• Pioneer’s Sound Build-Off was a huge success and to help promote the individual shops that participated, Pioneer put together some short videos showcasing the owners or installers providing the details on their custom work. Cartronics FJ Cruiser is pretty impressive inside and out, but Horizon Audio’s Hot Rod is a sight to be seen!
• If you’re a regular tailgater, and often find you and 20 of your closest friends bbq-ing it up outside the stadium or arena, then the Party-to-Cargo kegerator is probably right up your alley! This trailer-hitch mounted box holds a keg (that’s about 160 beers folks), and features a complete audio system, perfect for setting the party mood or blasting the pre-game show.
• We headed over to Benchmark Motoring last Friday for their annual summer BBQ kick-off event for some burgers, dogs, and hot hot cars. Benchmark always manages to fill their parking lot with many Lambos, Porsches, Ferraris, BMWs – all available for guests to drool over, some with beautifully stealthy audio installs too! We’ve got a full gallery of photos over at SoundDomain! Oh yeah, and don’t forget to check out Benchmark’s customized flatbed hauler!
• Has anybody every screwed up your car during an audio install? Drilled the gas tank? Shot through an airbag sensor? Sliced a wiring harness? It happens, sometimes too often. Got a horror story of your own? Share it!
• Scrapin’ the Coast had a bunch of lowriders, tuner cars, hot rods, and old schools, but this high riser Cadillac Fleetwood limo floored me! Loaded up with a complete MB Quart audio system and 32" LCD, this is one way to roll in unique style!

• Steve Meade, as we’ve learned, is one crazy mofo. He’s a bass junkie with a glutton for subsonic punishment. The build in his buddy’s Escalade is coming nicely (you know, the one with six 18" woofers and 30,000 watts of power?), and he just finished the custom door panels. When’s the last time you saw doors with five pairs of 6.5" woofers, five 1" tweeters, and a 10" subwoofer. Yep… That’s per door!
• Japan is the holy land for gadget and mobile electronic junkies. They always get the cool stuff first. Take the new Clarion DriveTrax P7DT for example. This portable navigation system sports bluetooth, GPS, 3D street level mapping, a DTV tuner with recording capability via an SD card, video and music playback of all kinds of formats, and 4.3" touchscreen. This little guy is HOT.
• The Chinese have really upset many automotive manufacturers by blatantly ripping of their designs and selling them as their own. The subject has come up in the CarDomain Blog many times, but automotive manufacturers are not the only people dealing with it…. Check out this blatant rip-off of a Pioneer CD player. Ridiculous.
• MB Quart has announced an all-new Discuss line for 2008. The Discuss line represents Quart’s mid-level series, but for 2008 they’ve updated the line with the soon-to-be famous inverted-dome WideSphere tweeter. They’ve also released a new Discus line of subwoofers. It’s all pretty sexy, you should check it out.

Continue reading "SoundDomain Sound-Off" »

• Steve Meade is back and causing a ruckus with his 20,000 Watt Tahoe. In the two latest videos, Steve shows Doja Clik’s Lil Man what the Tahoe can do and the dude nearly melts into the seat! And the hair trick at the end of the video is a classic. Video Two features Ice Cube producer Teak showing his buddy PSYPH what Steve’s four 18" Fi subs feels like on 20K watts. He doesn’t know what hit him!
• Sound Sensations took first place at the Pioneer Sound Build-Off with their 99 Mercedes CLK 430, and with good reason. The install was flawless and nearly acoustically perfect. The custom remote flush-mounted in the center console that controls the radio, lighting, and various accessories is uber-trick, but I think the custom kick panels are my favorite.
• MTX is running a contest and giving away $4500 in stereo equipment and gear to the lucky few who create the best MTX commercial and post it online. Get the details!
• Sirius Satellite Radio got scooped! We’ve got pics of the newest Starmate 5 tuner, and it’s not actually due out for quite a few months. Thanks FCC!
• Need an iPhone or iTouch dock for your ride but can’t quite find the perfect solution? Until you do, you could just make your own using the contents that came in your iPhone’s box!

I spent the weekend in San Diego attending the 2nd Annual Pioneer Sound Build-Off. Pioneer challenged 22 of the nation’s top Pioneer dealers to build an IASCA sound quality competition vehicle using Pioneer’s new Premier reference gear. Out of the 22 invited, 21 shops accepted the challenge and all convened in San Diego for the Build Off. The caliber of show quality vehicles was absolutely outstanding. We’ll have full coverage of the show up in the events section shortly – Stay tuned!

So my weekend was pretty busy…. How about yours?

What did you do this weekend?

I just got back from the Pioneer Sound Build-Off in San Diego where Pioneer not only hosted a really cool sound-off competition, but they also unveiled the new AVIC-F series navigation radios. The new AVIC-F’s have all of the goodies you’d expect from a full-featured in-dash navigation piece, but Pioneer stepped it up a few notches and included built-in Bluetooth, voice recognition and control, and MSN Direct data streaming! Get all the details, features, and check out a small gallery of the new devices over at SoundDomain.

