like recalibrateeverything because of all the
(54:26):
modern uh stuff that's on carsthese days with the with the uh,
with the self-driving.
I know on my car I have, um,it's got the, the thing where
it's uh, it hits the brakes incase of emergency and it has the
assistant driving and yeah, and, and it's got the camera yeah,
it's got cameras and it's gotsome sort of radar in the front
(54:47):
bumper.
So when my windshield breaks.
It's not a simple 300replacement.
It's like a freaking twothousand dollar job because they
got to recalibrate everythingand if they don't recalibrate
everything, the dash.
All the lights you know lightup like a christmas tree so
(55:08):
sometimes, on an install likethat, might be just easier to
remove the dash.
But even then that's a big that.
That's a big undertaking, youknow.
But I would almost, I wouldassume on an older.
Like you know, I'm just throwingthis out there.
But like an older Jeep itwouldn't be so bad where they
could just remove the windshieldor remove the dash and they
(55:30):
don't have to worry about allthis electronic wizardry.
But most people, most cars anycar built in the last like
practically 10 years has allkinds of electronic wizardry
back there on the windshield.
So but I mean that's the priceyou pay for Sonic, for Sonic
Nirvana, wouldn't you say youknow if you're, if you're not,
(55:50):
it's not for the faint of heartI'll say that.
Speaker 2 (55:53):
Yep, good people looking for that last or that
next performance bump and is arewilling to do anything it takes
.
That's that's what it's for.
It's not for the typical cardioobvious to to take on that kind
of job yeah.
Speaker 1 (56:12):
So for the enthusiasts out there, you know,
or to do it yourself, or whatwhat should someone look for if
they're, if they're looking tohire somebody like you or hiring
a shop?
You know, because some of thelisteners out there, they could
be out in California, florida,texas, oregon, wherever you know
.
I'm just throwing this outthere.
What, what, what should someonelook for when they're, when
(56:34):
they're looking to hire somebodyof your caliber, nick's caliber
or Kevin's?
Caliber.
Speaker 2 (56:43):
So what I would look for in an installer.
It's not what you wouldtypically look for, so I
wouldn't get entrenched in thetypical car audio vocabulary
what brand do they use or what,what head units are installing,
or what subs they use, or youknow, like that kind of.
(57:07):
Those are kind of buzzwords andcardio that an installer can
throw at you like we do thisproduct and that's why we're so
good, like I think you should bevery careful about that type of
vocabulary and instead youshould look at someone who knows
(57:28):
, or can demonstrate that theyhave a deep knowledge about
vehicle acoustics.
That's the first and foremostthe most important thing.
So someone that understands howsound works in cars.
We're literally doing car audio,so that's, you know, like how
(57:53):
reflections work.
If you can ask your installer,like if I, if I mount my speaker
like this, and it reflects offof the windshield, like is that
a good or bad thing, and basedon the response they give, you
can kind of assess do they knowwhat they're talking about?
Yeah, or maybe you can ask themwhat is time alignment for,
what is eq for?
And based on the answer theygive and the level of depth that
(58:14):
they can explain that answer inkind of shows you are they
about it or are they not?
You can ask, yeah, all sorts ofquestions.
Speaker 1 (58:28):
Some shops aren't your one stop shop either, like
I'll admit you know.
That's why like people like youexist.
Like people like you exist,people like Miguel Rios exist
because sometimes you can bringyour car to like a shop that has
an awesome fabricator, anawesome installer and you know
(58:48):
somebody who's going to give youa really nice finished product,
but nobody in that shop cantune like Nick can, or nobody in
that shop can tune like miguelcan.
So I'm just using those guys asexamples.
But yeah, uh, there's a lot ofgood tuners out there so
sometimes it's okay to bringyour car to two or three
different spots.
(59:08):
You know what I mean.
To the sort of like a contractorgets the plumber the plumber
that he trusts and he gets thesheet rocker that he trusts.
It's the sum of all parts thatyou know.
You get matt kim to do yourfabrication, your pillars or
your or your mid pods orwhatever, and you get, you know,
this guy to do whatever, the,the sound treatment and all that
(59:30):
stuff.
Sometimes it's not a a one-stopshop.
It's great when it's a one-stopshop because they can do
everything and you can come back, you know, hand over your keys
and come get your car in a monthor two or whatever it is.
But sometimes you know we'renot afforded that, that luxury,
and we have to kind of go to twoor three different or four
(59:50):
different uh, people to get toget the job done.
Speaker 2 (59:54):
You know yeah, I see what you mean.
I think, uh, yeah, justbasically, it's good to look for
, to find a mentor in this spacethat could at least point you
in the right direction, towardsthe shop.
Yeah, like you said, the shopcan handle the installation
(01:00:15):
portion.
Like there are tons and tons ofshops that can mount things
safely, do your wiring cleanly,make sure things don't blow up,
like every every reputable shopout there can do that.
I think what sets a shop apart,a good one from a great one is,
(01:00:37):
like you said, that fullone-stop shop A to Z
understanding of audio.
That's quite rare to see.
Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
Yeah, if you could find a mentor who does have an
understanding A to Z, they canhelp you pick out okay, I'm
going to do my car like thisover here and they can help you
with system design.
System design is another hugething that you need to look for
in a shop.
Can they design the systemfundamentally to reach the goal
(01:01:08):
that you want?
Tuning is something you do atthe very end.
System design is what you do atthe very beginning to ensure
that the tuning is going to doanything useful.
You know so having your systems,having the install done solidly
and correctly, and then thetune is really what brings it
(01:01:30):
all together.
Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
And it all merges in one cohesive work of art.
I would say, you know, becauseonce everything starts to to
mesh together, you're, you're,just.
That's when you get that, that,that Kool-Aid smile on your
face.
So, matt, where?
Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
do you see the SoundQ hobby in like five or 10 years?
Um, so I think so.
I was at a show recently.
It was just a get together.
It was for peter show.
Um, peter from psn, he came overto the states to do a training
and there was a little gettogether afterwards and I
(01:02:17):
attended for fun and what Inoticed was that the level of
car that was there the averagekind of level was a lot higher
than I expected and it made merealize how good that hobbyists
are becoming at car audio.
Yeah, it's not just industryguys anymore that are on top.
(01:02:40):
It's like, okay, everyone'skind of catching up and the
whole tide is lifting.
That's what I've noticed andthat's where I see it going.
I see, um, hobbyists competingdirectly with industry guys,
because I think the knowledge isall out there, it's all
(01:03:01):
accessible because of theinternet, because of social
media, because of AI.
It's all there and it's just amatter of will whether you want
to go through the work toactually execute the work.
But yeah, I think that with moreknowledge, the level of car
(01:03:22):
audio will just keep on going upand up and up and yeah, I'm
excited, the more cars that aregood, the better, the better the
hobby gets in general.
So let's say, someone new inthe in the hobby comes into this
, comes into a show and all thecars there are just amazing.
(01:03:43):
Then they're going to be moreexcited to do something of their
own and they'll also have a lotbetter mentorship in the
community versus, let's say, 10years ago when half the guys
didn't know what a dsp was.
You know, it's what, what's thepoint?
So it's just I think right nowis a more exciting time to kind
(01:04:07):
of be in this hobby and, yeah,just excited for better sounding
cars it is because we'regetting a.
Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
I mean not for nothing, but we're getting a
smarter bunch coming on and youknow, I would never think of you
know, like cad or 3d printingor you know the, the things that
people are doing these dayswith the dsp and uh, now with um
.
I haven't heard a car yet withit, but I hear the.
