Mid-Week Meade: Taking it Back A Few Systems

Steve put together a compilation of clips from previously unpublished videos dating back to 2004. This is pre-Fi, folks:

"Decided to mix up a few from back in 2004 that never made it to youtube...At the time i had eight RF BD1500.1 on four 18" subs powered by two Irragi alts and two or three batteries. First scene is a demo at my boy Felix's son's birthday party, musta been 50 kids there. Second is me doing a 157.3 on the NEW TL sensors (kickpanel, Usac) and last is some demo's from a show in South Sac...enjoy!"

 

Gotta Know Where You're From To Know Where You're DAT

Anybody remember the DAT? The Digital Audio Tape? No, probably not. In the car audio world it came around back in the mid to late 80's, but never made it very far. The introduction of the MiniDisc combined with some good 'ol hard lobbying by the RIAA stunted the format's popularity outside of the professional recording world. Because DATs could make identical clones of digital content, the format made the RIAA very nervous.

DAT offered extremely high sound quality compared to analog cassettes, even higher than CD sound quality in some cases due to higher bit rates, some as high as 96 kHz/24 bits. And even though it looks like it would function like an analog cassette tape (they look very similar to DV cassettes used in today's DV video cameras), DATs had digital markers embedded in the code stream that allowed skipping and fast forwarding capability similar to that of a CD.

However, DAT's short life did not stop the car audio industry from introducing a few DAT car stereos into the world. Alpine, Blaupunkt, Clarion, Eclipse, Sony, even Mitsubishi all offered some pretty nice looking stereos for a short while. I stumbled on a great website that has a pretty cool small gallery of some of the decks that most people probably didn't know even existed. I dig the cosmetics of the Clarion and the Alpine myself. Anybody out there have any experience with these old school high-end gems?

Source: Farenzo
Source: Wikipedia 

Old School Hoarding - Show Us Your Stockpile!

By Ben Vollmer, Car Audio Nationals

If you haven't figured out by now, I am a huge fan of Old School installs and equipment. When you bring up old school equipment, you'll typically hear the same accolades regarding old faves: build quality, build location (the good 'ol US of A, Europe, etc), or some emotional connection you made to a piece of gear you lusted after as a kid.

Old school amplifiers are things I remember fondly. Ones that LOVED getting pounded by low ohm loads. And because IASCA had some really weird power classes, amplifiers were built to get you into various power classes. One of my favorite classes of amps were the so called "cheater amps". Here's a few that pop to mind:

The Orion HCCA Series

Top Of The Line Car-Fi (Circa 1960's)

Many people to this day will argue analog music's superiority to the digital format we're all so now accustomed. After all, why else would anybody build or buy a turntable for $35,000?! Well, if you're one of the analog fans, then maybe you should try digging up one of these little guys: The Norelco Mignon in-car turntable. This "little guy" installs under the dash and accepts 45's (single load, not a changer). They were designed for use in specific cars, but dealers started installing them in car outside of the manufacturer's recommendations. Since the player was calibrated for specific car suspensions, this led to a lot of dissatisfied customers and ultimately the demise of this unique idea. Follow the jump for some pics and some additional sources of info on this retro-car audio product.

Uber-Smooth BMW 5-Series

The E34 BMW 5-Series has always been my favorite generation for this luxury sports cruiser. I was scrolling through CarDomain Top Overall A/V nominations when I came across the uber-slick 1990 5-Series owned by CarDomain member e34zoui. The work put into this ride is amazing. It's not over-the-top at all, it's clean, its fresh, it's just done right. The owner reworked the car both inside and out, and there's not much I can say should have been done differently.
The trunk received an impressive custom-fit fiberglass build out for the DLS audio system, and I'd love to say it the most impressive part of the install, but e34zoui never posted pics of the finished install! But from the progress pics and comparing it to the work in the rest of the car, I'm sure it was stunning. The interior was completely restitched in white and beige, including the European M5 seats (the back seats are dope!). It looks like a custom center console was fabbed between the two rear buckets, but I"m not sure. If so, then he did a fantastic job! There's also custom kick panels, custom dash with an 8" touchscreen screen, A Via-powered carPC system, head rest monitors, and a HUGE turbo upgrade (GT28RS) pushing out 426HP to the wheels.

We've got a system list and a few more pics after the jump.If anybody has any other details on this car, we'd love to hear it. Let us know if the forums!

in the forums!