ProjectTwin
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 22, 2020
- Member Number
- 1193
- Messages
- 471
Funny story to how this came to happen.
A couple of years ago I was at the Virginia State Finals for MECA ( Mobile Electronics Competition Association) at the Sundown show in North Carolina. Had the '66 Chevelle there competing in Extreme (single seat sound quality judging) and SQ2+, which is where both seats are judged at the same time. Won state championships in both classes.
Had a guy come up and introduce himself. "Hey, I'm Nick from Stereo Integrity"
"Oh, hey man. How's it going."
That was pretty much our discussion. I had no knowledge of his products. Had only seen them on the forums. He never had the chance to listen to the Chevelle because people were spending 20-30 per person listening.
Fast forward to last November. We bought the new place in March of last year and I finally started building my own work shop. I decided to have a group meet for all SQ competitors on the property because we had space. Like a PBB meet & greet, just a bunch of car audio guys listening to cars, eating BBQ (I cooked), and bullshittin'.
Nick contacted me and asked if he could bring stuff to show to the guys that came to the meet. Told him he could.
Everyone comes and Nick see the van that was sent here from Pittsburgh. Dude was unhappy with it and sent it to me to unfuck. Complete tear down and redbuild. Dash and all.
So Nick asks what the plan is, I tell him that the dude had four JL 13W7s on four JL HD1200/1s and it only did 140.9dB.
The van had 14 amplifiers, 52 channels of amplification, four digital signal processors, and 52 speakers.
So Nick is listening and I tell him that I was going to put the 13W7s in a 4th order C-pillar wall.
He suggested his HST-15s instead.
I told him I had no experience with them and before I would entertain the idea of telling the customer to switch subs I needed to get my hands on one to test.
So I drove to his place in North Carolina, tuned one of his cars (another Sound Quality car) and blew him away with what is half of my normal tuning process. He had issues with his processor so I didn't get to spend the time on the car that I wanted. I was limited to one day to drive there, tune, and drive back.
I brought a HST-15 back with me. Did some testing and found that would it not only stomp on the 13W7s, it would do it in a smaller enclosure and have more output in the lower frequencies.
For a 4th order enclosure that means going from four 13W7s to four HST-15s would save me about 18ft^3.
So I was convinced. Told the customer that this was the better route. The HSTs sound better than the W7s, perform better, and do it all in a smaller enclosure than the 13W7s. It's an all-around win.
And then Nick mentioned that he could build some 24s for the van that would work in 3ft^3 sealed.
"I need to play with some 24s then."
So we worked out a deal for me to build/install a complete stealth system in his 2006 Audi A4 Avant. Completely hidden system. Full stock appearance aside from the Kenwood head unit.
Fortunately, that's exactly what I like doing.
The build plan was to use one of his new SQL-15 in 2ft^3 sealed in the spare tire well of the wagon, his M25 tweeters, M3 midranges, and TM65 MKIII midbasses.
Power would be coming from some prototype Sundown SALT multi-channel amplifiers. Class D full range units.
Here's the two 24s he dropped off for me. HS-24s. 290lbs of subs here.
And here's the patient. Good looking Audi wagon.
The first thing I did was get to work removing this hump in the spare tire well. Under the car this is where the evap canister is housed. That will get relocated so it was removed.
Then it was time to drill out the spot weld, cut through the seam sealer, and pop this big hump out so I could weld in a plate and get started on the sealed enclosure for the SQL-15.
So after getting that hump out and seeing the huge area in that spare tire well I immediately started measuring to see if I could get a 24 in the car and still make it stealth. I went the the Stereo Integrity website, pulled up the IB-24 specs, looked at the mounting depth, and knew this shit was going to work.
For those that don't know, IB means infinite baffle. Basically the sub has no enclosure. You mount it to separate front wave from back wave, send power to it, and let it eat.
With an infinite baffle install if you have the doors and hatch open you'll have no output to speak of. Once you close the hatch the cabin space of the vehicle effectively becomes the enclosure and you get ridiculous amounts of low end output on very little power. There's one thing that's king with an infinite baffle install, and that's cone area. A 24" sub has gobs of cone area.
So I called Nick the next morning, told him that I couldn't put his 15 in the car like he asked because it deserves an IB-24. I could hear him smiling through the rest of our conversation.
I went over how this would still be a stealth install and the 24 will fit and work properly.
The very idea of a stealth 24" sub install is unheard of. We HAD to do it.
So...simple decision. Fuck that 15. 24 it is.
I told Nick to get started building the sub for the car and to clear coat the motor (it's either nickel/chrome plated) to protect it from corrosion due to humidity, and send it to me.
In the meantime I worked with one of the HS-24s to make a template for the mounting baffle to go in the car.
