Inside the Mind of a Master Tuner. How Miguel Rios is Revolutionizing Car Audio One System at a Time

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
all right, welcome back everybody to the sound cue
garage podcast.
This is officially episode six.
Welcome back to the sound cuegarage podcast.
This is episode six.
Today we take a deep dive intothe art and science of sound
quality in cars.
Today I'm joined by someonewho's widely considered one of
the best tuners in the country,miguel rios of waveform tuning.

(00:35):
Everybody's very excited, somiguel's built the unique
business flying out to clientsacross the country, which is a
pretty damn good gig, if you askme.
So people fly him out to themto perfect their high-end
systems, and he just recentlyrelocated from Florida to Texas.

(00:59):
So we're gonna dig into hisstory, his tuning philosophy and
what it really takes to bringthe best out of a system.
So, miguel, why don't you sayhi to the people of the
interwebs?

Speaker 2 (01:13):
hello, hello everybody.
Welcome to Eddie's podcastthanks for coming on.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
So, miguel, for those who don't know your background.
How did you get into tuning caraudio in the first place?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
all right.
So you know, we gotta go backwhen I was just a little one.
Now I'm playing um, but youknow, I feel like most people,
most people.
I feel like if, if we look back, like, if they look back in
time, they're like man, I'vealways been into audio, at least
that's my kind of like you knowstory, ever since I mean I mean
I can literally remember inpuerto rico and I think I was
like two or three Like man.
I've always been into audio, atleast that's my kind of like
you know story, ever since Imean I can literally remember in

(01:47):
Puerto Rico and I think I waslike two or three, like
literally having a boomboxstrapped into my tricycle.
So you know, and those are kindof like one of my earliest
memories.
But I've always been into audiomy entire life.
Growing up I've always had sometype of stereo system, just like

(02:11):
the Sonys and the Pioneers,nothing crazy.
It kind of started with my dad.
He had some Technics floorstander towers and I was always
intrigued by that.
And then when you get older youstart getting a car.
So I was 15, intrigued by that.
And then when you get older youstart getting a car.
So I was 15, got my first carand definitely the loudest bass

(02:32):
system ever in the world.
I had one Rockford Frostgate P1with an MTX on their hand.
Oh boy, I tell you what it'sdefinitely, looking back at it,
when I first turned that one 12inch on, I thought it had the
craziest bass.
When I first turned that one12-inch on, I thought it had
like the craziest bass notes.
I was like no one can touchthis bass.
Now, looking back at it, Ithink I was maybe putting 250

(02:52):
watts into this P1.
But you know, just likenostalgia and just like thinking
back, like that was the firsttime I really introduced it to
like car bass, to like car pace,and I feel like most people's
first system is always theirbest system, even though
logically it's not, but in theirheart it just holds a special
value.
Um, that's funny.
So, yeah, you know.
So then, moving on, you know Iwas always trying to trying to

(03:16):
get loud and clear and at thatpoint I thought loud and clear
was sound quality.
I didn't know the difference.
Um, it wasn't till around 2015ish.
Um, maybe 2016 it was.
This was in a honda cord whereI had poke audio, momo, um and

(03:36):
two kicker q12 in a seal box andeveryone's favorite audio
control amps.
Um, and I started I think itwas yeah, it was, it was andy
waymire he put out his one seattuning guide and at this point,
like I thought I had a decentsounding system, you know, and I
would take it to shops andthey're like dude, this sounds

(03:58):
amazing.
Keep in mind, I thought thatwas sound quality.
People told me there's a soundquality.
It was very far from soundquality.
Um, it was just loud and clearwith a lot of bass.
Um, it was fun.
But I started reading thistuning guy and I started
learning about, like time,alignment and sound stage and
imaging and tonality and, um,really, it was just every single

(04:18):
day I would come out of workand, you know, read and tune,
read and tune, read and tune andso many failures, um.
And then I moved to louisianaand I switched cars.
I got a mazda 6 um and I boughtall audio frog gear and that's
where I met my one of my bestfriends if not my best friend,
uh, joshua howell and him and Istarted just learning how to

(04:42):
tune together.
Um, so pretty much like thesame thing happened every day.
I would literally go in my carand wipe it and tune, and every
single time it would sound likecrap.
So yeah, and then just failureafter failure, and one day it
started not sucking and it justkept getting better and better.
And now we're here.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yeah, a lot of people don't realize tuning is a
little bit like witchcraft, it'sa dark art because, um, I'm
sure I'm not the only one, but I, you know, I spent months and
months, and months in my car,sweating bullets, trying to find
a quiet spot, just testing andtuning.
And you're sitting there and,uh, you know, sometimes you'd be

(05:22):
in the car for hours and you'relike man, I am the baddest
mother effer around.
I got this great center imageand it sounds really good.
Something happens with yourears because the next day right,
I'm sure you know what I'mtalking about you get in the car
.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
It sounds like this sounds so bad and it sounds bad.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
You're like what, what it?

Speaker 2 (05:43):
just sucks, yeah, yeah, it sucks.
It's like you've definitely allbeen there.
I tell you what ear fatigue isa real thing what was I thinking
12 hours ago?

Speaker 1 (05:53):
this sounded awesome, you know, I thought I was gonna
win a championship.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
I don't know.
Honestly.
The best one is when, like youthink you got it nailed and like
you have for like a week or two, or like you know right before
a show, and you're like this iskiller.
And then you go sit in oneperson's car.
You're like my car sounds likecrap, why am I even here?
they call that a reference.
Yeah, yeah, so funny enoughabout like references.

(06:21):
Um, my first start into likewanting car audio.
This is in louisiana.
Um, I bought a pair of elac.
Um what was elox, elacsomething?
It was their higher end elac,it wasn't.
It wasn't their, theirreference line, it was a.
I can't remember what the nameis, my bad but it had a

(06:41):
consecutive driver and yeah, andthis was an andrew jones um
design and, you know, tuned byhim and designed by him.
So it was a.
It was a really good soundingspeaker, um, so every so time it
would just go, you know, fromthe car to the home and I'm like
, yep, car sucks.
Um, I keep my like.
This is these speakers.

(07:02):
Speakers were just in an openliving room.
You know.
They probably I know for a factdidn't sound good, especially
not compared to what I have now.
But it was some reference.
And then that's when I startedwatching Aaron Hardison's
Aaron's Audio Corner, youtube,yep, learning about, you know,
spinorama and you know on axisand off axis of, you know

(07:27):
cabinets and speakers anddirectivity index and horizontal
and vertical, you know just allthe things that he talks about.
And I started realizing, okay,my elex are not that good.
So then I bought some jblsynthesis hdi 3600 and that was
kind of like my reference for awhile.
And then it was.
I think it was like a year agoor two years ago.

(07:49):
I met John center things twoyears ago and I ended up buying
some rebel towers, which is, youknow, same line farming, but
they're luxury line.
Rebel about the F two, oh,eight towers, aka they literally
called the giant killers,because they're not that
expensive and they're justphenomenal towers.

(08:10):
And that's kind of been myreference.
And now that I moved to TexasCollege Station, I actually was
able to set up a listening room,which I actually just finished.
I haven't painted it yet, butyeah, dude, having a true
listening room and a truereference, it's just.
I literally sat here and I waslike why am I doing karate again
?
so like it's just it's not eventhe same.

(08:31):
I'm just like, yeah, this isthis is.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
This is next level but yeah, sorry if I was
long-winded no, no, that's yourquestion.
I know exactly what you'retalking about because I I got
some elax myself and yeah, it isa little bit easier to get
imaging and staging with, youknow, at home and uh.
But you know, don't, don't, uh,don't fret, because that that
hobby can get pretty damnexpensive too.

(08:55):
I know people that oh, trust me,I have a million dollar setups
and and you, you, if you thinkthe car audio is a rabbit hole,
that's like a rabbit freakingtrench and a half, because I
mean oh, it's expensive.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, yeah, I mean at some point on this podcast.
You want to, if not, um, I'malso pretty knowledgeable in
home audio and you and I candeep dive into into that if you
want to later on.
I know I know you probably gotsome questions for me, you know
lined up, but if you ever wantto talk a little bit about it,
let me know, because there's agood amount that I know.
That can probably help a lot ofpeople out yeah, that's a good

(09:30):
idea.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Definitely maybe for another podcast another day yeah
, so uh, yeah speaking ofquestions, so I wanted to ask
you so what's the story behindstarting way forward, tuning
like?
That's a really unique businessmodel.
What you're doing, you'reflying out to people which, like
I said before, that's a prettygood gig.
I'm sure you've been to likehave you officially hit every
state in the country?

Speaker 2 (09:52):
pretty close to it.
Honestly, I haven't hitwashington yet, um.
I haven't hit oregon, um, I'vebeen to those places, just, you
know, by my own account, but notby tuning.
Uh, nothing in nebraska orkentucky.
That's about it.
Every, almost every other placeI've been to almost every other

(10:13):
place that's pretty awesomeyeah, I've been to a lot.
I've been to a lot, um, it'sgood, so like kind of how it
started.
So waveform, or at least partof its business model, was
something that I thought of whenI was active duty military.
So my wife and I brie were bothprior air force um mental

(10:35):
analysts.
So of course when you're activeduty you can't do a business
like waveform is um, so I kindof like wrote it up and thought
about it and then kind of justshelved it um, and it stayed
that way dormant for a while.
Um, I got medically separatedfrom the air force um, so
essentially medically retired um, and then I got a contracting

(10:56):
job at for general dynamics inmcdill in tampa.
So that's why I moved to tampFlorida and I did that for a
while and I just I was good atIntel but I just didn't, I
didn't love it.
Like every day I will, I willwake up, I'm like I gotta go to
work.
This sucks.
But about nine months intoworking in Tampa and keep in

(11:20):
mind, at this point we alsorealized, oh, we hate the city,
we do not like Tampa, it is notfor us, keep in mind, at this
point we also realize, oh, wehate the city, we do not like
tampa, it is not for us.
Um, they were like, hey, mcgill, like we need a senior intel
analyst in kuwait, do you wantto go?
I was like I don't want to gooverseas again.
They're like, after all yourbonuses and everything, you'll
make about 350 to 400k tax free.
I was like you know what?
Maybe so, uh, I'm not sure.