The riven uh up mixer is prettyamazing but you know people are
(01:04:42):
.
People are really starting tofigure out how cars are.
Are you know how to uh worktheir systems with the car, so
to speak?
You know what I mean.
Instead of they would do kindof trial and error and uh
experiment with differentdrivers and stuff like that.
A lot of do-it-yourselfersstill do that, but you know, now
, with the, with the advent ofcomputers and and whatnot,
(01:05:06):
here's one thing I alwaysthought I've, I've, because I
heard andy talking about somesomething along these lines and
uh, I mean I could be crazy.
But wouldn't it be cool ifthere was something that sort of
like scans the car out, kind oflike in a 3D form, and instead
of you know scanning the car forhow to mount things, it would
(01:05:29):
be sort of like in reverse,where you're scanning the car to
figure out where the bestplacement for speakers would be.
Do you know what I'm saying?
Like, like, where?
Yeah, sort of how, like thetesla I don't know if you've
ever seen how tesla sees theroad the tesla doesn't see the
road like we do like with oureyes, the tesla sees the the
(01:05:49):
road in like bits and zeros andones like it almost looks like
terminator, looking, you know,through the, through the tesla's
eyes, so to speak.
But um, I'm talking about.
Yeah, like something that scansthe car from the inside and says
okay, this is where you're, youknow, and you input the
parameters of the tweeters thatyou're choosing and you put the
(01:06:12):
input, the parameters of themid-ranges in the mid-base, the
drivers that you're using in the, in the, in the software
calculates the, the airspacethat's in that cabin and and
calculates the angles of your,of your pillars and windows, and
says you know, this would bethe optimal location for your
tweeters and this would be theoptimal location I don't know,
(01:06:32):
I'm just spitballing here, butdo you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
yeah, I can see something like that being a
possibility.
I think bringing that to apractical level, actually doing
that, would be, that would be anamazing feat of engineering.
That's yeah, that would.
That would change.
If something like that existed,it would completely change car
(01:06:57):
audio.
Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
Well, I want some sort of royalty if you uh if you
figure something out like thatman, I want some sort of 25
royalty.
Okay, it's, it's it's on theinterwebs man yeah so we're uh.
To wrap this up, where can moreuh people learn about audio and
Reach and follow your work?
You want to give the listenersyour website, socials and
(01:07:20):
upcoming projects or events.
Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
Yeah, so website is simply audioinreachcom.
Currently working on updatingthat.
I've got probably months ofwork that I've done that I
haven't posted, so there's a lotof unknown work out there.
So that's coming soon in thegallery page and you can find me
(01:07:47):
on Facebook and Instagram,audio InReach.
Yeah, just find me on there.
You can also email me.
It's right on the website.
Yeah, we've got a formsubmission on the website so you
just tell me what vehicle youhave, your make model, and we
can just get into a discussionabout what you want, all that
(01:08:09):
stuff.
So, yeah, pretty easy to reachme.
Yeah, like I said, moving thebusiness over to Houston, texas.
If anyone's local to Texas ornearby, we can see what we can
do in person.
Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
Yeah, and I know you talked about Texas earlier, but
when are you moving there?
Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
It'll be right around the start of September.
Speaker 1 (01:08:37):
Oh okay, oh, oh wow, that's coming up real soon yeah,
yeah wow, okay, all right, matt.
Well, I think that about wrapsit up, man.
Thank you for coming on the uhsound cue garage podcast.
Uh, hang on one second.
Okay, say goodbye to Matt.
Welcome everybody to episode 5 of the SoundCue Garage
podcast.
In my last episode I had aguest that was on the cutting
edge of car audio in the 90s.
Now fast forward to 2025.
Cutting edge of car audio inthe 90s now fast forward to 2025
.
Today we're talking withsomeone who's turned a high
school curiosity into a careerat the cutting edge of sound
quality and fabrication, fromworld-class shops to launching
(00:36):
his own company.
My next guest has an incrediblestory.
My guest today is Matt Kim.
Calm down, everybody Calm down.
Everybody's excited, matt.
So for those of you, that don'tknow.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Tell us a little bit about yourself, matt, and how
you got started in car audio.
Yeah, so I kind of started howmany do?
In high school I had a friendwho installed a subwoofer and I
thought it was neat, but Ididn't really see what was so
special about it.
So eventually I got my own carwhen I was 16 and installed a
(01:21):
kicker sub from Best Buy andsomething I noticed was that
some of the bass notes were alot louder than others and some
were really quiet and I kind ofgrew curious like why was this
happening?
Why does my car sound this way?
I didn't really like it and Iwent online, looked up like why
(01:42):
does my sub sound bad?
And I eventually ended up onDIY Mobile Audio and that's kind
of where it all started I thinkthat's where it started for a
lot of us.
So you're on dyma doing researchyes, and I came across um was
it aaron hardison's thread?
It's called the essentials ofsound quality and I read through
(02:05):
the entire thing and I got alittle better understanding of
what was causing my sub issue.
So then I got a mic, I hoppedon Room EQ Wizard and made some
measurements and I slowlystarted deciphering what was
going on.
And I got my first DSP.
(02:25):
Try the best I can on the tune.
At the end of it the bass kindof leveled out.
So I was able to do some rougheq work and from then on I was
hooked.
I'm like, wow, this is so cool,you can change how it sounds
and you're, you know and allthis stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
So yeah, that's kind of how it started yeah, it is
pretty cool how you can shapethe.
You know the, the basically thesound to your taste, but pretty
much you're trying to get thatsound to be nice and clean too.
What kind of dsp did you startoff with?
Speaker 2 (02:59):
something I just saw on youtube as someone
recommended, I think it was arockford fosgate dsr1 oh yeah,
yeah, I remember that that.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I think it's still around too.
A lot of people still use ityeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
It was good to start with um.
It had, you know, parametric eq, which is pretty good.
So you know not, not what thecool kids use these days, but
good start what do the cool kidsuse these days?
The good ones helix arc audio,the mini dsp with dirac's pretty
(03:31):
good goldhorn's coming out.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I'm hearing things about them yeah, I am hearing a
lot about goldhorn.
I keep seeing it more and more.
I see some youtube videos.
What do you think aboutgoldhorn?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
It looks.
Hardware wise it looks verygood.
I've actually heard a few carswith them at SVR and they sound
great.
Seems like it's a good productto me.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, you know, one floating around too is Museway,
the Museway stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Gary Bell swears by it, and I've heard pretty good
stuff about it but hasn't quitegot caught on.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
I have a couple muse way amps sitting right here in
front of me but I haven't, youknow, touched them.
But seems like pretty goodstuff, I think muse way is a
little more.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
It seems bigger in the industry side of things,
whereas in the hobby side it'snot quite quite as popular.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
It doesn't get talked about much on the hobby side it
seems like some of this stuffis like in other countries.
It's bigger, but you knowthey're starting to kind of
creep their way over here in theunited states they are.
I've noticed that too so you'rein high school and you're
fiddling around and so you'restarting to uh play with dsp.
What type of uh experimentingand what type of speakers did
(04:52):
you start to use and stuff likethat, like what?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
yeah, so I started with a two-way passive kit from
crutchfield.
It's like infinity kappasomething like that.
Yeah, and I installed that ofmy first setup ever.
That was nice, sounded a lotbetter than factory.
Then, after the whole dspadventure, I got the morel
(05:18):
virtus three-way set, also fromcrutchfield yeah.
Yeah, it's pretty good, that wasmy first yeah, it was my first
three way set and I remember Ibuilt these pods on my dashboard
that were god awfully ugly andI put the mid-range just
straight on axis right at me andI thought it sounded amazing,
(05:50):
went from there.
