The SoundQ Garage
Tech talk for the DIY car audio enthusiast that cares about sound quality
The SoundQ Garage
How A 20-Year-Old Turned Obsession Into World-Class Car Audio-Guest Brayden Cooper
Forget hype cycles and spec-sheet wars—this conversation is about how music actually feels in a car, and what it takes to get there. We sit down with 20-year-old tuner and fabricator Brayden Cooper, whose journey runs from chaotic basement speaker walls to precision car, bike, and even boat installs. He’s the mind behind a Toyota Camry that pairs five Boston GT amps and a Helix DSP Ultra with baffle-mounted Boston SPG 555 racetrack subs, delivering stage depth, smooth tonality, and the kind of low-end party trick that makes bumpers flex.
Brayden pulls back the curtain on why most listeners aren’t really hearing a subwoofer—they’re hearing the vehicle, the enclosure, and the integration. He breaks down hard dome vs soft dome tweeters, why “install and tuning” beat shiny gear nine times out of ten, and how an ear for phase and balance can fix what REW graphs miss. We unpack the recent Klippel subwoofer testing drama with a level head: how to read the weighting, why scoring isn’t one-size-fits-all, and how to translate distortion and Xmax into smart choices for IB, front subs, or sealed alignments.
Then it’s on to Project RAUDI Brayden’s B8 Audi built around the Accuton Automotive three-way: C30 AM tweeters, C100 AM dash mids, and C165 AM midbass breathing into the subframe. He’s weighing dual Purifi front subs through the firewall versus a compact sealed solution like the Resonix GUS 12, all powered by Symphony Prestigio/Prodigio and potentially Micro-Precision amplification. Expect CAD modeling, 3D scans, a rear-mounted lithium main and an LTO bank for long, stable demo sessions—because consistency matters as much as peak numbers.
If you care about soundstage, imaging, and low distortion more than brand decals, this one’s for you. Brayden also shares details on his mobile tuning service—Helix, ARC, Mosconi, MiniDSP, and more—focused on turning parts into music with careful phase work, clean crossovers, and realistic targets.
Subscribe, share with a friend who’s chasing better car audio, and leave a review with your take: are you team data, team ears, or both?
To follow Brayden’s work in the high-end car audio world — including his tuning, installs, and behind-the-scenes projects — take a look at the links below:
Facebook: CoopersCustomsNH
Instagram: @CoopersCustomsNH
TikTok: @CoopersCustomsNH
YouTube: CoopersCustomsNH
Email: cooperscustomsnh@gmail.com
Welcome back to the SoundQ Garage Podcast, a spot where we talk all things high-end car audio, precision installs in the pursuit of perfect sound. Today we've got someone who lives and breathes music on a whole nother level. Braden Cooper. Braden, man, welcome to the show, man. Glad you're finally on.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_01:So why don't you give everybody a little brief bio about yourself? Tell everybody who you are, where you're from, what you're about.
SPEAKER_00:My name is Braden Cooper. I am from Southern New Hampshire, South, New Hampshire. I am 20 years old, and I just like he said, I eat, sleep, breathe, music, and audio. It is the single biggest thing in my life, and that's what I love doing.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, and you're a young gun to boot, man. That's awesome. We don't see that a lot in this industry. A lot of the people that are into sound quality is usually like the older crowd, but that's awesome that uh you're representing for the for the what what do you guys call now? The xenials, or I don't know what they call I don't pay attention to all that. Yeah, I'm Gen X, but I don't know what they call the new the the the whipper snappers. So uh you said that music is the biggest thing in your life, man. Where did that passion start? Walk us through those early days in in your mom's basement and speakers, wiring, walls of sound from what I from what your bio told me.
SPEAKER_00:So So I mean, starting off, music is probably the single biggest thing in my life. I've been obsessed with speakers since a really, really young age. Like I'm talking like seven years old. I was, I believe, 13 or 14 in my mom's basement wiring up walls of sound with all of the speakers that you know family would give me and I'd get for you know Christmas or my birthday, and I learned about ohms very early on because I kept shorting out the Sony home receiver I had because it was wired to an eighth of an ohm, you know. All the positives and all the negatives together. Yeah, I had a somebody gave me a 10-inch Alpine type S that I stuck in a uh plastic rubber made tote. Yeah, same thing had that wired in with everything else. So it I started with the the speakers very young. I always had big speakers in my room and starting a little bit before high school, probably seventh or eighth grade, I was I had my own room, got big old speakers in there, I had I had white van scam speakers up on my wall. Oh man. Sounded like sounded like garbage, but they got real loud, so that was what I cared about as a kid. But yeah, I've just been been into speakers my whole life, but ultimately that means I'm into music, which I think everybody that's in this hobby is into music. Music is, in my opinion, one of the one of the most powerful things in the world, you know. Music is very important, I believe. And music is, you know, one of the things that will never never let me down, you know, whenever whenever something's going on, whenever you got something in your life, you can always turn music. And I think most of us feel this way. It's j it's just powerful, and that's kind of what drives all of this is the pursuit of music and replicating it as perfectly as possible.
SPEAKER_01:It is, it is. I've said it before in this podcast. Music for me anyway is cathartic. I'm sure it is for a lot of people, I'm sure it is for you. You get in that car, and you know, all your stresses kind of go away when you jam into some good high-quality sound and high-quality tunes in the car. So you got into a shop at 16, is that correct?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I got into a local shop near me in Focus Mobile Audio. Awesome group of guys. I was actually just there earlier today. Talk to them all the time. I worked there for about a year and a half, I believe, a little over a year and a half, working on car audio systems, motorcycles, and boats. On the car audio side, I did a lot of pretty basic things, deck and fours, five channels, a couple higher-end builds. Then on the boat side, I did I did one huge project, which is actually the the talk of the Lake Winnipes group around here. Lake Winnipesaukee is a big lake up in northern New Hampshire that this boat that I built the sound system is on, and people complain all year long because it is the loudest boat on the lake.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_00:So that that kind of follows me around, but their their claim to fame was actually motorcycles. They are among the best motorcycle builders.
SPEAKER_01:That's awesome, man. Cool place. I've never seen I've seen smaller setups in boats, but I've never seen you know, like a big sound system in a boat. I'm sure, you know, anything's possible when you throw enough money at it. But uh like how how does that work? Like uh, because most boats space is a premium, like yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So this was a uh 50-foot catamaran style boat. So it was a big, big boat. I believe it was two 624 big blocks, they were blown, big old superchargers the size of a Honda motor. And it had a it's a they're small cabins. They have a cuddy cabin and maybe five seats. They're just you know go fast boats. But we did eight eight-inch horn tweeter marine coaxles from Rockford Fosgate, all in the cabin, just screaming right at you. Another eight six and a halves off the back of the boat, four tens under the seat with six amplifiers on in the uh hat, four Rockford Punch Marines, and two Rockford Power Series Marines. It was it was pretty ridiculous. It was I never thought you could have low end to come from a boat, but this thing had some serious base, it was pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. That's awesome, man. So how old were you when you got your first vehicle and and threw an install in it? Like what did what did what was your first setup like?
SPEAKER_00:So I was 16. I had a system in my truck within about a month of getting it. So I had never done anything in a car at that point. I did this right before getting that job. And one of my one of my close friends' buddies wanted, you know, basic speaker and head unit upgrade in his Honda cord. So we did that. The kid bought a new amp, new sub, four speakers, and a head unit. But then he halfway through the install, he's like, Hey, why don't you guys come check this out? I got this in my basement. I don't know if you want it. And it was it was a sub and amp setup. And I was like, Yeah, of course, I'll take it. It was a Boston Acoustics GT22 with two Boston Acoustics Competitor 1000 tens. Oh wow. Um, they were in the Boston Prefab box, which included two passive radiators. It was pretty cool. I had that in my truck almost immediately after getting it. You know, went right on Crutchfield and ordered all the radio parts and got right to it.