(11:45):
There's some people who kind of,if they do remember, you know,
back in 2023 finals, uh, I was.
Everyone asked me was like, oh,who are you?
Because at that point, like noone really knew me.
I was like, hey, I'm a girl,you know, but, um, don't worry,
like I won't be here, like I'mleaving two months for, or not
even months, like a month fromnow, I'm going overseas for, you
know, a while.

(12:05):
But right after finals and thatwas my first like true finals
and I was surprised and I askedher I scored second, which is in
the amateur class, which islike a really big achievement,
because amateur is, even thoughit's named amateur, there's not
amateurs in that group.
No, no, there's not.

(12:27):
My first time around with my ownteam was like, you know, I was
really happy with that, but Ileft.
And finals, of course.
And then I get home and I get aphone call from my future boss
in Kuwait and he's like hey,dude, you can't take your family
.
I was like what you need?
They're like, yeah, it's justcan't happen right now.

(12:49):
I'm just like, well, I'm notgoing there without my family,
I'm not doing that again.
I've done that before in mylife Like it's just not
happening.
So they were trying to work itout, but they were just being
non-cooperative, if you will.
So I was like you know what,guys?
I quit.
And that was it.
Um, because of my wife's and Idisability like we, that's the
way we make our daily living.

(13:09):
Um, so I didn't.
We didn't really need the moneyand I made enough doing the
contracting gig, so I paideverything off.
So, long story short, I waslike I got nothing to do.
Wife was like why don't youtune cars?
I was like I don't know.
She was like just see what youcome up with.
I'm a business major, so Ihaven't met my my business
degree.
So I pulled out my thought thatI had a long time ago, and it

(13:32):
wasn't named waveform tuning.
Uh, what was it named?
Hold up, let me see, I rememberit fly to you.
It was mte.
I remember mt, mobile tuningexpert, that's what it was
called, mte, and of course thatname wasn't going to stick.
So essentially I wrote a wholelike marketing plan and did some

(13:54):
data analysis and kind offigured out, like you know what
was missing, what's the problemand can I offer a solution.
And the problem I kept onrealizing was like there's some
really good builds but the tunesaren't good.
And then people are constantlyjust changing equipment when
equipment isn't the issue.
Um, and then I was like, okay,how many tuners are there?

(14:14):
And then of course there are amillion, two remote tuners.
And I'm like I've tried thisremote tuning, at least in my
opinion, doesn't really work.
Um, so I was like what can wedo to like do something
different?
And then that's when I thoughtabout like I could fly to people
.
And you know there was waveform.
Um, how did the, the thoughtwaveform tuning name came out?
I don't know.
Um, I was trying to think of alike a, like something to kind

(14:38):
of bridge the gap.
And then I, when I was tryingto design my logo, because
everything of waveform, they all, all the pictures, the website,
everything was designed bymyself and Bree.
So literally we just startedtrying to come up with a design
and I drew a Waveform and I waslike huh, waveform tuning.
And then it just clicked.

(14:59):
I looked at domains and no onereally had it and I was like,
cool, I guess that's my name andit stuck.
I asked a couple of my closefriends.
I'm like what do you guys thinkof this name?
They're like it's catchy, welike it and it kind of makes
sense.
So yeah, there's waveformtuning.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
No, it's a unique business model.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
Pretty much.
I don't think anybody else inthis country does it.
That that I know of right,you're probably.
Uh, I don't, I don't think.
I think I'm the only one whodoes it?
Yeah, which that was the goal.
You know, to kind of be in myown little niche and for most
people I mean for for anybodylike imagine having a
nine-to-five and also travelinglike it's just it won't be
possible, like this has to besomething that's only, it's kind
of like your only job yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
So I know that you know a lot of people out there
on internet land.
You know the do-it-yourselfers,even people who have
professional installations.
Um, a lot of people don't knowthat when you know when a tuner
gets in your car, that there'sjust you know he's not just
going to hop in your car andstart tuning, uh, that would be

(16:03):
great if that was the case.
But I know, sometimes you know,let's say you're, you know
you're in texas now, but backwhen you were in florida, let's
say you're flying out to like,uh, you know, freaking
washington state all the wayacross the country and I'm sure
you're not bringing like an, anarmament of tools that would be
heavy and you know um notpractical to do.

(16:26):
But you know, have you evergotten to somebody's house that
you know you're?
You're 3 000 miles away, 2 000miles away, whatever, and they
got rattles and buzzes andthings are just not.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
Oh, yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
What do you do in in a situation like that, because
you know they paid for the, oryou know, uh, they paid for you
to be out there and they'reexpecting you to tune the car
and they think their car isready for prime time, but it's
not what.
What happens in that situation?

Speaker 2 (16:55):
yeah.
So it's kind of like a two-foldquestion.
So I try to eliminate that asmuch as I can.
Um, so if you ever go to mywebsite, the first thing if you
click like book now it saysconsultation.
Um, and the conversation isreally just a phone call between
me and that prospectivecustomer and it's really just
asking like hey, the, is yourcar ready?
And I'm asking detailedquestions like how's the sound

(17:17):
dead and do you have anypictures?
How is it installed?
Where is it installed?
What vehicle is it?
What are your goals?
Like, what are you looking for?
You're looking for perfectimaging, looking for loud and
clear like what are you lookingfor?
I'm asking all these questionsand I'm essentially interviewing
them to make sure that they'reready for me to come out there,
because my goal is never forpeople to waste money.
Um, if I come out there, notonly like my time, but I don't
want to waste their time andmoney.

(17:38):
So I I try to do a verythorough like interview, slash,
consultation to make sure thevehicle is ready, just to make
sure that when I come out thereI can do my job appropriately.
And this is not because I do iton purpose, but one thing that
most people agree with.
Customers lie, not on purpose,but it's just because they're

(18:00):
ignorant.
And a lot of people thinkignorant is like a derogatory
word, it's not.
Ignorant just means you don'tknow't know.
Yeah, it's a lack of knowledgeyeah, uh, a term that I learned
in the air force, um, when in myactual 905 intel job, was you
don't know what you don't know.
And if you really like, justtake that like into heart and
like really think about it, it'slike it starts getting really

(18:22):
deep.
It's like huh, I don't knowwhat I don't know.
So what do I don't know?
So you need someone else tokind of guide you, to help you
know what you don't know.
Meaning I'm here to try toguide them.
Be like hey guys like how's itsound?
And they're like oh, dude, itsounded imperfectly cool.
How's the door?
So like yeah, dude, I'm usingthis kill mat.
I was like pause right there.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
We're already having an issue um I'm using peel and
seal man from home yeah yeah,and then exactly, and I'm like,
okay, like where, where's thatall?

Speaker 2 (18:53):
like dude, I got four layers on on the outer door.
I'm like, okay, that's not,those other four layers aren't
doing anything, but what else?
Like that's it.
I was like that's not trulysound, dead.
Um, so then I, you beforehand,I, you know, just deep dive,
talking to them and consultingthem to get them set up properly
, and then, once you kind ofeducate them, they're like, you

(19:15):
know, their kind of eyes open up.
And most people in this audiocommunity like, when you show
them like and teach them like,dude, there's more to this.
Most people don't get upset,they get giddy and excited.
They're like, oh, I can do evenmore to make it better.
It's rare that I ever getsomeone that's like I don't want
to do any of that.
They're like cool, I'll do itright away.
Like, let's get it done, but itstill ends up happening.

(19:37):
When I come out there, there'sstill buzzes, there's still
rattles, things that need to befixed, um, even with all the
pictures, you know.
So what ends up happening is Istill do my job, you know, I
still tune it to best, best ofmy abilities.
Um, a lot of people andhopefully this is, you know,
this podcast, whoever'slistening.
A tuner and tuning your vehicleis not a band-aid.

(19:58):
Um, I am not doing black magicwhere I can just take a car that
has rattles and buzzes, a wholebunch of install issues, and
make it sound good.
It's not the way it works.
So if there is buzzes andrattles and limitations, I will
finish the tune, go and hopinside the vehicle, because I'm

(20:19):
there in person and I makeadjustments to the tune to kind
of, you know, help alleviatesome of that.
So we still have a good endresult.
But that does mean that somestuff has to be removed,
especially energy in the doors.
Sometimes I have to cross thedoors up higher because the
doors are just vibrating so muchthat they will not be happy.
So what do I do?
I remove the energy from thedoors, um, so I leave stuff on

(20:41):
the table, but that's to get abetter end result for their
current system.
And then I let them know hey,guys like this is what's wrong.
This is what I'm seeing, thisis what you can do better, but
this is what you have now.
You have both tunes my, youknow the original one and then
what I ended up doing to helpyou currently but go fix these
issues.
So, and that's kind of just theway, the way I do it.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, a lot of people .
Um, one of the things peopledon't understand when you're
building like a high caliber car, there is a lot of ringing out
and kind of like you know, uh,even when it's done, it's never
done, so to speak.
Because, uh, you know, youstart hearing buzzes and rattles
.
Even a buzz that you might nothave now, it might creep up two
months from now.

