After a sucessful opening round, the second event of the 2007 NSW CAASQ Sound Quality Competition season has been announced with plenty of notice. You stil have four weeks to get your cars all sorted, tuned and improved for this upcoming round. We've opted to hold this CAASQ event away from the shop for two reasons. The first is to bring the events focus back to its roots; car audio enthusiasts getting together to chat, listen, compare and compete. The second is that last year it was so successful that we had trouble fitting all the cars in our parking lot!



Registration for the competition starts at 08:00 and judging begins at 10:00 sharp. Entry fee is $35 for all classes. The planned order of events for the SQ side of the day are:

* Amateur Street Class
* Amateur Show Class
* Pro Street Class
* Pro Show Class
* Award presentations

As per usual, during the middle of the day there will be a BBQ with both food and drinks available but with a difference. The way we operate the BBQ is this; Fhrx Studios pays for the food and drink but we ask for a gold coin donation (or more) that we then forward to different charities. In the past we have supported everyone from the Guide Dog Association, the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children to Anglicare.

The important details are:
When: Saturday 28th April, 2007
Where: Burrawang Reach, opposite the intersection Henry Lawson Drive and River road, Revesby. The map below is marked with a small circle.
Time: We get there around 07:00 to get undercover tables and a couple of BBQ’s etc. Anytime after that though is fine – finish is usually around 17:00-18:00. We do stay back to chat and mingle though.
Cost: Entry to the sound off is usually $35. However there is also a $7 parking fee (national park) for the day. Food is free but seeing as we're buying the food and drinks and are not millionaires, feel free to donate soft drink cans.
Security: Thieves and dishonest people are not welcome and for the ones amongst us thinking of coming down to steal something – we’ve been through it before and trust me; security is one aspect NOT overlooked (that is about all we ever say in writing).



Everyone is welcome! The thing to remember the day is always a lot of fun so please come along, spend time with fellow audio enthusiasts and support our industry. It doesn't matter whether you have never attended, come along and meet everyone - most are quite friendly and don't bite. Judges are also more than happy to help you tune the car before the competition starts.

Further information and conversations can be found on Car Audio Australia. Sound quality competition judging discs are available for purchase from AudioDiscs.com.au and the rules and leaderboard for the 2007 NSW CAASQ Sound Quality Competition can be found here.

Note; special discounts will also apply to any car audio products ordered from Fhrx Studios on the day.

i *might* be in...i wish it was definate

95% sure im in

unless theres some stupid exam on again.

ill let u know the other 5% in the next few days etc

First in @ 100%!

Actually there is already about four of us champ.

I'll be doing an email-out to our customers and ringing around some other shops so hopefully all the classes will be a little larger this time around.

So head out lads and announce, announce, announce!

haha i know i was just going off the thread.

Didnt realise it was gonna be soooo soon, gonna be hard to prepare!

my mates torana wont have a new engine by then

i need to start my driving lessons first other wise i cant get a driver to drop me and the car off!

I was just looking at the other states on the leaderboard etc and notices they are having sound offs each month so I thought I'd better get this one up and announced!

By preparing I mean just tinkering with the tuning etc. You don't have to have an entire new build or anything for each one.

dammit so little time! and money

ill be there and ill see what i can muster in terms of improvement 6-8weeks was looking better. that is not to say i wont be there. ill talk to my boss 2morro.

arent u going to be sick that day jono?

sore throat, bit of a cough, runny nose.

u will be in NO state to attend work. wouldnt want to pass the flu onto those valued customers...

ARgh Hope i get time to get mine in to ship shape looks like some long nights

Only takes 2 hours to tune , just ask the vic members , you guys dont need nicer components just yet..........cors

fcuk......

lol

ah well...ive already done some things....

changed some stuff....

i need some dynamat lol

in 100%

Oh I'll be there... Damn my credit card is gonna HATE ME!

Kinda makes you feel a bit more motivated.. gotta love a deadline.

+2 on the late nights....






Sh1t! thanks for reminding me trism...

Its all good i just planned some changes over 6 to 8 weeks haha

No complaints here Mate! IM looking forward too it

Cheers!

yeh, im trying to con my brother into take me and mrvj again

probably some cash will persuade him

tell him ill give him a big cuddle if he brings ur car and he can sit on my tray

I'll be there for sure.

Rick, matt, jono, jack, nathan, pete and anyone else i can't remember the name of, you up for a test and tune before the day?

Can't wait for this round, hopefully will have a bit of an improvement from the ute in terms of looks.

Ant

I'll be there I believe

i am......

possibly. depends how the uni work etc goes. i cant spare too many days, and one of those days i plan to be doing what we discussed the other day

and then another tuning the car.




u read my mind. 20s and airbags =

If everyone is happy to arrive a little early and leave a little late then we could always start a little late, have a breakfast feed and do some testing and tuning before the comp gets underway.

Remember we'll have a couple more judges this time around so three of the four classes can be judged at once.

sounds like a plan!



as an example:

test/tune 8am - 11am
judging starts 11am - onwards

or something? dunno. just a suggestion.

edit: or maybe longer. since theres more judges, judging will take less time


test/tune 8/9am - 12/1pm
judging starts 12/1pm - onwards

Sounds fantastic to me!!!!

That'd be tops, some bacon and egg rolls and a bit of a tune.

Just gotta make sure you get the right settings haha!

Im down for that

Im there 100%, gotta be a major reason why i couldnt make it.. dont think ive ever missed an SQ event since i started competing (except wagga)

I'll make it this time. I'll give the footy a miss

I'll be there.. unless something seriously drastic happens I'll be there.

