Scott Buwalda

SO SORRY IN ADVANCE FOR THE THREADJACK... I have absolutely no idea. Seriously, I don't. Back between 12/22/2007 and 6/15/2008, SSA was vying to become HAT's sole on-line retailer. We communicated back and forth several times about terms of this agreement, including a stocking opening order, pricing, and etc. The SSA admin stated "we want to be the #1 Hybrid Internet dealer as we are with a number of other non-mainstream brands...in addition, as we try to expand our competition team, Hybrid would be the mid and tweet of choice..." On 6/15/2008, I replied with the revised 2008 internet dealer terms and got no further response. In regards to becoming a dealer, there has been no communication since then (as far as I can tell with my Outlook files). Late in 2008, there was some sort of a falling out with a few of the Team SSA guys (competitors). These guys came over to Team Hybrids. I sent a PM expressing my concern to the admins of this site, and the hope for a continued relationship. I wrote: “Sorry to hear about the team SSA guys disbanding...it wasn't my intent to "steal" competitors away.” The admin responded that they were all cool with HAT, but were just upset with these three guys only (as noted in a bit of sarcasm). I'm not much for soap operas, and assumed that things were fine between HAT and SSA. Concurrently in this same time frame, we had an official Hybrid Audio Technologies forum here to answer questions about the product. The bulletin board went live on 01/25/2008. One day in March 2009 the forum was gone. On 03/22/2009, I sent an e-mail to the administration why the board was gone (expecting to hear that there was a hack, or a BB malfunction). The same day, the SSA admin replied “I will get back to you shortly on this, I have just been slammed this weekend just don't want you to think I am ignoring you.” Weeks passed. I queried again, and again. No reply, and no new future correspondence. It became clear that the forum had been deleted. To this day, I still have no idea why. Fast forward a few months to mid-2009. Apparently one of these competitors that left SSA did something completely dumbass (not at my guidance and without my knowledge) and signed back up here and began answering HAT questions. Not cool. It was clear we weren't welcomed here anymore, and in fact, the three competitors that left SSA and joined Team Hybrids were all BANNED from this site. Pretty clear statement if you ask me. It was childish to come back here and sign back up. But it was also childish to BAN them in the first place for doing nothing more than changing competition teams (well, that's my opinion anyway). Now, within the past week, I have gotten three complaints from customers from this site, indicating that there's a fair bit of bad-mouthing going on from SSA administration and one key member. If we couldn't come to an agreement on the terms of SSA becoming an internet retailer, and the amicable move of three competitors away from SSA to Team Hybrids, then I am sorry. I will grant you that the move by one former Team SSA member to sign back up and answer questions was undoubtedly STUPID (I just found out about this last week, when I was discussing the recent trend on this forum – he apologized to me for apparently being the catalyst for the recent childish behavior on this forum). Nonetheless, the onus of the problem falls squarely within the confines of this forum. As someone suggested, I don’t send people to this forum to defend HAT products. I don’t need to, and don’t desire to. Don't give yourselves too much credit. This fella dkh came on his own free-will and was one of the three that alerted me to the turn-coat bashing of HAT products here. You must agree that this has been handled POORLY from the get-go. Not telling me why the forum was deleted was in very bad taste, and now the product bashing...I don't know what to think. Sixteen months ago, HAT was the brand of choice for SSA, and you guys were falling over yourselves to represent it, and now suddenly it isn't as good as $30.00/pair midranges? Seriously? Since the unexplained demise of the relationship with SSA, and the deletion of my forum, have you seen me bash the SSA product? No. Have I not recommended it? No. Do I say stupid things like “the SSA sub is not as good as the Parts Express subwoofer for $30?” You know its better, and I know its better. What's gong on here is in VERY POOR TASTE. I implore you to leave this post in tact, and not delete it or modify it, and not ban me, because it’s all the God’s-honest truth. If you have an axe to grind, BE A MAN and talk to me about it personally. I can be reached at 770.888.8200. I'll await your phone call. Scott

The PDX is not a bad amplifier. I am just an audio snob. I like class A/B amplifiers for everything, including subs, for their damping, noise, and control. For 99.9% of the population, digital full-range amplifiers will be just fine. There are other, perhaps weaker links in the system, like installatioin weaknesses. In many cars, the digital amplifier will not be the weakest link. Scott

A properly set-up actively-crossed over system will always out-perform even the best passive system. Here are a few brief reasons why (there are many, but this will get us started in the right direction): Insertion Loss: Insertion loss is the passive crossover network

