The top 10 people who win the IASCA World Finals (street/pro class) in sound quality, what speakers do they have and what amp? I went to http://www.iasca.com and could only find the names, nothing on the equipment they use. Anyone know? Come on all you SQ freaks!

 

I don't know any of the products for sure, but I could venture a few guesses. I would think that you would definitely see MB Quartz, Focal, Image Dynamics, Diamond Audio...just to name a few. These are some of the higher quality speakers out there. The amps could be absolutely anything, but to again venture a few guesses, I would say...Phoenix Gold, Kicker, or Rockford Fosgate. The amps I'm not too sure about. I would definitely say that a big combo would be MB Quartz and any of the amps listed. Just my 2 pennies worth.

 

As you found out IASCA's site won't tell you much if you're trying to figure that out. USAC's site used to have a breakdown of this for advertising purposes.

From my recollection some of the winning installs from the past season used Focal, Dynaudio, Image Dynamics (horns and subs). Mb Quart was probably in the ranks as well other brands like Kicker, Diamond Audio and Boston Acoustic. Up and coming brands for this season to watch for will be CDT Audio, DD Audio and Audiobahn.

As for amps from the magazine reviews I've seen of IASCA systems I've seen systems using Lunar, RF, Kicker, Phoenix Gold, AudioBahn, Crossfire, DEI Audio, a/d/s and USAmps. Brands to look out for in 2001 will be Lunar and Arc Audio.

 

as fas as SQ amps the likes of Xtant, Mcintosh, A/D/S, along with the perennial contenders PPI, Orion, Phoenix Gold.

Has anybody HEARD the new AMPS from JL Audio?
if they are anywhere near as good as their speakers
they ought to be good.

2 other speakers brands represented in SQ, JL Audio and OZ



DaVe

 

I've not heard the new JL Audio amps yet but they should be very good. I've talked with a few people that really seem to like them....

Your other suggestions are also very good. I've got a friend that has used Oz Audio subs and components in his IASCA vehicle in the past.

 

Speakers

MB Quart
Focal
a/d/s
Audiobahn
Diamond

Subs
Kicker(L7 or Competition Series)
a/d/s
Focal
JL Audio
Soundstream
Eclipse

Amps
a/d/s
Xtant
Precision Power (actually a division of a/d/s)
Phoenix Gold
Rockford Fosgate
Alpine V12
McIntosh


Let me give you an idea of a system I have been kicking around for a while. If it was for competiton, it would be SQ+

Vehicle: 1998-2000 Blazer LT
Head Unit: Eclipse 4441 Cassette/CD Controller
CD: Eclipse 5083 8 Disc Changer
Parametric EQ: Audio Control EQT
Crossover: Audio Control
Amplifiers: 2 McIntosh MC440Ms
Subs: JL Audio 12W6
MidBass: JL Audio 8W6
Component Speakers: a/d/s 336i in all 4 doors
Wiring: Street Wires
Cap: Lightning (.5 farad)

This would be a stealth install and, if I am so inclined, portions of that system (outside of the cassette deck and the CD Changer) might make their way to the Maxima I own now.

 

get a good set of speakers such as diamond, focal, mb quart, i.d and a good amp mtx, a/d/s, phoenix gold but get a great install and your system will sound much better than people that paid 3-4 times more than you. 80% install, 20% equipment. i cannot stress this enough

 

Sweet,

Have to agree, alot of people spend spend $15k on home equiptment come home and set it up in the "Family room"
expecting it to sound like the listening room @ Crazy Eddie's without any acoustic mods to the room.

The real sound of the system is so reliant on staging and speaker placement. what Quality equiptment gains you is Dynamics, headroom and clarity once that is acheived.

 

