September 23, 2025 • 44 mins
A remarkable story unfolds as Chris Pearce takes us through his transformation from garage tinkerer to respected competitor in the high-end car audio world. Working entirely alone with basic tools, Chris rebuilt nearly every audio-related aspect of his Dodge Charger, creating a system that placed 17th at the prestigious Steel Valley Regional competition—holding its own against professionally-built systems.
Chris walks us through his meticulous approach to extreme fabrication, including completely rebuilding his dashboard to create an optimal acoustic environment. His most innovative work involves custom-welded enclosures for dual front subwoofers in the kick panels—a modification rarely seen in daily-driven vehicles. Despite the competition-level modifications, Chris emphasizes that his car remains his everyday transportation, not just a dedicated show piece.
The conversation reveals how immersing himself in online forums and fabrication resources provided the knowledge base for his ambitious build. We hear about a pivotal moment when listening to Brian Mitchell's Cadillac changed his understanding of dynamics in car audio, inspiring him to push his system to new heights. This led to a collaborative relationship with Peter from PS Sound, who was so impressed with Chris's work that he used the Charger as his official demo vehicle at a major competition.
Beyond technical details, Chris offers invaluable wisdom for DIY enthusiasts considering competition. He explains how his first competition resulted in 35th place, which "lit a fire" under him rather than discouraging him. This perspective on competition as a learning process rather than just a venue for validation provides a refreshing take on the hobby. His insights on balancing competition tuning with personal listening preferences will resonate with anyone who loves music but wants to improve their system's technical performance.
Ready to take your car audio system to the next level? Whether you're considering competition or simply want to improve your daily listening experience, Chris's journey demonstrates what's possible with determination, research, and a willingness to learn from the community. Subscribe to hear more stories of audio passion and DIY excellence!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome back listeners.
This is the SoundCube Garagepodcast, episode 7, with Chris
Pierce.
Today's guest is the definitionof do-it-yourself passion in
car audio.
Working alone in his garage,chris built one of the most
highly modified do-it-yourselfcars out there, complete with
custom fabrication and even adash rebuild.
(00:33):
He's been competing for justthree years but already placed
17th overall at SBR, holding hisown against shop-backed bills
and pro tuners.
Holding his own againstshop-back bills and pro tuners.
We're going to dive into whatit takes to chase sound quality
at the highest level when it'sjust you, your garage and your
drive to compete.
Everybody.
(00:54):
Welcome, chris Pierce.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Hey, how's it going?
This is Chris.
The car I'm using to compete isa Dodge Charger Platform to
build a sound system in.
But man, these Dodges are justrinky little noise-brattling
cars.
It's hard to get into a highlevel.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
A lot of us run into that with the cars, that
sometimes they're not built allthat great from the factory but
we got to get in there and slapsome dynamat or whatever your,
your sound treatment of choice.
So yeah shout out to resonant,right, nick.
So what got you?
What first got you hooked on tocar audio and to do it yourself
?
It's just.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I'm getting into and I had my first car, kind of like
most people, that was team 16,17,.
Just I had my first car, kindof like most people that was
teen 16, 17,.
Just having something to dowith your car, ripping up the
rest of the music, giving mesomething to get away driving
around.
As a teenager Started now gotsome car audio fabrication books
Can't remember if I orderedthem online somewhere or found
(01:59):
them at the bottom.
I still have reading cover tocover multiple times sitting on
my shelf, kind of what was outthere and then probably pretty
janky, ripping speakers out ofdad's minivan because it had
infinity on it and I was stockspeakers that were in there.
So because in there I'm out,pulling the ones out of the rear
shelf.
That bill turned into too muchand that car went away after a
(02:22):
couple of years and the nextpickup truck was more into
engine custom and stuff likethat.
So the sound system I slappedin there to make noise above the
loud exhaust it was ahead inevery day.
So on my next car charge I'vehad for a couple years swapped
speakers out and put the subs inlike I used to, but started
(02:45):
just doing more research with myhands just to start reading
into forums, kind of like I didwith engines.
Reading forums was what got meinto the business with the
engines, like, oh, if I swap outsomething, then you learn.
Well, it's not just the exhaust,it's the headers.
It's not just the headers, it'sthe intake.
Well, it's not just that, it'sthis.
And that's where I learned alot with forms.
(03:06):
So when I got found demabecause those popular ones and
just started reading, startedlearning more about what a dsp
was, more the highermodification like placing a
couple speakers in a stocklocation wasn't going to be
enough.
I did that first and I'mlistening to it.
I'm like this, this isn'tsounding like.
I remembered when I was likemust be missing something, or
(03:29):
you know, looking at the pastand rose glasses.
But that's when I startedreading in.
Well, what does it actuallysound good?
And that's what kind of startedthe journey I'm on right now.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
So can you paint a picture for us of your garage
setup?
What's it like building at home?
Speaker 1 (03:45):
I have a fairly small kind of only fits one car,
small to fit two, so that makesit easier to work because it's
big enough to work around it anda couple cabinets I've got from
jobs doing tear outs so I got abunch of free cabinets so I've
built myself shelves and someworkbenches, heavy tables and
(04:09):
stuff.
I have a fairly decent woodshop in my because I've been in
the woodworking for a long time.
It shows off in some of thestuff I do with how my trunk
looks and some of my homespeakers are made with that
woodwork.
They're kind of I am skill andtools and stuff like that.
So in the basement and decentgarage area I'll try to do a
(04:33):
little bit of everything in thefabric, do some welding,
woodworking, normal stuff youexpect with car audio
fabrication.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, wow.
So you're like a jack of alltrades.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Kind of I've done construction for years, so it's
kind of just somewhat comesnatural work, some sort of
fabrication or building stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
yeah, yeah, if you've been on the dimer group for a
long time, that's kind of how itstarted back in the day.
I'm not sure how long you'vebeen on there, but I think I've
been on there since 2007.
That's kind of like how itstarted.
You know it's called thedo-it-yourself mobile audio, so
a lot of the guys that that wereon there used to do their own
work.
But what made you decide to goall in on fabricating or
(05:16):
rebuilding the parts of your carinstead of taking the easy path
you know, like bringing it to ashop?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
It was well for me, not really interested in it.
I'm much more I enjoy the build, playing out the build work,
making the design finish product.
I enjoy working more than Ienjoy paying someone else to
work for me.
So that kind of makes that easyFor the fabrication.
(05:44):
It more of buy something new orkind of my personal favorite
vehicles that I've been to inthe last couple years.
Three years ago I didn't knowmuch of this hobby existed, so
all my experience is just goingto a whole ton of shows in that
time and listening to as many asI can.
And the wild fabrication ones,the ones that you look at and
(06:05):
you can tell above and beyond,are the ones that have always
stuck with me the most and theones I've enjoyed.
Not that there's anything wrongwith a stealth OEM style.
That build doesn't appeal to mequite as much as seeing someone
that ripped this apart andrebuilt this and made it my own,
versus sometimes more justtaking advantage of stock
(06:29):
locations and doing stuff likethat.
So it's just my naturalprogression build because I'll
build something crazy and I'mlike, well, if this part's crazy
, I need to make.
Like, well, if I did this crazyinstall on the mid-range, it's
on the mid-base, it needs tokeep up with it.
And well, if I did that on theon the mid-range, it was on the
mid-bass and it's keep up withit.
And well, if I did that on themid-bass, front subs have to be
at the same level and kind ofthat snowball gets rolling in my
(06:51):
head.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
So you know it's funny.
I've been in this hobby sincelike the 90s, maybe even
actually like late 80s.
You know a lot of us are intothe sound quality and the cars
that image and we cut, you knowthe, the sq guys kind of got
like a pinky up kind ofreputation, if you know what I
mean, since the 90s.
It's funny that you said thatthat the installs that caught
(07:13):
your eye were the ones that wereover the top.
But even back in the 90s theinstalls that always got the
attention were the big one.
You know the flashy ones.
It was always the, and the onesthat were like that were a lot
of the demo cars and somelegendary names out there.
I can't think of them off thetop of my head right now, but
you know a lot of like it'sironic.
It's kind of ironic that the,the installs that get the
(07:36):
attention, or the big, you knowattention grabbing ones like
that, and a lot of times youknow they're they're the big,
booming systems.
But it's just funny.
I we're into sound quality butthe ones that get the attention
are always the ones that areflashy yeah, this kind of comes
and goes.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It seems like now there's a little bit more of a
trend for keeping stuff lowerprofile installs and some people
take a lot of pride in beingable to do that style have a
crazy-sounding system whilekeeping it unseen, which that's
awesome in its own right and I'mnot taking away from that.
(08:15):
Maybe one day I'll get to thatpoint.
You get tired of doing thecrazy building and then you're
like well, maybe the nextchallenge is doing a hidden OEM
system.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
So, speaking of, tell us a little bit about your car,
like what's unique about yoursetup compared to others.
I know you spoke that yours isa little on the, you know, on
the flashy side, and you likethe that type that style what
what's, what separates yoursfrom others?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
well, probably the front end dash modifications car
that was is basically a dailydriver.
There's not too many cars outthere right now that go to the
effort of pulling the dash orrebuilding the dash or the
corners, the kicks open, theweld-in enclosures and stuff
like that and still be acomplete daily drivable car.
(09:03):
There's cars that have a lot offabrications like this but
they're more kind of cars orthey get they can drive but like
a show car.
Mine is kind of a blend betweena daily driver and a show car
with as much modification as Ican physically fit and keep it.
(09:23):
Modifications I can physicallyfit and keep it.
I mean, if you look inside mycar the dash is chopped down.
The whole reason for that isthe Dodge Charges have very huge
hump that goes.
That covers about threequarters of the dash, starting
from like the passenger airbagall the way over to the other
side.
That raises up, you know, three, four, five inches.
(09:44):
I thought that that was givingme issues from.
You know a lot of people talkabout how much they like the big
flat dashes on a lot of carsand mine definitely wasn't.
That I'm like.
Well, I think with enough workI can make it flat, so chopped a
lot of that out and spent a lotof time fabricating a flat
cover to go over it, dressing itin and just learning more
(10:11):
fabrication techniques andtaking time.
You get it all done and you gowell.
Now that it's all done, I cansee an issue here.
This could have been donebetter.
So I've rebuilt the dash atleast twice.
Now, if you want to consider fora rebuild, I did the big one
last winter see winter of 24 andgot that.
That was my main big buildafter I got home from see 2023
(10:38):
finals, I think the first yearin birmingham.
Kind of what started the wholething was I already had a fairly
full-blown system to begin with, and going down to Birmingham
as my car, the motor went out onme in the middle of Kentucky.
Oh wow, camelifters startedeating each other up and started
(11:02):
tapping really bad in themiddle of Kentucky.
The Hemis are somewhat known todo that.
So I didn't want to push it allthe way to Alabama but I wasn't
going to give up on it.
So I rented a U-Haul truck anda trailer nearest place I could
find, loaded it up and drove itthe rest of the six, seven hours
to get there.
(11:23):
So that was I knew I had torebuild the engine.
I always kind of had some planson putting a bigger engine in
this car.
I had leftover parts from myold engine build I was talking
about in my truck.
So that turned into replacingthe engine.
And then, while I had it down,I'm like, well, let's swing for
the moon for some of thesemodifications I want to do.
(11:43):
And I even had a couple ofpeople tell me like don't go
this crazy.
It's already sounding prettygood as it is.
A lot of times you do these bigbuilds and even if they come out
how you think it doesn't meetyour expectations or you kind of
overhype it in your mind and itdoesn't play out as well.
So going in, I knew that it'sjust the way I work.
(12:06):
I just need to have thatproject.
The project is three-quartersof the enjoyment for me.