Then, after reading more andmore on DEMA, I saw audio from
as a thing.
Oh, what is audio from?
People are raving about it.
I was like, okay, that's alittle out of my price range
because for a young kid I wasstarting, I was right around
college age Like this was rightwhen I started college.
Okay, that's a little much forme.
So I sticked with the Morel andjust tuned and tuned, and tuned
(06:12):
.
So that was really my firstreal system that staged and
imaged and had a decent tonality.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, one thing about Dyma is I call it.
You know me and other people.
I'm not the only one, but wegot the forum boners.
It's funny that you mentionedthat about the audio frog,
because if you've been, along-term member over there at
Dyma, you'll notice that there'sa pattern of stuff that people
have.
(06:38):
Right now.
A lot of people are intoExcelsius and Akiton and stuff
like that.
But it's funny how, how likethey all kind of like all get in
sync with each other and yousee a lot of the dyma forum
members using a lot of the sameequipment and, like I said, I
just call that the forum boners.
Nothing, you know.
I mean it's good stuff, goodstuff is good stuff, but it's
(07:00):
just it's kind of funny likethat.
That.
You know, you talked aboutaudio frog being the the hot
thing back then and everybodywas using it, and now it's kind
of funny like that that you knowyou talked about audio frog
being the the hot thing backthen and everybody was using it
and now it's kind of died down alittle bit, not saying audio
frog is bad stuff, but I justthink it's an ironic thing like,
within reason, they're all thesame to me, it's just the
attention that's given to themby the community just changes
(07:21):
with the tide, you know yeah,yeah.
So you're in college, right, andso what are you majoring in at
that time?
What are you?
What is?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
your uh, yeah.
So I was majoring inbiochemistry, so it's like
biology and chemistry combined.
And the reason I did it was formed school.
So I was, uh, one of thosepre-med students heading towards
hospitals.
But, oh wow, it was mostly myparents like convincing me to do
(07:53):
it.
I just kind of followed what Ithought I was supposed to do and
I got about three years intocollege.
Things were going pretty well.
I started getting more into caraudio around the same time.
I eventually found myself likequestioning my career path.
Like do I even want to do this?
(08:13):
Like I love, I loved car audioso much like I couldn't do
anything else.
I was in my driveway frommorning to midnight, like days
at a time, just working on mycar, working on my car, and
after some time I eventuallydecided, you know what, like I
want to just go all in to caraudio.
(08:34):
I don't care, like I don't carewhat people say.
You know like what?
What I'm giving up.
But I just wanted to do it sobadly that I just took the dive
yeah, I think.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I think there's a saying don't quote me on it I
know there's a saying out therethat says if you do what you
love, or it's never work orsomething like that.
I'm probably tearing up thatquote, but it goes something
along those lines.
Yeah, if you're doing what youlove, it's not really work, you
know, and if you can make, ifyou can get really good at it
make money at it you love, it'snot really work, you know, and
if you can make, if you can getreally good at it, make money at
it, then you know it's notreally work.
(09:07):
So uh, yeah.
What happened after that?
So you started, did you quitschool or did you?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
So I got through school, um, just not to waste
the years and money you know,get my degree at least.
And afterwards, while I wasquote unquote supposed to find a
job, kind of did some moreresearch online and I posted on
DEMA I want to make cardio acareer.
(09:36):
Someone help me out.
Where can I go?
What do I do?
And one of the first people whoresponded was Nick Apicella.
Nick's a big name in the audiogame, definitely so.
At the time he had just openedhis new shop.
He had just kind of taken aleap.
He private messaged me.
(10:00):
He told me hey, what city areyou in?
I told him was in portland,oregon at the time, west coast.
And he said oh, okay, I know ashop down there that's pretty
reputable.
You should go over there andintroduce yourself.
Okay, maybe I'll do that.
And the shop was called musiccar northwest very premium work,
(10:21):
very good guys as well.
Um, I went over there, I beggedfor a job and eventually I got
my foot in the door as just apretty much an apprentice or
intern and yeah, I kind ofshadowed the installers there,
learned the basics, you know,just clean up, help answer the
(10:45):
phone, and just did whatever Icould to just be in that
environment of high-end caraudio.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah, yeah, Kind of nerve-wracking right.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah, it definitely was.
I was a fish out of water.
I had no automotive experience,hardly any car audio experience
, hardly any work experience,even, yeah, and it was
completely, just a completelydifferent environment that I was
thrown into.
But I was excited and I lovedevery day of it, so no regrets.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, so Nick recommended that shop, kind of
like because he wanted you toget experience first before
coming over to him.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I don't.
I don't think he was planningthat far ahead.
I think he wanted he justwanted me to be exposed to
something more than just forumsand, like you know, mom and pop
shops.
I think he wanted me to seewhat high end audio looks like
in person and gain thatexperience.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah, so you're basically an.
You started to become aninstaller over there.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
No, actually I never got the chance to install while
I was there.
I was too green.
They didn't trust that I couldyou, you know work on these
expensive premium cars.
And looking back, I agree Idon't think it would have been
safe for me to do so yeah, yeah,it is it is yeah, it is kind of
(12:16):
hard.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
It's not like so since this was a high-end shop,
I'm assuming they had likelambos and porsches and stuff
like that.
So exactly a porsche door paneldoesn't exactly cost 40, 50
bucks right right the most I didis sound deadening and wiring.
I think that was the extent ofmy labor in a way, you kind of
got thrown into the deep end.
(12:38):
If you're working at a high-endshop, normally people start off
at like a best buy and worktheir way up and, you know, gain
experience.
But yeah, getting thrown intothe deep end.
What type of things did youlearn?
A?
Lot though did you.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Some of that experience must have rubbed off
on you though I would say thefirst thing was just a reference
of what proper installationlooked like, and you won't
really learn that from lookingat pictures online.
So just it.
It changed my standard of whatis correct and what is not in
(13:11):
terms of you know wiring,mounting things securely to the
vehicle, how to take panelsapart correctly, how to treat
and protect the vehicle thesesorts of considerations that
most people don't think about.
I was.
It was drilled into my headthat these are, first and
foremost, the most importantthings.
(13:31):
Also, kind of more of a, I gotopened or exposed to custom
fabrication.
The shop that I was at is, Iwould arguably say, still one of
the best custom fabricationshops in the country.
Even looking back now they'restill the best, and I was very
lucky to witness in-person thembuilding, you know custom panels
(13:55):
, custom sub-enclosures, youknow controller mounts, all
these crazy things that Ithought were impossible.
I saw them do it firsthand.
So it kind of gave me theinspiration to know that, hey, I
can kind of do this too.
It's possible, and I think thatwas a really, really valuable,
valuable experience so are you afast learner or I?
(14:18):
yeah, I would say that I'm Ipick things up pretty well after
.
I remember I would see theinstallers work on the on the
router table and I just observethem really closely and I would
go home I got my own routertable, I build it myself and I
would try to copy exactly whatthey did and kind of learn
(14:39):
myself.
And I did a lot of that just onmy own time.
I would experiment, breakthings, try new things, and
that's kind of how I've alwayslearned is just by observing and
experimenting myself so fromoregon.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Where did you pivot from there?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
uh, after you got that, yeah, your toes went with
the yeah so actually after musiccar I went to a normal shop to
get more experience with normalcars, if that makes sense so you
dove into.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
So, if we were to put this into skiing terminology,
you went for the double blackdiamond first, and now you're
into bunny slope.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yes, okay it's a little backward, but it all
worked out.