SPEAKER_01:That's what uh that's so funny because I know that you're a youngin', but Boston Acoustics was like the shizzle back in the day. When I when I was your age, Boston Acoustics is what like who would I compare it to? Kind of like what maybe Moscone, you know, like it was it was one of the big dogs back in the day. Yeah. They they made good stuff. I mean, they still make good stuff, but they were one of the big dogs back then. They had Neododium tweeters and really unique subwoofers. They had that subwoofer. Is that the one that looks like a racetrack? The one that's like Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Yes, we will we'll get into that later.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that was a cool sub.
SPEAKER_00:But yeah, so that that system is what actually got me stuck on the sound quality side. So probably less than six months after that, I wanted to upgrade, I wanted more. And then I went through five or six different setups every single time going back to the comp 1000s, because you know, they were things that were louder, but very quickly I realized I was after the quality, and I just kept going back to that setup. It was it was just great. The comp 1000s, they're not fantastic subs, they're not terrible, definitely not great by modern standards, but overall they're they're a pretty good sounding sub. But the amp, the amp is really, really nice. I love those. But yeah, I just I kept going back to it. I had kicker L7s, the L7 Qs, decent sub. I had at one point I had a scar in there. I had a Fosgate sub. I had all sorts of stuff. But I just kept going back to the Boston, and then that was the starting point of the Boston Acoustics addiction.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. And it's hard to find that that vintage gear too, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I'll actually have to send you a photo of uh of my basement and all the things that I have.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, nice. So you're a huge Boston acoustics fan.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, big. They're home audio stuff too. I'm sitting right next to the VRM90 towers from them.
SPEAKER_01:Oh wow. Yeah, I had Boston acoustics in my car back in the day and they sounded awesome. That was one of the one of the speakers that I regretted selling, like, you know, when you're you know, in this hobby. Yeah, yep. With the Neodonium tweeters. 6.5. Yep, six, six and a half inch. And there was a shop, only one shop in town sold Boston acoustics, and I had to drive like almost an hour just to go listen to them. And I heard them on the board, which, you know, that really doesn't give you an indicator how they're gonna sound in your car. But uh they did sound awesome in the car, and and I don't know what guy I think I went with MB Court after that. MB Court was big back in the 90s, and they had the metal tweeters, which I went with the install, and then I didn't I ended up not liking those MB quartz because the uh Boston acoustics just sounded smoother to my ears, and I I kind of regret, but you know, by that time I sold them, so I was like, ah, there's no going back, just just stick with these MB quartz.
SPEAKER_00:I'm not sure what series of Bostons that you had, but a lot of the uh the later neodymium VR tweeters came with a thing called an AMD on the front. It was their patented acoustic modulation device. It basically blocks off the center of the tweeter, which is kind of a similar feature that a lot of other tweeters have, but it also has five little holes going across a little thing hanging over the front that I learned from a friend who was friends with a Boston acoustics engineer. He's actually somebody I got a lot of my stuff from that those holes are actually all slightly different lengths, and every single one of them is a Hemholtz resonator. So sure enough, I actually took a closer look, and yeah, everyone is a slightly different length, and they use that to attenuate the really harsh resonant frequency and the ringing associated with a lot of hard-dome tweeters at the time. So they sounded drastically better than most metal domes of the time. They were detailed, not crazy by modern standards, they were still pretty harsh, but comparatively to many other things at the time, they were very, very good.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the those definitely are not the ones I had. I didn't have anything like that. I I had just the regular, I think, one and a half inch neododium tweeters. Yeah, I don't even know what those words mean, what you just what you just ran by me. One thing that I've noticed with like soft domes versus hard domes is you know, yeah, if you're not careful, those hard domes can get harsh. But I also noticed that uh you can never get that extra high sizzle out of soft dome that you can with uh with a hard dome, you know. At least that's just that's just one man's opinion, but I just notice you can't you can't uh get those extra high hats like you can with a metal dome, but you know, to each their own, because it you know, some people swear by soft domes and some people swear by metal domes, but whatever, you know, whatever floats your boat, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, honestly, I kinda I like hard domes just because that's what most of my favorite tweeters are. But I I try to not group them by dome material. I try and just look at them as a tweeter. But generally, I can tell you most of the tweeters I like are hard dome. I love detail, and if you if you know how to tune properly, it won't sound harsh and you won't get that fatiguing that the the fatigue that a lot of people associate with the hard dome. So but there are definitely outliers on both sides. There's some really good soft domes that I enjoy a lot too, but yeah, I'm generally hard dome.
SPEAKER_01:I'm on the same boat, brother. So what click that made uh accuracy and sound quality, you know, your lane? What what what clicked in there? Because I know, you know, I imagine in your teenage years you like that thump and you mentioned Scar and Rockford. So I imagine, you know, I'd say about 99% of us start off with a subwoofer, and we like that bass, and you know, we're trying to show off. And then, you know, a lot of people just stay in that lane, but some of us, you know, the few, the proud, move into the sound quality and accuracy. What made you go to uh what clicked? There must have been something.
SPEAKER_00:It started off with that first install on my truck. It was I kept going back to those comp 1000s because they were just much cleaner, much less muddy. And then it it kind of grew from there. So I I'm also into home audio quite a bit. Home audio is a lot easier than car audio, and some very basic setups could sound really, really good. I had same thing, Boston Acoustics Towers, and I had a setup in my basement, and it it kind of started there. You know, I was learning about staging. I would listen to music, you know, for hours and just listen and really enjoy the the concept of things being placed in front of me properly, and it it kind of grew from there. And then that was while I was simultaneously at that shop and I did my first active system in a vehicle. Yeah. And I was I was getting you know resemblances of that in a car. It was a very install-challenged car. It was a Mercedes SL. Um it wasn't an ideal platform, but it was I was noticing that you can get that in a car, and then it just kind of spiraled from there. And then I I was forever just into accuracy. I have I had so many different home setups. I experimented in my my grandparents' basement to try stuff. I experimented in my bedroom, you know, I was figuring out the different different atmospheres and different rooms make speakers sound very differently and the things that you have in the broom. And it it just kind of exploded. And it was, I realized that that's what I was after. Accurate sound. I just I enjoyed it so much. Listening to music like that was so enjoyable. Yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_01:When once you get a nice clear system, like if you have a reference system, for me, my reference was having a set of studio monitors in my house, and once I got my car sounding better than my studio monitors, I knew that I was onto something. So a lot of people, for the listeners out there that might not know you, one of the things that you're associated with is the Camry. I call it the Camry. Why don't you tell people a little bit about that Camry?
SPEAKER_00:The Camry is a fun car. The Camry is a 2006 Toyota Camry owned by my one of my best friends, Gage. We built that car over the last two years. It's a pretty cool setup. It started life with a relatively basic active system that lasted less than a month and then grew into the vehicle that people know now. It has five Boston Acoustics GT series amplifiers and a Helix DSP Ultra in the back. And uh actually, even still to this day, what I would call very nice amp rack, a lot of stuff going on. You know, cramming five gigantic class A B amps in a small space is a pretty big challenge. Those amps actually take dual four-gauge inputs as well, so there's there's two four-way power power distro blocks on that amp rack. It's pretty ridiculous. I I'll send you a photo actually after this so you can check it out. I know I don't think you've seen the amp rack in the trunk because it always is full of garbage and all the stuff I take when I travel.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I've seen your car twice. I saw you know when you had the subs in there, the the uh the the Boston acoustic subs, and I saw when you had the when you had the first tweeters and then you switched up the tweeters the second time. And it sounded fantastic both times. It kicked ass.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, so in the front we have Boston SPZ 60s. That was the best component woofer that they ever made. They were in the door for the longest time, and then this year I actually built stack fab door enclosures for them. They still aren't finished. They haven't been finished for about six months, but they will be finished. Those are really, really good. They do well up there. And the front kick is two Boston Acoustics Pro 8.5 LFs in a roughly 0.75 cubic foot fiberglass box, stupidly solid box. It's about a half inch of fiberglass, and then the entire box is lined with Resinix, CLD, and clay, and then stuffed with fiber mat. Really, really solid box. And then up on the dash in the corners, I had Boston Acoustics two-inch mid-rangers out of a VR 35 home audio speaker. Um, but those weren't quite up to par, and they were fading very quickly from the sun, and the surrounds were getting stiff. So we switched out to Morel's CCWRs, which are technically widebands. And then the tweeters were Boston Acoustics VR HOs, it's a high output version out of their home audio VR single digit series towers, VR 1, 2, 3, that stuff. And then in the back, everybody's favorite part, there is two Boston Acoustics SPG 555s, the racetrack, in a really, really thick two and a quarter inch baffle, trunk baffle mounted to the uh subframe of the car.
