Simplicity In Sound

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. we have been super busy working on a slew of projects for a corporate client. Due to a variety of reasons, we cannot show the projects off just yet, but they are coming in the near future. But this one aspect of one of the builds, we can showcase. This vehicle, is meant to be used as a mobile test bed for their engineers to tinker with and try different things out. the car features a huge number speakers and channels, 16 (24 total speak...ers) of them infact, all run actively. The structure we built in the back of the cargo floor of the Tesla Model 3, reflects this purpose. This is not meant o be showy at all, but rather, functional and allows very easy access to all gain controls and a vast majority of the cables and wires can be switched accessed with nothing but bare hands and a screw driver. Due to the amount of space available, and the sheer number of components involves, this project took quite a bit of headscratching and planning to pull off, but in the end, with not a lot of room to spare, I managed to stuff everything in there :) With the unique nature of the Model 3, we added a small odyssey battery in the well to isolate the car's DC DC converter from the capacitors in all the amplifiers. Two Minidsp 8x12s were chosen by the client as they best fill the needs of their internal mixing. There are two signal sources in the vehicle, the stock front signals were piped into a JL Audio Fix82 oem interface processor, and spits out a toslink digital signal, which is split into two and goes into the toslink inputs of the mini dsps. there analog inputs of the mini dsp comes from a separate 32 channel (12 channels used) sound card by Ferrofish (not pictured) which takes input from their own proprietary signal source. From the dsps, the signals travel to 5 Arc audio X2 amps, four 600.4s sends out 15 channels of amplification by 150 watts per channel into the various speakers spread throughout the car, while a 1100.1 powers a single Illusion audio c12xl with 1100 watts (not pictured yet). every single wire is on barrier strips and labeled for quick and easy access. Overall wiring was done as neatly as possible, and while not meant to be showy, does present a kind of industrial beauty of its own. :) This may be hard to believe but this was a less complicated wiring job than their first project, of which I hope to show case later in the year. Total wiring time was about 4 days from start to finish, with 3 days of wiring outside of the car on the bench, and 1 day of hooking up the car side wires to the various locations and barrier strips. :) I have to say I enjoyed the process immensely as wiring is one of my favorite things in car audio. :) Thanks for reading, and I hope to be able to upload the rest of these project pics soon. Cheers, Bing

Had the pleasure to join the podcast with the Uber talented Gary Bell and Matt Schaeffer. :)

2020, for almost everyone on earth, has been one of the strangest and most difficult years in history. Everyone, including us, has had to make adjustments to our schedule, working environment and social interaction. Through it all, we were blessed to have the continued support of all of our loyal customers, new and old, our vendors and sales reps. Together, we were able to push through the pandemic and produce a decent amount of builds in this past 12 months. Here is a s...imple collection of pictures from the past year for us all to look back on. Happy new year and here is to a much much better 2021 for everyone! Thank you! Bing

in the middle of THE most complex wiring job I've ever done, by a factor of at least 3 or 4...and I've done some complex wiring jobs before. 3 days into it... I'm about 60 percent done. the sheer amount of equipment and wiring stuffed into a small space is literally mind boggling.

highlights of the Cl55 AMG build... majority of work by @killahsharksjc. #helixcaraudio #illusionaudio #gladenaerospace

The CL55 AMG is a pretty unique vehicle, no other manufacturers sold a specialty full on performance model of a big executive COUPE back in its day and until the advent of the BMW M8 recently, no one has ever since. So it was a special treat to do a full audio make over in this 2004 model, which featured some tasteful and subtle mods throughout the interior, exterior and engine bay. Jesse performed a vast majority of the build with my help along the way in the pillar build...Continue reading