So I like building and I likedoing all that stuff.
So I did all the work and atthe end of the day, after it's
been all tuned and I'm lot ofthe uh getting feedback keep
(12:26):
working on it, tweaking it it'sbeen sounding the best it ever
has and it's purely enjoyable.
Everything I've done I've beenvery happy with proud of a
couple of those things, so itwas worth it in the end of the
day yeah, I know what you mean.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Sometimes just by by changing like a mid-bass driver
or some mid-range drivers, itchanges everything completely.
And you're like, why did I dothat?
But then you just kind of gotto regroup and retune and you
know, just basically test andtune, test and tune until it
starts sounding good again.
There's just something.
There's something wrong with us.
We're always chasing that thatone or 2% more.
(13:03):
You know we're always chasingthat that one or two percent
more.
You know we're trying tosqueeze out the most we can out
of our, out of our drivers orout of the build.
And you know, but uh, what partof the fabrication or the dash
rebuild challenge you the most?
Like, what was the hardest partof doing all that custom
fabrication?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I think the part that I struggled with the most was.
I think the part that Istruggled with the most was
integrating the top of the dashrebuild and getting it kind of
blended into the existing whatwas left.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
And making it all kind of work together.
Yeah, so the first rebuild Idid.
I put the car into the garageabout November, I think, the car
into the garage about November,I think.
And then I worked approximatelyseven to eight months straight
on the entire build, between theengine, stuff that went along
(13:53):
with that and then the wholeaudio system Going into it.
I knew I was going to do anextreme build and I was shooting
to do it in the extreme class,especially in IASCA Extreme Open
, why they had it.
So I knew going into it, whileI was building it I needed to
build and document it as anextreme build to be able to
compete with install.
(14:13):
So, making sure I took the timeto do everything right,
document it all and put the timein it.
So it was worth it in the end.
That was approximately eightmonths straight and that was
almost every night a couplehours after work, majority of
the weekend spent on it.
(14:34):
It was a grind and towards theend it was turning into a real
grind, especially when the showsstarted coming up.
I started missing the firstcouple shows of the year because
it was still completely tornapart and that that's the
frustrating part of it, the topof the dash really kind of
kicked my butt for a while justcoming up with the overall flow
and how it blended in and how Icould get it to fit and to stay
(14:58):
stay secure.
The airbags was a thing that Ididn't want to lose because it's
still a daily driver I drivewith my wife, she drives his car
, we go to trips, so integrating, keeping the airbag functional
and safe while I still have thetop of the dash rebuilt was a
challenge.
Mick Wallace, mick Tennis, Ithink on DEMA A lot of people
(15:22):
know him, one of the big, mostwell-known judges.
He saw some of the posts I wasmaking, asking some questions
like hey, how to do this?
And he messaged me like, hey, Idid something real similar in
one of my BMWs a couple yearsago.
Here's some pics on how I didit and that was a real light
(15:45):
bulb moment on change up, how Iwas looking at it and I was able
to get it, get a build justlike that.
So that was the first build.
Towards the end, you know, someof the shows were creeping up.
I wanted to be at HVR in 2024was the first one I was able to
roll out to and it was stilllike 90% done, so it was kind of
(16:08):
a rush at the end and some ofthe stuff just wasn't quite as
nice as what I wanted to.
I just needed to spend moretime, you know, ironing it out,
making it look better.
So I got through that yearcompeting and over the winter I
wanted to change.
I lucked into a set of mid-rangedrivers I'd been looking for
for a while and I'm like, allright, if I'm going to rebuild
(16:30):
these into it, then I may aswell spend some more time on the
dash cover and reshape that,rework some of the HVAC vents.
I was able to beef up theinside of the dash a lot more,
tie everything a lot bettertogether, chase more rattles
Just stuff that after you livewith it for a year, you start
(16:51):
getting the mental checklist inyour head like, okay, this is an
issue needs fixed, and workingthrough that.
So I rebuilt it, rebuilt thepillars, changed the position of
the MTs I'm using and now itlooks 10 times better than what
it what it did originally.
So I'm a lot happy with thework I did this spring.
(17:13):
I spent about four or fiveweeks doing kind of a refresh on
it.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
So did you ever think looking back?
Was there a moment where youthought, man, what the hell did
I get myself into?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Yeah, quite a couple.
I mean, I know I'm going to beworking on one thing or the
other, so it's just the projectI'm in.
One way or the other it's gotto get done.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Yeah, I hear that Sometimes you start to it's like
opening up a can of worms, andother times you do one thing and
you get another problem.
That's that's happened to mebefore, where I'm working on the
car and I accidentally breaksomething, or something breaks
on the door and I'm like, oh man, I should have just, I should
have just left this alone.
So you worked with peter fromuh ps sound right.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, he's been a really big inspiration and a
really big help all the way fromthe beginning.
Right about the time I wasstarting into it, I think I
found his channel or page.
I don't even remember how Ifound him, but I spent a lot of
time watching the videos andthen occasionally talked back
and forth with him.
I even did some one or twoconsultation calls with him.
(18:23):
One call ended up in just likea three-hour long video chat
just sitting there talking aboutbuilding stuff.
So he's been a real big help.
So when he came to US at thefinals of that year, that was
one of the biggest reasons Ikind of pushed through getting
(18:44):
my car there, even though I wasbroke down halfway, like I'm not
missing this chance to actuallymeet him, because coming to the
states is probably pretty rare.
So we were able to meet there,talk about some stuff, kind of
planned out some stuff, andthat's when I did the rebuild
afterwards there.
So one of the more extreme partsof what I did was my build is
(19:08):
having pretty large you can callthem front woofer, front stuff
large, mid-base, whatever.
But I did my mid-base higher upin the dash inside, like the
like deep buried in the dash upup higher.
That was going to be mymid-base install, so I got that
done first and and I'm like, allright, so I'm still using the
(19:29):
front sub and I need to figureout where it's going to be,
probably in the passengerfootwell.
I didn't know if I was going togo IB or sealed or something,
but I wanted something special.
So after the mid-base were outof the way, in the kicks, I'm
like, well, I can put this frontsub in the kick area, but it's
going to look kind of weird justhaving one buried all the way
(19:50):
over there.
I start looking at thedifference between the two sides
and the kicks and I startrealizing that they're almost
identical on each side.
The frame shaped the same way.
Whatever opening was on thepassenger side is on the
driver's side.
And I got my head spinning.
You know what?
I wonder if I could do dualfront subs.
Not many people are doing that.
(20:12):
I already had an AcousticElegance 10-inch that I was
using as my front sub.
I'm like, well, I want to usethis because these are really,
really good drivers.
But I had waited over fourmonths to get the one I had, and
that was before the lead timesjumped through the roof two
(20:33):
years ago I don't know if it wasCOVID tariffs or just stayed at
a shop on how they werebuilding them.
The wait times were past sixmonths.
There's no way I'm going to getanother tenant sub.
Nobody was selling them.
I couldn't find one.
I mentioned it to Peter one dayin a message.
I was like you know, I'm kindof thinking dual front subs
would be pretty awesome to takethis kind of a standout.
(20:54):
He goes well, I've got a teninch sitting right here, I can
send you it and then you canjust replace it.
I'm like well, I'm not sure ifthis sounds good, but getting
one all the way from England iskind of a hassle, don't worry
about it.
This is when I was buying theAMTs off of him, because this
(21:16):
was right when he was puttingout his PSOM version of the AMTs
, he was already sending thoseto me.
So a couple days later hemessaged me and goes oh hey,
here's the tracking.
I'm sending that sub to you.
Just replace it when you can.
I'm like good grief.
So he just sent it right offhis shelf.
A couple days later I'd alreadyfound a used one posted up on
(21:36):
DEMA.
So we just kind of exchanged itand sent it back to him.
But that was really helpful.
Right in the middle of thebuild, when I didn't have time
to get a new one, he was like,yeah, I'll just send it to you.
So kind of went up above andbeyond helping with that so that
all kind of culminated.
He was coming to Steel Valleythat year.
(21:56):
When we got there we get totalking.
Since I was one of the very fewthat had his AMTs, I was like
all right, well, we've beentalking for so long, I want to
tune your car, jumps right in atSVR, spends about an hour, puts
full-blown Peter Tune on it andfor that whole weekend we kind
of used my car as his PS sounddemo vehicle for the weekend.
(22:22):
So I think, he gave demos, as Idid, and there was you know one
point I think I was in my carfor about five hours straight,
just one after the other.
He was pulling.
People were like oh, I'minterested in your three years,
all right, came over and gavepeople demos.
So we beat the living crap outof my car for three straight
days and I pissed a lot ofpeople off.
(22:42):
But a lot of people had fun, soit probably works.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Probably pissed a lot of people off, but a lot of
people had fun, so it probablyworks this.
No, but that's a huge vote ofconfidence, for you know what I
mean To have a guy like Peter,you know, want to sit there and
show off your car, so that thatshows that you you doing
something, right, right?
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Yep.
And then, uh, this year's SVR,he did pretty much the same
thing for a guy named Adrian.
This year's SVR, he did prettymuch the same thing for a guy
named Adrian who came fromMilwaukee, minnesota or
Wisconsin or something.
He visited the training thatPeter was putting on in the area
, brought his car and Petertuned that and then he made it
(23:21):
to SVR and they used his vehicleas kind of the same thing this
year, now that mine's all kindof ironed out and working as it
should.
So it was like the next guy toget that treatment.
You know, maybe there'll besomeone next year.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
So this year you placed 17th overall in SBR right
.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
I did this year as kind of talked about in the last
couple podcasts was prettystacked, Going, looking ahead
and talking to all our buddiesand stuff that were going to
start seeing the names gettingreleased and who was all coming.
We're like this is kind ofcrazy.
For everybody coming outthere's probably like three cars
(24:00):
missing that are normally there, were like, are normally pretty
high up, so even then there's acouple people missing.
But we're all talking heads.
I'm like man, if any of usplace top 20, you just got to
walk away and be happy with it.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yeah, I bet.
Because, competition is prettystiff at SVR.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
It's stiff and very close.
It's decided by so few pointsin between.
Sure, it's been brought upbefore, but you could jump eight
, ten places by.
You score an average of threepoints higher, you jump ten
places.
So it was all really tight.
Normal top ten you'd expect arethere, and then after that it's
(24:43):
just kind of you got luckyenough to get a couple points in
the right direction and it waskind of funny.
I'll probably never forget this.
But my whole weekend I'm like,all right, I, if I can score top
20, I'm gonna be overjoyed.
But I don't like to keep myexpectations realistic, like,
hey, it might not happen.
You never know what one smallissue you may not even be in
(25:06):
your car or your tune that'sgoing to tank you two points,
and that's the difference ofmaking it or not.
So I'm sitting there andthey're calling all top 20, and
I'm seeing everybody go up andI'm like there's too many guys I
know that can beat me are goingup and it gets down to the very
, very last call.
(25:26):
I was the last call 20th personand it kind of shocked me.
I'm like, oh man, I actuallydid make it.
So I'm sitting there seeingeverybody go up.
I'm like ah, oh well, I guessit just wasn't in the cards this
year and very last name, I getcalled up and I about ran up
there.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yeah, yeah, that must have felt good, huh.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Yes, it did.
I was very happy.
And 17th doesn't soundimpressive until you're actually
at the show and you see the 17cars ahead of you and there's a
couple behind you that you'reable to place ahead of and
you're just happy to be up thereand running.
Pretty much is the tune thatI've been working on from
scratch over the year and goingto a couple shows getting the
(26:08):
feedback, putting the work inthat wasn't done by anybody else
.
I was very happy with that yeah, yeah, that's quite.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
That's actually quite an achievement, I'll be honest
with you.