SPEAKER_01:So pretty much so you're running those infinite baffle, right? Trunk baffle. Trunk baffle?
SPEAKER_00:The uh the cabin vent is pulled out of the trunk. So they're it they move a lot of air. So much air actually moves out of that cabin vent that the uh the rear bumper flexes like crazy. The the part at the the bottom right next to the wheel will kind of slap the uh the mousing behind it because it moves so much from the air going and out of there. But yeah trunk trunk baffled.
SPEAKER_01:I got a I got a taste of it. I remember when you when you gave me a demo you put I think you put on like something from back in the day bass mechanic right?
SPEAKER_00:When the bass mechanics did I don't know what song I played for you but I they're normally they're like some indie music things but they have just this stupid low fundamental bass and yeah that's that's the party trick. Everybody loves that I still haven't heard a SQ car that can do what that car can do. They aren't they aren't by any means the most accurate subs but they have a fun factor to them that's just unlike anything else. They have the so they actually have nearly four inches of XMech. That's incredible yeah technically only rated 22 millimeters of XMAX. I'd love to see the clipple tested to see what they really do but yeah they have 45mm one way of XMech and when I am playing them all out they use every single bit of it they have just under four inches peak to peak of excursion I'm sure there's videos Peter Steinbacher PS sound actually has a video somewhere on his phone. I'll have to have him send me it of them going absolutely nuts.
SPEAKER_01:They move a lot and they move a lot of air yeah I think I think Peter posted a picture of your car or not a picture I'm sorry a video of your car on YouTube didn't he?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah actually at SVR the the second time did he did he did he show you did he highlight the subwoofers or no not a video no of them playing I think I saw them somewhere on one of his pages but yeah I could swear video from yeah I'd have to look back so so for people out there that aren't familiar with these subs basically picture almost like a super size six by nine it it it's it looks like back then those were the I'm sorry were those Boston acoustics or JBL?
SPEAKER_01:Boston. Boston okay so back in the day back in the 90s I think maybe I I'm not sure exactly when they came out if they were late 90s 2000s or mid-90s but they they supposed to be like a racetrack subwoofer you know look like a racetrack inspired design and I don't know the backstory behind them. I mean you you would know better than I do because you're you're the expert on those speakers but those basically are our old school speakers and they're what what would you say roughly they would be the equivalent of would that would they be the equivalent of a 12 or a 15?
SPEAKER_00:So the 555 in the name stands for the cone SD um they're 555 square centimeters which is slightly larger than a normal 12. So they're about like a 13.
SPEAKER_01:So it's about so it's like you have two 13s in your car then?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah essentially they measure roughly 10 by like 13 and 3 quarter inches by the surround and they're they're actually a competitor to the JLW7 at the time they have they have a 3.5 inch coil just like the 13W7. I actually owned a 13W7 I bought it specifically to compare to those and I had them both in boxes in my truck and I was going back and forth and the just for anyone who's curious the 13W7 could play ever so slightly lower in a sealed box but I don't think it had the accuracy of the SPGs so I ended up actually selling it.
SPEAKER_01:I sold it for only like 500 bucks before the the latest price hike and I I could have gotten a lot more for it if if they had adjusted that price but yeah yeah so do you know the design backstory behind that why they created that subway that unusual shape was it to to uh to have better install options or was that just uh because I don't really know yeah I remember advertising at the time had something I to do with racetrack you know uh yeah inspired I think it was just you know they had back then they had the Sony had the the Pentagons you know bazooka had the triangles everybody was taker probably fell into more of a marketing style thing yeah yeah um well they're unique they're they're shaped unique what they're they're they're they have a unique shape so I feel like they're almost easier to install especially in the the configuration that you have them in you kind of have them at an angle I would almost you know seem like you can they're easier to install you know what I mean I mean I don't know I'm just balling up but they are uniquely shaped absolutely perfect in the the camera yeah yeah they do they do fit well there. It'd be great to get that one of those subs over to Nick for his little testing exercise that he's doing huh? What do you think about that?
SPEAKER_00:I uh I was going to a while ago I forget what happened but the one I had at the time wasn't all that great. Uh-huh um and then I actually get this I have so many of them that I forgot I had this one specific one that I just stumbled upon when I moved about month and something ago I found a almost brand new one so I should probably send him a text and ask if he wants to that would be awesome.
SPEAKER_01:I'd I'd love to know just out of curiosity because I know you said they're not like 100% sound cue subs, but from what I heard in your car they sounded great. I mean it could be a combination of your tuning or the entire system as a whole but I I I kind of liken your car more to like a SQL because just the way that it gets down but I mean that's just my opinion that's one man's two cents. People might disagree you might disagree with me I I felt like your car was a SQL because it it it it was a jack of all trades. It did fantastic what you had really good imaging sounded clean clean clean but then when you put you know when you wanted to show off that bass it could do that because a lot of sound cue cars can't get down like that.
SPEAKER_00:I mean yeah no no they they are really really good sounding sub just for a fun vehicle yes being being a party trick is cool hair tricks at 13 hertz are awesome but they do sound really good don't get me wrong they're just not you know the most accurate subs ever I I always have a little bit of a hard time getting them to perfectly blend honestly mostly due to the backseat resonating I cut out the uh ski pass to let some air get through yep yep but with the backseat resonance I have a little bit of a hard time getting them to disappear but yeah they're really good I actually forgot to mention real quick about the tweeters in that car they were upgraded to the JBL arena berylliums so that's what's in there now. Yeah yeah I noticed that and you made those pillars pillars that are in there now yep everything fabricated I made so pillars mid pods door pods front sub rear sub amp rack which is a good or bad thing depending on what stage people have seen the car in it's definitely showed up to some shows looking pretty rough but it's it's one big experiment. That car is purely sound quality. Yeah I'm actually going to own the vehicle in a few weeks so buying it from him.
SPEAKER_01:Nice nice yeah I mean so speaking of let's let's let's um we'll get back to this car in a little in in a minute but one one question I want to ask you so Nick dropped his his subwoofer testing thing that he did online and he's causing quite the kerfuffle online everybody's talking about it it's been it's been the talk of the town for the past 24 hours and it's upset some people some people you know to me it's kind of funny I'm I'm just sitting back and watching the all the drama go down. What do you what do you take? What's your take on it?