I mean, I got my hands on, youknow, normal cars and got a
sense of how to work quickly,under pressure and was you know,
(15:50):
I was exposed to a lot ofvariety, but at the same time I
I worked on higher end projectson my own.
So on my own vehicle, I wouldtry the craziest custom
fabrication I could and I wouldtune, and tune, and tune, and I
do all this stuff on my own timeso that I had a balance between
fast car audio and more premiumcar audio that makes sense yeah
(16:12):
, yeah, oh, it makes perfectsense yeah so tuning is an art
itself.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Are you?
Were you teaching yourself howto tune, or were you?
Did you have any?
Buddies around that were moreexperienced in tuning, because
that's an art in itself.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
It is the first few years of my tuning is all just
reading forms.
It was I try this, see how itsounds, try that, see how it
sounds.
And it got me to a certainplace.
I would say is the objectiveportion of tuning meaning taking
a measurement, interpreting themeasurement, making your EQ
(16:47):
changes and doing your timealignment, those sorts of things
.
I had down decently.
It was the listening portionand the subjective evaluation.
That's the part I couldn'tlearn online.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
It's literally freaking a dark art, because I
literally tried it for likeeight months myself and I was
just like throw, throw in thetowel and have somebody help me,
because it was just like yeah,you know, you'd be tuning for
four to five hours sitting inyour car, sweating bullets and
you're like I got this great, Igot this awesome tune and then
(17:25):
you get in the car the next dayand you're like this sounds
awful yeah, I, I totally agreethat having someone who knows
what they're doing teach you isso valuable.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
You skip so much error and mistakes you know so
you're at the normal shop.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
What, what happens from there?
What's the next step?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, so from there.
So I built what I consider myfirst true custom system in my
personal car is a Kia Optima atthe time and it had laser cut
panels and crazy Moscone ampsand Focal Utopia speakers and
(18:09):
everything was custom that youcould possibly imagine Kick
panels, front sub pillars, sailpanels, everything I could get
my hands on that I couldcustomize.
I did Just for the sake ofpractice, you know, and I posted
that build online the firsttime.
I hadn't really posted anythingbeforehand and it got quite a
(18:31):
bit of traction because I wassome unknown young kid that
nobody knew about.
It kind of shocked people likewow, that's pretty crazy for
someone that doesn't have muchexperience.
And Nick, it kind of caught hisattention and he messaged me.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Long story short, he offered me a position at a shop
so from Oregon to New York,right, because that's where new
Nick yeah, yes, yes, I was.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
That was quite the move.
I pretty much packed up all mybelongings and drove cross
country from Oregon to New York.
That was quite the adventure.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I mean, most people don't have the guts to do
something like that.
You must have had a goodsupport system behind you,
though, right?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, it was.
It was definitely scary and I,you know, I talked to my family
about it, especially my dad, andyou know he just told me, if
this is how you're going to growin your career, then it's worth
the risk.
And yeah, it's worth the riskyou're taking and that I should
(19:43):
just go for it.
And I was 25 years old at thetime, still young, so I didn't
have much obligation back home.
I could go anywhere I wanted,so I just decided to take that
leap.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
So you landed in New York and now you're working with
Nick, and what's that like?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah, that was another eye opener Because the
level of sound quality that hewas doing was completely
different from what I was usedto back home.
So I kind of shopped like wow,like the cars that are coming
out of the shop sound milesbetter than what I was used to.
(20:23):
So it kind of kicked me intogear like pick up the pace.
You need to get with theschedule here.
So it was a really, reallyeye-opening experience at the
start.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yeah, Nick's like an audio savant.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, definitely, definitely learned a lot from
him.
So, yeah, the first six monthsor so at nick's shop I was kind
of just getting used to theculture shock of being in new
york and getting my lifetogether, starting to settle in
and I was starting to work onprojects that were out of the
(21:06):
scope of my comfort level.
So a good example would be whatwas it?
It was a s-class mercedes thatcame in and I don't think I had
ever worked on a car that nice.
We wanted to do custommid-range mounts on the door
panels.
(21:26):
This particular trim ofmercedes had this carbon fiber
panel that was worth about fourthousand dollars.
I was scared to do anything butyou know, the work had to get
done and I just powered throughit and it turned out pretty good
.
I was very happy with what itwas.
(21:47):
You know, and that's just kindof how I learn and how I grow.
I just push myself into newchallenges and it just ends up
working out, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yeah, Cars like that, I think would make anybody
nervous.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yeah, I mean yeah yeah, you don't grow without a
challenge.
So, yeah, exactly, every carnick shop was just high-end
build after high-end build, andwe always had to innovate and
try new things and makeimprovements to our process and
our install practices and it wasjust.
It was just that all day, everyday so how big was uh nick's
(22:27):
team?
Speaker 1 (22:27):
how many guys were there at that shop?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
um, I think it was at the beginning, it was nick,
kevin mullings and myself, sothree at the time oh, okay, yeah
, and kevin's quite thefabricator too oh, definitely,
yeah, I learned.
Yeah, I didn't.
I didn't work with him for thatlong, but I definitely learned
(22:52):
a good chunk of custom fab fromhim, namely how to make a
pillars and custom a pillars.
Yeah, he was.
Yeah, nick and kevin were kindof mentoring me through my first
a pillar.
That was very, very fun andexciting to do.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
That's awesome I imagine most people would be
loving it to have not just onlynick but kevin.
You got two world-classfabricators there, that some of
the best in the country, soyou're getting golden nuggets
from both of these guys, Iimagine yes, yeah, definitely
(23:29):
yeah I know kevin's got his ownshop now.
So, yeah, you're trucking alawn and uh, what happens next
after that?
What do you?
Uh, what was the next step in?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
your journey.
It was about a year year and ahalf two years of working at
Nick's shop.
We expanded and mergedbusinesses with another local
car audio shop and that wasVanguard, if you've heard of
(24:00):
that.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah, yeah, I remember when Nick.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Yeah, so Vanguard was kind of the next chapter, so to
say, and it was a continuationof the high-end work we did,
with a little more focus on.
It was a little bit morepremium, I'd say, more
professional, got polished andmore of that.
I know there are things thathappened with Vanguard that are
(24:25):
probably best kept unsaid.
Yeah, so after Nick leftVanguard I was sort of in a
state of confusion.
I didn't really know where mycareer was going and I was going
through the motions, doing mynormal installs.
Cardio was kind of starting tofade for me at the time.
(24:48):
I started caring a little moreabout you know, like where I'm
living, like hanging out withfriends, kind of normal life
stuff, and cardio was on theback burner for a couple months
or so.
Out of the blue, I got a phonecall from the owner of a shop
called AI Design, and this shopis arguably one of the best
(25:14):
shops in the entire world in myopinion.
They're a very specializedautomotive shop, so they don't
only do car audio, it's allautomotive customization, from
wheels to body, to exhaust, tointerior design, fabrication and
, of course, audio.
So that was a new experiencefor me.
(25:36):
And where are they out of?
They're in Westchester County inNew York of they're in
westchester county in new york,so still, yeah, so I was over
there.
I was the main tuning guy andaudio technician that's what I
originally came on the team forand I event, I kind of expanded
(26:07):
my responsibilities tofabrication and design and
that's really where I kind ofhoned my cad skills.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I'd say is at that shop.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
So you started, you started dabbing with cad at that
point.
Um, I had yeah, prior to that Ihad only done cad for laser
cutting.
So the difference being cad forlaser cutting is all in 2D.
