6APPEAL

IMO far too many folks just toss it in, go with it and complain that it sounds like s@#%. Just as you said, it's not plug and play, you have to work to make it sound good. And from the reviews that you have been getting, it sounds like you put in the time and effort to get your system to sound good. I (We - Team Blues/LP) say the same thing about the Blues drivers as you do the Xcons, if more people heard them, they would love them. With that being said, the folks that have heard them are turned into belivers. Just ask Mark about the demos he got of Ray's Escape and my truck in Vegas. He put a review post up over on CA-F The Blues drivers can win trophies at SQ contests, but are really for folks that love music, and want to play it loud. Just not as loud as yours. Don't want to hi-jack your thread, so back on topic. Truck looks great, system looks great, hope I get to hear it at Scrapin' the Coast. John

Sounds like the hatch area is turning it into a bandpass. Moving away from the rear door will help that. The old school systems from back in the day would get loud and look/sound good also. I hate the pure SPL systems of today. They are 1 note wonders that will not play music. Keep yours going in the direction you are headed, "being loud, looking good and sounding good" is worth the effort.

Love the snow pics. Nice to see a big system in a "used in the real world" vehicle. To hell with the "show only" systems/rides! Keep up the great work. John

Never said that manufacturers have to release full measurements, but stated that subjective opinions have no value but true measurements do. Your whole post sounds like you are trying to disagree with Physics without directly stating that. Perhaps you could enlighten us on how measurements will show you something and then be wrong. Nope, the laws of physics don't bend. But the measurements are taken in one environment on the one specific driver tested and don't always measure the same in the installed environment on the one specific driver you purchased 6 months later. Too many variables can change that affect the results.

Agree that judging is quite subjective. Back in the day, I liked the way my systems sounded. Otherwise they would not have been in my car/truck. Went to contest and where I place was all over the place, won a few, didn't place at some, got dead last before. It didn't change the fact that the system in my car/truck was for MY ENJOYMENT. Move forward to today. I like the system in my car/truck. Went to contests and won a USACi World title, so what. Still doesn't change the fact that the system in my car/truck is for my enjoyment. I've demo'ed my system for a ton of folks and will for anyone that wants to listen. If you like it, great. Is it worth the cost to you? That is your decision. If you don't, like it, so what, it's my system and I'm not changing it so you like it. It's just like any of the other boards where you read complaints about such and such judge at such and such show. It goes back to subjective opinions. Now as far as hyper-critical analysis of parms. If that's your thing, fine. But it is not the manufacture's responsibility to satisfy your thirst for parms. If you need or want more "numbers", take it upon yourself to satisfy your need for hyper-critical analysis. But accusing or condenming a manufacture of lying to or scamming the public because they only release a certain set of parms is not different than assumed guilt rather than assumed innocence (the TSA is a perfect example). I take parms with a "grain of salt". Which I suppose has me agreeing with Mike. Parms are the reference point of which to start from. Not the end all, be all. Been there, done that, burned through plenty of cash on the "perfect parms" driver that sounded like azz. Lesson leared that the install environment doesn't necessarly mean that the "perfect parms" will be perfect any longer no matter how many times you try to get the install right. Product boners? Yea, I've had a few, still have a couple as can be seen in my sig. Burned through a bunch of cash trying out a bunch of the forum boners through the years (F1, Hybrid, Seas, Focal, Morel, Tang Band, Dayton, Peerless, the latest Parts Express or Madisound blowout and so on). Found some winners, wasted cash and time on others. In the end it comes down to one point. Opinions are like azzholes, everybody has one.

Thank you Randal. I would like to meet up at a show with John, Rich and yourself. Maybe clean a case or two of aluminum cans. That would be great, but we don't get to many east coast shows. Don't see many USACi shows that way. I plan on some MECA shows in 2011 in TN, AL, GA and north FL. Maybe even an IASCA show or 2. John

Just a little heavy you say. Call NASA, a spaceship has landed in the back of you SUV. Looks great. John

Don't give me any ideas! Looks completely nutz. Great work. Waiting for more.

Randall's truck is what got me off my azz to improve the old system I had in my truck. The simplicity of Randall's system blows folks away. As you stated, no high end HU, no processing out the ying yang, no 10 - 20 speakers sprinkled all over the interior, no 10 amps for all active x-overs. Just a middle of the road Pioneer HU, a LP PA-2 Audiopath pre-amp/eq, a LP XO-3 crossover, a pair of LP amps, a Blues 6.5/tweet passively crossed, 4 speaker front end and 2 Blues ISO-10 kits ported. Randall's truck is like all the other Team LP/Blues systems. All of the systems are built using the K.I.S.S. principle, "Keep It Simple Stupid"! You dont' need $10k-$20k worth of equipment and a $40k install to have a great sounding system.

You gotta step it up. Like Steve said, you are sooooo close to the big boys you should be able to taste it. It was just 2 points to 5th and a couple of more to 4th!!!! You had a big target on your back after last year with your low budget system that smoked some high $$$ systems. Not saying you gotta spend big $$$ to keep up with them. Rich's and my systems do not have the money in them that other systems in our class had, just a ton of time, effort, and attention to the details. So start making plans, bounce 'em off the Team and we'll work make it happen. Don't wait too long or you'll get lost in the shuffle of the new systems being planned and built. I'm already making plans for my changes based on what I saw and heard this year. John

Thanks! We are making plans to resolve Rich's headunit issue once and for all. Once his issue was resolved, his system never failed to impress.