SPEAKER_00:I think if you own a sub and you're happy with it then don't pay any attention and don't care because that wasn't done for you. That wasn't done for the people that enjoy what they have you know just want to get down every day a little bit that was done for the the people like me the absolute freaks of nature that will do anything they can to get every bit of sound quality possible it it it's just not for everybody. And I also I have noticed that the vast majority of people commenting about it did not read the entire description before just immediately diving into the specs. If you read the homepage of that article which I've done twice now it does a very good job of breaking down why things were weighted this way what this measurement is what it means for the performance of the driver it's a great wealth of information and I am immensely appreciative that he did this. It also pretty closely backs up my findings there were actually a few oddballs that I couldn't predict but the the problem with using your ears to say his results are right or wrong is the fact that most of the time you're not listening to the driver you're listening to the car and that is the the big battle that we face in this industry and hobby yeah you're you're not listening to the driver in a lot of these installs you're listening to the car. Some cars do a really good job of covering up distortion on the low end. The Camry is actually one of them the you don't really hear a lot of that distortion going on in that very low end but if you drop the seat down and you put your head next to the sub that bass sounds like a wet fart uh it's not not great but that specific vehicle just happens to do a really good job of kind of covering it up that's you know that's why one I think it's invalid to say I think this driver sounds really good. These tests have to be wrong that's not a very valid way to look at it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah I mean I I liken it you know basically like if if you know you go in and some people buy something from like I don't know say McDonald's and they buy that that you know a Big Mac or whatever and it's got the sauce on it. And some people hate the big the the the the Big Mac sauce it's like you know it's not for everyone and and some people might not like the sound of a certain subwoofer might not like the sound of a certain speaker. It's not for everyone if you're happy with your system your subwoofer you shouldn't even shouldn't even be chiming in because it's it's not that what Nick is doing is not meant for everyone. It's meant for those people the fanatics that are trying to get that last 1% trying to squeeze out you know every last drop out of their system they're trying to get the absolute best which in retrospect or in hindsight sometimes you're never going to get there every every car is different and there's always compromises with every car.
SPEAKER_00:For example the Camry the Camry ha is a really good platform but some cars some trucks some you know hatchbacks they they all have advantages and disadvantages some cars have big dashes some cars have long dashes wide dashes you know nice spots for pillars some cars don't some cars already come with mids in the dash some people have to freaking remove the windshield remove the dash so every car is a compromise and I think that's that holds true with with speakers too like you're gonna get you know you're never gonna get a 100% sounding system I mean look at Luke for example he had an awesome freaking crazy system in his truck and he's changing it up anybody in their right mind looking from the outside in would be like these guys are crazy you know what I mean the amount of money the amount of effort the amount of of of uh labor that we're putting into these cars is just crazy you have to be crazy to be in this in in that you know that uh I would call you guys the one percenters you know what I mean when you're trying to get that last frickin' one percent of of sound quality that's what this testing that Nick is doing that's what that's for if you're happy with your sub be happy with your sub man just enjoy crank it who cares what other people say you know what I mean exactly I think I'm actually I'm gonna refrain from that comment but I it's very frustrating reading a lot of these comments especially ones trying to invalidate the testing because the you know I I've spoken to Nick a lot about this and the the group of people I'm friends with has all been pretty involved and up to date with what's going on with the clipple testing and this this was done by an incredibly reputable lab with a clipple which is an incredibly complex scientific device. It is every single possible precaution was taken and every single bit of care to test the drivers and do this and that, everything was taken to a pretty extreme level like there was a lot of diligence here that I don't think many people would be able to do. And the other thing too is it if you actually read it and just don't you know skim through it and find what you want to hear and don't want to hear there's a lot of sections where he is crediting these certain drivers I mean you read the Acoustic Elegance SBP 15 one he says straight up this is an absolutely phenomenal driver. It is everybody knows it is it is I love the acoustic elegance drivers they are absolutely beautiful sounding and then he points out hey this is a great driver only thing is it can't get down all that much which everybody knows you you cannot get crazy output out of a single acoustic elegance sub it doesn't happen. Some vehicles you can maybe get away with a single 18 Luke's truck does that very well Ryan's Hamory does really well with the single 15. Yep I think he has an SBP 15 that exact sub no he's got the IBAU he does yep ah sorry but yeah they're they're a fantastic driver and he says that straight up they just can't get all that loud so it's one just like you said it's a compromise and two it's perfectly accurate data that tracks with real world real world experience specifically real world experience in well-built well treated cars and it tracks with all of the subs that I've seen so far track with my opinions and the data that I've seen on them and the things that I've heard both about them and personally with my own ears.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah and the way I look at it is you know whether you're a fan of Nick you don't like him you're neutral whatever here you have a wicked car audio enthusiast first and foremost Nick is a huge car audio enthusiast I mean you know the people not for nothing but maybe you know the people that like at you know all these big companies I'm not gonna name any names but a whole bunch of those people they they might be just a bunch of frickin' shareholders to a company that they could care less about car audio. You know what I mean? Maybe the founder started as that but he's got shareholders that he's got to be beholden to and you know companies that he's got to be beholden to and they're making other types of products in their product lineup or whatever and they're not sticking to you know one specialized product like Nick is you know Nick Nick's product is Res Nix and making you know high grade sound damp denoning materials for cars and it's because he's a sound quality enthusiast himself. So he knows what he's looking for or what's missing in the subwoofer world. So he got his hands on as many subwoofers as he could sent them out to get tested so that he could compare and say okay I want to build my subwoofer better than this. What can this one do? You know so he's trying to make a no compromise subwoofer. I'm sure what's the yeah sure go ahead.
SPEAKER_00:Just sorry to cut you off but just putting this out there that is exactly how Resonix was started in the first place. Yep the Sound Edner company that he loved was no longer producing product and he was looking for the same if not better performance. And I actually can't remember if this was a personal conversation with him or if this was on a podcast. I feel like it's both he's talked about it ad nauseum the well the this specific thing finding somebody that can make this product was actually very difficult because the product that he brought to them sounded in her showdown was pretty good and most of these places said yeah we can't top that and the one that finally did said we don't know if we can but we'll take a try at it. It finding these manufacturers was a was a big deal but the reason he went through all that effort is because he was after the best and the company that he was using shut down. So that's that's kind of that's kind of how the subwoofer thing came about in my opinion.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah and he knows the actual answer but you know yeah we talked about it at length I had him on my podcast I don't know if you heard it yet but yeah you you're gonna take a you know like a sampling he he could have just picked one woofer or two woofers and said I want what is arguably one of the best subwoofers in the car audio world send me a couple of acoustic elegant subwoofers I don't care about the rest.
SPEAKER_00:No he actually went out of his way he spent over twenty thousand dollars of his own money to get this information he didn't have to do that you know what I mean and that that's why it you know if if somebody personally doesn't like Nick that's cool it it's whatever but but use the information for your own good don't just dismiss it that information is here to stay and it is a wealth of information it is very useful. You know the other thing uh pay attention to what's going on with specific drivers because if you're looking for a driver for a specific application say a front sub where you don't need to play down super low granted even in a front sub if you're crossing at 50 hertz Realistically, you should care about distortion all the way down to 20 hertz. But you know, if you're on a budget or you have a specific criteria, just because that sub didn't score well on the total ratings list does not mean that it's going to be a good driver for your application. Read the intro. You know, try to understand what is going on with you know what these different things mean, and then make a choice from there. You don't have to buy his sub if you read the information. You don't even have to think about it. You can use that information, believe it or not, you can use that information for your own good. Who would have thought? You know? So I that's what I hope people use this as is like, hey, this is a great wealth of information. Let's use it. So that's what I hope comes from it ultimately. And in the end, it's only going to better this industry.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. More more information is never a bad thing. And just like you said, take take uh the acoustic elegance, because he already tested that one. In his first batch of testing, that's one of the ones that's already up there. A lot of people already knew, you know, it just confirmed what a lot of people already knew. And for next season, I was planning on going with a infinite baffle and top top of my top choices acoustic elegance. And he just confirmed what I was thinking. Now, if I was after 130, 140 decibels, I would be like, shit, I can't use this acoustic elegance because according to Nick's test, it's limited on the X-Max. And maybe I should look at something else, or maybe I should wait till his subwoofers come out. But I'm not a SPL kind of guy. So, you know, the X Max doesn't bother me. You know, I don't mind 105 decibel, 1010 decibel. That's fine for me. I I'm not a, you know, I don't crank it anymore like I used to, but you know, so a subwoofer like that is right up my alley. So information is always useful. So anybody out there that, like you said, if you don't like Nick, you like Nick, or you're neutral, or you don't, you know, whatever, you got information right in front of you, man. Like use it. You know, put your feelings aside, you know, and put whatever uh reservations you have towards somebody. You're not buying Nick. You're you're buying a product, you know. And whether or not you use his subwoofer or buy his subwoofer or not, the information is there. Use it to your own gain, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. It's there. Use it. If you don't want to use it, don't use it. It is what it is. I mean, I'm not I I am pretty drama-free, so like I'm not gonna I'm not gonna get involved, you know, specific people or this or that. Like, it is what it is, you know. I I like everybody that does this. There there's not a lot of people I don't like, you know. If even if I have a reservation about any of these guys in my head, you know, if I go and meet them in real life, clean slate, you know, not everybody is the same in person as they are online. It is what it is. It doesn't change my opinion of people, but I I just hope that people people use the information for good and don't think that it's just one big marketing ploy. But you know, at the same time, he spent that much money, he deserves to use it as a marketing ploy, if his product can can do what he says it can do, which I have no doubt it will. However, I'm not going to say it will because I don't know if it will. If it if it does what he says it will do, that is awesome. I got to hear the Gus 12 prototype in his car. And I, if anyone wants to read that comment, you can just look under the Resonix post. I put up a and actually DIYMA, I put up a very long comment giving my experience with that sub, and it was very, very positive.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I've heard nothing but positive things about it. I I missed it. I was giving demos in my car, and Nick had to go to two weddings that day. So I didn't quite get to like I was literally about to jump in his car, but he had to take off. And you know, people, you know, when you're giving demos, people are like, Oh, can I hear, you know, can I hear your car? Can I hear your car? And I was like, Man, I want to listen to Nick's car. And then Nick's like, I gotta take off to two weddings, and I was like, damn it, I didn't get to hear the sub.