So it's just a flat canvas thatyou draw your lines and the
laser will kind of cut to thoselines.
So I had experience with 2D CAD, but 3D CAD was completely new
(26:36):
to me.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
I had to learn that from scratch, and that seems to
be what the industry industry isgoing, the direction that it's
going with all these newtechniques and new hardware and
computer-based stuff that'spretty amazing compared to what
people could do back in the day,and even what with the 3d
scanners and stuff like that itis changing the game.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I'm I'm seeing it happen live like shops,
hobbyists, everyone, the.
The accessibility to cad and 3dhas gone up so much lately that
it's kind of exploding in thein the car audio space so what
do you think in in terms of like3d, cad and stuff like that?
Speaker 1 (27:18):
does it just help you build a faster product?
I know it builds a product thatlooks pretty much seamless once
done but is it speeding up theprocess for you guys or is it
just giving you just an awesomefinished product at the end of
the day?
Speaker 2 (27:37):
It depends on what you're doing.
There are actually instanceswhere doing it by hand is a lot
faster.
You have to use your judgmenton what CAD is used for.
So let's say you're making justa circular speaker adapter, you
could cut that on a routertable in probably 10 minutes,
(27:58):
versus CAD designing it andwaiting for it to get 3D printed
.
It'll take a whole day.
So there are things that can bedone faster by hand.
But on the flip side, there aredefinitely things that are
(28:27):
faster in cad than it is.
You know, putting on the bodyfiller and this fiberglass,
waiting for it to dry andsanding it and sanding it again
and body filling it again andsanding it again.
It definitely makes thatprocess more efficient, if you
know what you're doing Saves alot on manual labor.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Time is money, so more profit at the end of the
day.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Yeah, yeah, it's a product that is a one solid
piece of plastic versus 20pieces of body filler and wood
stuff like puzzled together Moreof a robust end product.
It also lets you.
One of the main strengths ofCAD is that you can design and
(29:12):
plan every aspect of the projectbefore you even touch anything
physical.
You can design the angle wherethe speaker is aiming, you can
design where it is located, youcan design what the grill is
going to look like, the endresult of the aesthetics, or you
can design how much airspace isin the past.
(29:35):
You can do all in cad and knowfor sure.
Okay, from a to z, this is howit's going to turn out and
there's no guesswork involved.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Yeah, some of the stuff, some of the stuff that
I've seen like online and I seelike the 3d renderings and
they're seeing they're theyalready have a picture of what's
going to happen before it'seven happened.
Exactly.
Because some of the work thatI've seen like from I see a lot
in the Asian market.
They use the 3D CAD and I'mlike how come a lot of this
stuff hasn't come over here inthe US?
(30:15):
Peter was actually talkingabout that how these guys can
like build a huge system on acar in one day over there at the
asian market yeah, I see thaton instagram.
I'm like, wow, these guys arefreaking, doing some works of
art, and but he said that a lotof them don't don't do like
(30:36):
sound treatment and stuff likethat, or um, they're not big on
front front woofers yet, but hesaid some of those guys like uh
mop the floor with some of theinstallers over here from the us
I could see that yeah you haveto keep in mind that design and
manufacturing extremely it'sextremely well represented over
(30:59):
in asia.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
That's where everything's built and
manufactured.
So their skill set in cad and3d printing and manufacturing is
miles above what we have overhere.
So it makes perfect sense thatthey'd have that kind of talent.
We're not competing againstthat right now, but hopefully in
the next coming years some ofus americans can level playing
(31:25):
field.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
We'll see well, the thing is is like you know.
So you know, I know you spokeabout kia and toyota earlier,
but when you have like alamborghini or a mercedes, or
people can make some amazingstuff by hand.
But when you can have something3d CAD printed or you know,
printed, uh, and it literallylooks like it came like that
(31:50):
from the factory, it that'spretty amazing.
You know what I mean.
And if you can afford somethinglike that, most people are
going to side with somethinglike that, where it, where it
integrates with the car, whereI've seen some of this stuff,
some of this stuff, some of thethe cars from morel looks like,
you know, it came like that fromthe factory.
So it's pretty amazing, uh, todo something like that where it
(32:12):
doesn't look tacked on or itdoesn't look custom, so to speak
, it looks literally, looks oem,which is amazing.
You know, some people love that, that custom look.
But I'm kind of a OE plus pluskind of guy.
And when you can make somepillars that literally look like
.
You know, if you sit somebodyin there and they're like those,
(32:35):
don't.
Those don't look custom at all,that looks OEM.
That's got some value to it, inmy opinion, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Absolutely Not to discount guys that can build
well by hand.
I have worked with installersthroughout my career.
They could create things thatlook very OEM all by hand, but
that skill set is very rare andhard to come across in the
industry.
Um, it cad definitely makes itmore possible because you don't
(33:08):
need the fine hand skill tocreate those types of things you
could.
If you can imagine it, thenthere's a possibility that you
can design it and print it, soit kind of just makes it more
accessible to more people.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Oh, yeah, yeah, I've seen.
I mean, you know, take Kevin,for example Some of the pillars
that he does.
They look like works of art.
I'm not discounting anythingthose guys do Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
It's actual sculpture .
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Yeah, but it's labor intensive and I'm sure.
Kevin, if he can make somethingthat's even better looking from
, you know, from computer aideddrafting, he's going to welcome
it because it's.
It also gives him a higherprofit margin to be able to to
do something like that.
(33:54):
He could probably even demandmore money for that type of.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I'm of the opinion that you should charge Based on
the end result.
So if you could get a betterend result using CAD, you should
charge more for it, becauseit's that much better.
Of course, yeah, it doesn'tmatter that it took less time or
it was less sweat and tears tobuild.
(34:18):
I think that if you'redelivering a product of a
certain level or caliber, thenyou could charge what that's
worth.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
So you're at that shop.
What was it again?
It was called AI.
Yeah, the shop name is AIDesign.
Now are you still there or didyou move on from that shop?
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Yeah, so I think what was it?
March of this year I made thedecision to start my own company
.
And what's it called?
Yes, so it's called Audio inReach.
And pretty much the reason Istarted it was to get back to my
(35:03):
roots.
I came into this industry, orstarted car audio as a career,
mainly because I wanted toimprove my skills, learn and
just get better so that my cargot better.
I know that sounds kind of odd,but that's really the reason I
(35:24):
started.
This is for the love of audio,just to get a better sounding,
better looking car audio system.
And after all the experiencesI've been through and um shops
I've been to cars I've worked on, I was starting to lose sense
of that original purpose and mypassion was kind of dying for
(35:46):
audio.
I didn't care as much aboutsound quality and you know the
little details and all thelittle nuances that we care
about in this hobby.
I started, you know I startedmissing it, so I decided, you
know I'm going to do somethingthat's more aligned with what I
want to do, what I'm morepassionate about, and that's
(36:10):
exactly what Audio Reach is.
So we pretty much only do audiowork.
You know that's what I want todo is pure audio at the highest
level that I possibly can, soare you a?
Speaker 1 (36:23):
solo act or you got guys working with you over at
audio and reach.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yeah, right now I'm solo.
Um, the business is very new,probably five months in, yeah,
and I kind of just saw anopportunity to change the way
that people look at customfabrication.
Um, usually you have to dropyour car off at a shop for weeks
(36:51):
at a time months sometimes andsometimes people don't have
shops that are close to them.
They have to drive bays or haveto ship their car something
wild.
And I thought, okay, how do weget custom work to more people?
Okay, wait, I have this CADthing.
