Weekend Plans? Greg Welch Memorial Show

By: Ben Vollmer, Car Audio Nationals/Team SoundDomain

If you are anything like me, it is about three weeks from MECA Finals and you ALMOST have enough points to qualify. But not quite. So this Saturday, I am headed to North Georgia for the last non-State Finals event on the MECA Event Schedule. In addition to MECA being there, Tim and Alison Brown also have an IASCA 2x Event with Moe and Terry being there in hopes of iDBL World Records being broken.

The show starts at 1 PM and is one of the most affordable shows I have seen all season. It is $15.00 plus a toy to get into the show area, and then $10.00 for each event you want to compete in. So if you do IASCA and MECA Sound Quality, it would be $35.00 plus one toy as a donation to Toys for Tots. Which is what most shows charge for one class.

Car Audio Nationals-- The Results Are In!

Car Audio Nationals took place the past weekend in Georgia, and the show was an amazing success. The competitor roster was full of the industry's top guns, and why not? With a $3500 purse on the line, who wouldn't want to try their hand! CAN took place along MECA State Finals and a USACi event, so there was no shortage of audio fanatics and experts on hand. CAN judging included one-seat and two-seat SQ judging, so competitors really had to bring their A-game. A special thanks goes out to Arc Audio for hosting the event.

We'll have pics up shortly from the event thanks to Team SoundDomain's own Jonathan "Thumper" Denton. And if you were there and had a camera handy, we'd be happy to add your shots to out gallery as well. And speaking of Thumper, big congrats on your 4th place finish! Not too shabby for a rookie....

We've got the full results posted after the jump, and you can join in on the CAN discussion in the SoundDomain forums.

One Seat vs. Two Seats - Introducing SQ2

By: Ben Vollmer, Car Audio Nationals/Team SoundDomain

Andy Jones and I have a running "Team SoundDomain" discussion to keep passing the time on road trips: I personally thrive on two seat judging, Andy prefers one seat. Why? For exactly the same reasons. I LOVE the fact that two seat forces you to make compromises for both seats and requires that both seats do well in order to score high. Andy loves dialing in his driver's seat so it is the best seat in the house. There is zero compromise for one seat.

All of the major organizations except MECA have one and two seat classes....  Until Today. Commissioner Steve Stern announced today the development of a new class - SQ2 - for Sound Quality League contests for 2009. This will be a Sound Quality listening test by two MECA Judges, one in the driver's seat, the other in the passenger's seat.  MECA will offer SQ2 at the World Finals Soundfest in Nashville, TN at the State Fairgounds on November 8-9th.  There is no qualifying required for this contest, but the competitors must be MECA members.

Entries will be $150 and include the Saturday Night 2008 Awards Banquet dinner and the Sunday afternoon BBQ.  Pre-registration will begin on October 1st. Next year it will be included at all MECA 3x Events for the 2009 Season.

You betcha your baxckside  I will be there in the new class... I wonder if Andy will be happy with only One Seat? ;-)

MECA Hot August Nights in Kentucky

By: MECA Car Audio

Team H.B.I.C. and E² Audio made MECA history with the Hot August Nights sound-off event in KY on Saturday, August 23rd, with the first ever all female Judge Team.  SPL, Drive-by SPL Parade, Sound Quality, Install, Show & Shine, MECA Kids, & "Ride the Light" MECA formats were offered at the show.  MECA Kids entries were free with a parents entry.  The event was hosted by X-treme Fitness in their parking lot in Columbia, as a promotion for their gym and health center.  After the sound-off and Ride the Light contests, the festivities were relocated to the Campbellsville bowling alley, where "Bass & Bowling" lasted until the wee hours into the next day.

MECA Rocks Sound Quality @ Elite Summer Nationals

Elite Summer Nationals exploded at the Spartanburg Expo Center on Saturday, August 9th, with over 200 show vehicles and a huge crowd over 5000 for the 1 day event.  Drifting, a car/truck show with 150 entrants, IASCA sound-off contests, and MECA's SPL and SQL competitions were featured attractions.

The MECA Sound Quality League entertained 27 Competitors from 9 states, including 2007 Culbertson Cup winner/aka SQL Modex+ World Champ, David Timmerman from North Carolina.  Team Zapco was the prevalent factory team, with teams from Audison, Hertz, JBL, Memphis, Powermaster, and Xstatic represented by their best Competitors. Team Elite, as host team, presented many SQL Competitors that earned top spots in their classes.  Team SoundDomain was there with all five Team SoundDomain members there and three of us competing.