I personally prefer Focal, with MBQuart as a close second. Both have enjoyed good success in competition. A local shop owner who is also a frequent IASCA and MESA judge put me on to the Focal. I could not be more pleased. As for amps, I run Memphis studio amps, after shopping around and comparing to Phoenix, PPI, Rockford, Xtant. The only other amp I seriously considered was the Brax, mainly for build quality. What I discovered when comparing amps was that it is more important to stay within the dynamic range or headroom of an amp, that is, below clipping, than what brand amp. You'll hear distortion quickly in any brand amp if you push it to clipping. Below that threshold, distortion levels are academic, or at least inaudible to even trained ears. Therefore it is important to buy the most power you can afford to preserve headroom. For example, if you had a speaker that was rated to take 75 watts, from a sound quality standpoint it is better to power it with a 150 watt amp driven conservatively to only 75 watts leaving the extra power for transient peaks, than it would be to run a 75 watt amp that is running on the ragged edge of clipping on transients. Lack of power will show up first on transients such as kick drums that sound "soft" instead of crisp, or on vocals that begin to sound harsh. Female vocals are especially good for identifying harshness (distortion) in amps or speakers, so use material with female vocals to audition your equipment. The ear is also resistant inherently to distortion and will fatigue quickly trying to sort out the auditory information that it knows is not correct. So be sure to audition the speaker/amp for a long enough period of time that you know you don't get tired of listening. Remember that the ear and the attached brain are far more sophisticated than any test equipment. If it doesn't sound right to you, even though you can't intellectually describe why, then it's not right. Trust your ears. If you can't hear a difference, there is no difference. Pay for the thing that matter. I couldn't agree more with Sweetsound2000 and Coldboot-SE that installation and speaker placement are critical. Throwing money at a system is no substitute for good engineering using established audio principles. Good luck, and enjoy your system.

 

Damn, have none of you actually listened to Dynaudio and tube Driver amps? Almost no one has mentioned them. SQ out the wazzooo. Also, I have noticed people love equipment. They feel they have to have eq's, line drivers yada, yada,yada. Some of the best sounding systems, use the K.I.S.S. rule. A high quality system DOES NOT have to have an EQ. i have seen quite a few winning systems with nothing more than a HU, x-over, two amps, set of components up front and a sub. Too much electronic gear in the path can actually kill SQ more than help it.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Whitemax
[I]Damn, have none of you actually listened to Dynaudio and tube Driver amps? Almost no one has mentioned them. SQ out the wazzooo. Also, I have noticed people love equipment. They feel they have to have eq's, line drivers yada, yada,yada. Some of the best sounding systems, use the K.I.S.S. rule. A high quality system DOES NOT have to have an EQ. i have seen quite a few winning systems with nothing more than a HU, x-over, two amps, set of components up front and a sub. Too much electronic gear in the path can actually kill SQ more than help it.

Never had opportunity around hear to hear the Dynaudio's, would like to, hear nothing but good reports. I couln't agree more with your KISS assessment, as evidenced by the architecture of my system. My goal was to have as few components as possible, for this reason. Smae as waht you laid out, except the eq is in the head unit, all processing in digital domain before single A/D conversion. Haven't heard any new generation tube stuff since the last time they were around (ahem), but not available here.

 

Has anybody HEARD the new AMPS from JL Audio?
if they are anywhere near as good as their speakers
they ought to be good.

Well you know that JL Audio doesn't make their subs someone else does and they just slap their logo on it. So I would assume their amps are made by the same company. There subs are still ok, I had 12w6's and they worked I just got rid of them, wanted something better.
1995 GXE 1st Place NOPI Nationals 2000

 

SE-Raider,

I've know the warmth and power of tubes for a long time,
Back when home stereos only had tubes and Fisher, Scott,
Harmon/Kardon, Emerson, and McIntosh were ALL American made.

I was fortunate (?) enough to work on tube amplifiers in the service and then Guitar amps when I got out, and I realize that many hold mono-block Tube amps in high regard,
but I would be more concerned about the Heat/ventilation issue in a automotive environment as most the old amps used to operate class A and generate some heat.

I know that along with Dynaudio, others like Mark Antony and Butler offer tube amps for the car audio enthusist.

I guess you could go with a larger radiator and run that tube amp alongside that Bazooka amp with the Prestone
running through it.

DaVe

 

Tube Drivers are Butler. Now PPI owns them, but mine are the ones Butler made before selling out to PPI. Dynaudio is a Danish company theat makes very high end audiophile home and car systems.
As far as heat is concerned, tey have built in cooling fans to keep them well ventilated. As far as the longevity is concerned , the tubes are run only in the pre-amp stage of the amp, and only at about 25% of it's full capability. Since they are mounted in mil-spec sockets, you don't have the harmonics problems some other designs have. I also just found out Butler is making a NEW Tube Driver amp, called the Tube Driver Blue, with BLUE glowing tubes. This is gona look cool.

[Edited by Whitemax on 02-23-2001 at 09:03 PM]

 

Actually PPI lost control of the past Butler designed tube amps, when PPI was swallowed up by ADST.

The new Butler blue amps are being made by the new rights holder I believe.