So so the guys, thedo-it-yourself guys out there
that thinking about giving notjust as we are, but competing a
shot, what one lesson you thinkyou learned from competing that
you'd pass on to them.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Viewing competition with the right mindset and
viewing it realistically, onseeing it for what it is and
what you can get out of it andwhat you can put into it.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
It's kind of hard explaining it, no like no, I get
what you're saying because youknow, going in there,
realistically, some people,sometimes people go in and they
got a lot of blood, sweat andtears building their car and
they go in and they might noteven place and they might get
mad and just, you know, kick arock and be like, ah, you know,
(27:11):
kick a rock and be like, ah, youknow, I'm not doing this, no
more.
And it's like you got toremember people like you and
others who have been competingor just grinding at it.
You guys are also grind, youknow, going at it on your purse,
on your own cars and your ownbills.
There's people out there whoare dropping big money with
shops.
You know, not everybody, butyou know there's a lot of
do-it-yourselfers.
There's a lot of people got orbacked by shops, backed by
sponsors or whatever.
So they're already, they'vealready put in the time, sweat
(27:41):
and energy into that car.
So, coming in, you know, don'tget discouraged if you don't
place, you know, in the top 20or something like that.
That's, that's the lesson Iwould give guys.
You know what I mean Because Iremember when I used to compete,
I used to get mad and I wantedto rip out my system and it was
like, especially if you're thecompetitive type.
But you know, that was myyounger days, when, when you
know wasn't as intelligent wellas wise, I wouldn't say
(28:09):
intelligent but I'm a lot wisernow.
You and and and you know, if Itake a loss now I'm like, but
back then I would take a lossand I'd take it personal and the
shops loved it because that wasone of the reasons back in the
90s that shops loved havingcompetitions because people
would like rip out their amp orrip out their mid-bases.
It meant it was money for the,for the shops.
But things are a lot differentnow.
You know what I mean.
But I that that's just my takeon it, that's just my two cents.
(28:30):
That you know.
Don't, don't get discouraged.
Competing is a lot of fun.
You meet a lot of people.
You make a lot of friends.
I've got lifelong friends fromthe, from the dyma group, from
you know that I never would havemet like-minded audiophiles
yeah you know and and it's, it'sa lot of fun.
So even if you don't win, it'sstill to me it's fun.
You know what I mean.
Even, even, even when I don'tcompete, it's still fun to me.
(28:53):
You know, going to theget-togethers and stuff like
that.
But yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
So kind of going into it is what I'm kind of getting
at is learning to play the gameand kind of figuring out the
expectations of competition.
You know, you keep hearing youread all the posts on it people
complaining about competitionformat.
They're like complaining aboutbias, complaining about well,
(29:20):
I've heard top sound cars andthey sounded bad.
Or I don't like the way thejudges are listening to this, or
you read all that and you don'tknow what their actual
experiences, or if they showedup to one show or they've been
doing it for 30 years and theynoticed that.
But learning, learning the gamebehind it and all the little
nuances on how you're seeingpeople, how you're interacting
(29:45):
with people, how you're seeingpeople, how you're interacting
with people, your attitude,going into it makes a big
difference If you're there tolearn and do better at it versus
showing up, thinking you got itand everybody has to accept
what you got.
Versus kind of showing up andrealizing, hey, this is what I
(30:07):
got, but in order to play thegame for competition and
following the rules and doing it, you might have to change up
your reference or how you'relooking at it.
And just because the one thingI always kind of see people
complain about.
Well, I don't like havingmultiple tunes or a competition
(30:28):
or a judge's tune.
I just wanted to sound the wayI want it, like we have DSPs for
a reason and it's not that hardto have even just two tunes,
one that's your.
The way I've kind of alwaysdone it was start off with a
baseline and then I have haveone tune that I kind of tweaked
to my own for driving indifferent seating position,
(30:51):
different noise levels fordriving around, and then there's
a competition tune that I kindof start off with a baseline and
then I tweak that as I getfeedback from the judges and
what they're expecting, whatthey're hearing.
I may transfer some of thoseover to my normal everyday tune,
I may not, just depending onwhat it is.
(31:14):
And then I find myself when I'mdriving around I'll switch
between the two and they bothhave their pros and cons for
just daily listening.
To me one's not worse than theother.
They do different things.
Kind of my preferred genre ofmusic that I'm normally going
around blasting to is some heavymetal band or heavy electronic
(31:39):
or stuff like that and thattakes a little bit of a
different tuning profile andlistening to some 1980s weird
classic rock songs.
The judges still use them forGod knows what reason, because
they are very annoying to me.
But they've been listening tothe songs for 30, 40 years and
(32:01):
they know what to expect.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Yeah, familiar I can't even say the word years,
and they know what to expect.
So, yeah, familiar, familiar, Ican't even say the word they're
familiar with, with that word,with that, with that song.
So they know what what they'relistening for.
Yeah, although I thinksometimes that some cars like me
.
I have a set list of songs thatsound really good in my car and
if I play those same songs inanother person's car they might
(32:25):
not sound that good.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Yeah.
So it's kind of setting yourexpectations, learning the game
and not getting discouraged inthe beginning because it's not
matching up.
Like my first year competingand I go to SCR, I knew I was in
over my head and showing up sobig I had a couple local shows
under my belt, starting to getthe idea of the routine down and
(32:49):
how the formats are handled andlike first year there I think I
placed like 35th overall.
Oh wow.
And man, that lit a fire underme because I did not like going
away with 35th place.
So that lights up mycompetitive spirit.
I'm like, well, I'm doing this,I'm not doing it that bad, I'm
(33:12):
going to find out what I'm doingwrong and I'm going to fix it.
And placing well at local showsis pretty nice.
That's where you kind of go toget the feedback in a more
beginner-friendly format and youcan spend more time at local
shows than when you go to getthe feedback in a more
beginner-friendly format and youcan spend more time to local
shows.
But when you go to the bigshows you got to use all that
(33:32):
prior experience and bring yourA game.
So that's kind of what sends mein a tailspin of building and
doing better.
And when you get to the bigshows at some point, just your
name recognition and face youknow people seeing you around,
that that's what starts gettingyou like, hey, that car's kind
(33:53):
of special.
Seen it a couple of times andyou get the buzz going about it
versus you know some car thatyou know.
If you, if you're showing up toshow and put yourself out there,
you go meet some people, golisten to cars, start getting
your reference set, figure outhow other people are making
(34:14):
their car sound.
You start making friends, starthanging out with people, you
start getting more experience,more feedback from people.
That's really what kind ofstarts start the ball rolling on
.
You know, when you're going toshows and you're meeting friends
there and getting better versusjust showing up, not getting
(34:34):
what you want, get angry at theformat, leave and never come
back.
That's where you start gettinga little bit of bitterness, like
, oh, the judges was just biased, they didn't like my car.
If you listen to 10 other carsand you start seeing the
differences or what they weretalking about and, as a dude
yourself, or if you don't havethat experience listening to
(34:56):
cars, getting that sound in yourhead of a goal in your mind on
this is what it needs to soundlike to be competitive.
That's the biggest thing is.
I've been able to sit inmultiple cars going.
Okay, I can hear the differencebetween mine and yours, and
that's what I need to shoot foris to find the problem.
(35:20):
And why does it sound like this?
One of the biggest keys so first, finals is when I got a chance
to listen to Brian Mitchell'sCadillac and he started playing
some drum tracks and was sendingthe volume to like 11, and that
car was so dynamic and felt soalive and real, like you were
(35:42):
sitting at the drum set hittingyourself.
That's when I got out.
I'm like I don't know how hedid that, but that's what I need
to get in my car to truly enjoy.
I want to feel that.
That's what started.
My kind of crazy build was toget the dynamics to make it
sound alive and insane.
Where it was more than justsome, just like a quiet 80 dB,
(36:08):
nice, easy listening system, Iwanted something that would kick
you in the chest and that'swhat kind of set my whole build
with.
You know, bigger front end,higher levels of modification to
be able to handle that, andthat's been one of my favorite
things with my car is hey, if Iwant to turn up some crazy
(36:30):
stupid metal track and it soundslike I'm inside the drum kit.
That's what makes me smile whenI'm driving down the road.
I've listened to some niceheavy metal albums at 1 am in
the morning driving home from ashow in New York to keep me
awake, and that smile on my facelistening to the whole album
front to back.
I'm going you know what this isworth it.
(36:50):
That's what I like.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Yeah, yeah, for a lot of us it's cathartic because I
know, when I get in my car and Ijust let the music play, it's
it's kind of like that's mygetaway from the world.
You know, and I don't care howmuch sound cue people like,
everybody likes that kick in thechest.
Yeah, you know, everybody'slike, oh, I'm not a bass head.
It's like, well, you know, whenyou feel nice, kick drum
kicking you right in the chestand you know it's nice and clean
(37:17):
and nothing, nothing israttling.
It's not about being a basshead.
Everybody enjoys.
When you go to a concert, you,you know, you feel that thump,
you feel that, that, that, thatkick drum out there.
You know that's what peoplelike, that it's.
It's something visceral aboutit that people just like you
know and it's.
It's not about being a basshead, or, you know, and whatever
(37:38):
floats your boat.
Anyway, if you want to be abass head, you know if it makes
you happy and you're notbothering anybody, go for it,
man.
You know, if you want to, if youwant to have an 80 decibel
system and you want to hear theyou know the every little nuance
of of a guitar pluck, go for it.
Whatever makes you happy.
You know, I think, going tothese things, these events and
competing anyway, even if youcome out in 50th place and
(38:01):
you're getting in other people'scars, you're, you're getting a
reference.
Like you said, you got intobrian mitchell's caddy and
you're like, okay, this is whatI need to compete, or this is
what I need.
Even if you're not going tocompete or you just want to make
your car better overall, it'sgreat to get in there and get a
reference for what it's supposedto sound like.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yeah, like another car off the top of my head.
I can remember kind of saidsomething off my head was
listening to Larry Ng's car.
He's from California.
I think Scott Welch has apretty big hand in that build
and tune and stuff.
So I finally got to hear it atAxpona this year and his car was
(38:42):
, you know, really detailed.
As he's given a demo he's kindof explains like this is the way
I like my music to sound.
I don't like a very louddynamic system.
I like mine more clinical, morepure, like a home audio setup
kind of.
But what hit me with his was howdetailed and focused his bass
(39:07):
was and just how dialed in therewas bass notes that seemed
small and so far away that itwas a different experience.
You know, once you starthearing bass you know it's
either in phase or out of phaseor just doesn't quite match up.
That's always hard dialing inand once you hear it you're like
(39:30):
, okay, that's what I'm missingis that level of focus and your
bass being locked in with themusic or even behind the music.
So I go home and start retuningand he's giving me scott was
giving me some tips on how toachieve that and I put them in
and flipping back and forthbetween the tune I showed up
(39:53):
with and the tune that I leftwith, like, okay, that was what
I was missing in this was thatlevel of detail in it.
You only get that if you walkup to someone and say, hey, show
me what you got, and then tryto get a takeaway from it.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Yeah, exactly that's what I was talking about.
Because you never know yoursystem.
You tune it a certain way.
You'd be surprised what it'scapable of, especially if you
have, you know, really goodinstall, really good components
in there and you got an ear fortuning, you know.
So I know you've been on a on alot of road trips and stuff
like that.
You got any uh favoritememories from the shows or the
(40:30):
road trips where your car becamemore than just a competition
piece in the shows or the roadtrips where your car became more
than just a competition piece.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Last fall it was probably one of the best trips
I've had so far.
Luke O'Kellett, old Rick Wilsonhe was throwing his fall
get-together up in Maine.