(21:27):
You know, from from from theenergy that the that's creating
and the car's getting used andthings are starting to loosen up
.
It's it's just kind of like arace car.
You're shaking things down youknow what I mean and you're
finding things as you go along.
So it's not like, you know, youcan go to shop and drop 50
grand, 40 grand, 10 grand,whatever their budget is, and

(21:48):
the car is 100 ready.
I, I know people think that's,that's how it is, you know, and
but not to the level that we'retalking about.
We're talking about competitionvehicles or super high-end
sound quality cars, so to speak,that you, there is kind of like
a um, uh, some some, uh, whatdo you call it?

(22:09):
Like testing and tuning, goingon and ringing the the to get
the best out of the car.
You know, yeah, you do have tosometimes take a panel off or
get in there and do somethingagain and or use a different
type of sound treatment becausewhat you use didn't work.
So, yeah, it's kind of like awork in progress.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
So so it is.
You know, I just I just want totouch on that real quick, eddie
, if you don't mind like, yeah,I don't think it has to be.
I think it's just somethingthat are kind of our community
has learned to just accept, butI think it's a it's a bad thing
that it's like that.
Um, for instance, right, I havea customer of mine uh, I'm not

(22:48):
gonna mention his name, you know, shoot, I will chris hodge um.
I met him last year and supernice dude, like honestly, one of
my favorite clients, you know,not even clients friend um, and
originally the system that hewanted me to hear at Luke's Luke
at let's Get Together that hepaid, I think, like 60 grand for

(23:12):
at a shop I'm not going tomention the shop, but it's up
there in Maine somewhere, if I'mnot mistaken, and it was so bad
and I just you can tell likehe's so hurt because he spent so
much money and this doesn'tliterally sounds terrible, like
it's not good because he spentso much money and this doesn't
literally sounds terrible, likeit's not good, it's not okay,
it's not possible, it soundsterrible.
And he's like Miguel, can youtune it real quick?

(23:33):
I'm like no, I can't.
And of course it wasn't theanswer he was looking for.
You know he won't be like, yeah, sure, I can tune it, but I
kind of like to be the honestand transparent person when I'm
like, dude, you're just going towaste your money with me.
Like your car isn't tunable,there are so many install

(23:53):
limitations that even if I tryto do the best, you're not going
to get the appropriate results.
Like this needs to be donecorrectly.
And then he was like, okay, youknow, and I didn't hear from
him for a while.
And then one day, you know, Ireached.
I think I think either Ireached out to him or he reached
out to me.
I think I reached out to himand was like hey, you know,
chris, just checking on you,dude, and seeing like you know,

(24:15):
how you were doing, I know, Ithink it was like a month or two
later I was like, I know, likethe answer I gave you wasn't
what you were hoping, buthopefully the demo I gave you
with some of my customers' cars,you know, kind of opened your
eyes on what's possible in caraudio.
He's like yeah, dude, I'm kindof I got rid of the Frontier,
but I want to do something in myJeep Grand Cherokee.
I was like okay, let's talkabout it.

(24:40):
And him and I started talkingand he was like okay, we can
reuse your gear if you like, butthe only thing I don't want to
reuse is the musconi dsp.
Get a helix like there's.
The helix is so much betterit's not even funny like
nothing's touching helix rightnow, especially in terms of
software.
It's just not happening.
Um, and he's like okay, I cando that.

(25:01):
So I started designing thesystem for him and, long story
short, he was like there is nobudget can do that.
So I started designing thesystem for him and, long story
short, he was like there is nobudget.
What can we do?
And whoever's following youknow this build that Luke's
doing.
But let's talk about how we gotto Luke.
So I was like dude, we have allthis great gear you know Brax
RX2s, brax DSP going full Dysac,like fully digital, all the way

(25:24):
through.
I going full dissect, likefully digital, all the way
through.
I'm like this needs to beinstalled correctly.
If not, it will never be good.
He's like I can do it.
I was like I, I promise you youprobably can, but can I just
suggest we take it to aninstaller that I know will do
the work appropriately.
He's like dude.
I don't really trust installerslike listen, I hear you, I hear
you.
And I don't trust many of themeither.
There's very few shops in theUS I trust.

(25:45):
I was like, but I know thisshop and this person.
I was like they will do thework.
Long story short, luke Owlettfrom RW Soundworks took on the
project and Luke knows how toinstall properly when he does
sound deadening.
This is not like yeah, put apiece on it.
No, he spent weeks sounddeadening this vehicle.

(26:06):
So when that Jeepep is done, itshould be done um.
And when I come out there totune it, luke already has so one
.
Everything's modular so it canbe removed, but he already has
an entire box of sound deadeningkind of put away.
So after I'm done tuning itdoes any buzz or rattles, we're
fixing it before it getsdelivered to the client.
That's the way it should bedone.

(26:28):
Um, so like no, I don't thinkit should ever be like uh, this
is gonna last forever.
I think it can be done rightthe first time.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
It's just there's not many shops doing it right the
first time yeah, I mean, whenyou're talking about the caliber
, you know the level, um, likethat.
You know luke, luke level andyou know there's probably a
handful of people that I knowthat would you know, because in,
in my opinion, I think you doget some rattles down the road

(26:58):
or some buzzes, or you know somethings that you gotta retighten
.
Re, re, re um you know, look at,it's just nature of the beast.
You know what I mean.
If you, if you're running acouple of 12s or a couple of 15s
in the car, it's bound torattle something loose, no
matter how much sound treatmentyou got in there.
Because you know I can't tellyou how many times, like you

(27:19):
know, I've had to.
You know, re, uh, retreatsomething in my car.
Then again I'm driving afreaking cheaply made car.
But, um, yeah, you can do it ifyou, if you go you know the
level that your buddy there isgoing yeah, it can be done the
first time.
I'm not saying it's impossible,but I think you know I would

(27:40):
say most of the time that, um,that's not the case.
I mean, I, I know even big-timesound competitors that we've
talked about this before andthey're like you know it's not
practical to leave a car at ashop for three or four months so
that they can, you know, ringout every buzz and every
imperfection that they'regetting down the road to find.

(28:01):
That's all Mickey Mouse stuffanyway, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
But I think that's par for the course.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
So when you get into a client's car, like like, your
buddy here, what's his name?
Chris, yeah, chris, yeah.
So what, what's your process?
Like, like, do you got acertain flow?
Um, does every system doesdemand a different approach?
Like, what, what?
What's your process?
When you get in there, do youlike, do you go?
Um?

Speaker 2 (28:27):
like, what do you do?
Yeah, you know I just.
I just cast a spell and call ita day.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
I knew it was black magic, I knew it.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yeah, I got you.
So the very first thing I askis like what are you going for?
Are you going for this?
Is this vehicle for you or isthis vehicle for competition?
And they say competition, okay,is this vehicle for you or is
this vehicle for competition?
And they say competition?
Okay, I'm going to start withthis.
I don't tune for competitionbecause competition is just a
different beast, so let's justremove competition out the scene
.
Some people compete with mytunes.

(28:56):
They do pretty well, but Idon't tune for competition
because typically withcompetition, you've got to do
stuff to your vehicle, like movethe seat a certain position and
, you know, recline it and doall these little things that,
like most people that are justwanting a great system for them,
for themselves, don't want todo um.
So I'm like what are you goingfor?
Like daily driving?

(29:16):
Cool is this?
your driving position.
That's always my first questionlike, is this where you drive?
And they say yes or no.
The answer is no.
Okay, hop in it.
Maybe take it around the block,find the perfect position where
you want me to set up my oryour seat so I can set up my
microphone array.
So they do that.
I set up my mic array and thenI start playing pink noise

(29:39):
throughout the system and Istart getting to work.
So the mic array's up.
You know, I've got my octacapture set up and ruse up and
smarts up and the helix softwareis up or whatever dsp I'm
tuning um and I just startgetting to work and I tell each
one of my clients I mean, youcan stand right next to me or
you can go inside or do whateveryou want.
I don't need you right now, butif you want to ask questions,
feel free.
You can watch over my shoulderevery little thing I do, you can

(30:01):
scrutinize, you can askquestions.
I'm here to help.
I'm here as an open book um.
Most of my clients like towatch me work.
So they do um and they they askme questions and I answer it
and I always start with lookingat all the kind of drivers,
without eq, of course, and lowerlevels around like 75 80 db,

(30:24):
but essentially no crossovers,except for the tweeter.
I'm trying to get a rawresponse of each speaker and
start getting a betterunderstanding of where am I
going to place crossovers at.
Um then, especially if they'renear me, if I haven't already
asked question, I ask them howloud do you want to play the
system?
Because it's going to dictatewhere I start placing crossovers
at if they're like hey, I'm a85 db listener, um, and to

(30:48):
caveat, no one's 85 db listener,no one every single person I've
ever every single person I'veever tuned a vehicle for that,
tell me.
I only listen to 85 db, not onceI'm done.
Once I'm done and you startenjoying the music and you're
getting after it and you're likereally enjoying it, what do you

(31:08):
just start doing?
You start turning it up.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
Yeah, you start cranking it up.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
You just start cranking it, yeah Right.
So like especially in thebeginning, like when I first
started like doing waveform, Iwould listen to what people say,
like, oh, I don't listen to itloud, and then I will make
crossovers better, optimize forthose locations, but it will
limit the output.
And then what would happen atthe end?
They'll be like, oh, can we getany more volume?
I'm like not really, like wecan, but I just got to like

(31:34):
start changing crossovers.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
Yeah, not without harming the drivers right?