Hey guys: I am sooooo sorry for my delay in response. It's Daytona Spring Break Nationals/IASCA North American Finals time upon us right now, and we've been scrambling pretty hard to pull together a notable presence for the show! The V2 tweeter is indeed out, and is shipping. It's available in silver or black. There are many marked improvements over the original L1. The original L1 was a fantastic tweeter, don't get me wrong, but we found some areas that could be tweaked, such as going to a fully turned aluminum body to control dome resonance, spring-loaded push terminals, lower resonance to better accomodate the use in two-way systems, 4 ohm nominal impedance, higher power handling (doubled over the original L1), higher sensitivity, and better linear response. When comapring the two tweeters side by side, I prefer the V2 over the original L1. It has more depth and presence, especially above 12,000 Hz. This tweeter plays essentially flat to 20,000 Hz, just like its big brother the L1 Pro. As of right now, we don't have any designs on entering the subwoofer market. I am sure we could good up something real good, but with a lot of great brands out there already in the $250-400 range, we probably wouldn't be very competitive. We'll stick to front-stage speakers for now. David Ecwards is indeed running some prototype 12's this season though, so go and listen to Dave's car sometime this year and let me know what you think of our subs! They are pretty (they're prototypes), but they do sound good.

Hi there. FoxPro hit the nail on the head. The SEAS are very clinical and technical speakers and Hybrids and more tonal and accurate. Both are good, but do vastly different things. I have a few cars in Southern California. Not sure how close you are to them. Mind sending me an e-mail to sbuwalda [at] hybrid-audio [dot] com and we'll see if we can find you someone to get a demo from? Scott

Sorry for the lack of public reply. My SSA clone was on vacation for the last two weeks. The C1 can easily play to 3,000 Hz. I just don't recommend it for this or any other tweeter. Scott

Hey guys, I'll be at Elite as well. Like Brooksie, I have been told I seem unapproachable. A sexy bitch, yes, unapproachable, no. PLEASE come by and introduce yourself. If I give you a blank stare at first, follow-up the introduction with your username. That usually helps. I want to listen to cars too. By Saturday, I'll be done turning knobs on the TH cars that are there, and will want to listen to some good music. Brooksie...damn man, there's a lot of build-up with your rig. Looks like I better get some new batteries for my hearing aids for Friday afternoon. BTW guys, Brooksie will be competing sound only. His doors will still be in primer. I have, however, gotten him to commit to blasting "Brickhouse" and other funk favorites at 122 dB full range when judging has concluded. Scott

It's official, hybrid-audio.com is on the worst provider ever. But it's far easier to deal with "outages" than to migrate and re-compile a huge website. <frustration> Scott

If it's a unibody car (which 99% are today), you can run quasi-IB into the kick panel cavities, a-frame cavities, etc. Most cars today are nothing but seam-sealed pieces of metal and there's a TON of cavities in the floor, kick well, a-frame, etc. It's not necessary (usually) to go outside the car. That being said, the L8 is an air hog, so take a look around and see how much real estate there is. If all else fails, you can go the route that all but one world champion went last year, and that's the L6 midbass. Scott

Most of the time it's a bunch of two-channel amplifiers to run an active four-way system. I'd highly suggest vertical biamplifying the midrange and treble with a fully-active system. Scott

GREAT job Mike!! Scott

Should you have any questions, drop me a line at info [at] hybrid-audio [dot] com! Scott

Any of the Hybrid Audio products would benefit from being run active. The C61-2 is a great kit, but if you think you can't fit it, the C51-2 is extraordinary too. In fact, if you can get your hands on this month's issue of Car Audio & Electronics Magazine, the C51-2 was reviewed there on page 16. Here's an excerpt of a few things I pulled out of the review: The highest sound quality score ever achieved, using the new Car Audio & Electronics scoring criteria, went to the Clarus component system. For example, near perfect listening test scores were achieved (9.5 out of 10 on the song "Spanish Harlem" as performed by Rebecca Pidgeon). According to the reviewer, even despite being 5

The L3 is a very robust driver at 250 Hz. I actually designed it to be a bit heavy in its bottom octave of use. If you can fit the L3 easily with no hassle, then that's the way I'd go. Now, if you take another look, do some measuring, and find the L4 is able to be fit there, the L4 is a better driver as far as sensitivity and frequency response. Of all our championships last year in IASCA, USACi, EMMA, IASCA Trinidad, all but two were using the L3 midrange. Scott

Hi dem_beats: Thanks for considering the Hybrid Audio L4's. I doubt that you will see them for sale here on SSA for quite a while, if ever, so you can purchase direct through Hybrid Audio or through LMF Audio. The price is the same. The L4 plays to 17,000 Hz on axis. Even still, I'd recommend a tweeter. A small, high-resonance tweeter crossed at 10,000 Hz or so would do the trick! If you need any additional information, please e-mail me at sbuwalda [at] hybrid-audio [dot] com. Scott Buwalda