It was the same time frame asfinals.
I don't know if I want to go tofinals.
It was a pretty long trip downthere to begin with and finals
gets pretty expensive.
It's a multi-day trip and it'snot as fun to take the wife to
(41:03):
because that's a lot more likeheavy competition schedule and
you got to get there early and Imight not make it this year.
So I decided to go to that.
I took the wife with me andmade a nice road trip all the
way up there and hit somesightseeing spots Always want to
go to.
I've always wanted to see, youknow, the Northeast and fall and
(41:24):
that was pretty close.
Peak like leaf season, colorchanging season, yep.
So that was kind of a bucketlist trip, yep, like Shuler or
(41:51):
Schiller or something like thatreached out and gave me a very
detailed list of multipledifferent ways I could go
through Vermont, new Hampshire,maine, certain sightseeing
places to go Like a verydetailed like if you're going to
go this way, take this road tothis town, take this road out to
(42:11):
this town.
This is a good drive.
And then he kind of pointed outMount Washington.
And I looked into that and cameup with a road trip and we hit
Niagara Falls, drove throughupstate New York, vermont, new
Hampshire and we drove all theway up to the top of Mount
Washington on the private roadthat they have.
I think that's what the highestpeak in the eastern US, yeah,
(42:34):
yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've been through there.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
That was awesome.
That was absolutely awesomeexperience driving up there.
So that was one of the bestroad trips I've taken in a while
.
And that's one of my favoritethings about competition and the
meetup scenes is I liketraveling and this gives me very
good excuse to be able to driveout of state and go to places
(42:58):
that I wouldn't be going if Iwas just sticking around the
house for the weekend instead.
So I've been out to Chicago forAxpona, alabama for finals,
virginia for some of the DEMAmeetups, new York a couple times
Maine.
So the traveling is honestlyone of my favorite parts when I
(43:20):
have time and are able to makeit.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
Yeah, yeah, and finally getting to not just meet
but sometimes meet members thatyou never even met in person
and you've been talking to foryears, and also just get to meet
up with members and friendsthat you do have but you only
get to meet in person at theseget togethers or the
competitions.
It's always nice, you know, youstart to develop a close
friendship with a lot of people.
(43:44):
But yeah, I missed Luke's gettogether this last go around.
I wanted to go but I had towork.
I was upset.
I couldn't go.
That was a good one too.
And I've seen I was upset Icouldn't go.
That was a good one too.
And I've seen, I've.
I've seen your car severaltimes.
I've wanted to get a listen,but every time that I try to get
a listen there's there's like apeople sitting there doing
demos You're doing demos for,and people want to hear my car,
(44:10):
and I just never got around toit.
I got, I got to sit plunk,plunk my butt in that front seat
driver's's seat.
One of these days, next time Isee you.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
So which shows were this?
Where were we almost runninginto each other?
Speaker 2 (44:19):
I saw your car at HBR right.
You were there this year orlast year.
You were at both, weren't you?
Speaker 1 (44:26):
Last year.
I had plans to do a differentshow this year in Cincinnati so
I passed on HBR, but then theCincinnati show got canceled, so
I missed both of them Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
And then I think I saw your car at Luke's.
You were at Luke's get togetherlast year, weren't you or?
Speaker 1 (44:43):
the year before.
It would have been last fall.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Yeah, I was at that one and I didn't get to sit
inside.
I had to leave early.
I was there, for I think I gotthere from like 10 AM or 11 AM
and I had to leave at at two,two or three or something like
that.
I had to work.
I came in with my work outfitand everything and I had to take
off and I didn't get to listento your car.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
Yeah, crazy Nice meeting, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
I, I the last time, like at HBR I was dying to hear
it, because everybody wastelling me about how you had the
kick panel midbases and you dida bunch of welding in the kick
panel areas, right?
Is that where you did the work?
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Yeah, come on.
Yeah, in like two locations oneach side of the kick.
In, the kick is where the subsare at, and then directly above
it is a bunch of welded stufffor the midbase.
Directly above it.
There's a bunch of welded stufffor the mid-based right above
it, so yeah, yeah, alan, alanwas, like you know, alan right
alan is probably one of mybiggest fans.
(45:46):
I think he talks me up toanybody to listen yeah, yeah,
he's like he's.
He's president of my fan club.
I love Alan.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
That's awesome.
I've heard his car multipletimes.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
I see him a lot of shows and every time he comes
over he just has the nicestthing to say I love Alan to
death.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Yeah, he got out of your car and he's like, oh, you
got to listen to that car andthen you just had multiple
people listening.
You were doing demos for abunch of people, so I never got
to listen to it.
And then I seen the pictures ofit.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
It was pretty rough then.
So if we ever get the chance,so at least it'll be better than
better than that time.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
So uh, so what's the biggest piece of advice you got
to someone starting out in intheir garage?
This is for the do it yourselfListeners out there.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
Watch a bunch of PS sound videos that's actually
really good advice right there.
I mean, if you're needinspiration or he's got so many
fabrication tips.
And if you take it a stepfurther and do the Patreon,
which I've been on from almostsince it was started, there's so
(46:54):
much information that's outthere.
So really the only one of thebiggest reasons I'm at where I'm
at is just from the hundreds ofhours of research and just
watching videos and absorbingall that knowledge that he's
putting out there.
So that's one of the biggestthings.
It just depends on yourbackground of you know hands-on
(47:18):
fabrication skills.
Not that you can't learn it,but if you, if you got that
little bit of a background andyou just need the inspiration to
kind of just need your headpointed in a certain direction
and told go that way, that's,that's a big help.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
Yeah, peter's pretty passionate.
I've I've watched, I, I I couldsay I've actually watched his
videos probably two or threetimes, like each video, you know
, cause he's got such good, goodnuggets on there that anybody
who's into car audio would bestupid not to watch his videos.
But what's the differencebetween just building a regular
(47:56):
system, just building a systemfor your enjoyment, and building
a competition, a competitivesystem?
Speaker 1 (48:02):
there's a level of sound deadening probably yeah,
that's a, that's a common,common theme from all the
competitors and you can put thehundreds of hours into
fabrication and system designand all that and you get it all
finished and you show it off tosomeone.
They go.
This is awesome, but yeah, youstill gotta chase some rattles.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
That's disheartening, to say the least yeah, yeah so
and it's rough on some cars tooright.
Like you said, you were chasingrattles in your car at the
beginning.
My car was cheaply built so itwas a pain in the neck.
Speaker 1 (48:44):
Yeah, just thin metal , thin plastic and stuff like
that.
I talked to some of the guysthat have done the Volvos and
the foreign cars and stuff likethat and they're like, yeah, I
went through three or foursawzall blades trying to vent my
kick panels they're goingthrough this screen, burned up a
bunch of discs, a grinder discand the sawzall blades were shot
.
I'm like I could have used ahammer and a chisel to get
(49:05):
through mine just to peel themback up.
So right now I don't know ifyou've seen it I haven't posted
too much because I started therebuild and I got busy with some
very pressing home projectsthat needed done.
But I got it in my trunk aboutfive weeks ago just so it was
(49:28):
gutted out and left me no choicebut to finish it.
But so right now probably nextweek I'm going to be starting on
it again and I'm going to makea push the next couple weeks to
try to make it to finals inoctober, in a month.
So I'm going to be busy on it.
But I'm rebuilding the trunk nowto put two 18s and true ib, one
(49:50):
in each rear quarter panel andpretty much the same way I did
the front end of you know,cutting the entire back corner
of the car out, welding in a newstructure and mounting them,
and I've got some ideas forrefreshing the look of the trunk
and that's kind of where I sawhow, how flimsy a lot of the
(50:10):
sheet metal is on these cars on.
Once it's cut out, it's veryhard to rebuild a structure back
, to stiffen everything up to beat the level it needs to be.
So that's going to be probablystarting Monday.
I think I got time to get backinto this and I think in the
next month I'm going to be on apretty big crunch and I'll be
back to posting updates on DEMAevery couple of days on my
(50:33):
progress.
So interested to see what thesecond refresh 2025 will look
like.
It's coming soon.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
Okay, so you're getting back in there, huh, yep.
So what do you wish you knewnow, or what do you wish you
knew when you first started?
Now that you've been throughthe grind and you know in
hindsight 2020 and you're like,oh man, I wish I knew this when
I first started.
Would have saved a lot ofheadache, a lot of money, a lot
of time man that's.
Speaker 1 (51:05):
That's kind of a tricky one.
So it's more like just asyou're just kind of honing your
skills, the more you tear intoit and the more problems you get
past and overcome.
I don't know if I could saylike something I wish I knew
before I started out.
There's been a lot of stuffthat I've had a, you know, kind
(51:28):
of a vision in my head the wholetime.
You pre-plan it, pre-plan itout to the build, and having the
end goal in sight is what savesyou the most headache of not
tearing into it too quickwithout knowing what's going on.
The couple parts of the projecthere and there where I'm like,
(51:49):
all right, I know what I want,but I don't have a picture in my
head of getting there.
That's where you start losingmost time because you're kind of
making it up on the fly.
So really, the pre-planning andpre-research and have an idea
of what you're getting intosaves you more headache in the
long run versus just rippingapart and then staring at an
(52:11):
empty canvas not knowing whereto start.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
Yeah, I think one of the things I wish I knew because
I would get in there, and Iwish I knew how important the
tuning was.
I feel like that's really likethat's one of the the single
most important things, besidesthe sound deadening and the
sound treatment.
I think that's like number one.
But tuning is like number onedash a one, dash two when it
(52:37):
comes to doing your system.
Cause it like I've gotten inthe car and been like man this
sounds like crap.
And then I had a buddy of minetuned the car and it just
totally transformed the car whenI was about to rip components
out and start doing things again.
And it and the components arefine.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
It just needed a good tune, you know yeah, I think
that I think the tuning partcomes with.
The more cars you're able tolisten to of other people's, it
becomes more apparent liketuning is absolutely like the
final cherry on top.
But even the best tune stillcan't cover up flaws in your
(53:19):
install or location choices.
You can get it to sound reallygood in the end with the tune,
but if you're sitting therepicking it apart clinically, a
lot of stuff in the installmakes a big difference in the
final outcome as well.
So the install is just as muchtrial and error as the tuning is
(53:41):
A lot of like.
My basic locations have beenpretty close to the same since
I've started four years ago.
There's just been slight tweaksin the install or how it was
put in or where tweeters weremounted.
I've played with a bunch ofdifferent positions for tweeters
and that ends up making a bigdifference.
(54:02):
Even if it's tuned correctly,there's still stuff you can't
physically get around that makesa difference in the
presentation Not as much overallsound, but in the presentation
of stage dimensions or locationand stuff like that.
So the install just comes fromtrial and error and sometimes
(54:23):
you just can't get around thatwhen it's not as much of the
component as just the location.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
Yeah, definitely.
It's a lot of testing andtuning and I think sometimes
half the fun is the journey.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
The way I look at it, like I keep getting people
saying why are you doing so much?
I'm like, well, I honestlyenjoy the build as much, if not
more, than, the end result.
I'm like, don't do that, it'snot worth it.
No, actually, I know it's notworth it, I just enjoy the
process.
Speaker 2 (54:51):
Yeah, exactly it's.
It's.
It's the hunt you know and andthe last extra percentage of you
know, it's good, but I think itcould be better.
I think a lot of us are likethat.
You know, we, we just keep ontinkering and and I know I mean
I, I got more money in my carthan I care to even admit, but
and I think to myself, just wishthe kick base was a little bit
(55:11):
better.
What can I do do?
And it's like you know,sometimes I gotta stop myself.
It does get expensive, quick,you know, but I don't even think
about the money anymore becauseto me it's, you know, it's the
smile that it puts on my face.