SPEAKER_00:He uh he shouted from uh from across the parking lot, Braden, I gotta go.
SPEAKER_01:Get over here. So Yeah, I've heard no no I've heard nothing but good things. I'm sure I'm gonna hear it eventually, you know, because Nick Nick's part of the community. You know what I mean? Here's the funny thing, right? I'll tell you a little story. I met Nick back in 2020, okay? During COVID. We went to a get together and Nick was this he's still skinny, but he was even skinnier back then. He was the skinny punk, right? And like you just said a couple minutes ago about the personality on the on the internet doesn't match the personality that Nick is when you meet him in person. What's that candy? I forget the name of that candy where where where the the little sour patch, is it sour patch? He's doing like villainous stuff to him and then it turns sweet. That's Nick. Because when you meet Nick in person, he is the nicest guy that you could ever meet. Like nicer than most people at those meets. At the 2020 meet, Nick literally brought boxes of Resinix and passed it out to everybody like for free. I I got two boxes of Resenix, which was like$200 worth of Resinix and at at that meet that we the get together that we had at in 2020. And he just gave he he he had like 10 or 15 boxes of the stuff in his car. He gave it away. How many people do you know do that? You know what I mean? And a lot of people judge somebody based on, you know, their keyboard antics. And you know, Nick's not one to shut up. Nick's pretty smart. He might be a little abrasive at times, but when you get to meet him in person, the guy is like one of the biggest teddy bears that you'll ever meet. That's my opinion. But, you know, don't crucify the guy just from what you read on the internet. When you meet Nick in person, he's a freaking cool guy. All right. That's that's all I got to say on that.
SPEAKER_00:But Nick, Nick is, and you know, you know what? If you don't like Nick, use him as a wealth of information. Nick is very smart, and he at least as long as I've been doing this, everything he says, you know, is for a reason. He he really is for the better good of this community. And you know, if anyone wants to say otherwise or comment on this podcast and call me a shill, then it is what it is. But I can I can say my experience with Nick has been nothing but great. And he as he has actually been the only person that has never led me in the wrong direction doing this so far. Every single bit of help or information that he has given me, which has been a lot, I have seen him many, many, many times because he I am in New England and I go to all the New England stuff. He's in New York, which isn't New England, but all the New England stuff is close by. Yeah, he everything he has ever told me has been true. So, you know, do what you want with it. If if you don't like him, cool. I'm not gonna judge you for it either. If you don't like him, it is what it is. Some people might think some sort of way for some reason. I don't care. So uh Nick is great, he has been great to me. He has taught me so much, and he continues to teach me so much as time goes on, both directly and indirectly, through things like the suburb for testing. So thank you, Nick.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, thanks, Nick. Thanks for your contributions to the community. Uh some people some people appreciate you and some people hate you. What can you do? You can't please them all. So, anyway, moving on. I know that you you bought an Audi, right? That's your next project, and what's the name of it now? I know you gave it a little name, right? Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Project Rowdy.
SPEAKER_01:Project Rowdy. So what what inspired this build? What's going on with this one?
SPEAKER_00:The Camry sounds like shit. Um and what I mean by that is that car is pretty good. It not on not just subjectively, it is objectively pretty good. It is a pretty accurate car, you know, does pretty good all around, incredible low end. It is the tonal accuracy is great, the imaging is great, it has very little rear pull, still way too much for me, but very little. It's overall a pretty good car, but not for me. It is it is nowhere even remotely close to where I want to be. That car, again, is good, but it's just not what I want. I am after honestly, pretty stupid, financially irresponsible level of perfection, which there's no such thing as perfection in a car, but I want to get as close as possible.
SPEAKER_01:Well, if you're gonna do it in your twenties is the best time to do it.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. Exactly. I I keep thinking, and you know, everybody that I know, they do one crazy car when they're young, and then they never do it again. So I uh I'm gonna go all out here because I know I'll probably never get to build a vehicle quite this intrinsic.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So this is uh so you're gonna call it an endgame, insane level project. So what can you tease about what's playing?
SPEAKER_00:Right off the rip, full Accuton Automotive Three-way setup. Nice. C thirty AMs in the pillars, but possibly the sail panels. We'll play around and see what works better. I think the sail panels are actually gonna work better in that car just based off the shape of the vehicle and the seating position. That car, you sit on the floor, you are low. So it might be nice to get that extra width. C100 AMs in the dash corners. Everything is gonna be all 3D scanned and modeled. 3D scan with the help of John at my work and modeled by me. Nice. Same thing with the firewall. So I'm doing the C-165 AMs in the kicks. That car has really nice openings in the kick panels that will allow me to do really easy. I would call IB. It breathes into the subframe of the vehicle with no other openings into the car. So it's it's pretty much IB. I may open them up through the wheel well if there's issues, but and then kind of undecided on the subsetup in front, kind of playing with dual Purify 8s or single ResinX Gus 12 in the passenger side, playing with a bunch of different options. It it kind of depends on once I pull the dash and get the car scanned, how much room I have to work with. Yep. Because obviously there's only limited amounts of areas where you can cut through into the that car has a very nice area that is not in the wheel well and not in the engine bay. It's kind of like a uh two-layer firewall, so I won't have to deal with crazy heat or crazy engine noise. But it's only so big, so it's it's kind of gonna be a game of finding out what's right for the application. So it'll either be IB left and right, or it's gonna be a single sealed on the right side.
SPEAKER_01:That's awesome. Because uh no, I was saying that's awesome because those purifies, you're talking about the one with the with that strange-looking surround, right?
SPEAKER_00:Ushind D.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, is that what it's called? Yep. Yeah, doesn't Luke have the does Luke still have those in his truck? I know Luke's redoing his truck.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, he has the PTT 6.5s.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. But yeah, those those I remember Aaron tested those and they got really good feedback from Aaron.
SPEAKER_00:Um, those are those are great drivers. Very linear. They sound so good.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I like what you did with the Camry, which you put the two eights, that's not a bad idea to put the two purifies up there like that, and maybe do some some gusses.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, you're doing stereo left right? Okay. Yeah, if if I went with left-right IB options.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Actually, kind of similar to uh Chris Pierce's car using the dual front sub and dual mid-base. Yep, yep. It would be either an eight or ten through the firewall on each side.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00:Or a single twelve on the passenger side.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I got you. I thought you said you were gonna do two eights similar to what you did in the Camry. I got crazy.
SPEAKER_00:No, sorry.
