Cape Girardeau, MO, December 1, 2006. For the third time in five years, a car sound system designed, engineering and installed by Stereo One Car Audio Division has returned with a world championship trophy from the United States Autosound Competition International World Finals in Kansas City, Mo., on November 17-19. The vehicle, owned by Matt Richard of Fenton, Missouri, took three major awards, including “Best of Show - Consumer” the most prestigious consumer award bestowed in the World Finals. The “maxxed out” 2004 Honda Civic also won 1st Place in the “Advanced Consumer 601 Watt+ Class” and well as 2nd place in the “Consumer Sound Quality Class”.
Local Stereo One Installation Team members were led in the effort by Kevin Brown of Cape Girardeau, MO, Master Installer, with assistance from former World Champion Greg Vaughn of Jackson, MO, who provided design concepts and final system tuning. Also on the technical team were Danny McMillan, Scott City, MO, Joe Niswonger, of Old Appleton, MO, Vernon Hunter of Anna, IL, and Cody Cook, of Oak Ridge, MO.
According to Stereo One’s Kevin Brown, the team’s winning entry was built to optimize sound quality or “critical listening” as opposed to producing maximum sound output. “Car owner Matt Richard’s audiosound objective was to come as close as possible to the reproducing the “experience of a real live musical performance,” Brown said. “His design goal was elegant integration of all components, with hints throughout of a guitar theme, including actual Fender guitar body components, and grill mesh harvested from a vintage 1960's Fender guitar amplifier.”
Of all the car’s many striking features, the most unique, eye-opening design feature by far has to be the “guitar in the trunk”. According to Stereo One’s Greg Vaughn, “We wanted something unique for the floor of the trunk, so we heavily-modified a Sunburst Fender Stratocaster guitar and mounted a sound processor in the middle of it, complete with LED lighting to make the guitar glow. Then, we took the top part of the neck of the guitar and mounted it behind the rear seats between two edge-lit 15-inch subwoofer speakers.”
In case one might wonder just how much technology can fit into a 2004 Honda Civic, consider the following list of components designed into the vehicle:
DVD Audio/Video player
7" high resolution LCD monitor
8 speakers
8 amplifiers (one per speaker)
Computer controlled sound processor
Automated amplifier cooling system
Custom made cabling
Custom Neon, LED, and Electro Luminescent lighting
iPod control
Hand-built custom installation components and major modifications were performed on and in the car’s dashboard, center console, trunk, doors, kick panels, under the hood, and seats. The car’s interior was treated with sound deadening materials to minimize road noise and thus maximize musical sound quality.
This years’ World Championship continues an 18-year tradition of participation in world-class car audio competition by Stereo One. Stereo One accomplished its first finalist finish in national car audio competition in 1988, and has been consistent in producing cutting-edge mobile electronics systems since that time.
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