A client from Lahaina came to Certified Sounds with his beautiful 1997 Hummer H1 inquiring about stereo upgrades. Many modifications had already been done to this vehicle, but the stereo system was sorely lacking. We spent time looking over the vehicle and getting to know the driver better. As we talked, it was evident he wanted as good a sound as possible along with a beautiful install. We worked up some renderings along with a system design that he liked, so we set a time to begin the work.
Alpine Stereo Offers Numerous Audio Sources
We started the project with a hand-drawn rendering of the enclosure and amplifier racks.
The first step in the upgrade was installing an Alpine CDE-164BT stereo system in the vehicle. It gave him Bluetooth for hands-free calling, as well as music streaming, with a USB port also on tap for him to control his portable media.
Mosconi Processor Brings The System To Life
From there, the music travels to the Mosconi 6to8 DSP. This processor is where the magic happens, allowing us to compensate for the various speaker placements in the H1. It also gave us individual crossover settings and equalization settings for all of the speakers used in our install. In the hands of a skilled tuner, the sound quality benefits are almost too good to be true. Once you have heard a system with a properly tuned processor, you will want one in your vehicle.
Powered By Mosconi
Now, the music travels to a pair of Mosconi amplifiers. The 1000.1 powers the subwoofers while the 70.6 powers the six front speakers. All the speakers in the vehicle have dedicated amplifier channels controlled by the DSP for the ultimate in sound quality.
Illusion Audio Front Speakers
When it came time to choose front speakers, we went to Illusion Audio, using their C6 6.5” woofer in the front doors. We covered the inserts in a matching leather, and made custom-pressed grills to protect the speaker. For a final touch, we hydro-dipped the accent rings that go around the grilles in a complementary woodgrain effect.
In the headliner, we made a matching set of grilles to hold the Illusion Audio CS4 component package. It consists of a 4” midrange and a 1” tweeter, all run actively with dedicated amplifier channels. As you can see from the speaker placement, the mounting locations were not ideal, so the processor did wonders for the soundstage.
Custom Enclosure For JL Audio Subwoofers
The enclosure and amplifier mounting plates were all wrapped in a vinyl that matches the interior.
The final piece of the puzzle was bass, and for that we went to JL Audio, choosing a pair of 12TW1 12” subwoofers. We covered the custom enclosure that we made in a material that blended perfectly with his custom interior.
Client Was Thrilled With His New Hummer H1 Stereo
The client was thrilled with all aspects of our finished product.
When you are ready to upgrade your audio system, come to the pros at Certified Sounds in Wailuku, where we create happy clients on a daily basis.