(37:13):
Maybe this CAD thing can help,okay, and I kind of just put the
pieces together, came up with agame plan of how I can do
things remotely and once thatclicked, I can scan cars, build
things remotely for people andship them things, all without
(37:34):
having their actual car with me.
And that idea kind of spiraledand grew into what the business
is now.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Okay, I'm getting what you're putting down.
That's why you call it audio,and reach.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Okay, yeah, that's a great, that's a great idea yeah,
that's really yeah, it's, thatwas the the main purpose of the
company while I worked.
So I worked at these high-endshops and we had great clients.
Sometimes it felt kind of weirdwhen we would spend months upon
(38:11):
months on one car and deliverthe end result to the client and
they're like oh cool, thanksBye, I'm like what, come on.
We put our blood, sweat andtears into that project yeah, I
was kind of like not reallysatisfied with that experience.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
So I wanted to work with clients that are more that
would be more appreciative of,of custom work and that's kind
of more of the hobbyist space sohow do you get like, let's say,
I have um 2025 toyota camry,for example, and it's got a new
you know, let's say toyota for2025 or 2026.
(38:54):
They they changed up the dashand the pillars aren't like the
2024 version.
But I'm all the way out in LosAngeles, california, and I want
some pillars.
From the famous Matt Kim Do Isay hey, matt, I want some
pillars, this is what I want.
I know your CAD machine is allthe way down east in New York.
(39:17):
So what do you do?
Do you rent?
Do you find somebody with thatmake and model and 3D scan that
car?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Yeah, you're pretty on the dot.
So when someone reaches out tome asking for something
particular in their car, thefirst thing I do is I research
that vehicle because I need toknow that it's accessible to me
locally.
There have been many timeswhere someone has a rare, old
(39:51):
classic car that is that's inLos Angeles and I can't do
anything for them.
It's it's a one-of-one car.
I have no way to get to it andunfortunately I can't do that
remotely.
I would need to be there inperson.
So once I confirm that okay, Ican easily find this car on
(40:12):
Enterprise or Turo or Hertz.
Then we kind of talk about whatthey want, what speakers
they're using, how it'll fit,how it'll'll look, and we kind
of go through a littleconsultation on that and, yeah,
then I rent the car, do my 3dscanning and once I get into the
(40:35):
design phase I we work with theclient to to kind of finalize
exactly what they want.
And so far the clients havebeen really great to work with.
Most people are pretty cooljust letting me take the reins
and choose a design and choosehow the speaker is going to
(40:57):
mount and all the little finedetails.
They just let me work it outwhich has been nice, um, yeah
and that, and then it goes offto the 3d printer and then I
finish by hand.
I think this portion is whatpeople don't.
(41:20):
They don't get to see is fromcad to finish.
They don't get to see what'sinvolved.
I think there's a misconceptionout there that just because you
can do it in CAD means thatit'll magically turn into this
amazing custom finished productin a car, and that's pretty far
(41:41):
from my experience.
I basically have to use or Ihad to use, all the years of me
learning manual fabrication inorder to get to bridge that gap
between CAD and a final product.
And there's.
So there's still sanding,there's still cutting and
grinding and upholstery and youknow all the other things
(42:04):
involved.
But yeah, that's the generalgist or workflow of a typical
project.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
That's awesome, that's really.
I could see that change in thegame.
So you're saying with the CADdesign it gets you about 75, 80%
there, and then you have to getin there and do it the
old-fashioned way.
Quote unquote exactly, and startsanding and fabricating and
finishing upholstering orpainting and stuff like that to
(42:33):
give them the finished product.
So what?
What is your typical turnaroundtime on uh like, let's say, a
pair of pillars for a car for aprospective buyer out there
that's out in alaska and he'sgetting his uh tesla delivered
soon and he wants a pair ofpillars from matt kim so the
(42:55):
turnaround time once I actuallystart the project, I'd say about
one to two weeks is an average.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
um, it goes by pretty quickly at this point because
I've been able to kind of honein on a on a workflow and you
know, you see patterns in theworkflow and like, okay, I can
make it more efficient by doingthat and I can scan it this way
so I can get a cleaner scan andI can print it in this way, so
(43:27):
it's less sanding later.
And I've gotten my process downto a point where things are
pretty streamlined and it justfrom A to B to C to D.
However, the caveat is that'swhen I start the project.
so right now I have quite a longbacklog of projects that are
(43:49):
waiting to be done yeah and it'sjust consistently growing and
growing and there was a periodof time where I just stopped
taking jobs on.
I can't guys, I can't take onanymore.
There are too many peoplewaiting on me.
I can't keep on adding peopleto the wait list.
Yeah, so I, for a good threemonths or so, I just completely
(44:10):
stopped taking uh deposits.
Wow, but yeah, um slowly gettingthrough them three months,
three to four months in advancealready, huh yeah, and I I try
to keep it capped at threemonths because you know you
can't predict the future.
Yeah, things can go wrong,timelines can get stretched and
people start getting antsy likehey, when are you going to start
(44:32):
mine?
You know I've got 10 other onesI've worked on first.
Sorry, yeah so it's.
It's that's really the battle isschedule and getting projects
done at a high level of finish,but also trying to meet time
expectations and time frames,and that's really been the
(44:54):
challenge of business thus faryeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
So, but you, you're solo right now.
Have you considered like, maybepicking up like a, like
somebody, a protege, or you knowa new up and coming, matt Kim,
that's that's you know, kind oflike where you were, you know,
when you were 24, 25?
.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Yeah, the thought has crossed my mind.
I do need, I think I need toset up my business a little bit
more, a little bit moreprofessionally first, which is
I'm in the process of doing so.
So I'm moving to Houston, texas, very soon.
(45:40):
Oh wow, for anyone that hasn'theard everybody's going to texas
.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
What's going on, man?
What's in the water over there?
Speaker 2 (45:48):
I know miguel rios just moved out there too, right
exactly yeah, yeah, when he, wealmost came to the same decision
at the same time.
So we were talking and he'slike, hey, I'm going to college
station, and right at the sametime I decided, hey, maybe I
should go to houston and it'llbe a good place to kind of to
(46:10):
grow the business and establisha like a professional scene
there.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
Yeah, and it's dead center in the country now I know
, I know why miguel went outthere but yeah what made you
decide texas of all places?
Like what?
Speaker 2 (46:29):
so one.
I have family there and itmakes the decision easier okay I
have a nice support system.
Um, I can always like lean on mydad for help.
He's actually probably going tobe my first employee.
He's going to do some socialmedia content, help me make
(46:51):
videos, take pictures and helpwith the marketing aspect of the
business Just kind of exposemore people to what I'm doing.
Because it's hard, because I'msolo.
I'm focused on finishingprojects.
That's my main concern rightnow and I don't have three hands
(47:13):
to work on the social mediaside and post pictures and
engage with the community.
I can't do it all, so it'll benice to have someone helping me
with that.
I think it'll help show morepeople what's possible with what
I'm doing.
So I'm really excited for that.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
Yeah, it's good to have somebody you know family or
a loved one, or even a spouseor a girlfriend you know, or a
significant other to take someof the lighter stuff off your
hands so that you couldconcentrate on, you know, not
the real work, but you know, thework that requires your
specialized skills, so thatthat'll free you up to get these
(47:56):
things done quicker.
So, besides pillars, what elsedo you offer?
Like I know you, uh, I know youdid a front woofer for Mike,
like what, what type of thingsis uh audio and reach doing for
the people out there?
Speaker 2 (48:11):
So right now my main, my main category has been
pillars and mid-range dashpods.
We already kind of talked aboutpillars, but the dashpod idea
it actually came from my ownvehicle, yeah.
