whodat

Just thought I would bring this over from Car Audio Forum, this is Mark LaFountain's personal review of the Linear Power and Blues equipment, the full tread can be viewed on that forum, as well as, pics of the new amps and speaker systems. Mark LaFountain: Select this post for moderation Posted 14 January 2011 - 01:08 PM "Sorry about the late response guys, been a bit hecktic around my parts. Anyways, I would like to share my thoughts on the speakers and the Linear Crew. On first appearance, I thought these speakers looked like some old school mids that some one had plucked out of a time capsule. Then Ray (Owner) started telling me everything that makes these speakers unique, especially the crossover units in the component sets. Wow, I didn't know there was that much that even went into it lol. Ray, along with the rest of the guys are very very passionate about their products and spent, from what I could tell, a large portion of their time listening and tweaking their products. Which is a huge plus in my book, showing the determination to make the "perfect" product. On first listening, I thought they were increadibly clear and pronounced. Not to bright, not to dull. Just around right. , after listening to them in the suite at the hotel, I couldn't take it anymore, I had to hear them in the real world application. After jumping into Ray's truck first, I was just amazed at how good they sounded. Me being a bass head of course asked Ray to turn it up, even at full crank they were not to bright, and never broke up the entire time, wether we were listening to soft rock or AC/DC. They held their own and the sound, was amazing. Then we jumped into Mr. World's Truck , WOW is all I can say. I can see how this truck would win it's class at worlds. It was nothing short of amazing. The kick drum, the clarity, the quiteness, the loudness, all at the same time. WOW, like nothing i've heard before. (mind you, i'm used to 10k+ systems). Even with 250w's (If I remember right), these sounded almost as loud as my front stage. I have around 2k rms on mine lol. In summary, these products sounded great and did the job above and beyond IMO, and the fact that the team behind is is so passionate about it, was very impressive. I would highly reccomend these products to anyone who is in love with their audio like me" (By the way, the amp was the new LP2150, which is not a 250 x 2 but a 150 x 2 amplifier rated at RMS power at 12 volts)

Congradulations guys, I didn't get to go to the last competition on the coast but heard you did well again. 4 first places and 2 second places with you taking 1st and 2nd in on catergory. Keep up the good work, the stuff really sounds great! From my count that means you have 40 plus trophies this season between all the vehicles. Can't wait to see all the vehicles at finals, if they all sound as good as the couple I have heard you are going to keep blowing everyone away!! Oh and further contrats to Richard, I heard he went to a mid western regionals 3 weeks ago and took first place with 7 vehicles entered in his class and these were not any light weight vehicles, hey were some of the best around that area! Your guys equipment is getting talked about alot in my area, by the SQ guys,

WHO cares about parameters if it is pleasing to the ears. It's not the computers that listen to the speakers, it is people with EARS and the more ears that listen to them and like it THAT IS WHAT COUNTS, not a bunch of numbers on a piece of paper. Computer programs were written by humans, they themselves can be subjective due to the individual writing the software, and most do not take into account every sinerio in speaker design such as underhung, overhung voice coils, extended pole pieces which change the magnetic field, and so on.... I have heard speakers which qoute beautiful numbers sound sterile, dead and lifeless or as bad as an un-inviting as a pile of horse crap which some seem to dsh out here a lot. Leave the opinions to the ones that have heard the speakers and compared them to other speakers. NOT some egotistical wad that likes to spout numbers and has not listened to the product. Only people that have heard them are capable of making an informed deciision and opinion on if they are good or not. Here is aqoute from another thread on this site about the products "I got the pleasure of hearing Cableguy's truck at USACi World Finals this year. It was great to say the very least. When I first got in his truck, I was expecting to see a processor or a high-end expensive head unit. I saw neither, instead I saw a run of the mill Pioneer H/U and a old looking EQ with a few simple adjustments under it. Soon as I started looking around I started noticing the great craftsmanship in the truck, from the custom Kick panels to house the Blue Car Audio 6.5"s, then the Custom A-Pillar's to house the Blue's Car Audio tweeters. So, I was a little skeptical at first as the only SQ vehicle I had heard prior was a G8 with Focal Utopia's and the Alpine 701 Processor. Then he started playing music and I was instantly greeted with a well centered sound great warm sound. I was simply in disbelief at how well staged it was for such a simple setup. After a few songs of showing off the staging and front-stage. He play a song to show off the low end, which was amazing clear and loud for a set of 10"s tuned so low. They caught every note with no issues. I was simply astounded."