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah, exactly.
So the reason why I still askthe question, so I can get a
better understanding like, howsafe do I want to be?
If they tell me, off the getgood, no, I listen to it loud.
Cool, I got you, you listen toit loud.
But if you tell me no, I onlysee about 85 db, maybe a little
bit.
That tells me.
All right, I can be kind of alittle bit more lenient on

(32:00):
crossovers, but it still needsto have some balls behind it, um
, but it doesn't have to getcrazy loud.
So you know, once I find theappropriate crossovers, how loud
you listen to it, then I startsending those crossovers up and
I start eqing.
I always, always, always.
It's just my process.
I always start with my rightmid, um, mainly because either
the right mid or right mid baseis always going to be a limiting

(32:22):
factor in a left-hand drive car, because the speaker furthest
away from you has to do the mostamount of work.
Um, so, right mid, then leftmid, right, tweet, left, tweet
right mid bass, left mid bass.
Um.
Then they have a front sub.
I do the front sub, then rearsub and I do all the eq work
first.
Um, that's just the way I do it, then I'll go back and if most

(32:44):
people don't know eq in aminimum phase situation, um,
when we all use ir filters, notfir filters.
Ir filters is what you find.
Every dsp pretty much, except Ithink many dsp, has some fir
filters.
Don't quote me on that, I'mpretty sure yeah, they have some
sort of filters that.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
Uh, I've never understood fully what what it
does, especially with direct.
I just know that it works.
Some, some magical voodoo inthere and I and I set it up and
boom, it sounds good so prettysimple, or at least at least a
difference.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
You know to kind of break it down very like you know
, I guess elementary style levelit can get deep but you can get
technical ir filters.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
Podcast is all about okay, cool.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
So ir filters essentially what the only thing
you need to know is that itchanges phase with the EQ.
Fir filters do not affect phase.
That's it.
That's the biggest differencebetween the two.
But every warmer DSP is usingan IR filter.
So sweet, so sweet.

(33:50):
So the reason why I'm using orI'm eqing first is because I
want to look at time and phaseonce the, the face has been
corrected for the constructiveum environment that the car is.
So if I have now huge peaksbecause of cabin gain right,
let's say you have a 8 db, youknow q of 2 peak around I don't
know 150 hertz because of cabingain, well, if I look at the,

(34:14):
the phase, that's going to beout of whack because that's
creating a, an additional phasewrap or phase anomaly.
So with the cut of e you'reactually fixing the phase.
So that's why I always do EQfirst.
So then I do time and I do itby impulse, and then I do phase.

(34:34):
And the way I do phase is I doright mid-bass first, because
typically that's my furthestdriver.
The first thing I do is findwhich is your furthest driver.
Nine times out of ten is goingto be your right mid-bass, so
you do right mid-bass, leftmid-bass, those are now one.
Then I do right mid to rightmid-bass, left, mid to left
mid-bass, and then make sureleft mid and right mid, both are

(34:57):
in the exact same phase trace,perfect.
Then I do right tweet, lefttweet, impulse.
I don't look at phase.
Really, for Twitter Frequenciesare so small.
You move that microphone halfan inch to the right or an inch
to the right or left, completelychange everything you just did.
So wasting your time looking atphase trace isn't beneficial.

(35:18):
And then if they have a frontsub, then essentially what I'm
looking at and keep in mind younever change your reference
delay or I never change myreference delay um, then I'll do
front sub and I'll look at thetrace on how it's going.
Um, so if people don't know howto look at a phase graph,
essentially, if you know thesethings, you know a lot more than

(35:40):
most people.
If the angle is, let's call it,I don't know, I don't know how
to explain, I'm over here, Ihave my hand up, like you can
see me.
Um, if it's, if it's going, youknow up to down, like, let's
say, a 45 degree angle, right,let's just call it that.
And also, then you get anotherphase trace which is like going
like a 70 degree angle.
That means that is coming inearlier or later.

(36:04):
Hold up now.
I'm confused yeah, move yourhand the other way yeah, yeah,
yeah, I'm like, I'm over here,look at my hand.
So you, we, we cannot speed uptime.
We can just delay it, right?
So?
Or if it's no, that's coming inlater, yeah, that's coming in
later.
Yeah, that's coming later.
If it's going up, it's comingin earlier.
There you go, so I can delaytime, but I can't add time to it

(36:28):
.
Jesus, my head right now.
Um, so a lot of times you'll seethat the front sub is gonna,
you know, come in at a steeperangle.
So if I do see that, I don'tchange my reference delay
because I already madeeverything from mid-base up one
cohesive unit and I already knowthat in my head.

(36:49):
So then once I get the frontsub set up, then I'll match,
then I'll mute it, I'll go to myrear sub.
Where's the face trace?
Looking at that, most of thetimes I have to delay the rear
sub to match the front sub.
So I had delay, I had delay.
Cool, face trace are nice again.
Once I get that, I capture bothfront and rear subs.

(37:12):
So I have that face tracebecause now they're both acting
as one and I will group tweeterto mid base all of them because
we we already establishedthey're all working as one units
and already, and I'll just adddelay until that mid base trace
now matches the front sub.
And now we're all lined up andthere you go so do you.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
You know this is something that me and a couple
of my buddies talk about, and Iknow everybody calls it the
front sub.
But do you treat the front subas a sub?
Because the way I treat it is,I treat it as a front woofer and
I use it more to take theenergy out of the doors because
door locations just suck.
Everybody knows that and youknow the best way to have a

(37:54):
speaker in the door is if youcould seal that up, kind of like
, you know, if it had its ownenclosure, which would be a lot,
a lot of work, a lot of labor.
So the way I treated my frontspeaker, my front woofer, was
I'm using it not to do subfrequencies, but I think I don't
remember what crossoverfrequencies I I chose, but I

(38:15):
think, a 50 to like 120 or 110or something like that and,
believe it or not, my, my, myfront mid bases, they're
actually firing from like 110 or120 and up, because I just I
couldn't tame the rattles inthat door.
It was so bad.
So do you, or or do you do both?
Do you do?
But you know, I know everybodycalls it the front sub, front

(38:37):
sub, but I feel like it's it'sbetter to call it a front woofer
, because the sub is still doingits sub duty.
I have mine at 50 and below,some people do 60 and below, and
so how do you treat the, thefront woofer?

Speaker 2 (38:50):
do you treat it as a sub, or do you treat as a woofer
, or do or is it depends um, sotypically I treat it as a woofer
with maybe a you know an s infront of it, not the full sub,
but so, like, once again, thiskind of depends on the vehicle.
So if I, if I have a vehicleand I hear it's hollow, I'm like

(39:14):
this door's gonna fall apart.
Yes, I will, I will if the subhas good enough inductance and
it can play high enough.
Um, yes, I will go ahead andlet it, you know, let it play up
into the mid-bass region.
But typically I like to andlike.
Funny enough, you say that Idon't actually think that doors
suck.
I just think that doors arenever treated well enough and

(39:38):
that's why doors suck.
But doors typically, theinternal volume is so large
relative to the speaker thatessentially it is an infinite
baffle.
So whenever people are like oh,infinite baffle is.
So, whenever people are like oh, infinite baffle, so great, I'm
like, well, your door kind ofis infinite baffle, because
infinite baffle is just aninfinitely sealed box.
And if it's relative to the um,the speaker, then it's, it's,

(39:58):
it's enough airspace, it actslike ib, so it's really just
deadening the living crap out ofit.
Um, but most people don't knowhow to do it properly and or
they've gone through so manymaterial and all of this and if
anyone don't think about CLD.
It's not easy to come off, andespecially when like I tell

(40:19):
people this constantly like ifyou, especially if you just
bought a car the less amount oftimes you pull a panel apart the
better, because each time youpull it apart it gets slightly
weaker every time yeah, I'vesaid that before, especially
like all the little, yeah, allthe little clip holes.
So it's like, you know I'm notsure if you remember, excuse me
you know, when you first sawyour door panel but that thing
was like it's almost like, am Iabout to break this thing?

(40:41):
Yeah, but after like the 10thtime that thing comes out like
nothing was holding it, you know.
So I tell people, like everysingle time you remove the door
panel, replace every single clip, even if it's not broken, just
replace it.
You know, just try to do thethings to kind of keep that as

(41:02):
tight as possible.
But, like with Chris's Jeep,you know, luke went not even
overboard, he did itappropriately.
Not only did we like you know,full mega CLD resonance,
everything butyl, you know CLD,of course, black hole tiles, ccf
all the night.
But he went above and beyondwhen he actually like drilled

(41:22):
holes in DuraGlass Part of thereason when a six-by-nine is
going to be on the door carditself and on the plastic door
piece that goes on the um, onthe physical door itself to make
sure that thing is solid.
Yeah, doors, at that point it'snot going to suck, it's going to
.
It's going to be phenomenal, um.
But again, how many people gothat that level?

(41:44):
Not many, um.
So then again, that's what anotion door suck, but I don't
actually think they do now.
Are there better locations?
Sure, 100, um, but I think morepeople just took more time and
just properly sound dead intheir doors.
There'll be a lot less kicksbeing made well also the, the,

(42:05):
the frequencies.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
You know the mid-bass frequencies, one of the.
You know it's not so much justthe door sucking as far as like
treatment wise, but also thefrequencies are.
You know that that the mid-bassfrequencies are about two to
three feet long and there'salways a, a center console in
the way and your leg is in theway, your calf is in the way,
but that's also one of the youknow the weaknesses of a door
location.
You know what I mean is in theway, your calf is in the way,

(42:27):
but that's also one of the youknow the weaknesses of a door
location.
Back in the day a lot of peopleused to go with kick panel
locations because that's one ofthe stronger locations in a car.
And also, you know now you'regetting equal path links, but
that's difficult on some carsbecause of all the electronic
wizardry that's back there thesedays.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
Yeah, especially nowadays.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
Yeah, that's one of the ideal locations, but
unfortunately you always can'tget in there.
But yeah, doors do have theiradvantages and disadvantages.
Yeah, they have theirlimitations.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
Oh, yeah, for sure.
Kind of like everything in acar, eddie.
Everything does A lot of thefrequency response issues that
most people, a lot of people,pay too much attention to the
RTA graph and not enough to theway the human actually hears.
If you have a very narrow dipin your frequency response,
especially in the mid-bass,acoustically or not acoustically
, but like when you listen tomusic you're not going to notice

(43:24):
it.
It's just not going to happen.
It's just too narrow of a dip,even if it's like let's call it
15 dB lower, it's too narrow,especially with how dynamic
music is.
And, funny enough, a lot oftimes a lot of those
cancellations that are happeningis because of improper
installation of the mid-bass inthe door.