So the way this all started wasI wanted to build dash mounts
(48:39):
for a mid-range in my car and Ineeded a way to control the
angle of the speaker, how it'sreflecting off the glass and
what kind of enclosure that it'sin and how it's going to look.
I needed a way to do that.
So I turned to CAD in my owncar.
(49:01):
This was probably a year and ahalf ago and I was able to
create a mid-range install thatI was really happy with and it
sounded great and looked great.
It was all built in CAD.
So I posted that online onthink strictly sound quality,
yeah, and it got a good amountof traction and I had a few few
(49:25):
guys reach out to me asking if Ican do that in their car.
So I think my first customer,um, had a toyota tacoma and he
wanted to fit his mid-ranges andhis dash location in a way
that's more acousticallyfavorable.
So a lot of cars do have OEMlocations for mid-ranges, but
(49:48):
most of the time they're kind ofsunken down in there and
they're behind a little two anda half inch opening and the
sound can't get out freely.
So a lot of my clients, theywant the best from their speaker
so they need an install that'llrespect the caliber of speaker
(50:11):
they're using.
So that's kind of where thisCAD mid-range sort of idea came
about.
So basically I'm buildingdashpods that mount the speakers
in a better orientation interms of how they're angled or
how far they are from thewindshield.
(50:32):
Because, yeah, the reflectionthat a speaker makes off the
windshield, that behavior isvery important to consider,
especially in your mid-range.
So moving it higher or closerto the windshield it makes the
reflection very similar to thedirect sound wave coming out of
(50:56):
the speaker.
They're so close together thatit almost behaves as one sound
versus two distinct reflectionsor a distinct reflection, so to
say.
So yeah, I've been doing lotsof custom dashpods with that
idea and so far it's been it'sbeen working well.
(51:17):
I've sent out a good dozen orso out in the open and I think
people have had very goodresults with, like acoustically,
with with my dash mounts yeah,I've been seeing that a lot
lately.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
Um, because I'm on, uh, sq sound quality only too,
and uh, I've noticed, you know,I think a lot of people are
starting to uh, uh, not steeraway from the pillar builds, but
they're starting to.
I I'm seeing a lot more cleanerinstalls because it looks, it
looks more oe-ish when you putthe, the, uh the speakers,
(51:57):
because, because some peopledon't even have dash mount
locations and your dash mountpods can offer that type of
install for somebody who doesn'teven have a hole in their dash
right.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
Right, yeah, there have been times.
A good example is the GrandCherokee Luke's working on.
Yeah, so that car has nothingthere, it's just straight vinyl
or leather dash, no hole,nothing.
In those types of situations,the CAD work is very, very
powerful.
(52:33):
I'd say, yeah, powerful.
I'd say yeah, um, yeah, itpretty much allowed us to create
a pod that'll sit on the dashbut mounts from the underside of
the dash, so it's pretty muchrock solid and will never go
anywhere, and without cad that'svery difficult.
So, and for instances like that, it's been great.
(52:56):
Um, so, for instances like that, it's been great.
Speaker 1 (53:03):
I mean not to discount the amount of labor it
takes to do a dash mount.
Oh no, If you have a car.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
Yeah, I've seen people remove windshields
Exactly.
Yeah.
If you have a car that has noOEM hole there, then it's either
you remove the windshield orremove the dash from the car to
do it right.
Yeah, and I think that'ssomething important to mention
is people see, they see thesebuilds online and they're like,
(53:30):
oh, I want that too.
And they reach out to me hey,can I have dash pods in my xyz
car?
Yeah, and I said, sure, I cando that, but I just want to.
You have to keep in mind what'sinvolved in a dash mount
install.
So it's either a windshield orit's coming out of the dash.
Yeah, and I think people therethere are people out there that
(53:54):
don't wrap their head aroundthat.
But building the pot is onething, but installing it
properly is a whole other beast.
Speaker 1 (54:04):
Yeah, that's the easy part, because I know.
I'm in the car business.
So I know that if you remove awindshield on a modern car these
days it's a, you know it's notjust hey, safe, like can you
come and remove this, thiswindshield, and, you know, come
back a week later and remount it.
They have to like recalibrateeverything because of all the
(54:26):
modern uh stuff that's on carsthese days with the with the uh,
with the self-driving.
I know on my car I have, um,it's got the, the thing where
it's uh, it hits the brakes incase of emergency and it has the
assistant driving and yeah, and, and it's got the camera yeah,
it's got cameras and it's gotsome sort of radar in the front
(54:47):
bumper.
So when my windshield breaks.
It's not a simple 300replacement.
It's like a freaking twothousand dollar job because they
got to recalibrate everythingand if they don't recalibrate
everything, the dash.
All the lights you know lightup like a christmas tree so
(55:08):
sometimes, on an install likethat, might be just easier to
remove the dash.
But even then that's a big that.
That's a big undertaking, youknow.
But I would almost, I wouldassume on an older.
Like you know, I'm just throwingthis out there.
But like an older Jeep itwouldn't be so bad where they
could just remove the windshieldor remove the dash and they
(55:30):
don't have to worry about allthis electronic wizardry.
But most people, most cars anycar built in the last like
practically 10 years has allkinds of electronic wizardry
back there on the windshield.
So but I mean that's the priceyou pay for Sonic, for Sonic
Nirvana, wouldn't you say youknow if you're, if you're not,
(55:50):
it's not for the faint of heartI'll say that.
Speaker 2 (55:53):
Yep, good people looking for that last or that
next performance bump and is arewilling to do anything it takes
.
That's that's what it's for.
It's not for the typical cardioobvious to to take on that kind
of job yeah.
Speaker 1 (56:12):
So for the enthusiasts out there, you know,
or to do it yourself, or whatwhat should someone look for if
they're, if they're looking tohire somebody like you or hiring
a shop?
You know, because some of thelisteners out there, they could
be out in California, florida,texas, oregon, wherever you know
.
I'm just throwing this outthere.
What, what, what should someonelook for when they're, when
(56:34):
they're looking to hire somebodyof your caliber, nick's caliber
or Kevin's?
Caliber.
Speaker 2 (56:43):
So what I would look for in an installer.
It's not what you wouldtypically look for, so I
wouldn't get entrenched in thetypical car audio vocabulary
what brand do they use or what,what head units are installing,
or what subs they use, or youknow, like that kind of.
(57:07):
Those are kind of buzzwords andcardio that an installer can
throw at you like we do thisproduct and that's why we're so
good, like I think you should bevery careful about that type of
vocabulary and instead youshould look at someone who knows
(57:28):
, or can demonstrate that theyhave a deep knowledge about
vehicle acoustics.
That's the first and foremostthe most important thing.
So someone that understands howsound works in cars.
We're literally doing car audio,so that's, you know, like how
(57:53):
reflections work.
If you can ask your installer,like if I, if I mount my speaker
like this, and it reflects offof the windshield, like is that
a good or bad thing, and basedon the response they give, you
can kind of assess do they knowwhat they're talking about?
Yeah, or maybe you can ask themwhat is time alignment for,
what is eq for?
And based on the answer theygive and the level of depth that
(58:14):
they can explain that answer inkind of shows you are they
about it or are they not?
You can ask, yeah, all sorts ofquestions.
Speaker 1 (58:28):
Some shops aren't your one stop shop either, like
I'll admit you know.
That's why like people like youexist.
Like people like you exist,people like Miguel Rios exist
because sometimes you can bringyour car to like a shop that has
an awesome fabricator, anawesome installer and you know
(58:48):
somebody who's going to give youa really nice finished product,
but nobody in that shop cantune like Nick can, or nobody in
that shop can tune like miguelcan.
