• Do you own a motorcycle or plan on picking one up now that the weather’s getting better? Did you know that in 2005 over 70,000 bikes were stolen and less than 30% were actually recovered? Pretty shocking, eh? You might want to consider an alarm…. The guys from Directed’s Snake Pit hooked us up with a great article on how to install a motorcycle alarm and what to look for when shopping around for one.
• Second Skin sent us a bunch of their Damplifier Sound Deadening kits, and we’re giving it all away! All you have to do to enter is hop over to SoundDomain and add a comment in the forum. That’s it! We’re giving away a complete trunk kit and a door kit to a lucky winner!
• Scosche is shipping their new 2009 Toyota Corolla dash kit. It accepts single or double DIN radios, matches the factory dash contours, and is available in facotry-matched black or gray. Don’t put up with crappy factory radio any longer!
• New details have emerged on Garmin’s new nüvifone! This extrememly impressive iPhone-fighter features a Garmin GPS system, 3.0 megapixel camera, WiFi, and more!
• Apple iPods are killing people in Australia! Well, actually, no, not really. But they could! No, really! OK, OK, not really, and they never have… Yet! The police from Down Under have launched a campaign claiming the portable device could be responsible for future deaths, even though no deaths have yet to be attributed to the little guy. They just want to warn you… just in case.

• Ben Vollmer has been in the car audio industry for many many years. He’s seen many many demo and competition cars come and go. But a few have always stood out from the rest, and when the opportunity arose for him to actually buy one of his favorites, still with the award-winning competition audio system still intact, he jumped on it! So what’s he planning on doing with it? Find out!
• Al & Ed’s Mr. Mobile is back, and this time he’s featuring a SmartTop convertible roof controller. What the heck is it and what does it do?! Hop over to SoundDomain to find out. And if you’re lucky, you might just win one!
• We jut can’t get enough…. Steve Meade hooked us up with some video walk-arounds showcasing the current status of the Escalade’s insane install. We’ve got three videos to show you, each one testing the system with a different style of music. The old school Micheal Jackson is my particular favorite!

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• SoundDomain moderator Richard Vedvik was curious how much louder a system would sound if his amp ran all four speakers at 50 watts versus just the front speakers bridged to the same amp at 200 watts. It would be kind of a PITA to get out of the car and play with the amp wiring to go from bridged to four-channel, so he put together a series of relays that could do the job for him at the flick of the switch!
• JBL just released info on their new GTO series subs and we got the details and pics! You gotta check these beauties out!
• Our boy Steve Meade came through with some exclusive pics of the new 18" Fi BTL series subwoofers. These babies aren’t out yet, and they’re not even on Fi’s website! I guess that’s the benefit of being an big bass bad ass.
• Suzuki just announced they’ll be be adding a Garmin-powered navigation system in every 2009 SX4! The system will flip-up from a custom compartment in the dash and include Bluetooth connectivity, real-time traffic info, and possibly MSN Direct.
• We got our hands on some sneak peeks of the new Audison Thesis amps not too long ago and now Audison has finally released actual photos and an amazingly detailed breakdown of the amp’s features and technology. I was pretty blown away!

We don’t cover too many Canadian car shows here at CarDomain, so we figured it was time to show our friends in the Great White North a little appreciation! I got word from SoundDomain guest blogger HzEmall that the BC Classic & Custom Car Show was this weekend and it was something I simply should not miss. So after checking out their website and Googling the show to check out previous event coverage I was sold. The quality of cars this show pulls is amazing. So much so that Chip Foose and George Barris are both going to be at the show! So tomorrow I’ll hop in the GTI and head north. Event photos to follow… Keep your browser locked to CarDomain for more. Follow the jump to check out the show poster.

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• These days, new cars usually pose some problems when it comes time to the upgrade audio system. However, the new VW Jetta is actually a great sounding car just waiting to happen! SoundDomain moderator Keep_Hope_Alive recently rented a 2008 VW Jetta and decided to rip into the doors to check out the potential for upgrading the speakers. In the end he was pleasantly surprised!
• Focal’s new SOLID amps start shipping next month! If you’re looking for a compact, audiophile sound quality amplifier, make sure to check these out!
• Rockford Fosgate is one of the premier names in mobile electronics. Have you ever checked out their website? They have a HUGE gallery of pics from around the world!
• The guys from Elemental Designs just put out a new informational video explaining proper subwoofer wiring and what happens if you wire your system up wrong. Has your sub ever just not sounded quite right? Maybe you need to check this out.

• 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.

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• 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!

• Orion is giving away a professionally installed $10,000 car audio system! That’s enough money to buy a complete HCCA system and get a pretty pimp install to boot! Have you signed up yet??
• Cerwin Vega just released details and pics on their new Vega series subs. We’ve got the details!
• High end car audio manufacturer Focal has a new set of Polyglass series components available: the 165VR. The woofers feature paper cone fused with micro glass beads an aluminum/magnesium tweeter. That’s one sexy looking set of speakers.
• Trapster is the wave of the future. This new (FREE!) service is based around an online community where users can submit speed trap, red light camera, and traffic camera information to an online database. If you sign up, the service interfaces with your cell phone via GPS positioning or cell phone tower triangulation and will actually alert you via SMS text messages when you’re approaching a speed trap!! Really.. This is too cool.
• Mr. Mobile of Al & Ed’s Autosound has another "I Want That" installment over at SoundDomain for your viewing pleasure. He explains why the new Sirius Stiletto 2 portable satellite radio tuner is so cool, and how you can use and control it through your aftermarket or facotry radio with their new universal docking port. Get connected.
• High-end home audio manufacturer ScanSpeak has released the details on their new audiophile car audio speakers, the Illuminators. You’ve never seen a component set that looks like this!

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.