So so, chris, we're gonna wrapit up.
We got a little over an hour,let me see.
So you got your build thread ondyma right on the do it
yourself mobile audio websiteand also you got a video with
(55:34):
Peter, the man himself from PSSound at SVR on YouTube.
Correct?
Speaker 1 (55:38):
Yeah, there's two videos from Nick on the
Resnick's channel on my car too.
He did one at the first finalsand then he did one at Luke's
event, and then I have the oneof Peter from Steel Valley this
year.
Speaker 2 (55:51):
There's a couple of them and what's your handle on
Dy, on dyma, so if the listenerswant to follow your, your
journey online uh, chris p2493chris p2493.
Yep, all right, buddy.
Well, that wraps it up, man,thank you for coming on.
Hang on for a second.
Okay, I'm gonna put this.
Put a row bow on this and wrapit up.
Welcome back listeners.
This is the SoundCube Garagepodcast, episode 7, with Chris
Pierce.
Today's guest is the definitionof do-it-yourself passion in
car audio.
Working alone in his garage,chris built one of the most
highly modified do-it-yourselfcars out there, complete with
custom fabrication and even adash rebuild.
(00:33):
He's been competing for justthree years but already placed
17th overall at SBR, holding hisown against shop-backed bills
and pro tuners.
Holding his own againstshop-back bills and pro tuners.
We're going to dive into whatit takes to chase sound quality
at the highest level when it'sjust you, your garage and your
drive to compete.
Everybody.
(00:54):
Welcome, chris Pierce.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Hey, how's it going?
This is Chris.
The car I'm using to compete isa Dodge Charger Platform to
build a sound system in.
But man, these Dodges are justrinky little noise-brattling
cars.
It's hard to get into a highlevel.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
A lot of us run into that with the cars, that
sometimes they're not built allthat great from the factory but
we got to get in there and slapsome dynamat or whatever your,
your sound treatment of choice.
So yeah shout out to resonant,right, nick.
So what got you?
What first got you hooked on tocar audio and to do it yourself
?
It's just.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I'm getting into and I had my first car, kind of like
most people, that was team 16,17,.
Just I had my first car, kindof like most people that was
teen 16, 17,.
Just having something to dowith your car, ripping up the
rest of the music, giving mesomething to get away driving
around.
As a teenager Started now gotsome car audio fabrication books
Can't remember if I orderedthem online somewhere or found
(01:59):
them at the bottom.
I still have reading cover tocover multiple times sitting on
my shelf, kind of what was outthere and then probably pretty
janky, ripping speakers out ofdad's minivan because it had
infinity on it and I was stockspeakers that were in there.
So because in there I'm out,pulling the ones out of the rear
shelf.
That bill turned into too muchand that car went away after a
(02:22):
couple of years and the nextpickup truck was more into
engine custom and stuff likethat.
So the sound system I slappedin there to make noise above the
loud exhaust it was ahead inevery day.
So on my next car charge I'vehad for a couple years swapped
speakers out and put the subs inlike I used to, but started
(02:45):
just doing more research with myhands just to start reading
into forums, kind of like I didwith engines.
Reading forums was what got meinto the business with the
engines, like, oh, if I swap outsomething, then you learn.
Well, it's not just the exhaust,it's the headers.
It's not just the headers, it'sthe intake.
Well, it's not just that, it'sthis.
And that's where I learned alot with forms.
(03:06):
So when I got found demabecause those popular ones and
just started reading, startedlearning more about what a dsp
was, more the highermodification like placing a
couple speakers in a stocklocation wasn't going to be
enough.
I did that first and I'mlistening to it.
I'm like this, this isn'tsounding like.
I remembered when I was likemust be missing something, or
(03:29):
you know, looking at the pastand rose glasses.
But that's when I startedreading in.
Well, what does it actuallysound good?
And that's what kind of startedthe journey I'm on right now.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
So can you paint a picture for us of your garage
setup?
What's it like building at home?
Speaker 1 (03:45):
I have a fairly small kind of only fits one car,
small to fit two, so that makesit easier to work because it's
big enough to work around it anda couple cabinets I've got from
jobs doing tear outs so I got abunch of free cabinets so I've
built myself shelves and someworkbenches, heavy tables and
(04:09):
stuff.
I have a fairly decent woodshop in my because I've been in
the woodworking for a long time.
It shows off in some of thestuff I do with how my trunk
looks and some of my homespeakers are made with that
woodwork.
They're kind of I am skill andtools and stuff like that.
So in the basement and decentgarage area I'll try to do a
(04:33):
little bit of everything in thefabric, do some welding,
woodworking, normal stuff youexpect with car audio
fabrication.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, wow.
So you're like a jack of alltrades.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Kind of I've done construction for years, so it's
kind of just somewhat comesnatural work, some sort of
fabrication or building stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
yeah, yeah, if you've been on the dimer group for a
long time, that's kind of how itstarted back in the day.
I'm not sure how long you'vebeen on there, but I think I've
been on there since 2007.
That's kind of like how itstarted.
You know it's called thedo-it-yourself mobile audio, so
a lot of the guys that that wereon there used to do their own
work.
But what made you decide to goall in on fabricating or
(05:16):
rebuilding the parts of your carinstead of taking the easy path
you know, like bringing it to ashop?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
It was well for me, not really interested in it.
I'm much more I enjoy the build, playing out the build work,
making the design finish product.
I enjoy working more than Ienjoy paying someone else to
work for me.
So that kind of makes that easyFor the fabrication.
(05:44):
It more of buy something new orkind of my personal favorite
vehicles that I've been to inthe last couple years.
Three years ago I didn't knowmuch of this hobby existed, so
all my experience is just goingto a whole ton of shows in that
time and listening to as many asI can.
And the wild fabrication ones,the ones that you look at and
(06:05):
you can tell above and beyond,are the ones that have always
stuck with me the most and theones I've enjoyed.
Not that there's anything wrongwith a stealth OEM style.
That build doesn't appeal to mequite as much as seeing someone
that ripped this apart andrebuilt this and made it my own,
versus sometimes more justtaking advantage of stock
(06:29):
locations and doing stuff likethat.
So it's just my naturalprogression build because I'll
build something crazy and I'mlike, well, if this part's crazy
, I need to make.
Like, well, if I did this crazyinstall on the mid-range, it's
on the mid-base, it needs tokeep up with it.
And well, if I did that on theon the mid-range, it was on the
mid-bass and it's keep up withit.
And well, if I did that on themid-bass, front subs have to be
at the same level and kind ofthat snowball gets rolling in my
(06:51):
head.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
So you know it's funny.
I've been in this hobby sincelike the 90s, maybe even
actually like late 80s.
You know a lot of us are intothe sound quality and the cars
that image and we cut, you knowthe, the sq guys kind of got
like a pinky up kind ofreputation, if you know what I
mean, since the 90s.
It's funny that you said thatthat the installs that caught
(07:13):
your eye were the ones that wereover the top.
But even back in the 90s theinstalls that always got the
attention were the big one.
You know the flashy ones.
It was always the, and the onesthat were like that were a lot
of the demo cars and somelegendary names out there.
I can't think of them off thetop of my head right now, but
you know a lot of like it'sironic.
It's kind of ironic that the,the installs that get the
(07:36):
attention, or the big, you knowattention grabbing ones like
that, and a lot of times youknow they're they're the big,
booming systems.
But it's just funny.
I we're into sound quality butthe ones that get the attention
are always the ones that areflashy yeah, this kind of comes
and goes.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It seems like now there's a little bit more of a
trend for keeping stuff lowerprofile installs and some people
take a lot of pride in beingable to do that style have a
crazy-sounding system whilekeeping it unseen, which that's
awesome in its own right and I'mnot taking away from that.
(08:15):
Maybe one day I'll get to thatpoint.
You get tired of doing thecrazy building and then you're
like well, maybe the nextchallenge is doing a hidden OEM
system.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
So, speaking of, tell us a little bit about your car,
like what's unique about yoursetup compared to others.
I know you spoke that yours isa little on the, you know, on
the flashy side, and you likethe that type that style what
what's, what separates yoursfrom others?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
well, probably the front end dash modifications car
that was is basically a dailydriver.
There's not too many cars outthere right now that go to the
effort of pulling the dash orrebuilding the dash or the
corners, the kicks open, theweld-in enclosures and stuff
like that and still be acomplete daily drivable car.
(09:03):
There's cars that have a lot offabrications like this but
they're more kind of cars orthey get they can drive but like
a show car.
Mine is kind of a blend betweena daily driver and a show car
with as much modification as Ican physically fit and keep it.
(09:23):
Modifications I can physicallyfit and keep it.
I mean, if you look inside mycar the dash is chopped down.
The whole reason for that isthe Dodge Charges have very huge
hump that goes.
That covers about threequarters of the dash, starting
from like the passenger airbagall the way over to the other
side.
That raises up, you know, three, four, five inches.
(09:44):
I thought that that was givingme issues from.
You know a lot of people talkabout how much they like the big
flat dashes on a lot of carsand mine definitely wasn't.
That I'm like.
Well, I think with enough workI can make it flat, so chopped a
lot of that out and spent a lotof time fabricating a flat
cover to go over it, dressing itin and just learning more
(10:11):
fabrication techniques andtaking time.
You get it all done and you gowell.
Now that it's all done, I cansee an issue here.
This could have been donebetter.
So I've rebuilt the dash atleast twice.
Now, if you want to consider fora rebuild, I did the big one
last winter see winter of 24 andgot that.
That was my main big buildafter I got home from see 2023
(10:38):
finals, I think the first yearin birmingham.
Kind of what started the wholething was I already had a fairly
full-blown system to begin with, and going down to Birmingham
as my car, the motor went out onme in the middle of Kentucky.
Oh wow, camelifters startedeating each other up and started
(11:02):
tapping really bad in themiddle of Kentucky.
The Hemis are somewhat known todo that.
So I didn't want to push it allthe way to Alabama but I wasn't
going to give up on it.
So I rented a U-Haul truck anda trailer nearest place I could
find, loaded it up and drove itthe rest of the six, seven hours
to get there.
(11:23):
So that was I knew I had torebuild the engine.
I always kind of had some planson putting a bigger engine in
this car.
I had leftover parts from myold engine build I was talking
about in my truck.
So that turned into replacingthe engine.
And then, while I had it down,I'm like, well, let's swing for
the moon for some of thesemodifications I want to do.
(11:43):
And I even had a couple ofpeople tell me like don't go
this crazy.
It's already sounding prettygood as it is.
A lot of times you do these bigbuilds and even if they come out
how you think it doesn't meetyour expectations or you kind of
overhype it in your mind and itdoesn't play out as well.
So going in, I knew that it'sjust the way I work.
(12:06):
I just need to have thatproject.
The project is three-quartersof the enjoyment for me.
So I like building and I likedoing all that stuff.
So I did all the work and atthe end of the day, after it's
been all tuned and I'm lot ofthe uh getting feedback keep
(12:26):
working on it, tweaking it it'sbeen sounding the best it ever
has and it's purely enjoyable.
Everything I've done I've beenvery happy with proud of a
couple of those things, so itwas worth it in the end of the
day yeah, I know what you mean.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Sometimes just by by changing like a mid-bass driver
or some mid-range drivers, itchanges everything completely.
And you're like, why did I dothat?
But then you just kind of gotto regroup and retune and you
know, just basically test andtune, test and tune until it
starts sounding good again.
There's just something.
There's something wrong with us.
We're always chasing that thatone or 2% more.
(13:03):
You know we're always chasingthat that one or two percent
more.
You know we're trying tosqueeze out the most we can out
of our, out of our drivers orout of the build.