(43:46):
And if you fix thoseinstallation issues, a lot of
times some of the stuff actuallygets fixed.
Now, yes, there still are somecars like Luke's GMC.
It's just not the greatlocation.
It has bad dips because of justthe cabin.
It happens sometimes.
But like the Ford trucks andyour ones, those doors actually

(44:09):
sound really freaking good andthe response isn't bad at all.
Um, so you know, it's allsimply gonna be car-to-car
dependent.
And I know you asked mebeforehand like do I do the same
thing to every car.
No, every car.
I, I, the process is the same,but the end result and like how
I go about is every single caris different.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
Um, but yeah so I'm gonna ask you something that's I
got.
I'm sorry yeah, that happens.
I hate me.
There's got to be a saying forthat.
You know, when you get thisthought and then it just goes,
it just disappears, it's like abubble, it just pops and you're
like damn it, what was it?
And you usually think about itlike, or you remember it four or
five hours later, usually whenyou're asleep, like going to

(44:53):
sleep, I'm like, oh yeah, I wasgoing to ask him this.
Damn it, it happens to all ofus, man.
So do you see any commonmistakes that enthusiasts or
even shops make when it comes totuning?

Speaker 2 (45:07):
When it comes to tuning Comes to tuning.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
I'm sure you've seen kind of like you know, not the
same thing over and over again,but like a common mistake that
that enthusiasts or shops makewhen it comes to tuning, or even
installing.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
I guess let's start with installing not proper sound
denting is huge.
Um, for most people don't knowthe difference between an okay
vehicle, a good vehicle and afreaking amazing vehicle.
It comes with sound denting.
Um, I tell all my customersthis all time go to a high-end
speaker shop.
Go not go find some rebels,some kefs, um, you know some

(45:48):
mofis.
Knock on that speaker cabinet.
Just knock on it and you'll seeand I, I use this for a ton
like it hurts you.
You don't hurt it.
Yeah, that's how inert thatcabin is.
Um, or that cabinet, excuse me.
So, like, I tell people likethat's your goal for your
vehicle, every place you have aspeaker at or whatnot, when

(46:10):
you're playing music, you shouldnot feel it.
When you knock on it, it shouldhurt you, not you hurt it.
And I was like the more you getyour vehicle to as close as
that, the better it's going tosound.
Because home drivers typicallyaren't that expensive, um, the
relatively, you know,inexpensive.
But a lot of the money andcomponents came into designing
the cabinet and crossover type.

(46:30):
That's where the money is.
And a vehicle, it's the samething.
Whenever you have a speakerright and let's say you put it
in the dash.
Actually, let's use a mid-basedriver, because we were just
talking about that.

Speaker 1 (46:41):
Mid-base driver.

Speaker 2 (46:43):
It's doing its thing right and maybe it's just a
transducer right.
So say, an electrical engine,it's moving it when that
amplifier, that signal, istelling it to stop, move the
other direction.
What happens to the speaker?
It does that right Because ithas a motor behind it.
But if at that same time it's,you know it stopped, but you
have a resonance in your doorpanel that is what's smearing

(47:07):
your sound.
Yeah, you're turning the.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
You're turning the door into a speaker.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
Essentially exactly it is essentially a passive
radiator, yeah, um.
So I tell people like you canthrow as many utopia, accutons,
microprecisions, whatever,whatever in there, it's not
going to make a difference.
The problem is it's not dead.
So your speakers no longer.

(47:31):
You're not hearing that?
$2,000 mid-bass, $1,000mid-bass.
You're hearing the door?
Yep, we need to remove the doorfrom the speaker.
So like that's number themenumber one that I've constantly
seen all the time it's likethere's not enough proper sound.
Two Theme number one that I'veconstantly seen all the time
it's like there's not enoughproper sound to make.
Two is so many shops don'tactually understand acoustics.

(47:52):
What they do understand is howcan I make money?
Right, which I get, you know, Iget at the shop.
You own a business, I own abusiness.
You have to make money,especially to keep the lights
open or the doors open, thelights on, I get it.
But but like I'm not gonnamention names, but like when I
see a model three, a tesla modelthree, or mention names, man,

(48:14):
and then all of a sudden I seemid-range in the a-pillar, I'm
like what is happening?
I was like they literally hadthe perfect location right there
.
Why, why are we?
Why did we?
Just one ruin's, you know,acoustics for audio in a
negative direction.
And two, charge the customerhow much money for these

(48:35):
A-pillars and I bet you money.
I bet you I don't know how muchmoney.
Dude, I'll bet you my entirepaycheck that if I put my hand
on that A-pillar where thatmid-range and tweeters now at it
is resonating like hell, betyou money yeah they might be
trying to get you know a biggerpaycheck in in uh labor oh,

(48:57):
exactly, exactly.
And listen, it looks cool.
But if the proper location wasalready in, at least in a tussle
model three it was it wasalready there.
There was no reason to havemoved the mid-range to a now
less advantageous location.
And I'm like what's happeninghere, or I see it happening to,

(49:17):
like challengers and chargers.
I'm like guys, do you know howeasy it is in those cars to have
a good sounding car?
You really don't have to domuch.
Um, yeah, if you already have amid-range location in the
corners.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
You're already halfway there.
I mean, I wish I had that in mycar.
You're the nb.
There's people who you know.
I said it in the last podcast.
It's not out yet, but with mattkim, um, you know, because matt
kim designs those, those, uh,dash pods.
Yeah, yeah and um, good friendof mine yeah, he's an awesome
guy and, um, you know, hedesigns those dashpods, he

(49:50):
designs a pillar pods and, uh,just beautiful work.
But there's people out therethat pay good money to have
their windshield removed ortheir dash removed to put, uh,
mid-range locations up in thecorners.
Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
I know, I know you guys are doing that with the
jeep right well, yeah, not onlythat, but in my mom's, the aka
gray, you know that's, that'swhat russ from octave, him and I
did.
We pulled the whole dash justto build sealed car locations
because they didn't exist thereyeah um, you know.
So, yeah, now, now that I gotrid of that car and people want

(50:26):
to know why did I get rid of it?
Honestly, a month or two afterI bought it in 2023, I was like
this car is so uncomfortable.
I'm not a fan of it, but Ibought a cash and I was like,
whatever, I'll keep it.
So I kept it for as long as itdid.
I did really well incompetition, great but like it
was time for it to go.
Um, but like it was time for itto go.
And that was it.

(50:46):
Like I did what I wanted to do.
My goal for it was to go toevery Money Round event and, you
know, place top 10 every singleone.
My first time around.
I did that.
Every single Money Round.
I ever went First time aroundto SVR Aggieland.
I always placed top 10.
So after Aggieland, when Iplaced eighth and got best
sounding vehicle, I was like,yeah, I'm done, like I'm happy

(51:08):
now, like I got everything Iwanted.
And then that's when the brandnew 2026 model came out, cause I
didn't, I didn't like theprevious versions of them.
Um, and I looked at it and itworked out.
You know money, you know the,the.
The numbers were right.
So that was that.
Um, but yeah, that's why I gotrid of my Mazda.
But the Tesla is going to benext level, but yeah, continuing

(51:31):
.
What else do I see wrong?
So those are the two big things.
It's like proper or lack ofproper sound deadening and not
paying attention to properacoustics in a vehicle.
Another thing that I think is acommon theme is customers not
getting educated on whatactually matters.
So like they will spend twogrand on a DAP but they're not

(51:57):
worried about sound deadening.
Or they'll spend you know athousand dollars on RCA cables
but there's buzz and rattleseverywhere, or there's you know
know they'll buy utopia and nothaving the soul properly.
So like getting educated,understanding, like, what your
goals are, how much money you'retrying to spend, um, and I
think kind of lastly, is gettingunderstand what you're looking

(52:19):
for, meaning, like, if your goalis to be loud and clear, let's
call it loud and clear.
If your goal is to be loud andclear, let's call it loud and
clear.
Let's buy the appropriatespeakers for that that can
actually handle those you knowthermal limitations that you're
asking for.
Don't get an Arc Audio A10, oneof them in the back and be like

(52:40):
dude, I want to see the pounds.
Like not going to happen, buddy.
So you know, I guess that'skind of the last thing is kind
of like understand whatequipment you're buying.
Personally, I'm a fan of timbre,matching Spell timber but
pronounce timbre.
So I like keeping my three-wayup front.

