• Over the weekend we showed the first part in Alpine’s Sinister Six demo car build videos, and we wrapped it up with Part 2. It’s still hard to believe this beast started life as an $80,000 BMW 645…. The resemblance is there, but this demo car is a work of art!
• Griffin sent us a few of their in-car iPod charger/wireless transmitters to take for a test drive and we just finished our review of the first product. The gadget worked very well – we were impressed!
• Pioneer’s MINI-mino impressed us both on CarDomain and SoundDomain, so we couldn’t resist writing about it either! We got a few details on the product line-up and modifications, but not much info was available at press time. It’s definitely worth a second look and we’ll do our best to get even better details!

• Premium car audio manufacturer Focal gave us the scoop on their new Solid Series amplifiers. These mid-level amplifiers offer great flexibility, small footprints, and uber-clean sound quality. The plain-Jane design is great for flush-mounting, and the amps are available in Wrinkle Black or Wrinkle Red. SoundDomain is the first place you’ll see these audiophile amps, so make sure to check them out and let us know what you think! One thing to point out, Focal’s parent company, home audio manufacturer JM Labs, has a home speaker that sells for over $35,000 EACH. These guys know what they’re doing when it comes to offering the best of the best. What’s in your ride?
• Team Hybrids member Dave Brooks is a World Champion car audio competitor, and last year won the MECA Modex Division National Championship, earned the title of IASCA’s Rookie World Champion, and took first place in the Sound Quality Championship. Dave’s sponsor, Hybrid Audio also wanted to congratulate him for recently achieving the rank of Chief Master Sergeant, and is now the highest ranking enlisted serviceman in the USAF. Congrats to Dave!
• We’ve got another video from Scosche live on the site. In this episode Trevor Kaplan walks you through their iPod auxiliary input for the Toyota Tundra. The AXIPTA interface is extremely easy to use and seamlessly interfaces with the factory radio almost like it was just meant to be.
• Microsoft and Alpine just inked a deal to share technology and patents. This shoudl be a pretty cool partnership since Alpine is pretty much the #1 car audio manufacturer, and Microsoft is the world dominator when it comes to software and their new Sync system is just SICK!

There comes a time in every man’s life when he has to make a decision. You should weigh the positives, and negatives carefully because you don’t want to make a hasty decision and figure out it was the wrong one after its too late.** Well, while you’re thinking about your decision, maybe you should catch up on the SoundDomain news:

• We told you about Realm’s ’63 Lincoln Conti not to long ago; the car is just plain hot. Well, apparently MC Hammer thought so too and at CES he tested out his new CD on the Conti’s system and the guys at Realm snagged some video of Hammer getting down to his album. Hammer didn’t hurt ‘em, but you still can’t touch this. Oh yeah… I went there.
• The guys at Thought Out developed some pretty unique iPod and iPhone accessories and the Ped3 for the iPod Touch and iPhone is by far one of the best desktop solutions I’ve seen yet.
• Tim from HzEmall Customs is back and his most recent installment for SoundDomain gives us an in-depth look into the progress on a 1969 Camaro project car. The crew is basically customizing the entire interior, re-doing most of the electronics, suspension, etc. This is going to be one big, bad-ass old school when the wrap it up. Custom seats, VERY custom car stereo install, custom center console, custom trunk, custom suspension, big ‘ol LS2/6 motor and tranny swap, air bags, and chrome 18s up front and big ‘ol 20s in the rear. You don’t want to miss this.
• And don’t forget to check out the last two installments of the Alpine Million Dollar Imprint RLS demo car build videos. In Part 3 the guys get the exterior skeleton built for the custom body panels and the fabrication of the interior panels. In Part 4, with 1 week to go before CES, it’s paint, prep, and finished product. I’m surprised Gary, Steve, and Brent had any skin left on their fingers after all the sanding this project needed!

**The CarDomain editors are not responsible for pointless, mindless, babble contained in these blog posts. And what are you doing reading this anyway?? You should be reading the SoundDomain news!!

Ah yes, the weekend is finally here. I’ve got friends coming up from Portland for the weekend, so we’ll probably go hit downtown Seattle or something. But we can’t party the entire time while they’re here (or can we?), so you know what we’ll do in the mean time? That’s right… Check out the SoundDomain news:

• Part Two of Alpine’s Million Dollar Demo Car video series posted up on SoundDomain. In this episode the guys strip the car down to the skeleton of the Benz R-Class and start the prep work for the install. I don’t know about you, but there’s something about seeing a $40,000+ car stripped down to nothing that gets me kind of excited!
• Jensen also came through with a boatload of new free MP3s to download, and it’s a pretty cool mix of music genres, a little something for everyone. Check it out!
• Have you ever slipped and "ventilated" a subwoofer while trying to mount it? I have… A few times actually. Or how about have you aver wobbled while trying to drill or screw something into sheet metal and ended up scratching the paint? DOH! I have. That’s why this new drill concept is a pretty interesting idea.

