Cool Story Bro! How you got HOOKED to Car Audio Sound Quality...

[erinh]

There was a MECA event yesterday in Lebanon, TN. Was a total blast. After awards were handed out a young guy, probably around 20, came up and said he was at the SPL side all day but wanted to hear an SQ system to see what it's about. He asked for a demo and since most had left I offered up mine. We get in the car and Toto's "Africa" was already playing so I let him hear that. He said "Wow. I didn't know it could sound that good". We chatted a bit about what he listens to and he said rap... so I threw on a couple rap songs and cranked it... just so he'd know us SQ guys aren't just about quiet Jazz music. He just kept saying "wow" over and over. I think I broke some SQ stereotypes.

We chatted a bit more about my equipment. We got out and I started to close the hood and he asked if I was only using the stock alternator... I told him yes, and he couldn't believe it. I told him to come stop by the SQ area at the next show and bring a CD with him so we could go through some stuff he's more familiar with. He said he'd definitely be back. So, I think the dude may not have caught the bug.



That was a highlight of the event yesterday for me. And it really made me think how this hobby can start with such a small spark. I've been it in about 6-7 years or so now all thanks to a single invite and demo. I figure I'd share my intro to SQ and maybe you other guys could share yours as well.

I was on the caraudio.com forum for a year or two before I found DIYMA. About a year or so in to it, Kirk Proffitt invited me to a GTG he was having at his house to get folks tuned up and ready for Alabama State Finals. He mentioned demos, food and he lives only 30-40 minutes from me so I jumped on the opportunity. I drove up and took a friend with me. I sat there feeling awkward for a bit and then Matt Roberts started talking and joking around with me... made me feel less awkward around a bunch of guys I didn't know. As time we went on I got more comfortable with the guys there: Jeff Smith, Keith Turner, Ricky, Scott Selvidge, David Hogan, Andrew Smalls and a few others. After the sun went down and we ate our huge-mongous steaks guys went to their cars to start demoing and tuning, Kirk invited me to listen to his car. Now... keep in mind that I'm an 80's music nut... The first song He pulled up was "Money For Nothin'" and he let it rip. If you've ever heard Kirk's car you know how dynamic it is. I was BLOWN AWAY. It just friggin' awesome. He flipped through a few tracks but he didn't need to. I was already done. He "had me at hello".

I spent a couple more hours listening to other cars. I had an extended session with Scott and he really walked through some things for me and explained sound quality... something that the forum really can't relay, as hard as we may try. He played tracks for me and described things to listen for. He talked about install and tuning... just really helped add something tangible to the discussions that I had read on forums.

In between demos I hung around these guys and just listened to them. They talked about car audio, sure, but they talked about other stuff. Just a group of guys you could tell were tight, even though some lived hundreds of miles away. There was a camaraderie that was evident.


I left Kirk's house that night knowing I was done for. I must have listened to "Money For Nothin'" on repeat the whole drive back home. The friend that was with me got to listen to some systems as well and we just kept talking about how awesome they were and how cool the guys were to some complete newcomers.

Ever since that night I've been entrenched in this hobby; for better or worse. LOL.

I'd like to give thanks to Kirk for inviting me out that night. And I'd also like to thank Matt, David, Scott, Ricky, Andrew, Jeff, and Keith for really making me feel welcome there. My wife may hate you guys if she ever knew this story but I really do sincerely appreciate you fellas taking me in. Even though I know some of you may never see this.


And that's my story...

I'd really like to see what got you other folks in to this hobby.

- Erin

[littlemissGTO]

I always hated stock audio, so I'd end up at Best Buy or Ultimate Electronics picking out stuff for the vehicle I had at the time. I never knew about SQ or SPL until I started the audio build for my GTO. That's when I found DIYMA and CAJ. Then I went to OKC and found out what SQ was really about. I've gone downhill in a very short amount of time. I've had my current set up for about a year, and I've already started version 2.0. Hopefully I'll be content with 2.0 for longer than a year.

[chefhow]

I'm OLD and got bit by the bug in 1986 when I got my license and had an 8 track in my Honda Civic 1600 Si....

[chad]

Was big into home audio first (bought the first CD player out under 500 bucks)

First car had an AM radio and dash speaker in the middle.

Bought an alpine headunit at a pawn shop and a set of 4X10's for the rear (Alpine)

The headunit did not have enough shit in its pants so I bought an small alphasonik amp to power the 4X10's

THEN I was at a local store and one of the installers showed me his system and demoed it for me...

It was over after that.... All hail the coveted Transfer Function.

[Hillbilly SQ]

It started out putting a cd player in my 01 Silverado that had a tape player. Then a pair of front coaxials, then rears, then bought a Xplod 2ch amp and pair of Cerwin Vega 10's and throwing them in a box too small for them behind the seats. I was a bass head then and shortly afterwards found Sounddomain. Talking with people like Andy Jones and Asher Noll they answered all my n00b questions as I was showing interest in SQ. I wasted A LOT of money swapping out gear not having a clue what I was doing. Then I made the 8.5 hour drive to Atlanta for IASCA finals. My ignorance pissed a few people off but won't go into that. Asher's Cobalt sounded AMAZING. Had good impact and dynamics. What got me hooked was Kirk's TL. He dug to find a cd to demo with since I didn't heed the advice to bring my own. Seems like everyone had the test cd in their vehicle and little more. Asher actually woke a sound asleep Kirk up and told him I was just getting into sq and was demoing cars. Me being shy and scared, I owe it all to Asher for helping me get my feet wet and Kirk for getting me hooked. That TL ripped my head off but sounded so good. After that came a few years of trying my hardest to have a good sounding properly tuned install. After getting humbled a couple times everything has lead up to now. Quality equipment with a good tune done by Glenn at 10pm in the La Quinta parking lot in OKC. I'm amazed at just how far off I was on my time alignment for all these years. Never could get that quite right on my own by ear. I've found that the more I learn the less I know. At g2g's I try to spend a lot more time listening to people who I know are way smarter than I am. Someone has told me that I appeared to be "afraid to talk". In reality I live by the saying that God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason.

[Lanson]

Workin' at Circuit City (before the "fall") and then my own facility, then at Ultimate Electronics is what did it for me.

[BigAl205]

I've always been into car audio since the late 80's. My first mod was upgraded Alpine 6x9's on a stock Delco unit in my '88 Grand Am. I pounded the hell out of those thing and thought it sounded good until I finally installed my first sub, an Orion SGX 12 powered by a Carver M2060 amplifier. At this point I was hooked.

I always liked good sound, and all of my subsequent vehicles had upgraded headunit, speakers, an amp and sub...but it wasn't until I joined Diyma that I actually started learning what true car audio was all about. In August of '09 I attended my first car audio event, Bikinpunk's North Alabama BBQ, met a lot of cool people, and hear a LOT of outstanding systems (Erin, Kirk, Kelly, Ryan, just to name a few). So for almost 20 years, I had been driving around thinking that I knew what a good system sounded like, but in late '09 I realized that my stuff sucked.

Thanks guys

[SublimeZ]

My audio journey started in the mid 70's, with a Craig Powerplay (Quadraphonic 8-track) and Jensen Triaxs in my buddy's Ford Wagon. For many years, ran the gamut of 8-tracks, cassettes, cd players, booster/eq's and amps. Loud equaled good. Then in 2008, I met Glenn at an Austin meet. A whole new world opened up. And now I'm ruint.