(53:01):
Personally, the same.
I at least mid and tweet.
I like keeping the same, justto make sure the timbres are
matched.
Mid-bass I'm kind of more opento changing depending on the
application, but typically midand tweet.
I advise people like just keepthe same line, keep the same
brand, because you don't wantone speaker to have you know
this timbre and the otherspeaker to have a completely

(53:21):
different timbre.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
It's just not going to work.
Yeah, and spending, you know aking's ransom doesn't always
equal great sound either,because, um, you know, I'm a
do-it-yourselfer, a lot ofdo-it-yourselfers.
You know we, we kind of swapspeakers out, test and tune, you
know test angles, whatnot, and,um, you know we're taking the

(53:42):
expensive route, but, yeah, andI don't recommend it.
But, um, uh, you know, I boughtsome Utopias and they didn't
really sound that good in mydoors and then I went with the
next level down, which are theK2s.
Those actually sound reallygood in my door.
So, you know, depending on thedriver you know a driver that

(54:04):
you buy, might you know the, thetop end one might not sound
good in your door.
I don't know why, whatever theparameters are, but sometimes
going with a different driverthat you know it just meshes
well with your door for whateverreason.
You know, I don't know thereasons.
You know it could be, like Isaid, the, the ts parameters on
it or whatever.

(54:24):
Sometimes, you know, going witha lower end model sometimes
works out better than buying thetop end esoteric driver, you
know.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
So yeah, and a lot of , especially in just audio.
In general, um, and this issomething that people just need
to understand there's so muchmarketing bs.
It is not even funny.
You know how many times I'veseen people say we have the best
speakers.
I'm like what?
Like blaupunk came out withtheir new signature series I

(54:53):
think it was gold dude, what.
I was so confused.
I'm just like and they're likenext level.
No one's such.
I'm just like, just because youpainted it gold and this is so,
just so much marketing BS.
And I'm like you know youfinding a person that would be
transparent with you, not eventrying to plug myself in, but

(55:14):
I'm going to.
I offer consultations calledwaveform talk, where it's just
like it's a hundred bucks and Iwill design an entire system for
you for a hundred dollars andask you the appropriate
questions what are your goals?
What's your budget?
What kind of vehicle do youhave?
Sometimes I you know, there'ssome of my customers that are
like I'm trying to find avehicle first.

(55:35):
Cool, I can help you locate avehicle.
You know, not like physicallylocate, but like I tell you like
this and this vehicle is goodfor acoustics and blah, blah,
blah, um.
But like one of my customers,he bought an Acura TSX or TL or
something like that and he waslike yeah, I'm trying to compete
, I'm trying to win.
Like you know, super high up inSVR, I was like Good luck with

(55:56):
this car.
You're going to have to do alot of work Because it didn't
have advantageous locations.
Now, for a daily driver, great,no problem, no problem.
But if you're trying to do sowell, at a high end Competition
scene, your car needs to be upto par and you'll notice Some of

(56:17):
the cars that do the best.
They kind of start having thesame concepts.
Longer dash you're further awayfrom them.
They all start coming the same.
I mean, look at Mark Bruno'scar Challenger, look at Robert
bruno's car challenger, look atrobert boyd's another challenger
, uh, luke's truck mids in thedash it starts becoming a
repeated pattern.
Um, so you can kind of knowlike why things do well, why

(56:38):
things don't do well in at leastcompetition yeah, me and luke
talked about that.

Speaker 1 (56:43):
If, uh, for the people out there that don't
follow the podcast, but, um, wetalked about that.
That.
You know, sometimes talkingwith somebody like you or luke,
luke does the consulting too.
I think nick nick does theconsulting and, um, uh, if you
think you know some people areout there, I'm like I'm not
gonna pay this guy.
I can freaking do all that.
You know what.
You're actually gonna savemoney getting a consultation.

(57:05):
Or, instead of fighting the car, like you said, your one of
your buddies bought an acura.
You know they're actually goingto spend more money fighting
the physics in that car becausewhen they could have bought
another car, if their sole goalis, you know, sound quality, it
doesn't mean that you know oneof the cars that you recommend

(57:27):
the person's, you know, uh, notnot gonna like it.
It's like if you told me yeah,man, check out the, uh, the
chrysler, blah, blah, blah.
I'm not a chrysler guy, so I'dbe like, hey, miguel, what?
else you got.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
You know I like imports and you exactly well,
dude, you know, check out thetoyota camry or the camry, or
get an avalon, you know, get araft, for you know that all
these cars, essentially yougotta find a car.
If it has a stock mid locationup in the dash, you can actually
it's a true mid-range.
That's a good platform alreadystarting, yeah, um, you know.

(58:02):
Or like my mazda when I boughtit, the reason I bought that
mazda one I like the way itlooks, I'm a huge Mazda fan but
it had the mid-bases up insidethe dash and I was like I can do
something with that because Ihave a really bad back.
And I was like I can't do kicks, like I can't have my dead
pedal being removed for aspeaker day, like I can't drive
the car if it has it it um.

(58:30):
So I was like this is a waythat I can have really far away
mid-base drivers with probablyno tactile feel, and it's not in
the way and it's also not inthe doors, so I don't have the
tactile feel.
Um, so what ended up happening?
I put a nine inch there andevery single time people kept on
hopping my car like dude, yourmid-base is crazy, like where is
it at?
And I'm like inside my dashthey're like you know, they'll
try to look.
I'm like you can't see it.
It's literally buried inside mydash, um, and it worked.

(58:51):
And mark bruno's car.
You know it's the same way.
That's what his mid-base worksso well, um, because he's also
up inside the dash.

Speaker 1 (58:59):
You know, as far as what is possible, yeah, some,
some cars have a better platformto start with and uh, that's
gonna save you a lot of money,it's gonna save you a lot of
time, it's gonna save you a lotof headache.
You know and I'm not saying youcan't pick any car out there
you know you can make just aboutany car sound good, but it, you
know, kind of like in the tunerworld, with people who modify

(59:21):
cars for speed, it's easier tomake a car fast.
That's already fast to beginwith.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
Exactly, if you get a BMW with a B58, you're not
going to have to do a lot ofmodifications to put a lot of
power out of it.
But if you buy yourself a Mazda3, have fun, yeah, exactly, you

(59:51):
can make it fast's that?
Um, another thing that a lot ofpeople that I notice, um, then
typically this is answeredbeforehand.
But factory integration, um, alot of people, or some cars,
don't have good factory, goodfactory integration and then
they go high, low and they'reexpecting you know what, their

(01:00:12):
full utopia system or full Morel, you know, like Cartoon Pro or
Acuton systems or whatever.
I'm like, dude, I wantSoundkiller.
I was like, well, it's notgoing to work here because we're
going high-level.
I was like, so we have twooptions.
We can do high-level in andthat could just be your daily
one, and that can make you areal team where we're going like
direct into it.
Now, if you have a pack harnessor a nav TV, cool, that's kind

(01:00:33):
of bypassed.
But you know, that's anotherthing that people have to like,
you know, be conscious of islike, do I even have a harness?
Of course, me being a dummy, Iwould have assumed.
I assumed, hey, I'm driving acomputer on wheels.
Of course there's a harness forit, because of course they
don't make one for mazda.
Guess what?

(01:00:55):
They don't make one for teslaeither.
Yay me.
So, uh, if anyone's out therethat's a programmer and is
hearing this and will be so kindof hitting me up and see how
the heck I can get digital soundof a computer on wheels, let me
know.
I know it has to be possible, Ijust don't know how to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
I'm not that smart yeah, I know there's a company I
watch, um I don't know if youever watch sam rack, but there's
a guy, uh his but one of hisyoutube buddy there, um, they
cracked.
They had to crack the, uh thetesla computer because, um, they
couldn't, they, the guycouldn't get fast charging for
some, whatever reason you know,once, once tesla get fast
charging for some, whateverreason, you know, once, once

(01:01:35):
tesla blacklists a car, forwhatever reason, if it's been
rebuilt or something, they, theyput something in the, in the
thing where.
So they there's like a, a wholemarket out there where they
kind of go into cracking teslacomputers to get in there so
that they could do becauseTesla's not very aftermarket

(01:01:55):
repair friendly.
You know what I mean yeah yeah.
So you know most people don'tkeep their.
You know most people don't tryto fix Tesla's themselves.
You know it's, it's not a smallfeat, but um, this guy kind of
has a whole YouTube channeldevoted to it, so um, but yeah,
definitely check them out um.
So you recently moved fromflorida to texas to texas.

(01:02:17):
What prompted that change?

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
uh, my wife brief, um , her passion is health, just
like my passion is audio.
So she actually grew up nearthis place, like in like two
hours away from here, um.
So she always wanted to attendTexas A&M.
She had a full-ride scholarshipto Texas A&M but she joined the
military first.
So she joined the military andshe was like I want to become a

(01:02:43):
doctor, so that's why we're here.
She's going to attend Texas A&Mto get her medical degree.
So that's where I moved, oh wow.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
Nice, nice.
Congratulations, man.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
Yeah, thanks, so that's why I moved.
Oh wow, nice, nicecongratulations man.
Yeah, thanks, dude.
Yeah, I will support my wifewhatever.
Whatever she needs, I'm here tosupport her.
So if that's moving, I'll move,doesn't bother me then.
As long as she's happy, I'mhappy, um, and plus, I mean I
feel like any man, if theirwife's like hey, I'm gonna be a
doctor, I think they'll moveyeah, yeah, yeah, so you know,
yeah yeah, so that's why we'rehere.
And plus, honestly, um, giventhe whole military background,

(01:03:19):
there's been many times whereI've been in texas and I
actually fell in love with texasand the culture and the people,
so I was not at all opposed tomoving here.
Um, so when she was like, hey,I want to attend texas a m, I
was like awesome, I like collegestation, I like the people, I
like like Texas.
So now we're here.
So, yeah, it all worked out.

Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
Yeah, a lot of people are migrating to Texas, so it's
it's gotta be a good state.
I know we were talking aboutMatt Kim earlier.
He's moving to Texas and itseems like Texas.

Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
Yeah, go ahead, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:03:57):
I was going to say that uh seems like texas is a um
pretty, uh, growing.
It's a growing state because alot of people are migrating
there, especially from the westand the east, so it's got to be
a good state yeah, yeah, no, no,it is, it's great.

Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
Um, yeah, matt came with that should be like an, not
even an hour and a half from myhouse oh, so yeah uh, you might
see some collaboration betweenaudio and region waveform tuning
.
There you go, um, you know,like I said, mac is a good
friend of mine, so him and Italk audio all the time and you
know he's just cool people.
He's actually coming overfriday to uh, hang out and take
a listen to my to my listeningroom okay, sweet.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
Yeah, yeah, he told me he's moving soon.
So speaking, yes, of of youguys collaborating, so where do
you see waveform tuning going inthe next few years?
More travel, maybe training?
Yeah other guys to be the nextmiguel rios flying around,
gallivanting all over the usyeah, so I don't really know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
You know, right right now, like this is always,
always was supposed to be phaseone.
For people who don't know, if Ihaven't already mentioned it
several times, I have a reallybad back Along another slew of
medical issues, but because ofthat, traveling is not easy on
my body.
So, with that being said, I amkind of trying to work on a way

(01:05:21):
to kind of transition from somuch from me traveling to you
and you bringing the vehicle tome.
I'm trying to figure out thoselogistics.
It'll be shipping and justtrying to figure things out.
I don't know yet.
For now it's staying the way itis, um, but given that I have to
fly out of houston now, whichwas we went from 20 minute drive
in tampa to the airport to nowan hour and a half plus,
depending on traffic.
Um, another reason why Iprompted my my charges to be

(01:05:44):
upped um, only when I'm flyingout.
All the rest of my charges,actually the exact same, have
not changed.
The only price that changed waswhen I fly out.
Um, and that's just to coverall the expensive.
We're going to tear down thevehicles, gas oil changes,
parking, all that kind of stuff.
Um, but given that the airport'snow so far, you know, when I

(01:06:05):
have to fly out at six in themorning, that means I have to
wake up at like three in themorning, two, 30 in the morning
sometimes.
Um, you know, wake up, take ashower, do what I need to do
three in the morning, two, 30 inthe morning, sometimes.
You know, wake up, take ashower, do I need to do?
Hop in the car, drive an hourand a half, get to the airport,
you know, do my thing.
Then fly out.
However, you know how, whereverI'm going, to the tune and then
fly back, and typically I flyback late, so then I'll get back

(01:06:35):
to Houston at like 10 pm, 11 pm, then I still got another hour
and a half.
So you know, it's definitelytaking a little bit of a toll on
me.
Um, I still enjoy it and Istill love helping people, but
at some point I think I'm gonnaneed to transition it somehow.
Um, because I don't think thisis not gonna work long term.
I don't think yeah, well, youknow.

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
Hopefully people can understand that well, yeah, I'm
sure they would.
That's where, yeah, that's whyI asked you what's the next
phase in that?
And, uh, I'm sure, with thetechnology just getting, you
know, better and better and it'sand it's happening at a rapid
pace.
Uh, me and my friend weretalking about this.
Um, uh, how you know, back inthe 90s the technology was, you

(01:07:10):
know, a lot different, but thetechnology has has gotten so
advanced now that the technologywas, you know, a lot different,
but the technology has hasgotten so advanced now that it's
pretty cool.
You know, like, I know youtalked about remote tuning, you
know earlier and stuff like that.
But I mean, you know, the factthat people could even do that
you know now is prettyincredible in my eyes, because I
grew up in the 90s and Iremember you know how they tuned

(01:07:33):
back then and they didn't havea lot of the tools that they
have now.
You know, back then they had anrta.
I don't know how old you are,but the rtas are basically like
these little led dots that popup and yeah it didn't tell them
much.
But yeah, so it, it has gotten.
Uh, the technology has advancedand I'm sure it's going to keep

(01:07:54):
advancing, especially with guyslike you.
Nick Matt.
I mean you guys are on thecutting edge of this stuff and
you guys keep on.

Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
Well, thanks, buddy, appreciate that, you know, like
I have.
So I use the NB's M7NBmicroarray system.
That's the best microarray I'veused.
That's why I use it.
I also always carry a U-Mic too, but now I actually got gifted
Huge shout out to Aaron Bottle.
He gifted me an Earthworks M23R.

(01:08:25):
I don't know why he just didthat's the one I carry with me.
I use those interchangeably.
If, if there's ever in a car andI'm like, huh, something don't
sound right, I'll bring out my.
You know, I'll bring out mylittle mic, plug it in and do
the moving my brother to figureout what, what I'm missing, um.
But you know, like it's notthat I can't do remote tuning.

(01:08:47):
I've done it before.
I know how to.
I got multiple of the of thenatal microarrays so I mean I
could be shipping out micsthroughout the us and you know,
doing it that way, away fromtuning remotely.
But the reason why I don't isbecause, like, I've come to find
out that no matter how prettythe screen is, there's still
some of that human, humaninteraction that really makes a

(01:09:08):
difference of a vehicle, um, andto me it's the difference
between, like a good soundingcar, an okay sounding car, to
like others really good andthey're just sometimes things in
the rta just don't match up orphase or impulse.
I just don't match up to what,to what we're hearing.
Sometimes it's just a crazyresonance in the doors that,
like your, your ears need totell you, or like you need to

(01:09:30):
add a little bit more timebecause reflection, or you need,
or you need to move the seat,you know, just a hair more and
it, you know, takes you awayfrom behind the big the b-pillow
to in front of it and itchanged the sound drastically.
Or like the customer is likeman, like it sounds great.
But I just need this one littlething in this song.
I was like cool, got you, I'mthere in person, I can make all
these changes, um, and reallyget it dialed in for them the

(01:09:54):
way they want it, so they're notconstantly having to do tweaks
after tweaks, after tweaks aftertweaks, like it's just
typically 95 of the time onceI'm done in a car, I'm done, um,
and they're done as well, likethey don't have to continue
getting small tweaks and thingslike that.
Now, it does happen sometimesand it's easy, you know.

(01:10:15):
I ask them what the issue is.
I remote into it.
I, you know, I do the littlefeedback change A lot of times.
I just want more base.
I'm like cool, yeah, I'll dothat real quick.
And then we call it a day andthat's it.
Yeah so that's why I do it inperson.

(01:10:37):
Yeah, you do have some trainedears, because last time at the
HBR you were one of the judges,right?

Speaker 1 (01:10:39):
Yeah, I was yeah, that was the first time he
judged me.
It was cool, yeah, yeah, and Icompeted.
I really didn't want to.
I'm not a competitor, you know,I'm just a music enthusiast and
I love, you know, to have anice system that images and it
sounds clear and and imagescorrectly.
But, um, you know, I run dirac,I use the mini dsp with dirac

(01:10:59):
and, uh, you know, I seteverything properly and I knew
my system was missing something.
And uh, my buddy, ryan, you know, ryan, obviously with the camry
, yeah, um, you know he kept onegging me on and I'm like I
don't think you know I knewsomething was missing in my car
and I was like nah, I don'tthink you know I knew something
was missing in my car and I waslike, nah, I don't want to
compete, dude, my car's notcompetition worthy, it's not
ready yet.
And he's like compete man,compete.

(01:11:19):
Yeah, your car's ready.
It sounds really good.

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
And I was like eh, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:11:24):
so I didn't really look at competition this way, uh
, but you got in it, nick got init, kevin got in it and you
guys gave me some really goodfeedback.
And when I came home I didthose tweaks, the stuff that you
guys told me, and the thing waswas that all three of you guys

(01:11:45):
were giving me the same feedback, more or less.
So I was like, well, if theseguys are saying it, then it's
got to be.
You know, it's got to be, it'sgot to be true.
So I went in there and I didthose exact tweaks that you guys
said man, night and daydifference.

Speaker 2 (01:12:02):
And.

Speaker 1 (01:12:02):
I didn't care if I was in 20th place, just getting
that feedback from you guys.
You know, because I'm not acompetitor, I'm a listener.
I'm an enthusiast, I'm a soundcompetitor, I'm a listener, you
know what I mean.
I'm an enthusiast, I'm a soundquality enthusiast.
I'm, I'm, you know I'm.
I'm a proud audiophile, youknow.
So I know a lot of people like,ah, that's cliche, but no, I
think we're audiophiles, we liketo listen to our music nice and

(01:12:24):
clear, and for it to imagecorrectly and for, you know, to
have the right timbre, like yousay, but sometimes getting your
car out there to a competitionor to a get-together and having
somebody with a tuned ear likeyou guys listen and give you
back that feedback, that that'sthat.
That stuff is priceless, man,and I'm kind of glad that ryan
egged me on and got me in therebecause I knew something was

(01:12:47):
missing with my car.
I knew, you know, like whenyou've had reference uh, listen
to reference systems, you knowwhat to listen for.
Knew you know, like when you'vehad reference uh, listen to
reference systems, you know whatto listen for.
And you know something you'relike you know my car sounds good
but it could be better.
That's where you guys came in.
You gave me that advice and andI did those, those three or
four tweaks, and man, yeah, itreally, really did change things
yeah, dude.

