Would you mind sharing? Reason asking is because of all of the trial and error you have already been through, and has turned out extremely well for you. Not that I just want to jump to first place my first time, kuz it won't happen. But I believe if you can learn from other ppl mistakes, than there is no reason to make your own. So, what are some helpful tips you could give to somebody that is new. Like, did you deaden your entire vehicle, what parts of the vehicle were the most important, what box designs worked out the best, how did you reinforce the roof, etc etc. Just in general, what are some tips that would help anybody?? Not at all man. Everything is deadened except the floor and the sides of the vehicle. I have three layers of Dynamat Extreme on my roof. If you have an suv, you should definitely deaden your roof, All of my roof braces were broken and instead of welding, we used a very sticky almost like window sealant and filled in the seams. I have deadener on the inside of my back door panel as well and the inside of the back door as well. All of my doors have 2 layers of deadener on them. You definitely want to do a big3 upgrade. You can find out how to do a big3 upgrade by typing in the search window on just about any car audio forum. I definitely suggest a few batteries if you are going to run a big system similar to mine. I have two Optima Group31 batteries in my tire well. I would love to have a couple more, but my suv is small. A high output alternator is recommended for extreme systems. Mine is not extreme, but it definitely needs an h. o. alternator. The box depends on what your vehicle is. My suv likes subs up and port/ports firing into the driver's side. That is how all of my boxes will be from now on. As far as some tricks to get louder. Here are a few I do. My front passenger seat is folded down and moved all the way forward. All my vents are closed and no air is on. Some people have their air on and turn it off before they pull into the lanes. Sun visors are parallel to the windshield. I used to have a rear view mirror and I tilted it towards the meter. The mirror bracket broke when I was demoing and now I need a new bracket. I have no dome lights or map lights because of the bass. If you have more than one amp, I would definitely suggest gain matching your amps so your subs have the same voltage. Don't overdrive your amps either. For the longest time I was over driving my amps and did not even realize it until my friend gain matched my amps. I have had my subs re-coned at least four times each because of stupidity. Tune your box to the vehicles resonant frequency. I would not suggest playing too far below tuning. That is how I tore my subs up. My box I have now is dual purpose box. I have two huge 8" round ports on the side of my box tuned at 46 Hz for spl, and thirty something for daily when I plug one of the ports. Definitely have a cd player with a pause button. That is all I think of for now. I hope this helps.