But first I had to remove stuff that was in my way and would need to removed anyway.
A couple of years ago I was at the Virginia State Finals for MECA ( Mobile Electronics Competition Association) at the Sundown show in North Carolina. Had the '66 Chevelle there competing in Extreme (single seat sound quality judging) and SQ2+, which is where both seats are judged at the same time. Won state championships in both classes.
Had a guy come up and introduce himself. "Hey, I'm Nick from Stereo Integrity"
"Oh, hey man. How's it going."
That was pretty much our discussion. I had no knowledge of his products. Had only seen them on the forums. He never had the chance to listen to the Chevelle because people were spending 20-30 per person listening.
Fast forward to last November. We bought the new place in March of last year and I finally started building my own work shop. I decided to have a group meet for all SQ competitors on the property because we had space. Like a PBB meet & greet, just a bunch of car audio guys listening to cars, eating BBQ (I cooked), and bullshittin'.
Nick contacted me and asked if he could bring stuff to show to the guys that came to the meet. Told him he could.
Everyone comes and Nick see the van that was sent here from Pittsburgh. Dude was unhappy with it and sent it to me to unfuck. Complete tear down and redbuild. Dash and all.
So Nick asks what the plan is, I tell him that the dude had four JL 13W7s on four JL HD1200/1s and it only did 140.9dB.
The van had 14 amplifiers, 52 channels of amplification, four digital signal processors, and 52 speakers.
So Nick is listening and I tell him that I was going to put the 13W7s in a 4th order C-pillar wall.
He suggested his HST-15s instead.
I told him I had no experience with them and before I would entertain the idea of telling the customer to switch subs I needed to get my hands on one to test.
So I drove to his place in North Carolina, tuned one of his cars (another Sound Quality car) and blew him away with what is half of my normal tuning process. He had issues with his processor so I didn't get to spend the time on the car that I wanted. I was limited to one day to drive there, tune, and drive back.
I brought a HST-15 back with me. Did some testing and found that would it not only stomp on the 13W7s, it would do it in a smaller enclosure and have more output in the lower frequencies.
For a 4th order enclosure that means going from four 13W7s to four HST-15s would save me about 18ft^3.
So I was convinced. Told the customer that this was the better route. The HSTs sound better than the W7s, perform better, and do it all in a smaller enclosure than the 13W7s. It's an all-around win.
And then Nick mentioned that he could build some 24s for the van that would work in 3ft^3 sealed.
"I need to play with some 24s then."
So we worked out a deal for me to build/install a complete stealth system in his 2006 Audi A4 Avant. Completely hidden system. Full stock appearance aside from the Kenwood head unit.
Fortunately, that's exactly what I like doing.
The build plan was to use one of his new SQL-15 in 2ft^3 sealed in the spare tire well of the wagon, his M25 tweeters, M3 midranges, and TM65 MKIII midbasses.
Power would be coming from some prototype Sundown SALT multi-channel amplifiers. Class D full range units.
Here's the two 24s he dropped off for me. HS-24s. 290lbs of subs here.
And here's the patient. Good looking Audi wagon.
The first thing I did was get to work removing this hump in the spare tire well. Under the car this is where the evap canister is housed. That will get relocated so it was removed.
Then it was time to drill out the spot weld, cut through the seam sealer, and pop this big hump out so I could weld in a plate and get started on the sealed enclosure for the SQL-15.
So after getting that hump out and seeing the huge area in that spare tire well I immediately started measuring to see if I could get a 24 in the car and still make it stealth. I went the the Stereo Integrity website, pulled up the IB-24 specs, looked at the mounting depth, and knew this shit was going to work.
For those that don't know, IB means infinite baffle. Basically the sub has no enclosure. You mount it to separate front wave from back wave, send power to it, and let it eat.
With an infinite baffle install if you have the doors and hatch open you'll have no output to speak of. Once you close the hatch the cabin space of the vehicle effectively becomes the enclosure and you get ridiculous amounts of low end output on very little power. There's one thing that's king with an infinite baffle install, and that's cone area. A 24" sub has gobs of cone area.
So I called Nick the next morning, told him that I couldn't put his 15 in the car like he asked because it deserves an IB-24. I could hear him smiling through the rest of our conversation.
I went over how this would still be a stealth install and the 24 will fit and work properly.
The very idea of a stealth 24" sub install is unheard of. We HAD to do it.
So...simple decision. Fuck that 15. 24 it is.
I told Nick to get started building the sub for the car and to clear coat the motor (it's either nickel/chrome plated) to protect it from corrosion due to humidity, and send it to me.
In the meantime I worked with one of the HS-24s to make a template for the mounting baffle to go in the car.
But first I had to remove stuff that was in my way and would need to removed anyway.