LOL....wow. Pretty salty. Wish their website had (a lot) more info on it. But those would have to be some pretty spectacular pieces of equipment to support those prices, considering they're priced up there with some of the best performing speakers on the planet. Well, now that time has gone by they have beat most all of the other high(er) dollar equipment, and took 8 awards and two world titles home from Finals, and all without a piece of time alignment nor processing to make them perform perfectly. All of these guys systems are running less than 5000 or 6000 dollar systems and beating systems that cost 6 to 12 times that much to build. I think that says plenty about the quality of speaker you are buying and that the price is not too high.

Dire Straits "Money for Nothing" a cool song from the late 80's

Is that 15 or 16 first places now and only 2 second places???

Update on Blues and Linear Power, I now understand that MG_SQ is World points leader in SQ for USACi, the site tally sheet isn't updated to current but I talked with Ralph Randall and he said Richard was in the lead with around 500 points. He has won 10 or more first places and two second places losing only to two other Blues vehicles and never to another product so far. So congratulations to MG_SQ for his sucesses.

Product is for sale and shipping now Ray says. He is giving dealer pricing to the general public selecting one or two people in a area to sell it to at a discounted rate to help it get stareted. Once he has dealers and product moving the discounts will go away to protect his dealers.

Sundown Audio is nothing more than another re-incarnation of RD Audio, speakers are made by George at Atomic, and amps are Chinese design and look identical internally to RD Audio and other brands of amps coming out of the same Chinese factory. You can go to most sites and see the woofers and amps of each brand and see they are all the same product, just with different names.

Objective opinons and slam dunks are too different things, The people that have heard them have far more capabiility and right to say how they sound or if they are worth the price, than he ever does to say anything about something he knows nothing about or ever listened to. THATS MY POINT! He has NO basis for any opinion on them at all. I'm out here!

Hey guys, NOVEL IDEA lets ALL cut our ears off, stop listening to our stereos and only let computer equipment listen to it. Our ears SUX!!! Its not about listening to music and enjoying good sound, GOD has spoken here, we better listen to him! I myself have heard some pretty crappy equipment that looked good on paper and with a marketing guy telling me how good it should sound. What better way to demonstrate a product as to go out and put it in different vehicles and let people hear it., that's better than a sound room since that is not a car environment, and yes graphs, charts and specs can give you a general idea of how something SHOULD sound but it's not neccessarily the way it DOES sound. They are good for spotting a major problem but specs can not determine sonic, dynamic, natural, spatial sound reproduction, THATS what a piece of paper CAN'T tell you!

Dude, this is not a fluke in one vehicle, there are like 6 vehicles running around with the new Blues stuff and they all sound excellent, and that is not the opinion of one person but a very impressive group of well known people ,that is getting larger every day. This is not a one contest event or one judge opinion either, these system continue going different places and winning and turning heads. Again as before I challenge you to go find one to listen to, but its doubtful you could hear good sound, if you have to have computer tell you it sounds good. You just need to sit back, shut up, and let this equipment and time put you and your pompous ass in its place. If you don't like it you don't have to be in this thread go crawl back under your rock.

Not to mention from what I have read on here and heard people talk about, one of the first vehicles they through together last year with then old and prototype equipment took 4th place overall for SQ at world finals, way ahead of some much more expensive and elaborate equipment and vehicles. Again better not doubt these guys too much, they are going to show everyone a thing or two before they are done. They are just getting ready to ship the first product, and you guys are trying to slam dunk them without ever hearing them.

Seems like ANYONE that hears them are very impressed, maybe you need to get out and find a show that one of the Blues cars is going to. I have heard and SEEN some mighty big names in car audio listen to them at show and walk away very impressed, including the judges. One person is 24 time world SQ title holder Todd Crowder. I know a couple of these cars are going to be back in Hot Springs Arkansas next weekend if anyone want sto hear them. Idrove to Fordyce Ark, last weekend jsut to hear a truck from Missouri with the equipment in it and it is VERY impressive, more so than any Focal system I have heard. I know I had to go to a show and hear them for myself after my buddies from North Miss. went to a show in Jackson Ms and came back and told me the stories of the new Blues and Linear Power equipment, now I don't have to go on what I am told, I have heard it for myself. Ears are better than ANY spec on paper! The proof is in the pudding baby! I am sure if anyone wants to hear the speakers al lthey have to do is find a contest one of these guys are going to, they are hitting all the shows they can and turning heads everytime.