And you know, but uh, what partof the fabrication or the dash
rebuild challenge you the most?
Like, what was the hardest partof doing all that custom
fabrication?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I think the part that I struggled with the most was.
I think the part that Istruggled with the most was
integrating the top of the dashrebuild and getting it kind of
blended into the existing whatwas left.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
And making it all kind of work together.
Yeah, so the first rebuild Idid.
I put the car into the garageabout November, I think, the car
into the garage about November,I think.
And then I worked approximatelyseven to eight months straight
on the entire build, between theengine, stuff that went along
(13:53):
with that and then the wholeaudio system Going into it.
I knew I was going to do anextreme build and I was shooting
to do it in the extreme class,especially in IASCA Extreme Open
, why they had it.
So I knew going into it, whileI was building it I needed to
build and document it as anextreme build to be able to
compete with install.
(14:13):
So, making sure I took the timeto do everything right,
document it all and put the timein it.
So it was worth it in the end.
That was approximately eightmonths straight and that was
almost every night a couplehours after work, majority of
the weekend spent on it.
(14:34):
It was a grind and towards theend it was turning into a real
grind, especially when the showsstarted coming up.
I started missing the firstcouple shows of the year because
it was still completely tornapart and that that's the
frustrating part of it, the topof the dash really kind of
kicked my butt for a while justcoming up with the overall flow
and how it blended in and how Icould get it to fit and to stay
(14:58):
stay secure.
The airbags was a thing that Ididn't want to lose because it's
still a daily driver I drivewith my wife, she drives his car
, we go to trips, so integrating, keeping the airbag functional
and safe while I still have thetop of the dash rebuilt was a
challenge.
Mick Wallace, mick Tennis, Ithink on DEMA A lot of people
(15:22):
know him, one of the big, mostwell-known judges.
He saw some of the posts I wasmaking, asking some questions
like hey, how to do this?
And he messaged me like, hey, Idid something real similar in
one of my BMWs a couple yearsago.
Here's some pics on how I didit and that was a real light
(15:45):
bulb moment on change up, how Iwas looking at it and I was able
to get it, get a build justlike that.
So that was the first build.
Towards the end, you know, someof the shows were creeping up.
I wanted to be at HVR in 2024was the first one I was able to
roll out to and it was stilllike 90% done, so it was kind of
(16:08):
a rush at the end and some ofthe stuff just wasn't quite as
nice as what I wanted to.
I just needed to spend moretime, you know, ironing it out,
making it look better.
So I got through that yearcompeting and over the winter I
wanted to change.
I lucked into a set of mid-rangedrivers I'd been looking for
for a while and I'm like, allright, if I'm going to rebuild
(16:30):
these into it, then I may aswell spend some more time on the
dash cover and reshape that,rework some of the HVAC vents.
I was able to beef up theinside of the dash a lot more,
tie everything a lot bettertogether, chase more rattles
Just stuff that after you livewith it for a year, you start
(16:51):
getting the mental checklist inyour head like, okay, this is an
issue needs fixed, and workingthrough that.
So I rebuilt it, rebuilt thepillars, changed the position of
the MTs I'm using and now itlooks 10 times better than what
it what it did originally.
So I'm a lot happy with thework I did this spring.
(17:13):
I spent about four or fiveweeks doing kind of a refresh on
it.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
So did you ever think looking back?
Was there a moment where youthought, man, what the hell did
I get myself into?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Yeah, quite a couple.
I mean, I know I'm going to beworking on one thing or the
other, so it's just the projectI'm in.
One way or the other it's gotto get done.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Yeah, I hear that Sometimes you start to it's like
opening up a can of worms, andother times you do one thing and
you get another problem.
That's that's happened to mebefore, where I'm working on the
car and I accidentally breaksomething, or something breaks
on the door and I'm like, oh man, I should have just, I should
have just left this alone.
So you worked with peter fromuh ps sound right.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, he's been a really big inspiration and a
really big help all the way fromthe beginning.
Right about the time I wasstarting into it, I think I
found his channel or page.
I don't even remember how Ifound him, but I spent a lot of
time watching the videos andthen occasionally talked back
and forth with him.
I even did some one or twoconsultation calls with him.
(18:23):
One call ended up in just likea three-hour long video chat
just sitting there talking aboutbuilding stuff.
So he's been a real big help.
So when he came to US at thefinals of that year, that was
one of the biggest reasons Ikind of pushed through getting
(18:44):
my car there, even though I wasbroke down halfway, like I'm not
missing this chance to actuallymeet him, because coming to the
states is probably pretty rare.
So we were able to meet there,talk about some stuff, kind of
planned out some stuff, andthat's when I did the rebuild
afterwards there.
So one of the more extreme partsof what I did was my build is
(19:08):
having pretty large you can callthem front woofer, front stuff
large, mid-base, whatever.
But I did my mid-base higher upin the dash inside, like the
like deep buried in the dash upup higher.
That was going to be mymid-base install, so I got that
done first and and I'm like, allright, so I'm still using the
(19:29):
front sub and I need to figureout where it's going to be,
probably in the passengerfootwell.
I didn't know if I was going togo IB or sealed or something,
but I wanted something special.
So after the mid-base were outof the way, in the kicks, I'm
like, well, I can put this frontsub in the kick area, but it's
going to look kind of weird justhaving one buried all the way
(19:50):
over there.
I start looking at thedifference between the two sides
and the kicks and I startrealizing that they're almost
identical on each side.
The frame shaped the same way.
Whatever opening was on thepassenger side is on the
driver's side.
And I got my head spinning.
You know what?
I wonder if I could do dualfront subs.
Not many people are doing that.
(20:12):
I already had an AcousticElegance 10-inch that I was
using as my front sub.
I'm like, well, I want to usethis because these are really,
really good drivers.
But I had waited over fourmonths to get the one I had, and
that was before the lead timesjumped through the roof two
(20:33):
years ago I don't know if it wasCOVID tariffs or just stayed at
a shop on how they werebuilding them.
The wait times were past sixmonths.
There's no way I'm going to getanother tenant sub.
Nobody was selling them.
I couldn't find one.
I mentioned it to Peter one dayin a message.
I was like you know, I'm kindof thinking dual front subs
would be pretty awesome to takethis kind of a standout.
(20:54):
He goes well, I've got a teninch sitting right here, I can
send you it and then you canjust replace it.
I'm like well, I'm not sure ifthis sounds good, but getting
one all the way from England iskind of a hassle, don't worry
about it.
This is when I was buying theAMTs off of him, because this
(21:16):
was right when he was puttingout his PSOM version of the AMTs
, he was already sending thoseto me.
So a couple days later hemessaged me and goes oh hey,
here's the tracking.
I'm sending that sub to you.
Just replace it when you can.
I'm like good grief.
So he just sent it right offhis shelf.
A couple days later I'd alreadyfound a used one posted up on
(21:36):
DEMA.
So we just kind of exchanged itand sent it back to him.
But that was really helpful.
Right in the middle of thebuild, when I didn't have time
to get a new one, he was like,yeah, I'll just send it to you.
So kind of went up above andbeyond helping with that so that
all kind of culminated.
He was coming to Steel Valleythat year.
(21:56):
When we got there we get totalking.
Since I was one of the very fewthat had his AMTs, I was like
all right, well, we've beentalking for so long, I want to
tune your car, jumps right in atSVR, spends about an hour, puts
full-blown Peter Tune on it andfor that whole weekend we kind
of used my car as his PS sounddemo vehicle for the weekend.
(22:22):
So I think, he gave demos, as Idid, and there was you know one
point I think I was in my carfor about five hours straight,
just one after the other.
He was pulling.
People were like oh, I'minterested in your three years,
all right, came over and gavepeople demos.
So we beat the living crap outof my car for three straight
days and I pissed a lot ofpeople off.
(22:42):
But a lot of people had fun, soit probably works.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Probably pissed a lot of people off, but a lot of
people had fun, so it probablyworks this.
No, but that's a huge vote ofconfidence, for you know what I
mean To have a guy like Peter,you know, want to sit there and
show off your car, so that thatshows that you you doing
something, right, right?
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Yep.
And then, uh, this year's SVR,he did pretty much the same
thing for a guy named Adrian.
This year's SVR, he did prettymuch the same thing for a guy
named Adrian who came fromMilwaukee, minnesota or
Wisconsin or something.
He visited the training thatPeter was putting on in the area
, brought his car and Petertuned that and then he made it
(23:21):
to SVR and they used his vehicleas kind of the same thing this
year, now that mine's all kindof ironed out and working as it
should.
So it was like the next guy toget that treatment.
You know, maybe there'll besomeone next year.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
So this year you placed 17th overall in SBR right
.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
I did this year as kind of talked about in the last
couple podcasts was prettystacked, Going, looking ahead
and talking to all our buddiesand stuff that were going to
start seeing the names gettingreleased and who was all coming.
We're like this is kind ofcrazy.
For everybody coming outthere's probably like three cars
(24:00):
missing that are normally there, were like, are normally pretty
high up, so even then there's acouple people missing.
But we're all talking heads.
I'm like man, if any of usplace top 20, you just got to
walk away and be happy with it.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yeah, I bet.
Because, competition is prettystiff at SVR.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
It's stiff and very close.
It's decided by so few pointsin between.
Sure, it's been brought upbefore, but you could jump eight
, ten places by.
You score an average of threepoints higher, you jump ten
places.
So it was all really tight.
Normal top ten you'd expect arethere, and then after that it's
(24:43):
just kind of you got luckyenough to get a couple points in
the right direction and it waskind of funny.
I'll probably never forget this.
But my whole weekend I'm like,all right, I, if I can score top
20, I'm gonna be overjoyed.
But I don't like to keep myexpectations realistic, like,
hey, it might not happen.
You never know what one smallissue you may not even be in
(25:06):
your car or your tune that'sgoing to tank you two points,
and that's the difference ofmaking it or not.
So I'm sitting there andthey're calling all top 20, and
I'm seeing everybody go up andI'm like there's too many guys I
know that can beat me are goingup and it gets down to the very
, very last call.
(25:26):
I was the last call 20th personand it kind of shocked me.
I'm like, oh man, I actuallydid make it.
So I'm sitting there seeingeverybody go up.
I'm like ah, oh well, I guessit just wasn't in the cards this
year and very last name, I getcalled up and I about ran up
there.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yeah, yeah, that must have felt good, huh.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Yes, it did.
I was very happy.
And 17th doesn't soundimpressive until you're actually
at the show and you see the 17cars ahead of you and there's a
couple behind you that you'reable to place ahead of and
you're just happy to be up thereand running.
Pretty much is the tune thatI've been working on from
scratch over the year and goingto a couple shows getting the
(26:08):
feedback, putting the work inthat wasn't done by anybody else
.
I was very happy with that yeah, yeah, that's quite.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
That's actually quite an achievement, I'll be honest
with you.
So so the guys, thedo-it-yourself guys out there
that thinking about giving notjust as we are, but competing a
shot, what one lesson you thinkyou learned from competing that
you'd pass on to them.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Viewing competition with the right mindset and
viewing it realistically, onseeing it for what it is and
what you can get out of it andwhat you can put into it.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
It's kind of hard explaining it, no like no, I get
what you're saying because youknow, going in there,
realistically, some people,sometimes people go in and they
got a lot of blood, sweat andtears building their car and
they go in and they might noteven place and they might get
mad and just, you know, kick arock and be like, ah, you know,
(27:11):
kick a rock and be like, ah, youknow, I'm not doing this, no
more.
And it's like you got toremember people like you and
others who have been competingor just grinding at it.
You guys are also grind, youknow, going at it on your purse,
on your own cars and your ownbills.
There's people out there whoare dropping big money with
shops.