It’s amazing where the mobile electronics industry has gone in the last 15 years…. Tape decks were still around, CD players were just starting to be commonplace, and in-dash LCDs and navigation weren’t even a glimmer in our eyes. Now technology is evolving so quickly that if you stop paying attention for a while, you can easily get left behind. But lucky for you, SoundDomain is here to keep you in the loop:

• If you’ve ever installed new speakers in your ride and then flipped on your system only to find your new gear sounds like you’re listening to it in a long empty hallway, you probably have your speaker wires mixed up and they’re out of phase. Either you can rip your car back apart and find the culprit, or you can pick up a handy tool called the Phase-It.
• Massive Audio’s new SQX woofer is GI-NORMOUS. It’s designed for Sound Quality competitions, but SPL junkies will be more than satisfied with this big boomer.
• Hemp is about as handy as the soy bean; you can make just about anything from it, and whatever you make is bound to be better than it’s mass market counterpart (paper, rope, clothing, oils, etc). Check out these new hemp-coned woofers from Hemp Hop! If you’re lucky, you might even win one!
• The guys from Alpine stopped by the site and dropped off a few videos showing the amazing, and I mean AMAZING, build of the 2007 CES demo extravaganza, the Imprint RLS. Check out Part one in a four-part series. You won’t be disappointed!

Another exciting day in the mobile electronics world! We’re still adding info on all the cool gear we spotted at CES, but we’re also keeping our ears to the wire for other hot news. Here’s what you missed yesterday:

• We have quite a few shots of MTX’s matte black Escalade, which features 12" woofers—in the door!—and a stack of the new MTX square woofers.
• Alpine has a new universal iPod controller which features built-in Bluetooth technology. This thing is like the Swiss Army knife of iPod controllers!
• WebRidesTV did a feature on Competition Soundworks with world famous installer, Chris Yato. For a pro’s insight, check out these videos.

Every year, Alpine builds a breathtaking demo vehicle. Past projects like the Sinister 6, the chop-top Mini Cooper, and last year’s Imprint RLS, were all wicked, but this year they went completely crazy. To promote their new marine line, Alpine built both a custom ski boat and a tow vehicle. The boat started life as an worn out 25-foot 1994 Commander V-bottom, but after 4000 hours of work it’s been completely  transformed. The guys at Alpine shaved and molded the factory lines, straightened the fiberglass hull, resculpted the intakes and completely reshaped the interior.

For details about the tow vehicle, more photos, and a video walk-around of this insane boat, head over to the SoundDomain Blog!

For CES, Alpine wanted to recreate the feeling of sitting inside a battle-ready SPL contender, and they succeeded—big time. At their booth, there’s a small enclosure loaded with subwoofers and powered by one of their new monster 2000 watt class D amplifiers, and it’s—literally—not for the faint of heart. Now, I’ve been involved in car audio for the better part of 20 years—as both an enthusiast and sound off judge—so I’ve sat inside some pretty loud cars. This is probably the loudest area I’ve experienced. To give you an idea of just how loud it is, a jumbo jet at takeoff emits approximately 140 decibels. Inside the Alpine’s little chamber, the volume hits 150dB. Luckily, I was wearing ear protection and had a thumb switch to trigger if it got too loud. It was a pretty cool experience, and it was also a good way of showing how Alpine is diving headfirst into the large SPL amp market. Check out the video.

Are you a complete gadget geek? Then what are you waiting for? Head over to the SoundDomain Blog for complete coverage of the Consumer Electronics Show!

That’s right folks… I’m heading to Vegas this weekend. I’ll be there all week bringing you the latest and greatest in the car and portable audio world. Of course, CarDomain will feature some the hottest cars at CES right here in the blog, but for complete coverage make sure to keep your browser peeled to our recently redesigned sister site SoundDomain.com. DVD players? Yep. Navigation? You-betcha. Bluetooth? Count on it. iPod adapters? Satellite radio? In-car computers? LCD’s? Alarms and remote starts? Yes, uh-huh, yes, yeah, and you know it! We’ll be meeting with Directed Electronics, Alpine, Clarion, Pioneer, JBL, Infinity, Rockford Fosgate, MTX, Kicker, Eclipse, and Maxxsonics, just to name a few, and we’re going to have the most comprehensive coverage on the net for all things car. But in case you think we might miss something, speak up and let us know what you want to see!