SPEAKER_01:Because I was like, well, that would be a good idea since it's already tried and true and tested, that would be interesting. I mean, it you know, that's not a bad idea either. But so yeah, I'm sure you're waiting for more feedback or testing for from the Gus 12, right?
SPEAKER_00:That that part of the build will be coming along later on, so it's actually not there's plenty of time for me to make a decision. And then same thing with the rear. I am mutilating this car beyond belief, which is sad because it is an extremely clean B8 Audi. Oh, wow. With very low miles, clean title. It's a such a clean car in a classification of cars that aren't normally clean. But yeah, I'm destroying this poor car.
SPEAKER_01:Um do you have a build log going on that anybody that people could see, or is this top secret?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I will. So I'll be making social medias for both my tuning, which we can talk about later, and for my build log. It's Cooper's Customs. That's the name of my LLC that I created for this. So it'll be Instagram, Facebook, TikTok for short form content, and YouTube for long form content. Okay. Everything can be watched there. It's gonna be pretty well documented.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, if you send me the links, I'll post them up for the for the listeners out there, and they can they can follow you on Instagram, they could follow you on Dyma, and uh, because this sounds like an interesting build. So did you just did you just hint that that you're gonna be doing some tuning? You're you're starting a tuning business too? That one you just that what I just heard.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we'll uh we'll talk on that in uh in a bit, but yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:More to come there.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:What else? Rear, rear of the Audi.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:I am doing two Symphony Prestigos powering the mid-ranges and tweeters. They are Gordon Taylor modded prestigios. Okay, and then the mid-bases are gonna be powered by a prodigio, uh, which is a class A B version of that same class A amp, puts out a ton of power for the mid-bases. And then uh everything else is kind of undecided. Probably gonna end up with all micro precision stuff because they are also some of the best, possibly the best amplifiers money can buy. They're phenomenal.
SPEAKER_01:Are you talking about the mono blocks? Those monoclonal looking amps too, but they are pricey.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they are. I would probably end up with a five series, two-channel for the rear fill. And then I'm kind of undecided on uh sub power yet. I'd love to get my hands on a Symphony Desidero, the absolute monster, but they are very expensive and very hard to find.
SPEAKER_01:Those are Italian amps, right?
SPEAKER_00:I believe so.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, they're gorgeous. Those are all all class A, aren't they?
SPEAKER_00:So the Prestigios are class A, prodigios are class A B. I say I believe so on Italian, because they're it's now Corto Rico. Okay. I I don't know where they stand now, but those amps are Italian.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. They're gorgeous amplifiers. I mean, the only thing I might be concerned with is the amount of po you know, because class A is is pretty power hungry. Are you doing anything to the electrical system or to be good on the other?
SPEAKER_00:So the the car already has a rear-located VMS system. Everything's in the back. I'm gonna be changing out the main battery to a lithium cell, and then doing a separate LTO bank. LTO is just a type of lithium that has an extremely long life, but you can also use almost 100% of their capacity. So, like standard lead acid, you can use maybe 90, sorry, 10% has a 90% reserve. AGMs you can get away with 50, regular lithiums almost 80%. The LTOs are really great because you can run them down every time. So I can basically give demos for hours and hours without worrying about damaging the health of the battery if I kill them. So there'll be a pretty big LTO bank in the in the back. Because yeah, it is it is a lot of power.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's a lot of firepower there, and and uh I'm sure the stock stock alternator might might need a little beefing too, wouldn't you say?
SPEAKER_00:Uh probably not. Even though the amps are pretty inefficient, everything else would be pretty efficient, like the subamps will be efficient, that's where most of your power comes from. Not only that, the all the drivers in the car are gonna be pretty efficient. So it's not gonna be like a crazy high power system. Um and you know, I would I physically wouldn't be able to listen at those volumes like that while driving anyway. So I don't think there will ever be an issue with the alternator. I've never seen it be an issue on anything like that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So let me ask you this. You know, getting back to the micro precision amplifiers, what do you what's your opinion on these mega expensive esoteric exotic amps versus let's say, you know, just your regular ARC audio or or you know, just the the the the you know the common amps that the sound quality world uses, like the Helix amplifiers or the uh I mean you know, you know, the the the the common man amplifiers versus those. Yeah. Are you hearing a sonic difference? I mean, you know, because I've heard a lot of systems with you know, I've heard systems with the what what the heck is it called? The what are the GAN amplifiers? Who is it that makes those again? I'm I'm having a brain fart. Sound digital. Sound digital, yeah. I've heard a car with sound digitals that sounded fantastic, and I've heard cars with, you know, old school amps and whatnot, and I've seen amps that were, you know, some of those amps, micro precision amps, or like the Helix amp, or no, the Brax amp, cost as much as somebody's entire system and their car.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So this is a this is a complicated one for several reasons. One, I love all those amps you listed. I mean, I like Moscone's, I love ARCs. The the arc audio coppers I I would probably put in that kind of ultra high end category. Same thing with the SEs, those are really great. Yep. I'm doing an install, I'm probably tuning it on Monday. It'll probably be done with an ARC Falcon 12 right now at work. There I love that stuff. I mean, I like it all, but so the the reason why I It's complicated is because most vehicles, most people's vehicles will never be able to you'll never be able to hear that difference. Again, kind of coming into the you're listening to the vehicle thing. Most people's installs and sound treatment aren't up to par. And more importantly, most people's tuning skills aren't up to par. That's kind of a huge huge issue because it's hard to speak on something when you're not really getting the full potential of it. So, like a build like Carson Steigerwaltz, the very well-known Stag's audio and his Porsche, that is one of those cars where you can hear a difference, and I heard it immediately. I've heard that car many times. I heard it at SVR most recently, and then I heard it two weeks ago with the full microprecision setup and the Bracks DSB. And I can tell you for certain, not even up for discussion, that car, there was a difference. Now it was not a night-and-day difference. This isn't this is not a difference that the average person should go out and buy these amps, but for somebody like me and somebody like him, yeah, it it is worth it. I can tell you that. There is a difference. Is it for everybody? No. But it's for somebody like me. And it it it is there. It's absolutely there.
SPEAKER_01:So you're talking like the best of the best.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. You need a vehicle that can actually use these amplifiers. It's I I would never tell almost anybody to go buy those. Yeah. They're honestly, where those people where most people should spend their money is more sound treatment. Whenever you ask about an upgrade, honestly, the answer should be install.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Being honest with most of the cars that I've heard, the answer should be install. Yeah, yeah. Um, I my my car has$180 morale mid-ranges. It has uh it had the Boston tweeters for a long time, which aren't all that great. They're really good, they're not great, but it sounds great because that install in that absolute tin can of a car is really good. The car is treated really well. All of my enclosures are internally deadened and dampened. Like there's but even that car, I wouldn't put those hamps on that car. But, you know, my point is there's there's a lot more you can do to your cheap stuff before you get into the expensive stuff. That car sounds really, really good with really, really cheap stuff, vintage stuff that you can get for nothing. It's it's all in the tuning and the installation. That's you know, you everybody's heard Peter talk about it for years. It's install and tuning.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Uh the the install is critical. So you're most of these cars, it's not worth to get that crazy expensive amp and that crazy expensive DSP. But for the ones that it is, it is worth it. And I can I can tell you that for a fact. I am very excited to hear Luke's truck with all of the BRACs and microprocision amplification. That is another one of those vehicles that is probably going to hear a difference. I'm not going to tell you it will because I haven't heard it yet, but I can tell you it probably will. I I like to I like to speak from experience and fact, not just suspicion. That's why I say probably will. But you know, they're they're not for everybody, but for some cars, it is it is worth it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Luke's Luke's truck was pretty wild before he started this new project that he's doing. I now it's like Godzilla level wild.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But let me tell you, have you ever gotten a little bit? Oh, I I saw some pictures of it and I was like, oh wow. You know, the the the uh the CAD drawings that he had going or online so far. I know he hasn't he was showing three different configurations, but knowing Luke, it's gonna be, you know, because I know how what a stickler for details Luke is.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, those three photos were very early on. You should uh oh it is it's pretty wild now, gorgeous yeah, it it so have you ever have you ever gotten a uh demo in Ryan's Camry?