Plans are in the works to resolve the issue once and for all. His system is far too good to have not placed. Issues at another show would have been preferred, but that's the way the chips fell. Needless to say, once the issue was resolved, his system never failed to impress.

Looking good so far. Good to see some MDF dust flyin. Trust me, skilsaw blades and cement don't mix. Update in the Event forum. John

Team Linear Power/Blues Audio came away with 2 World Championships. Intro was won by Herman and Modified Q was won by me . TJ took 3 place in Xtreme SQ+. Rich is the SQ Points Champion and Region 6 Points champ. Team Linear Power/Blues Audio won the Team Championship. I guess all that hard work paid off. The big disappointment was that Rich didn't win or place in the 2 classes he competed in after burning up the comps all season and laying the smackdown on folks. He had headunit issues. Randall's class (Super Modified Q) was super tough this year. The Cableguy has to step up his game to improve on his 6th place for next season. Big thanks go out to my wife for putting up with me and all the craziness. My daughters for the fantastic enthusiasm over the throphies. Ray and every one at LP and Blues (Jerry, Steve and the rest of the crew) for great products and support. I sure as heck wouldn't have gotten there without them. Can't wait for the new LP's. Randall for getting me off my azz and back in the game. Jimmy and Mike for the advice, ideas and additional ears. The big props to my brother from another mother, Rich. Without the sharing of ideas and info, working on each others rides and you buring up the competition all year, we were able to figure out what worked, what didn't and what to expect. You said all year that the only system you were afraid of was mine, so I guess your prediction was correct. Thanks bro! John

Rich and I will try to keep up while we're at USACi Nats this weekend.

Same weekend as USACi Finals, so I will not be there. Not too many MECA events close to me anyway. I would have liked to have been a spectator this year.

I'm ready to see some MDF dust!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice. I want to do some Katskinz leather in my truck that will mimic the Gray/Black that's in my GN's.

....and chose not to sell the DPS500's. Hmmmm. At the time the 2.2's were not installed in anything and perfect 2.2's were selling for $$$$. The DPS500 was pulling sub duty in one of my Buicks that was sold ( again!!!) some time after that to buy a nicer Buick. Next

I volunteered one of my C910's to Rich, but the season was so far along that it just did not make any sense to change. Also the older SQ headunits are getting tough to keep running. Parts have been discontinued and units are getting tough to find. There are folks hoarding both working and broken units. Count me as part of that group with multiple C910's and C90's. I had planned on running matching 2.2's in my truck, but sold them to support my Buick habit. If you pay attention to the various LP's for sale around the net, you will see that most of them are pretty intense. I seen them go either cheap and quick or for good money. I've even seen and heard of some going for stupid money (think Apline F1 money). But most of the stupid money car audio stuff seems to be going overseas. As with any product lineup from any manufacturer there are products that really shine and products that just fill out the lineup. Though filler is tough to find in the LP lineup. And old models will be 'ed out by new models as technology advances. But there will always be folks that are nostalgic for certain brands/models, like me and 5002's. John

Close, we got it playing that morning, just hours before the show.

I don't imagine that will take much longer. TJ's did a high 148. Not bad considering it is not paneled off, just a big azz box sitting in the bed and no sound deadening. It is super tight sounding, very impactive, like a baseball bat to the chest. John

2005 Chevy 2500HD Crew Cab Headunit - Alpine IVA-W505 X-over, EQ - Alpine PXA-H701 (processing is OFF, very little eq used) Front end - Blues BL6.5C - 6 1/2 in very well prep'ed door factory location, tweeter off axis on A-pillar Front end amp - LP DPS500 Rear fill - Alpine SPX-17Pro woofer in very well prep'ed door factory location, turned down so low can't be heard except when sitting in rear seats. Rear fill amp - LP DPS200 Sub - Blues BL10 - Custom center console enclosure that replaces the factory jump seat, 1.1 cu ft, ported @ 27 Hz Sub amp - LP DPS200 - soon to be a LP DPS350 My truck and Rich's truck are the same in front of the B-pillar (doors, pillars, dash, etc.). And since I live about a mile from Ray, and Rich and I have been friends for 25+ years, my truck is used for testing set-ups and comparing changes. When it gets dialed in in my truck, the changes are made to Rich's. There are slight differences to the sound of our trucks, but they are so close it's.... The differences comes down to a Crew Cab vs a Regular cab and the sonic differences between the Kenwood Rich runs and the Alpine I have. Rich's install is nicer than mine, but he's going to shows, I'm the testbed. I'll do some cleanup before USACi Nats. John Originally the HV amps were to be had for the "low" power rating (2.2 = 25 watts, 3.2 = 50 watts, 4.1 = 75 watts), making them excellent cheater amps when wattage was used as a class delimiter. Pretty much a mute point in SQ contest these days since there are no "power" classes. In comparing the 2.2 HV and the DPS500, the 2.2 HV amps make a bit more power stereo (mono the HV wins big), but the DPS500 has a better sound (just a bit). But, in reality you couldn't go wrong with either amp. I've always had the DPS amps in my system. Can't wait for the new LP's Ray is working on to come out. John

Don't worry, Rich got a little SPL breaking in this past weekend from 16 Blues 10's powered by 2 LP 4.1's. Pod's turned out great. I can't wait to see the shots of the box being built. That thing is insane.

Rich won Jackson on Saturday and I would be very surprised if he didn't win Sunday. I haven't talked with him yet about Sunday's show. We ran in different classes in Jackson, but compared score sheets, he got me by 8 points.