Speaker 2 (01:13:09):
No, that's awesome.
I'm glad that worked.
I mean, that's to me, that'swhat competition should be, you
know, is people with actuallygood trained ears, with a good
reference in their head, toactually give valuable feedback.
Um, unfortunately, a lot oftimes, especially in the bigger
shows, which I mean, it's nofault of their own, it's just
they have so many cars to judgebut, like, there's not so much
feedback they can be given, andthen when they actually give the

(01:13:31):
feedback and you get the scoresheet, it's all in scribbles
because you can't read theirhandwriting.
Um, but, once again, like thisis this is no, this is not me.
Like you know, that's the firsttime me ever judging.
I tell you what it's not easy.
Um, so, you know, huge props toall the judges.
But you know, to me, a bigthing is like if you're gonna
have the title of a judge, youshould have a really good

(01:13:51):
reference.
And if I'm going to judge and ifpeople ask me to judge, I'm
going to give feedback and I'mgoing to attempt to not just be
like, hey, something's wrong,because anybody can say that.
Almost anybody with any type ofear would be like, yep,
something doesn't sound right.
But what doesn't sound right.
And one thing that I've come torealize is especially with like

(01:14:16):
tuning other customers car.
If you give them everything, ifthere's like a low down list of
like dude, your car is justmessed up.
You know what I mean Like it'sjust wrong.
If you just like give it all atthem, they're going to be so
defeated, they're not going tobe receptive to it.

(01:14:39):
So a lot of times what I end updoing is's like hey, dude, like
this is the main things I'mhearing.
You know, I call it liketwitter's a little hot, between
four to six k because of thissong at this part.
You know mid-range a littlemuddy.
You know between two to fourhundred.
Fix that, um.
And you know bass, the back isis not in phase and sometimes I
even hop in the car.
I'm like this is how I knowthis and I'll play the songs,
I'll play the tracks and I'mlike fix those things, come back
.
If those things are fixed, thenthe judge won't mention it, but

(01:15:01):
they'll mention other things.
But these are the big thingsfirst and I think that way one
it continues bringing peopleback into the competition, which
is great, you know, but itallows them to work on the
things that really need to beaddressed first, versus being
like dude, everything's wrongand they're like well, where do
I start?
You know, if you give themeverything's wrong, then there's

(01:15:22):
nowhere to start.

Speaker 1 (01:15:23):
Yeah, your system sucks man, Get out of here.

Speaker 2 (01:15:29):
This thing is garbage , nah, but, like you know, I
think everybody wants to have agood sounding vehicle and the
one thing I tell peopleconstantly Because a lot of
people enjoy my tonality mytonality comes from my rebel
towers.
That's where it comes from andto me, kind of the way it is I

(01:15:50):
didn't really coin this term,but I use it a lot People know
when correct is correct is likeI didn't really coin this term,
but I use it a lot which is likepeople know when correct is
correct, meaning if you hop in acar and you're like this is
great, it's correct, you knowit's correct.
It doesn't take a genius.
Even someone who doesn't knowanything about audio will be
like wow, that sounds great.

(01:16:10):
They might not know why itsounds great, but they know it
sounds great.
Um, to me, that's when thingsare correct.
Um, so that's why, when itcomes to my tonality, I have
that preference, which is likemy goal is just to get as close
to these rebel towers aspossible.
Um, the only other speakers Ilike more than these are the Kev

(01:16:30):
blades.
I don't know many people withKev blades.

Speaker 1 (01:16:33):
Um, so yeah, yeah, I'm a huge fan of the calves.
I like the.
Uh, what is it?
The LS fifties or somethinglike that.

Speaker 2 (01:16:40):
Yep, the LS fifties are good.
They have some deviation, um,especially in like the upper mid
range region, um, but I meanit's not bad, especially for the
price.
But I urge people to look atspinoramaorg and go look at your
speakers that you have.
And just go look at two thingson-axis response, directivity

(01:17:03):
index, which is I'm not going toget into it, don't worry about
it just on-axis response.
And then look at estimatedin-room response, especially
above the shorter effects, above300 hertz.
Clipwatch does a really goodjob of estimating what that
speaker is going to do in a roomto a very high degree of
accuracy and you'll be surprisedhow many speakers.

(01:17:27):
I don't give a crap for theprice, I'll honestly tell you.
Now, bowers 803 suck.
People are like oh bowers, I'mjust like, just go look at that
spinorama dot, are you gonnathrow up?
You're like, really this isterrible.
Um and like, when it comes tolike you know, just towers in
general or bookshelves doesn'tmatter.

(01:17:48):
There are two things you gottanotice.
There's on axis and the offaxis response, and the in-room
response is a culmination ofboth of them.
So, like the rebels, they're onaxis.
On axis response and off axisare very similar, and if you
just look at the on axis, you'dbe like oh, there's a couple
deviations, which there are.
Every sweep's gonna have acouple deviations, no big deal,

(01:18:11):
um, I think they're all plus orminus a db and a half, which is
not that much deviation, um.
But then if you look at thein-room response, it gets really
, really tight, um, and that'sbecause it's tuned to not only
have a good on-axe response butwhen the reflections hit you
because you know the reflex isalways going to hit you it

(01:18:32):
combines the creative, smootherresponse.

Speaker 1 (01:18:35):
Oh yeah, no, there's a little insight about yeah,
home towers sounds like you knowyou're not home.
Audio yeah, you're not allcreated equally you and aaron
must talk for hours because, um,he's, he's into uh, home audio
too, and I tell anybody listen.
You don't even have to spend alot of money.
You could get some some lowprice elax or even some used

(01:18:56):
speakers on facebook marketplaceand just get a reference for
what a proper image is supposedto be.
Because when you put, like youknow, you set up like some near
field monitors in your room oryour office, you're like, oh,
that's what, that's what acenter image is.
It doesn't have to be likeperfect, perfect speakers that

(01:19:20):
you have, you know the best, youknow tube Macintosh amplifier.
You don't have to go out andbuy a hundred thousand dollars
system.
You could spend under a grandand have a great set of speakers
and you're going to be like oh,wow so this is what they're
talking about.
This is, and when you get that,when you get that in the car,
you're like oh my God, this isawesome, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:19:40):
Yeah, oh, a lot of times with homes or what.
What I ended up finding is that, just like there's just so many
home audio can, can and is justas deep as car audio.
Oh yeah, Um.
I think, just like how, like,yeah, you know, not every
Regular speaker, you know, for acar Raw speaker is created

(01:20:00):
equally, not every cabinet iscreated equally, meaning like,
for instance, like these Rebels,because they're kind of like a,
they are a three way designwith a waveguided Tweeter.
They have a pretty gooddispersion pattern horizontally,
meaning that it's going to be awider image.
You would never get thisimaging in a vehicle.

(01:20:22):
Absolutely not happening.
I don't care what was, it's nothappening.
But you have, like, let's say,your Kev LS50s, right, because
that's a concentric design,meaning that the tweeter is
built inside the woofer and thewoofer is acting as the
tweeter's waveguide.
It is a point source, I guessnot really precise, is the

(01:20:52):
correct, is the correct word?
But a more narrow sound stage,um, which is more keen and in
line to maybe what can we canexpect in a car because of all
the reflections, um, but mypersonal enjoyment, and that's
kind of like up to you, likewhat you enjoy, what you don't
enjoy.
If you like a speaker that hasa wide radiation pressure and
you like a wide sound, sweet,get a speaker with a wide

(01:21:12):
horizontal dispersion pattern.
But just know, because of thatdispersion pattern, that means
it's going to have moreinteraction and the room is
going to play a bigger part,especially if it's not tuned
correctly Not me tuning it, butlike from the maker.
Like Harman makes Rebel, I tellthem this is an engineered
speaker, meaning that theon-axis and off-axis response

(01:21:34):
are extremely similar.
So when both sounds hit me,one's not wildly different than
the other, so it doesn't muddyup the sound, um.
So I can kind of get away witha more untreated room with these
rebels than, let's say, thebowers.
Where those aren't, I mean good, lucky, they have been a tree
room and even then the on theon-le response isn't that good

(01:21:54):
when, like the LS50, even thoughthe frequency response isn't
that great but the dispersionpattern is narrower.
So you can kind of get away withhaving a non-treated room.
And having a treated roomreally makes a huge difference,
just like sounding in your car.
You can have the most expensivespeakers possible, but if room
is echoey, um and messing up,the group delay because of time

(01:22:15):
smear, it's never going to soundright.
And just like in a vehicledoesn't matter how much money
you spend on the, on thespeakers or the towers, if, if
the car vehicle, if the carrooms, the issue.
You got to treat that firstyeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:22:29):
It's funny how a lot of the stuff that applies to
home audio also applies to caraudio in a sense you know,
reflections and resonances, andyou know, on access response,
off access response.
It's physics, is physics.
I keep saying that all the time.
But but, miguel, I think we'regonna wrap it up.
We got a lot of content.
You in almost two hours, buddy.

(01:22:50):
Uh, where can?

Speaker 2 (01:22:51):
people find you online and or on Instagram.

Speaker 1 (01:22:54):
What's your handle Give?

Speaker 2 (01:22:55):
people out there your information.
Yeah, thanks, it'swaveformtuningcom, that's my
website, or waveformtuning onFacebook and Instagram as well.
Also have a YouTubewaveformtuning, so if you want
to check out some of that stuffthere.
I'm still cringing on why Icouldn't remember the different
phase wraps, so if anyone got tothe end, my bad.

(01:23:17):
I understand it now.
Steeper slope, more delay phasegoing up, it means arriving
earlier.
Clear that up I'm an idiot, butnot that much.
No, I just be forgetting, kindof like.
Sometimes, man, you tell me goleft and I go right, my brain
just forgets.
I'm like what's happening today?

Speaker 1 (01:23:35):
Yeah, it's good stuff , man Give you a lot of
information.
Thank you, buddy, but everybodysay goodbye to Miguel.
Thank you, miguel.
Stick around, miguel.
Thank you, yeah.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Herd with Colin Cowherd

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Inside the Mind of a Master Tuner. How Miguel Rios is Revolutionizing Car Audio One System at a Time

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Herd with Colin Cowherd

All Episodes

Inside the Mind of a Master Tuner. How Miguel Rios is Revolutionizing Car Audio One System at a Time

Stuff You Should Know