AUDIO
Audio Avengers
By Brett Solomon
Posted on Sep 16, 2004

Diversity — we’re lectured about it all the time in high school and college, but one of the coolest things about competing in sound quality competition is the diversity of vehicle styles. Unlike the sport compact competition circuit, where most of the vehicles are smaller sedans and coupes, in the sound quality arena anything goes.

When I was competing, I owned competition cars ranging from a hatchback, to a sedan, to an SUV, and, one time, I even towed a boat on a trailer through the lanes (the head judge was leery of how that would work into the rulebook, so he took a vote from competitors at the event and decided to let the boat run through. It took third place that day! Although the two-stroke engine noise and oil smell was a little obnoxious for other competitors). This leads to a great debate — is there a vehicle type (coupe, hatchback, sedan, SUV, pick-up) that has an advantage over another vehicle? According to our own technical director David Navone, his personal favorite vehicle type for competition is a two-door coupe because of the segregated trunk and the ability to move the seats further away from the dashboard compared to other vehicles. We spoke with a few competitors who have been in the competition game for the long haul, and asked them about how they got started, and their opinions of vehicle acoustics.

Scott Buwalda has been involved in car audio since 1987, and his killer Nissans have torn up the competition circuit.

“I got involved in car audio as a Junior in high school in South Florida, he explains. “The South Florida bass scene was growing every day. It seemed virtually every young man had an audio system of some sort. There were no competing organization in Florida [with regards to] car audio like there is today. If you were young and had a car in South Florida, you probably had a Punch 45 powering a pair of Punch 12’s, a pair of Cricket coaxials in the doors, and an Alpine 7902 CD player.”

Yes, us old-timers love reminiscing about old-school equipment...

Buwalda continues, “A friend in high school got me started by introducing me to a gentleman and his wife that ran a small store in Lake Worth, Florida, called ‘Strictly Speakers.’ Before you knew it, there was a competition audio system installed in my 1984 Nissan Sentra, and we were attending Car Audio Nationals II Preliminary events in South Florida back in late 87’.”

We asked Scott exactly what has kept him in the game for so long and he replied “An equal mixture of mental instability and testicular fortitude.”

Most importantly, forgetting about Scott’s love for Nissans, we asked if he would ever choose a different vehicle style (after all, Nissan just doesn’t offer sedans and hatchbacks — they also offer full-size Titans, neat-looking Muranos, and even big mutha Pathfinder Armadas...)

“I would not choose a new vehicle style,” he states. “My ideal vehicle is a smaller, mid-size vehicle, or a larger compact vehicle. Two doors or four — it doesn’t really matter to me — just as long as you can equalize pathlength differences from your ears to the speakers. After competing a hatchback for seven years, and a trunk vehicle for eight, I can say that a trunk vehicle is generally easier to work with. My last two vehicles, a 1995 Nissan 240SX and a 2003 Nissan Altima, have both been particularly well suited for a competitive mobile audio build-up. Of course, it’s nice to have a level dashboard and roomy kick panels, but an air saw and a plasma cutter can cure the most unforgiving dashboards and kick panels.”

Another perennial sound-off competitor is Larry Chijner. He explains how he got involved in the world of car audio competition with his famous Cadillac Eldorado (a perfect vehicle according to Navone).

“I just got my Cadillac and wanted a new head unit for it,” he states. “I saw a store that had a big neon sign that said ‘Car Stereo’ in the window and stopped in. There were about 50 trophies and I was curious what they were for. The owner of the store was actually Mark Liggett [another veteran of the scene] but I didn’t know of him. I put the head unit in and got bit from there. The following week, I added some free air subs in the trunk. I needed more and more and the whole thing snowballed into a competition car. I competed in my first show at the Super Bowl of Sound at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, PA, in June of 1995. I won my first show and still treasure that trophy even ‘til today.”

Larry really is an awesome spokesperson for car audio competition because of his love of music.
“I have a passion for music as I’m a musician,” he explains. “I played piano and guitar in bands growing up. I really love to try and improve my car and work towards ‘sound perfection,’ if there is such a thing. I’ve been tuning my car and changing speaker placements constantly, trying everything I can to create the best sound quality. Other competitors keep me going as they continue to improve — it keeps me fired up to compete and work on my car. I love the competition. Over the years, I’ve competed in nine IASCA Finals and have placed in the top five in every IASCA Finals, including a World Championship. I’m very proud of this accomplishment.”

Because of Larry’s large two-door Cadillac being the only vehicle he has ever competed with, we asked him the possibility of changing.

“If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. Competition [with the Caddy] has been good to me — I’ve met a lot of great people in the industry and made many friends . The competitors are a breed of their own.”

After all, when you’re surrounded by the younger generation with mega-spoilers and big body kits, it’s cool to park next to a vehicle that looks more at home at the golf driving range.

Chijner continues, “It takes a lot of drive and commitment to continue to compete year after year. The Cadillac interior gives me a large sound stage and I love working with it. The possibilities are endless — I can try a lot of configurations, and, believe me, I have. From [compression] horns mounted under the dash, to horns mounted in the dash, to the horns gone with regular [tweeter] drivers in the dash, to finally moving the subs in the front — I’ve tried to improve and I feel that I have. Currently, I’m adding subs in the kick panels and I feel I have the best setup yet. I’m very excited to bring the car back out. I like having this large car to work with and I wouldn’t change a thing as far as vehicle type.”

Does that mean if you have a smaller car you’ll be less competitive? Absolutely not, but it has been argued that certain vehicle types do better than other vehicle types. For those of you who think that an SUV or pick-up truck would be nearly impossible to achieve good sound from are welcomed to listen to Mark Eldridge’s Toyota 4Runner that has perhaps dominated the soundoff scene more than any other vehicle for the longest period of time.

The best advice that I can give is to stick with your vehicle choice for a couple of years rather than changing it like underwear. It takes time to learn the sonic attributes to your vehicle’s interior.