Spent some time with my brother in my car just now and we've both agreed it's going to be really hard to tune suitably without midbass drivers. I basically have two options:

1) EQ up the bands from 120hz - 200hz. This gives me a perfect transition between my subbass and midb-bass, but then I have a weak link between 200hz and 300hz.
2) EQ up the bands from 200hz - 300hz, which gives me very good mid-bass to midrange transition, but gives an ugly ass hole between 80hz and 200hz.

Neither is a particularly pleasing idea...

Edit:
Hell with it, I've changed of plans - I'm joining team ghetto (for one round)!!

I'ma drop down to the local Autobarn sometime this week, buy myself a pair of pro-pods, and slaughter them until they can take a 7", 96mm deep mid-bass driver. Then I'ma take Jaycar's cheapest four channel (sleeping in my bro's room at the moment), and smacko her back into the car right next to the Brax.

Then I'ma smacko a wab of blu-tac bigger then my head onto the kicks and get those friggen tweeters on axis... while I'm at it I'll stuff some fluffy stuff in to them kicks as well!

I'll do whatever it takes (as long as it's legal.. kind of) to get that baby singing like a canary with a bad attitude ...

I think It's about time to unleash the beast within !

Oh, and I'm fully up for that test & tune as well

antony, yeh, i was thinking of having one at my place

wwwwwwwwooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111oneone

welcome

2 ghetto lasers....

im keen

well guys, i personally should be there.

but i am not sure about the car, if im not mistaken it will be on the hoist so we can change the rear seal on the transmission, it spat its guts and spewed tranny fluid all over the garage floor

Let's go over to laserforums and start recruiting a gang!

Teh Gehto Lazorz will rule teh worldz!!!

I have spare sets of propods here if you need them Pete.

Awesome, cheers dude

I'll come past some time with the mids to see if it would be possible to get them to fit. May even come by for abit today after uni if I have the time (finish at 4pm).

Diameter wise, are the pods easy enough to modify?

Might also try to add some black cloth to my speaker grilles as well so they look a little more stealth.. or maybe just do it Antony style and cover the whole pod with cloth Just need to think of a way to make the cloth stay on without making it too permenant (in case I ever choose to sell them, or go show).

It's going to take some effort to get all of this ready on time... but I really want to get the car sounding like magic for the next round. Not just for competition rankings either, more so just so others can hear them for their true potential.

OOOOOOOOOO ghetto!!! yay my car wont be so ghetto looking if there are other ghetto cars there. YES! i got a whole lot of work 2 do and not much time. im gonig to eat my steak and go get stuck into it.

Jaycar and brax. that will be a good combo.

i need to wait to get paid so i can order some Dynamat from Marty, aswell as my new deck.

I will be adjusting the angles on my mids aswell

A good move, you'd be surprised how significant a difference it will make to get the mids more on axis.

Entirely off axis you will experience a huge drop-off in the frequency response above around 1.5k, which can't really be improved without crossing the tweeters around the same frequency to help cover the range. This can be an issue, because many tweeters aren't particularly comfortable playing down below 2.5khz and suffer particularly high distrotion levels when crossover over below their comfort zone.

Specifically the reason why I chose to go with a three way front end, to give further flexibility in crosover points and driver choices... but at the expense of ease of setup and installation (as you can see with my current difficulties).

Needless to say, the dynamat won't hurt either.. well it won't hurt your system sound at least anyway... when I did my boot I think I must have sliced every finger on my hand, and then some. Bloody violent stuff, that dynamat...

well, i adjusted the tweeter aiming, and the mids

then i find out my 3am speaker wiring was reversed!!!!!!! Mids were running out of phase, Driver Side tweeter was @ +2dB and Passenger was at -2dB

In the pic below, you can see the new angles the mids will be sitting on and also my shoddy spacer that let the mids vent

can i come just to watch/listen..as in not compete..?

definately!!!

hahah good good, hopefully i can make it although its a bit of a drive..never been to something like this before so maybe i can finally hear what i am aiming for!!

cheers.

Most definately! The sound off days are also very good for people wanting to simply hear what various systems can sound like. This is useful for both enthusiasts and prospective auditioners / buyers.

Just a bit of an issue there

fixed last night, will test tonight

Progress Report:
Didn't have the time to get the tweeters on axis, however based on most graphs I have looked at I have found that 60 degrees off axis tends to result in a drop of about 2 dB- 2.5dB at 15khz and over 10dB at 20khz.

Some tweeters are partcularly harsh and have a response curve that is all over the place. In those cases it sometimes doesn't hurt to get them off axis a little. However, the Rainbow CAL27s have a beautifully flat, silky smooth respose so having them off axis realy holds them back heavilly. Although they seem to take less of a hit when they go off axis (possibly due to the slightly oversized dome) it still doesn't do them any favours.

Considering mine are currently 90degrees off axis, I tried to 'simulate' on axis mounting as best as possible by using abit of EQ to 'reverse' that curve. I added +3dB at 15k and +10dB at 20k.

The EQ solution is obviously not optimal... because of the nature of EQ curves the sound will be a somewhat like a bunch of lumpy sand dunes. That said, it does give me some indication of how the car will sound with that extra top end and the difference is absolutely night and day. Compared to how it sounds now, it practically sounded like it had no tweeters before.

While the midbass is obviously a major issue, the loss of top end detail has a far stronger impact on the overall ambience and sonic performance, so getting those tweets on axis will be my first and foremost priority.

Once I've done that, I will do what I can with the midbass. Either way, expect a dramatic improvement in my car's performance by the time round 2 comes along... slowly but surely the barriers are being reduced, and that sweet Rainbow signature sound is starting to take form.

And I'm starting to get excited

Will keep you all updated !

Less posting , more action!

How did those pods go Pete?

lets hope he got the speakers to fit.

Got Dremel?

i cbf making pods...so im off to buy some high quality pre made pods w000000t!!