SPEAKER_01:I'm sure you have, right? Yeah, many times. Yeah, yeah. So take Ryan's car, for example. So Ryan's car is full DIY. So he did that all himself, no installers, no everything. You know, like we said earlier, the Camry's a great platform, but literally Ryan's car uh with he's got arc amps, he's got Excelsius speakers, acoustic elegance, infinite baffle, subwoofer. His his system is as simple as as you can get. He's doing some beta testing for Excelsius on the wide bands. I don't know if you got to listen to those, but Ryan's car is is literally probably what uh two or three of those amps would cost. Like total.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and Ryan's car is really, really good.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so you can get great sound with you know very little money, you know, in the sound cue world. So but yeah, I know what you're saying. If you're trying to, you know, if you're if you're trying to go from 95% to 98% or even 100%, yeah, you're trying to get that last. And sadly, when you're trying to make that big leap, it's an expensive leap, too. Yeah, just to get that small.
SPEAKER_00:It is not a linear scale.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, sadly it's not. Once you once you get to that, you know, it it's the law of diminishing results, you know. That's that's the sad thing about it. But this hobby could get quite addicting too, because once you hear a car and you get step into other people's cars and you're like, you know, and and it's funny because people step, you know, like you said earlier, you were talking about your Camry, and you're like, oh, it's this trash. But I bet you 20 bucks before you had all that system that you have on there, the the younger you would have frickin' given up your left leg for what you have in that camry now, you know what I mean? So once you get used to what you have, you still crave more and more and more. I don't know what it is about this hobby. I mean, it's a sickness, man. I've said it before in in in other podcasts. This is this is not the the not for the faint of heart, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Uh yeah. Yeah. No, it's not. Um it is it is challenging. It I think all of us would be lying if we said it wasn't challenging.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it definitely is. It could get frustrating at times when you're trying to get that that awesome sound. So why don't you tell the the uh audience out there and the listeners about this new tuning thing that you're exploring?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I I figured out tuning pretty early on. I I have tuned that Camry, kid you not, hundreds of times. It is so fun to me. And when something is fun, I think you learn it about ten times faster than when it's not fun.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, definitely.
SPEAKER_00:I I love doing it. And recently I I had started tuning more vehicles for both my work and some friends, and I realized you know, hey, I'm really good at this, and I really enjoy doing this. It and and that's kind of how the idea started. And then I just recently I tuned my first few customer vehicles, and one of them was a Jeep, which horrendous platform, but you know, she had a actually really nice system. It was a three-way active system with a front and rear sub that was installed by a shop somewhat local to me. The install was of pretty good quality, like overall, pretty good install. But the tune was the tune was actually so bad that I I said, let me go grab my laptop. I ran inside and sat in her car for 45 minutes to give her a more acceptable result to listen to while she That was like the consultation when she came by to give her a more acceptable result to go listen to for the next two weeks before it gets tuned. It was it was that bad.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:And this is a really well-known shop, like it's a pretty big shop, and like I said, the install looked great, but the tune was horrendous. And I tuned another vehicle recently, a GMC Sierra, full Utopia build, all arc, arc series amps, audio mobile Encore 15. And the those are just two of the recent ones that I've done, just for example, but the the best the best feeling in the world is when those people text me and say, I just spent four hours in my garage listening to my car. It sounds phenomenal. That is that is the best feeling because you took you took a car that that was either terrible or not great or not at its full potential, and you gave that person what they wanted, and they love it. It is the best feeling, and I want to do that for more people. I I would I would go as far to say that I am really good at tuning. It is something that just comes natural to me. I understand acoustics and more specifically vehicle acoustics, they just come naturally. It's something that I love, I obsess over it, and it's something that I am excited to offer to other people. Specifically the people that you know might not be able to afford one of the big crazy shops to come tune their vehicle. It's just something that I love. And you know, unfortunately, there are more than quite a few both shops and people that think they know how to tune, and unfortunately they can't. And it is a very, very challenging thing to hear so many of these cars that were you know tuned by that person themselves or tuned by a you know more well-known tuner, not saying that many well-known tuners are bad. I have a couple tuners that I absolutely love and think they make phenomenal sounding vehicles, but there's some other ones that just can't. And it it's it's almost sad to get in someone's car that is you know built well and looks great, and it just sounds like shit.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I've come across that quite a few times where the shops got excellent fabricators, they got excellent installers, but tuning, tuning-wise, you know, they they lacked in that area. You know, it's it's it's I've said it before, it's like a dark art, man. It takes takes a lot. Here's the thing with tuning, it takes a lot, a lot of hours of practice, unless you're a savant, you know. To some people it comes easier than others, but you know, I sat in a you know in my car for like eight, nine months and couldn't tune it worth a shit. It's a lot of it's a lot of and it's a lot of what you call it, error and and uh trial and error in and you're trying and you're trying. So uh, you know, not not knocking any shops out there, but I I know that it takes a lot of hours of somebody so if a shop has a great tuner, they need to hang on to that guy, you know? Yeah. Because yeah, it is it is kind of a dark art and and the other thing is too, not many people have good ears.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Yep. The the ears is the other big, big part of it. Yep. It you know, you have good ears, you can pick something out immediately. I listened to your car. You remember at H VR? Yeah, yeah. I hopped in your car.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:With whi why don't why don't you tell everybody within 30 seconds what happened?
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah, it was funny. We got in there and you're like, you got in there and and you know like you got any what was it, pink noise? We put a pink noise track, and I was having a couple phase issues and stuff like that. And no microphone, you just got in there with your with your ears, and you were like, I was watching you, and I was like, wait a minute, what's this guy doing? And uh it's whatever you did, you fixed it, man.
SPEAKER_00:I got in your car and it was it was odd. Your tonality was really great on left and right side instruments and vocals, but there was something going on in the middle. And I said, Hey, you got your laptop? Immediately I knew it was a mid-bass problem. Sure enough, mid-bases were well over a millisecond on a phase. It could have just been a typo when you entered in values, but picked it up instantly. You know, that's that's a that's a skill that I'm very proud to to have.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:It's not it's not easy. It takes a long time to figure out, and it it sounds funny saying that because I'm only 20, but yeah, but you know what?
SPEAKER_01:You started you started early, so that's kind of a good thing, you know. Most most people don't start their car audio career till you know the after their college years or whatever, and and you started kind of early, you know. You were jamming in the basement, you know. Your your mom gave you like a little instead of a rattle, your mom gave you like a little spool of wire or speaker to play with. Here you go. I mean, stop crying.
SPEAKER_00:Here's a speaker. Yeah. Yeah. Uh tuning, tuning is tuning is an art. Tuning is my favorite part of this hobby. It's an art.
SPEAKER_01:That's one of the last puzzle pieces that's actually one of the most important puzzle pieces when you're wrapping up a system. Ironically enough.
SPEAKER_00:And it is not only that, there's a lot more to tuning than pretty lines. I can tell you, anybody can use Rue and a basic UMIC to give you a really pretty line on an RTA graph. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but RTA lines, a good chunk of the time, don't mean shit. It is there is so much more to acoustics than everything on the computer. There is one, the mic lies. Array setups are much better at getting to a great result just off of the mic. That's just how they work. But at the same time, an array setup is it's a lot easier to get a phase looking perfect on a graph, but at the same time, might not be perfect in real life. It's it's not a game of of you know using Roo to set your set your EQ and just it's it's not easy.
SPEAKER_01:And for people out there that that that are wondering, what are you gonna be tuning? Your your pro I imagine you're proficient with Helix, and you tackled the mini DSP. You that was impressive in my own color.
SPEAKER_00:So Helix, Mini, Arc, Moscone, pretty much all of them. Ground Zero, if you happen to have a ground zero. Dayton software I'm good in. How about Goldhorn?