I have heard them and they are worth every penny, they make the Focal K2 components look silly, and that stuff costs 1899.00. The Focal 6 inch has a Fs of like 79 Hz and if you look at their response curves they roll off below the 90 dB reference line around 145 Hz.. The Blues 6.5 has a Fs of 41 Hz or less, they are saying 41 but if you go to their site and look at the LMS graphs they show the Fs is more like 37 Hz.. The Blues will play loudly and cleanly too, most other SQ drivers fall apart at high volumes. The Focal three way set up can not cover the same musical range as the Blues either. The Blues 6.5 has a very smooth midrange and does not need a midrange driver to cover that area. I got to hear one system today in a chevy truck at a show in Fordice Ark., and I and everyone else thought the subwoofer was on, the guy just had the two way system playing and it was ungodly the low bass that came out of those doors and he still had excellent midrange too. He played 45, 40, even 35 Hz test tones and those 6.5s took every bit of it, and he wasn't ashamed to use the volume control. He also played music with organ notes and music and it did not take away form the upper frequencies for those 6.5s to make the low freqs too. They sound very dynamic and natural, and they are doing it in their vehicles without ANY DTA, processors, suround sound or anything, even showed us all that the eq was off and the radio was in bypass mode. My buddy went to jackson Ms a couple weeks ago and heard 3 or 4 vehicles with the Blues stuff in it, he used to be a car stereo dealer and he says the same thing about the Blues stuff. Hell, ask Todd Crowder what he thought he was there and it blew him away from what I saw. Mike the judge that judged the guys truck asked him how in the world are you getting that kind of midrange out of a woofer that can go so low. I think the guys name was Richard that had the truck, he was from somewhere in Missouri. Oh yeah, and god when he turns the subwoofer on! It is a true subwoofer, he had it crossed at less than 50 Hz, and it would go to any low freq you wanted it to, it shook the truck and could go so low on some notes that you couldnt hear it but felt it. I know I'm buying a set as soon as they release them! I talked to Ray at Linear Power and the Blues sight will have more information as time goes by, they were being asked to put info up about the product and this is just the start of the site. I wouldn't laught to hard at these guys, they seem to be on top of what they are doing.

Just a side note about Blues speakers, they WERE NOT a Stillwater Designs (Kicker) product, they were made by Richmond Hill Corporation also out of Stillwater Ok. One of the original founders of Kicker left and wanted to make better products which he did. Ray, the guy that owns Linear Power now, is the original designer of the old school Kicker Competition subs (gold dust caps and stitched surrounds) he left Kicker and worked with Richmond Hill Corp. and designed all of the old Blues stuff too, he also worked with Linear Power for like 20 something years on amp design work. My buddies from North Mississippi used to be a dealer for all of those products and know all of those guys personally. The new Blues and the upcoming Linear Power amps are all designed by Ray at Linear Power, and the original Linear Power engineer who has been at Kicker for awhile has quit Kicker and is working with Ray on the new Linear Power amps too. I understand that all the products will designed in house by Ray or Jeri and all amps and speakers will be "MADE IN THE USA".

According to the Bass battle website cable guy didn't even run in his normal SQ class, why did he move?? He had been running the same class as SQ MG.

From what I have been told the old Blues can't hold a light to the new Blues for midrange detail or image, or the kick ass low freq the new 6 inch speakers can do. It was some insanely low Fs on the 6 1/2 inch speaker, like a Fs of 39 or something.I believe what I hear coming from the guys I hear it from. I had an old set of Blues years ago I got from Deca and the specs on them were like a Fs of 65 Hz, i went and dug the boxes and speakers out to see. 65 Hz aint bad for a 6 1/2 but freaking 39 or 40 is insane. Especially if they can do double duty making the stage and image with the midrange they say they produce.

(my truck was barely working that day, I'll get him next trip) From what I have heard from the NEW Blues equipment, you don't have much to worry about MG, cable guy don't have a chance without the new stuff. One of my buddies from north Miss. called me and said he went to the show and I really needed to hear the new Blues stuff. He said it kicked ass over anything he ever heard PERIOD! He also said that there was a Ford SUV of some kind there and he listened to all the Blues vehicles, and the SUV was the best sounding he ever heard.,but it was just for demo. He said yours smoked everyone there in the contest. I don't hink you could have much problem from the other guy unless he updates his stuff, and does a lot of work, heard the install was needing some 911.