You know, not everybody, butyou know there's a lot of
do-it-yourselfers.
There's a lot of people got orbacked by shops, backed by
sponsors or whatever.
So they're already, they'vealready put in the time, sweat
(27:41):
and energy into that car.
So, coming in, you know, don'tget discouraged if you don't
place, you know, in the top 20or something like that.
That's, that's the lesson Iwould give guys.
You know what I mean Because Iremember when I used to compete,
I used to get mad and I wantedto rip out my system and it was
like, especially if you're thecompetitive type.
But you know, that was myyounger days, when, when you
know wasn't as intelligent wellas wise, I wouldn't say
(28:09):
intelligent but I'm a lot wisernow.
You and and and you know, if Itake a loss now I'm like, but
back then I would take a lossand I'd take it personal and the
shops loved it because that wasone of the reasons back in the
90s that shops loved havingcompetitions because people
would like rip out their amp orrip out their mid-bases.
It meant it was money for the,for the shops.
But things are a lot differentnow.
You know what I mean.
But I that that's just my takeon it, that's just my two cents.
(28:30):
That you know.
Don't, don't get discouraged.
Competing is a lot of fun.
You meet a lot of people.
You make a lot of friends.
I've got lifelong friends fromthe, from the dyma group, from
you know that I never would havemet like-minded audiophiles
yeah you know and and it's, it'sa lot of fun.
So even if you don't win, it'sstill to me it's fun.
You know what I mean.
Even, even, even when I don'tcompete, it's still fun to me.
(28:53):
You know, going to theget-togethers and stuff like
that.
But yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
So kind of going into it is what I'm kind of getting
at is learning to play the gameand kind of figuring out the
expectations of competition.
You know, you keep hearing youread all the posts on it people
complaining about competitionformat.
They're like complaining aboutbias, complaining about well,
(29:20):
I've heard top sound cars andthey sounded bad.
Or I don't like the way thejudges are listening to this, or
you read all that and you don'tknow what their actual
experiences, or if they showedup to one show or they've been
doing it for 30 years and theynoticed that.
But learning, learning the gamebehind it and all the little
nuances on how you're seeingpeople, how you're interacting
(29:45):
with people, how you're seeingpeople, how you're interacting
with people, your attitude,going into it makes a big
difference If you're there tolearn and do better at it versus
showing up, thinking you got itand everybody has to accept
what you got.
Versus kind of showing up andrealizing, hey, this is what I
(30:07):
got, but in order to play thegame for competition and
following the rules and doing it, you might have to change up
your reference or how you'relooking at it.
And just because the one thingI always kind of see people
complain about.
Well, I don't like havingmultiple tunes or a competition
(30:28):
or a judge's tune.
I just wanted to sound the wayI want it, like we have DSPs for
a reason and it's not that hardto have even just two tunes,
one that's your.
The way I've kind of alwaysdone it was start off with a
baseline and then I have haveone tune that I kind of tweaked
to my own for driving indifferent seating position,
(30:51):
different noise levels fordriving around, and then there's
a competition tune that I kindof start off with a baseline and
then I tweak that as I getfeedback from the judges and
what they're expecting, whatthey're hearing.
I may transfer some of thoseover to my normal everyday tune,
I may not, just depending onwhat it is.
(31:14):
And then I find myself when I'mdriving around I'll switch
between the two and they bothhave their pros and cons for
just daily listening.
To me one's not worse than theother.
They do different things.
Kind of my preferred genre ofmusic that I'm normally going
around blasting to is some heavymetal band or heavy electronic
(31:39):
or stuff like that and thattakes a little bit of a
different tuning profile andlistening to some 1980s weird
classic rock songs.
The judges still use them forGod knows what reason, because
they are very annoying to me.
But they've been listening tothe songs for 30, 40 years and
(32:01):
they know what to expect.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Yeah, familiar I can't even say the word years,
and they know what to expect.
So, yeah, familiar, familiar, Ican't even say the word they're
familiar with, with that word,with that, with that song.
So they know what what they'relistening for.
Yeah, although I thinksometimes that some cars like me
.
I have a set list of songs thatsound really good in my car and
if I play those same songs inanother person's car they might
(32:25):
not sound that good.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Yeah.
So it's kind of setting yourexpectations, learning the game
and not getting discouraged inthe beginning because it's not
matching up.
Like my first year competingand I go to SCR, I knew I was in
over my head and showing up sobig I had a couple local shows
under my belt, starting to getthe idea of the routine down and
(32:49):
how the formats are handled andlike first year there I think I
placed like 35th overall.
Oh wow.
And man, that lit a fire underme because I did not like going
away with 35th place.
So that lights up mycompetitive spirit.
I'm like, well, I'm doing this,I'm not doing it that bad, I'm
(33:12):
going to find out what I'm doingwrong and I'm going to fix it.
And placing well at local showsis pretty nice.
That's where you kind of go toget the feedback in a more
beginner-friendly format and youcan spend more time at local
shows than when you go to getthe feedback in a more
beginner-friendly format and youcan spend more time to local
shows.
But when you go to the bigshows you got to use all that
(33:32):
prior experience and bring yourA game.
So that's kind of what sends mein a tailspin of building and
doing better.
And when you get to the bigshows at some point, just your
name recognition and face youknow people seeing you around,
that that's what starts gettingyou like, hey, that car's kind
(33:53):
of special.
Seen it a couple of times andyou get the buzz going about it
versus you know some car thatyou know.
If you, if you're showing up toshow and put yourself out there,
you go meet some people, golisten to cars, start getting
your reference set, figure outhow other people are making
(34:14):
their car sound.
You start making friends, starthanging out with people, you
start getting more experience,more feedback from people.
That's really what kind ofstarts start the ball rolling on
.
You know, when you're going toshows and you're meeting friends
there and getting better versusjust showing up, not getting
(34:34):
what you want, get angry at theformat, leave and never come
back.
That's where you start gettinga little bit of bitterness, like
, oh, the judges was just biased, they didn't like my car.
If you listen to 10 other carsand you start seeing the
differences or what they weretalking about and, as a dude
yourself, or if you don't havethat experience listening to
(34:56):
cars, getting that sound in yourhead of a goal in your mind on
this is what it needs to soundlike to be competitive.
That's the biggest thing is.
I've been able to sit inmultiple cars going.
Okay, I can hear the differencebetween mine and yours, and
that's what I need to shoot foris to find the problem.
(35:20):
And why does it sound like this?
One of the biggest keys so first, finals is when I got a chance
to listen to Brian Mitchell'sCadillac and he started playing
some drum tracks and was sendingthe volume to like 11, and that
car was so dynamic and felt soalive and real, like you were
(35:42):
sitting at the drum set hittingyourself.
That's when I got out.
I'm like I don't know how hedid that, but that's what I need
to get in my car to truly enjoy.
I want to feel that.
That's what started.
My kind of crazy build was toget the dynamics to make it
sound alive and insane.
Where it was more than justsome, just like a quiet 80 dB,
(36:08):
nice, easy listening system, Iwanted something that would kick
you in the chest and that'swhat kind of set my whole build
with.
You know, bigger front end,higher levels of modification to
be able to handle that, andthat's been one of my favorite
things with my car is hey, if Iwant to turn up some crazy
(36:30):
stupid metal track and it soundslike I'm inside the drum kit.
That's what makes me smile whenI'm driving down the road.
I've listened to some niceheavy metal albums at 1 am in
the morning driving home from ashow in New York to keep me
awake, and that smile on my facelistening to the whole album
front to back.
I'm going you know what this isworth it.
(36:50):
That's what I like.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Yeah, yeah, for a lot of us it's cathartic because I
know, when I get in my car and Ijust let the music play, it's
it's kind of like that's mygetaway from the world.
You know, and I don't care howmuch sound cue people like,
everybody likes that kick in thechest.
Yeah, you know, everybody'slike, oh, I'm not a bass head.
It's like, well, you know, whenyou feel nice, kick drum
kicking you right in the chestand you know it's nice and clean
(37:17):
and nothing, nothing israttling.
It's not about being a basshead.
Everybody enjoys.
When you go to a concert, you,you know, you feel that thump,
you feel that, that, that, thatkick drum out there.
You know that's what peoplelike, that it's.
It's something visceral aboutit that people just like you
know and it's.
It's not about being a basshead, or, you know, and whatever
(37:38):
floats your boat.
Anyway, if you want to be abass head, you know if it makes
you happy and you're notbothering anybody, go for it,
man.
You know, if you want to, if youwant to have an 80 decibel
system and you want to hear theyou know the every little nuance
of of a guitar pluck, go for it.
Whatever makes you happy.
You know, I think, going tothese things, these events and
competing anyway, even if youcome out in 50th place and
(38:01):
you're getting in other people'scars, you're, you're getting a
reference.
Like you said, you got intobrian mitchell's caddy and
you're like, okay, this is whatI need to compete, or this is
what I need.
Even if you're not going tocompete or you just want to make
your car better overall, it'sgreat to get in there and get a
reference for what it's supposedto sound like.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yeah, like another car off the top of my head.
I can remember kind of saidsomething off my head was
listening to Larry Ng's car.
He's from California.
I think Scott Welch has apretty big hand in that build
and tune and stuff.
So I finally got to hear it atAxpona this year and his car was
(38:42):
, you know, really detailed.
As he's given a demo he's kindof explains like this is the way
I like my music to sound.
I don't like a very louddynamic system.
I like mine more clinical, morepure, like a home audio setup
kind of.
But what hit me with his was howdetailed and focused his bass
(39:07):
was and just how dialed in therewas bass notes that seemed
small and so far away that itwas a different experience.
You know, once you starthearing bass you know it's
either in phase or out of phaseor just doesn't quite match up.
That's always hard dialing inand once you hear it you're like
(39:30):
, okay, that's what I'm missingis that level of focus and your
bass being locked in with themusic or even behind the music.
So I go home and start retuningand he's giving me scott was
giving me some tips on how toachieve that and I put them in
and flipping back and forthbetween the tune I showed up
(39:53):
with and the tune that I leftwith, like, okay, that was what
I was missing in this was thatlevel of detail in it.
You only get that if you walkup to someone and say, hey, show
me what you got, and then tryto get a takeaway from it.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Yeah, exactly that's what I was talking about.
Because you never know yoursystem.
You tune it a certain way.
You'd be surprised what it'scapable of, especially if you
have, you know, really goodinstall, really good components
in there and you got an ear fortuning, you know.
So I know you've been on a on alot of road trips and stuff
like that.
You got any uh favoritememories from the shows or the
(40:30):
road trips where your car becamemore than just a competition
piece in the shows or the roadtrips where your car became more
than just a competition piece.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Last fall it was probably one of the best trips
I've had so far.
Luke O'Kellett, old Rick Wilsonhe was throwing his fall
get-together up in Maine.
It was the same time frame asfinals.
I don't know if I want to go tofinals.
It was a pretty long trip downthere to begin with and finals
gets pretty expensive.
It's a multi-day trip and it'snot as fun to take the wife to
(41:03):
because that's a lot more likeheavy competition schedule and
you got to get there early and Imight not make it this year.
So I decided to go to that.
I took the wife with me andmade a nice road trip all the
way up there and hit somesightseeing spots Always want to
go to.
I've always wanted to see, youknow, the Northeast and fall and
(41:24):
that was pretty close.
Peak like leaf season, colorchanging season, yep.
So that was kind of a bucketlist trip, yep, like Shuler or
(41:51):
Schiller or something like thatreached out and gave me a very
detailed list of multipledifferent ways I could go
through Vermont, new Hampshire,maine, certain sightseeing
places to go Like a verydetailed like if you're going to
go this way, take this road tothis town, take this road out to
(42:11):
this town.
