shern

iTrader: (6)

Killa

You must be at least 33 and was around in the hey-day of car audio when all you needed was an Eclipse head unit, Phoenix M or PPI Art series, MB Quart components and a set of 12w6s and could win IASCA. I feel your point!

Percy

You KNOW it was the time when big companies like Velodyne, Focal, Dynaudio, Adcom, Conrad Johnson and the big guy, McIntosh, all tried their hand at the car audio realm! That was when car audio was THE thing and many manufacturers kept pouring their R&D money into it. Too bad it all died down in the late 90s / early 2000.

There were no FEWER than at least 3 magazines that covered car audio. Plenty of reading during that time.

Many of the competitors were very good and decent people. A few, who shall remain unnamed, were too full of themselves. A BMW 540 with B&W sound components come to mind....

Big Mack

iTrader: (1)

True, and we are fortunate to have been around during that time.

And how sad is it that there are none now? I remember having subscriptions for AS&S, CSR, and CA&E. What a bummer.

I don't think it's just that EZ was too full of himself (I agree, to a point), it was a question of the winning formula becoming "throw enough money at the car and completely rebuild it from the inside out." I cannot even begin to count the number of people who started doing things that were completely outside of the realm of a car. Installing quality gear is one thing, but when you basically build a studio in the car, where does the line get drawn? As a certified judge, it was very difficult to do the job because we had to listen to a system set up by a hobbyist using good techniques and a professional studio tech using equipment that only Sony or Warner Bros. could afford. True enough, many of the cars sounded absolutely incredible, but if you did the expert class, you had to search for areas to take a point or two, or everyone would have 1st place. It certainly took a lot of fun out of it for most people.

Big Mack

Percy

Big Mack - our age is showing!