• While in Louisville a few weeks ago for a Mobile Electronics Industry event, I came across a pretty pimp widebody Scion tC in Pioneer’s booth. I really dug the custom painted deep dish wheels, but the fabbed fiberglass trunk-to-center-console was the real show stopper.
• How Not To Do It: Spring Break Nationals brought out some of the trickest custom rides I’ve seen in a long time, and this Monte Carlo was pretty sick. The custom Louis Vuitton tail lights were a cool touch, but what’s up with the dead fish floating in your trunk??
• Steve Cook is somewhat of a legend in the SPL competition scene. His Astro van hit 172.2 at SBN this year and blasted his windshield. Now, most of the time you expect a windshield to blow outwards, but Steve’s sucked in?! OMGWTF? We have pics and video!
• Tim from HzEmall Customs dropped some knowledge on us regarding the world of in dash radios, navigation, and everything in between. Get a little insight from this industry pro.

I spent the weekend down in Daytona Beach covering the Spring Break Nationals Car Audio Competition. Were you there? Man… Tons of hot cars, cool products, a bright warm sun, girls in bikinis…. This job is really rough sometimes. I don’t know how we do it. You know what keeps me going? Cool stuff like this:

• The guys at EyeCandy in Orlando Florida brought an absolutely INSANE Hummer limo to SBN. Stretched, third axle, six 30" chrome wheels, full Pioneer A/V DJ system, marble floors, suede and leather interior, and… a throne. Seriously. Check it.
• Scosche has a new dash kit available for all you 2007+ Mitsu Eclipse owners. You can finally dump the factory radio and upgrade. For real.
• The guys at Al & Ed’s Autosound checked out the new Pioneer AVIC-D3x in a smart FourTwo. We’ve got the video, and it’s dope.
• Orca design just developed a new marine audio grille that’ll keep Focal speakers dry in your boat. It uses a mesh backing like that used on an Injen cold air intake. The stuff is called "hydro-phobic polyester". No you can make your owns waves in audiophile style.
• Infinity just released the deets on the new Kappa speakers, and we’ve got all the specs and lots of pics! THey look like a million bucks, but come in under $250!
• If you’re an audiophile who likes to spend ridiculous amounts of cash on your car (like me), then these new Morel Elate Limited speakers are right up your alley! Carbon fiber cones, bad-ass crossovers, and they ship in a big metal suitcase. Morel calls it a "gift box", but it looks like a case the Transporter would carry.

…and the latest is this custom Mini Cooper pickup that Pioneer is building for its booth at the Paris Tuning Show. The Mini-ute is lowered, body-kitted, and rolling on 18-inch wheels. It’s sure to be packing a heck of a lot of car audio, along with on-board nav. But you’d better learn how to rip it up on a shortboard, because your 9’0" just wouldn’t look right on that roof. See more pics after the jump.

Via CarScoop

Continue reading "Everybody Wants a Little Ute" »

• Have you ever dreamed of owning your own company? How about owning your own car audio company? Well, now you can! We stumbled on a Craigslist ad where some guy is selling his high-end car audio amplifier company, including inventory, schematics, and documentation! He’s already done the hard part, now you just need to fork over a measly  $10Gs to buy it!
• If you’ve been thinking about buying an in-dash navigation or LCD screen, now’s a great time to do it! Pioneer is offering a $200 rebate on the D3.
• Bluetooth is being integrated into just about everything, but it never occurred to me to add it to a CD radio?! Well, Cobra did, and it’s a great idea!
• AT&T’s new Palm Centro smart phone does just about everything a smart phone should, and more! This smart phone actually streams XM satellite radio right to your phone! A first for this industry and it’s only $99!

I went to my nephew’s 8th birthday party this weekend. Pizza, video games, a movie, and lots of sugar…. That kid knows how to party! Kids these days get much cooler toys than I did back in the day. ‘Course, I get to play with cool toys like these now:

• Pioneer announced their new creme-de-las-creme of car audio equipment, the Pioneer DEH-P800PRS audiophile CD player and the über-over-engineered PRS-A900 amplifier. Damn. That’s. Hot.
• Did you know the fancy TV Tuner in your buddy’s car is no longer going to work when analog TV signals go dead in 2009? Kenwood is leaping into the future to make sure they have an awesome solution in place: MPH Digital TV, and we got a demo.
• Samsung introduced the F490 which could almost be the iPhone’s twin, except that it’s actually better equipped than the iPhone! 5.0MP Camera, MicroSD, and a haptic touchscreen FTW!
• Tim Baillie of HzEMALL Customs is SoundDomain’s newest blogger. His first post reviews a DSE electric headlight motor kit for 68/69 Camaros that replaces the OE vacuum system. Welcome, Tim!