SPEAKER_01:Goldhorn's got a DSP out too.
SPEAKER_00:I have not used Goldhorn. Yeah. Yeah. The yeah, I mean, even even a Dayton. I say I'm good in that software, but there's nothing to that software. It's nothing but EQ and TA. But I've tuned a lot of things. My favorites are the Helix and the ARC software. Uh but I can do almost anything and I can figure it out pretty fast. I I just tuned my first ARC setup last weekend, and by the end of that tune, I mastered the software. It's whatever whatever you got, I can do it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I've heard from a lot of people that if Helix wasn't around or if they ever went out of business, that ARK is is second in line to that, to that throne, because ARK makes a lot of good stuff. And I like that ARK is involved in in this hobby too. You can get custom competition amps from them and stuff like that, and they're not too far away. Yeah, they've been in this business for a long time, and and and a lot of people that work at ARK are are involved and compete and stuff like that. So that's you know, just like Nick, ARK is is one of those people that that definitely give back to the community, the sound cute, sound cute community. So yeah, if you're looking for amp speakers, I love the ARC Tweeter, three-inch mid-range, four-inch mid-range or whatever, and and and the the mid-bass, the six point five, I think it's called like the one point oh, three point zero, and uh six point zero or something like that. Those are really good drivers.
SPEAKER_00:Um I'm actually I'm not a fan of that tweeter. Not a fan of the tweeter?
SPEAKER_01:Really?
SPEAKER_00:No, not at all. But I really, really like the RS 3.0, 4.0, and 6.0. Those are all really good.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. What do you got? What do you think about what do you think's up with the tweeter? Uh when I heard the tweeters, I think they sounded pretty good. I heard it in two different vehicles, and they seem to sound pretty good. They sounded nice and smooth. They're soft domes, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I've heard them in three. They are lacking a lot of detail, and I would almost use the word grainy. I was a little I was a little skeptical when I heard the first one, but then I heard it in a two more vehicles and it kind of backed it up. That's just my opinion. My opinion means nothing. Don't base a purchase off of my opinion. I I do really, really like the low frequency drivers from them. Yep. The uh iTuned a car two months ago with the RS 4.0 mid-ranges, and I loved them. So I also love their amplifiers, big fan.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well yeah, their amplifiers are workhorses. Those things are are beautiful. And the what you call it, the the the copper ones that you mentioned earlier, ooh, those are beautiful amps too. If I was to redo my car, yeah, I would go ARC ARC Amplifier because they're just gorgeous. And they've been in the game for a long time.
SPEAKER_00:The ARC series are brute power monsters. The X2s put a lot of power for their size and sound good. The Falcon and Blackbird are you know great all-in-ones. And you got the coppers, they're great. So yeah. Helix and Brax, obviously.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. Um I love the Helix GUI, it's really nice. The stuff that you can do with Helix is amazing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they have a they have a lot of features too that can help out people that are new to tuning. Yeah. They also have a really nice built-in help feature for the people that don't know when you are tuning. It'll actually tell you a lot about the app and how to use it. So I definitely use that when I was in beginning stages of my tuning abilities. So, yeah, I mean I Yeah, I downloaded the app.
SPEAKER_01:It was it was pretty pretty intuitive. So I wasn't intimidated by it. I was like, Oh wow, no wonder Helix is so popular with the sound quality community. So, Braden, where where can people find you? Where can people follow you? You wanna drop those links? You wanna you wanna tell people where they can uh
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so it's it's all gonna be under Cooper's Customs. That's my business name. That's what all the social medias are gonna be. I've already made several of them. That's gonna be both where to access me for tuning-related things. That's going to be where to follow my build blog on the Audi, as well as updates on the Camry. The Camry is gonna get a few small things going into the 26th season just to kind of make it a little bit better, fix a few of the things that I think are really lacking. Yeah, that's where you'll be able to find all that. So I am I'm very happy to offer my my tuning abilities to other people. I've I've spent at a lot of these shows, I've spent more time in other people's cars than in my own, just helping them with tuning stuff. That's it's kind of my my favorite thing to do is when I get in a vehicle, I ask somebody, do you want me to listen to enjoy or do you want me to listen to critique?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, because some people are like, yeah, I don't want any. I've gotten into a couple people's cars and they're like, Yeah, I don't I don't need any feedback. I usually don't give feedback unless I'm asked anyway. But you know, some people give feedback without asking. And, you know, I've had a couple people do that, and I'm like, hey bud, I didn't ask you for feedback. You know, but it is what it is. I I love feedback personally. It oh, I love it if I ask for it. Like a but you know, sometimes I'm I'm just like giving people demos and I didn't ask them for any. And some people just get it unsolicited, you know. It's all in good good faith, you know. I'm not I'm not knocking them. I just kind of like don't really take their advice unless I'm like really looking for like, you know, like with you, you guys, this past summer when you did the little thing in my car, and then I got some feedback from Nick and I got some feedback from Miguel, who that stuff was gold to me. So I went back to the drawing board, I came home and tweaked my s my my DSP and and my EQ to what they were you know, the feedback they gave me, and the car sounds way better now, you know what I mean? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, what it I normally ask before giving feedback, but like in a car like yours, where I could tell that there was there was something very small off in an overall in an overall correctly set up tune. It was like that was something that I'll impromptly bring up because I was like, hey, I think you know that we can fix this quick, but yeah, because I ran Dirac, and so the thing with Dirac, right?
SPEAKER_01:It's not 100% foolproof. You kind of got to get in there and massage it a little bit. That's what Ryan calls it, massaging. So you gotta go in there and and and tweak a little things. And I knew something was off. I I I think that's one of the things I told you. I'm like, something's off. Something's not quite right in here, man. Can you can you give it a listen? And man, you worked your magic. Nick gave me some advice. He said, Don't touch that front subwoofer. He's like, it sounds good. He said, Turn up the sub base a little bit. And Miguel told me to turn down 8,000 and 16,000, and I I did a little tweaking in that area, and I I I raised up the sub subwoofer level a little bit and gave, you know, punched up the sub-base a little, and it just those small changes that you guys helped with made a huge difference. I was so close, and I was like, and I wasn't satisfied with my system, you know what I mean? I'm I mean, we never are 100%. That's the that's the that's the crazy thing about this hobby. But you know, for now, I'm happy. I'm I'm I'm good to go. You know, I'm gonna do I'm hoping to do infinite baffle next season. You know, if if money isn't a problem, you know, I'm gonna upgrade to acoustic elegance. Who knows? I might even try uh August 12 because Nick's got me intrigued with this with that subwoofer. So it'd be interesting to see what A Gus 12 could do in there. So uh Nah, go ahead. What were you gonna say?
SPEAKER_00:If you uh need to get it tuned, give me a call.
SPEAKER_01:Sweet, sweet. Oh yeah, yeah, you'd definitely be on my on my short list, that's for sure. So Brainy, I think we're gonna wrap it up. I think we got a lot of content. What do you think? Oh man, I could talk for hours. Yeah, oh I I could too, but our listeners out there, I I I gotta give them little little bites at a time, you know what I mean? That way I have them coming back.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, of course. Um yeah, I mean, just just recapping real quick. I I am not only offering this service in the New England area, I'm actually offering it all over. So when when Miguel announced that he was stepping down and putting putting waveform to the side, which for anyone that doesn't know, Miguel is one of the best in the business. He is a phenomenal tuner. But he's one of the only guys that travels. I was like, oh, you know, maybe this is my chance to get out there. So I can travel. The of course the cheapest method is to do it right here at my home shop, but I travel, I can drive by car, I can fly by plane, whatever it is, I can make it work. So I think my pricing is very fair for the uh quality of service given. And I would I would love to keep pursuing this and helping many, many other people's vehicles. So it's fun to me.
SPEAKER_01:That's awesome, man, because a good tuner is hard to find. I will say that. Good tuners are hard to find, man. Yeah, you're welcome, buddy. So everybody, thanks for tuning in. Say goodbye to uh Braden Cooper.