So I'm just using those guys asexamples.
But yeah, uh, there's a lot ofgood tuners out there so
sometimes it's okay to bringyour car to two or three
different spots.
(59:08):
You know what I mean.
To the sort of like a contractorgets the plumber the plumber
that he trusts and he gets thesheet rocker that he trusts.
It's the sum of all parts thatyou know.
You get matt kim to do yourfabrication, your pillars or
your or your mid pods orwhatever, and you get, you know,
this guy to do whatever, the,the sound treatment and all that
(59:30):
stuff.
Sometimes it's not a a one-stopshop.
It's great when it's a one-stopshop because they can do
everything and you can come back, you know, hand over your keys
and come get your car in a monthor two or whatever it is.
But sometimes you know we'renot afforded that, that luxury,
and we have to kind of go to twoor three different or four
(59:50):
different uh, people to get toget the job done.
Speaker 2 (59:54):
You know yeah, I see what you mean.
I think, uh, yeah, justbasically, it's good to look for
, to find a mentor in this spacethat could at least point you
in the right direction, towardsthe shop.
Yeah, like you said, the shopcan handle the installation
(01:00:15):
portion.
Like there are tons and tons ofshops that can mount things
safely, do your wiring cleanly,make sure things don't blow up,
like every every reputable shopout there can do that.
I think what sets a shop apart,a good one from a great one is,
(01:00:37):
like you said, that fullone-stop shop A to Z
understanding of audio.
That's quite rare to see.
Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
Yeah, if you could find a mentor who does have an
understanding A to Z, they canhelp you pick out okay, I'm
going to do my car like thisover here and they can help you
with system design.
System design is another hugething that you need to look for
in a shop.
Can they design the systemfundamentally to reach the goal
(01:01:08):
that you want?
Tuning is something you do atthe very end.
System design is what you do atthe very beginning to ensure
that the tuning is going to doanything useful.
You know so having your systems,having the install done solidly
and correctly, and then thetune is really what brings it
(01:01:30):
all together.
Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
And it all merges in one cohesive work of art.
I would say, you know, becauseonce everything starts to to
mesh together, you're, you're,just.
That's when you get that, that,that Kool-Aid smile on your
face.
So, matt, where?
Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
do you see the SoundQ hobby in like five or 10 years?
Um, so I think so.
I was at a show recently.
It was just a get together.
It was for peter show.
Um, peter from psn, he came overto the states to do a training
and there was a little gettogether afterwards and I
(01:02:17):
attended for fun and what Inoticed was that the level of
car that was there the averagekind of level was a lot higher
than I expected and it made merealize how good that hobbyists
are becoming at car audio.
Yeah, it's not just industryguys anymore that are on top.
(01:02:40):
It's like, okay, everyone'skind of catching up and the
whole tide is lifting.
That's what I've noticed andthat's where I see it going.
I see, um, hobbyists competingdirectly with industry guys,
because I think the knowledge isall out there, it's all
(01:03:01):
accessible because of theinternet, because of social
media, because of AI.
It's all there and it's just amatter of will whether you want
to go through the work toactually execute the work.
But yeah, I think that with moreknowledge, the level of car
(01:03:22):
audio will just keep on going upand up and up and yeah, I'm
excited, the more cars that aregood, the better, the better the
hobby gets in general.
So let's say, someone new inthe in the hobby comes into this
, comes into a show and all thecars there are just amazing.
(01:03:43):
Then they're going to be moreexcited to do something of their
own and they'll also have a lotbetter mentorship in the
community versus, let's say, 10years ago when half the guys
didn't know what a dsp was.
You know, it's what, what's thepoint?
So it's just I think right nowis a more exciting time to kind
(01:04:07):
of be in this hobby and, yeah,just excited for better sounding
cars it is because we'regetting a.
Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
I mean not for nothing, but we're getting a
smarter bunch coming on and youknow, I would never think of you
know, like cad or 3d printingor you know the, the things that
people are doing these dayswith the dsp and uh, now with um
.
I haven't heard a car yet withit, but I hear the.
The riven uh up mixer is prettyamazing but you know people are
(01:04:42):
.
People are really starting tofigure out how cars are.
Are you know how to uh worktheir systems with the car, so
to speak?
You know what I mean.
Instead of they would do kindof trial and error and uh
experiment with differentdrivers and stuff like that.
A lot of do-it-yourselfersstill do that, but you know, now
, with the, with the advent ofcomputers and and whatnot,
(01:05:06):
here's one thing I alwaysthought I've, I've, because I
heard andy talking about somesomething along these lines and
uh, I mean I could be crazy.
But wouldn't it be cool ifthere was something that sort of
like scans the car out, kind oflike in a 3D form, and instead
of you know scanning the car forhow to mount things, it would
(01:05:29):
be sort of like in reverse,where you're scanning the car to
figure out where the bestplacement for speakers would be.
Do you know what I'm saying?
Like, like, where?
Yeah, sort of how, like thetesla I don't know if you've
ever seen how tesla sees theroad the tesla doesn't see the
road like we do like with oureyes, the tesla sees the the
(01:05:49):
road in like bits and zeros andones like it almost looks like
terminator, looking, you know,through the, through the tesla's
eyes, so to speak.
But um, I'm talking about.
Yeah, like something that scansthe car from the inside and says
okay, this is where you're, youknow, and you input the
parameters of the tweeters thatyou're choosing and you put the
(01:06:12):
input, the parameters of themid-ranges in the mid-base, the
drivers that you're using in the, in the, in the software
calculates the, the airspacethat's in that cabin and and
calculates the angles of your,of your pillars and windows, and
says you know, this would bethe optimal location for your
tweeters and this would be theoptimal location I don't know,
(01:06:32):
I'm just spitballing here, butdo you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
yeah, I can see something like that being a
possibility.
I think bringing that to apractical level, actually doing
that, would be, that would be anamazing feat of engineering.
That's yeah, that would.
That would change.
If something like that existed,it would completely change car
(01:06:57):
audio.
Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
Well, I want some sort of royalty if you uh if you
figure something out like thatman, I want some sort of 25
royalty.
Okay, it's, it's it's on theinterwebs man yeah so we're uh.
To wrap this up, where can moreuh people learn about audio and
Reach and follow your work?
You want to give the listenersyour website, socials and
(01:07:20):
upcoming projects or events.
Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
Yeah, so website is simply audioinreachcom.
Currently working on updatingthat.
I've got probably months ofwork that I've done that I
haven't posted, so there's a lotof unknown work out there.
So that's coming soon in thegallery page and you can find me
(01:07:47):
on Facebook and Instagram,audio InReach.
Yeah, just find me on there.
You can also email me.
It's right on the website.
Yeah, we've got a formsubmission on the website so you
just tell me what vehicle youhave, your make model, and we
can just get into a discussionabout what you want, all that
(01:08:09):
stuff.
So, yeah, pretty easy to reachme.
Yeah, like I said, moving thebusiness over to Houston, texas.
If anyone's local to Texas ornearby, we can see what we can
do in person.
Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
Yeah, and I know you talked about Texas earlier, but
when are you moving there?
Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
It'll be right around the start of September.
Speaker 1 (01:08:37):
Oh okay, oh, oh wow, that's coming up real soon yeah,
yeah wow, okay, all right, matt.
Well, I think that about wrapsit up, man.
Thank you for coming on the uhsound cue garage podcast.
Uh, hang on one second.
Okay, say goodbye to Matt.
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