This is a good drive.
And then he kind of pointed outMount Washington.
And I looked into that and cameup with a road trip and we hit
Niagara Falls, drove throughupstate New York, vermont, new
Hampshire and we drove all theway up to the top of Mount
Washington on the private roadthat they have.
I think that's what the highestpeak in the eastern US, yeah,
(42:34):
yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've been through there.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
That was awesome.
That was absolutely awesomeexperience driving up there.
So that was one of the bestroad trips I've taken in a while
.
And that's one of my favoritethings about competition and the
meetup scenes is I liketraveling and this gives me very
good excuse to be able to driveout of state and go to places
(42:58):
that I wouldn't be going if Iwas just sticking around the
house for the weekend instead.
So I've been out to Chicago forAxpona, alabama for finals,
virginia for some of the DEMAmeetups, new York a couple times
Maine.
So the traveling is honestlyone of my favorite parts when I
(43:20):
have time and are able to makeit.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
Yeah, yeah, and finally getting to not just meet
but sometimes meet members thatyou never even met in person
and you've been talking to foryears, and also just get to meet
up with members and friendsthat you do have but you only
get to meet in person at theseget togethers or the
competitions.
It's always nice, you know, youstart to develop a close
friendship with a lot of people.
(43:44):
But yeah, I missed Luke's gettogether this last go around.
I wanted to go but I had towork.
I was upset.
I couldn't go.
That was a good one too.
And I've seen I was upset Icouldn't go.
That was a good one too.
And I've seen, I've.
I've seen your car severaltimes.
I've wanted to get a listen,but every time that I try to get
a listen there's there's like apeople sitting there doing
demos You're doing demos for,and people want to hear my car,
(44:10):
and I just never got around toit.
I got, I got to sit plunk,plunk my butt in that front seat
driver's's seat.
One of these days, next time Isee you.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
So which shows were this?
Where were we almost runninginto each other?
Speaker 2 (44:19):
I saw your car at HBR right.
You were there this year orlast year.
You were at both, weren't you?
Speaker 1 (44:26):
Last year.
I had plans to do a differentshow this year in Cincinnati so
I passed on HBR, but then theCincinnati show got canceled, so
I missed both of them Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
And then I think I saw your car at Luke's.
You were at Luke's get togetherlast year, weren't you or?
Speaker 1 (44:43):
the year before.
It would have been last fall.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Yeah, I was at that one and I didn't get to sit
inside.
I had to leave early.
I was there, for I think I gotthere from like 10 AM or 11 AM
and I had to leave at at two,two or three or something like
that.
I had to work.
I came in with my work outfitand everything and I had to take
off and I didn't get to listento your car.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
Yeah, crazy Nice meeting, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
I, I the last time, like at HBR I was dying to hear
it, because everybody wastelling me about how you had the
kick panel midbases and you dida bunch of welding in the kick
panel areas, right?
Is that where you did the work?
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Yeah, come on.
Yeah, in like two locations oneach side of the kick.
In, the kick is where the subsare at, and then directly above
it is a bunch of welded stufffor the midbase.
Directly above it.
There's a bunch of welded stufffor the mid-based right above
it, so yeah, yeah, alan, alanwas, like you know, alan right
alan is probably one of mybiggest fans.
(45:46):
I think he talks me up toanybody to listen yeah, yeah,
he's like he's.
He's president of my fan club.
I love Alan.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
That's awesome.
I've heard his car multipletimes.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
I see him a lot of shows and every time he comes
over he just has the nicestthing to say I love Alan to
death.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Yeah, he got out of your car and he's like, oh, you
got to listen to that car andthen you just had multiple
people listening.
You were doing demos for abunch of people, so I never got
to listen to it.
And then I seen the pictures ofit.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
It was pretty rough then.
So if we ever get the chance,so at least it'll be better than
better than that time.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
So uh, so what's the biggest piece of advice you got
to someone starting out in intheir garage?
This is for the do it yourselfListeners out there.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
Watch a bunch of PS sound videos that's actually
really good advice right there.
I mean, if you're needinspiration or he's got so many
fabrication tips.
And if you take it a stepfurther and do the Patreon,
which I've been on from almostsince it was started, there's so
(46:54):
much information that's outthere.
So really the only one of thebiggest reasons I'm at where I'm
at is just from the hundreds ofhours of research and just
watching videos and absorbingall that knowledge that he's
putting out there.
So that's one of the biggestthings.
It just depends on yourbackground of you know hands-on
(47:18):
fabrication skills.
Not that you can't learn it,but if you, if you got that
little bit of a background andyou just need the inspiration to
kind of just need your headpointed in a certain direction
and told go that way, that's,that's a big help.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
Yeah, peter's pretty passionate.
I've I've watched, I, I I couldsay I've actually watched his
videos probably two or threetimes, like each video, you know
, cause he's got such good, goodnuggets on there that anybody
who's into car audio would bestupid not to watch his videos.
But what's the differencebetween just building a regular
(47:56):
system, just building a systemfor your enjoyment, and building
a competition, a competitivesystem?
Speaker 1 (48:02):
there's a level of sound deadening probably yeah,
that's a, that's a common,common theme from all the
competitors and you can put thehundreds of hours into
fabrication and system designand all that and you get it all
finished and you show it off tosomeone.
They go.
This is awesome, but yeah, youstill gotta chase some rattles.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
That's disheartening, to say the least yeah, yeah so
and it's rough on some cars tooright.
Like you said, you were chasingrattles in your car at the
beginning.
My car was cheaply built so itwas a pain in the neck.
Speaker 1 (48:44):
Yeah, just thin metal , thin plastic and stuff like
that.
I talked to some of the guysthat have done the Volvos and
the foreign cars and stuff likethat and they're like, yeah, I
went through three or foursawzall blades trying to vent my
kick panels they're goingthrough this screen, burned up a
bunch of discs, a grinder discand the sawzall blades were shot
.
I'm like I could have used ahammer and a chisel to get
(49:05):
through mine just to peel themback up.
So right now I don't know ifyou've seen it I haven't posted
too much because I started therebuild and I got busy with some
very pressing home projectsthat needed done.
But I got it in my trunk aboutfive weeks ago just so it was
(49:28):
gutted out and left me no choicebut to finish it.
But so right now probably nextweek I'm going to be starting on
it again and I'm going to makea push the next couple weeks to
try to make it to finals inoctober, in a month.
So I'm going to be busy on it.
But I'm rebuilding the trunk nowto put two 18s and true ib, one
(49:50):
in each rear quarter panel andpretty much the same way I did
the front end of you know,cutting the entire back corner
of the car out, welding in a newstructure and mounting them,
and I've got some ideas forrefreshing the look of the trunk
and that's kind of where I sawhow, how flimsy a lot of the
(50:10):
sheet metal is on these cars on.
Once it's cut out, it's veryhard to rebuild a structure back
, to stiffen everything up to beat the level it needs to be.
So that's going to be probablystarting Monday.
I think I got time to get backinto this and I think in the
next month I'm going to be on apretty big crunch and I'll be
back to posting updates on DEMAevery couple of days on my
(50:33):
progress.
So interested to see what thesecond refresh 2025 will look
like.
It's coming soon.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
Okay, so you're getting back in there, huh, yep.
So what do you wish you knewnow, or what do you wish you
knew when you first started?
Now that you've been throughthe grind and you know in
hindsight 2020 and you're like,oh man, I wish I knew this when
I first started.
Would have saved a lot ofheadache, a lot of money, a lot
of time man that's.
Speaker 1 (51:05):
That's kind of a tricky one.
So it's more like just asyou're just kind of honing your
skills, the more you tear intoit and the more problems you get
past and overcome.
I don't know if I could saylike something I wish I knew
before I started out.
There's been a lot of stuffthat I've had a, you know, kind
(51:28):
of a vision in my head the wholetime.
You pre-plan it, pre-plan itout to the build, and having the
end goal in sight is what savesyou the most headache of not
tearing into it too quickwithout knowing what's going on.
The couple parts of the projecthere and there where I'm like,
(51:49):
all right, I know what I want,but I don't have a picture in my
head of getting there.
That's where you start losingmost time because you're kind of
making it up on the fly.
So really, the pre-planning andpre-research and have an idea
of what you're getting intosaves you more headache in the
long run versus just rippingapart and then staring at an
(52:11):
empty canvas not knowing whereto start.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
Yeah, I think one of the things I wish I knew because
I would get in there, and Iwish I knew how important the
tuning was.
I feel like that's really likethat's one of the the single
most important things, besidesthe sound deadening and the
sound treatment.
I think that's like number one.
But tuning is like number onedash a one, dash two when it
(52:37):
comes to doing your system.
Cause it like I've gotten inthe car and been like man this
sounds like crap.
And then I had a buddy of minetuned the car and it just
totally transformed the car whenI was about to rip components
out and start doing things again.
And it and the components arefine.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
It just needed a good tune, you know yeah, I think
that I think the tuning partcomes with.
The more cars you're able tolisten to of other people's, it
becomes more apparent liketuning is absolutely like the
final cherry on top.
But even the best tune stillcan't cover up flaws in your
(53:19):
install or location choices.
You can get it to sound reallygood in the end with the tune,
but if you're sitting therepicking it apart clinically, a
lot of stuff in the installmakes a big difference in the
final outcome as well.
So the install is just as muchtrial and error as the tuning is
(53:41):
A lot of like.
My basic locations have beenpretty close to the same since
I've started four years ago.
There's just been slight tweaksin the install or how it was
put in or where tweeters weremounted.
I've played with a bunch ofdifferent positions for tweeters
and that ends up making a bigdifference.
(54:02):
Even if it's tuned correctly,there's still stuff you can't
physically get around that makesa difference in the
presentation Not as much overallsound, but in the presentation
of stage dimensions or locationand stuff like that.
So the install just comes fromtrial and error and sometimes
(54:23):
you just can't get around thatwhen it's not as much of the
component as just the location.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
Yeah, definitely.
It's a lot of testing andtuning and I think sometimes
half the fun is the journey.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
The way I look at it, like I keep getting people
saying why are you doing so much?
I'm like, well, I honestlyenjoy the build as much, if not
more, than, the end result.
I'm like, don't do that, it'snot worth it.
No, actually, I know it's notworth it, I just enjoy the
process.
Speaker 2 (54:51):
Yeah, exactly it's.
It's.
It's the hunt you know and andthe last extra percentage of you
know, it's good, but I think itcould be better.
I think a lot of us are likethat.
You know, we, we just keep ontinkering and and I know I mean
I, I got more money in my carthan I care to even admit, but
and I think to myself, just wishthe kick base was a little bit
(55:11):
better.
What can I do do?
And it's like you know,sometimes I gotta stop myself.
It does get expensive, quick,you know, but I don't even think
about the money anymore becauseto me it's, you know, it's the
smile that it puts on my face.
So so, chris, we're gonna wrapit up.
We got a little over an hour,let me see.
So you got your build thread ondyma right on the do it
yourself mobile audio websiteand also you got a video with
(55:34):
Peter, the man himself from PSSound at SVR on YouTube.
Correct?
Speaker 1 (55:38):
Yeah, there's two videos from Nick on the
Resnick's channel on my car too.
He did one at the first finalsand then he did one at Luke's
event, and then I have the oneof Peter from Steel Valley this
year.
Speaker 2 (55:51):
There's a couple of them and what's your handle on
Dy, on dyma, so if the listenerswant to follow your, your
journey online uh, chris p2493chris p2493.
Yep, all right, buddy.
Well, that wraps it up, man,thank you for coming on.
Hang on for a second.
Okay, I'm gonna put this.
Put a row bow on this and wrapit up.
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