| As you can see, the thief swiped the speakers without damaging the interior. His only problem is that he left the tweeters for the component sets and the crossovers, to boot. Also, the head unit is still safely in place behind its waterproof cover.
It's quite tough to make musical bliss happen in an open-air vehicle. Without all of the surrounding glass and body framing, musical notes and waves are merely blasted out of the top without a return signal. To make music punch without a roof takes a serious amount of watts, proper speaker placement, and quite a few more speakers to disburse the musical source around the cabin. We didn't have a roadster truck to work with, so we went with the next best thing we could: A boat. Doug Dobson graciously lent us his Eliminator 26 Daytona for a full-rocking Orion sound system to be installed. The decision came none too soon. Just prior to scheduling with Jos Herrera at Audio Concepts, some of the old, crappy audio gear that was in the boat was stolen. It figures. We had to laugh because the silly thief only swiped the coaxials and mid-bass drivers, but he forgot all about the tweeters and necessary crossovers. All in all, what he stole could be replaced at a seedy swap meet for under $200. We would like to smack him anyway, just for doing it though.
| This pic only shows a portion of the audio gear we were putting in the Eliminator. There is still plenty more that is not shown. We like our music loud!
Bettering the prior system by a huge margin is Orion's C-, HP-, and HCCA-Series audio pieces. After speaking with Orion, we went with two pairs of 6-1/2-inch C2.62 separates, two pairs of 6-1/2-inch C63 coaxial speakers, two 12-inch HP12D2 subwoofers, and then stirred the mix with Scosche wiring and four amplifiers for a total of 4,000 watts. The ante was upped a bit as we tasked Audio Concepts with creating a home for a plethora of speakers, and have the whole thing up and running for our cameras in only two working days. Could they do it? Check out what Audio Concepts was able to put together by using 14 speakers, four amplifiers, nearly 4,000 watts of top-quality Orion audio gear, and a little imagination.
From The Driver SeatOnce everything was checked, Jos made certain all of the parts were powered up. Then, we slipped a CD in the head unit and fired it up. Being that Doug only likes hair metal, the choice of musical sampling left much to be desired for him, but we have to say that Orion and Audio Concepts hooked up this system right. It is loud, and as long as the volume isn't turned into ludicrous levels, clear as a bell. We absolutely love it. It's almost too bad it's in a boat, because if we had something set up like this in our daily commuters, it could possibly cut down on our antacid use from sitting in all the traffic we have here at home
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED Time Spent Working: Approximately 16 hours Degree of Difficulty: Intermediate (Wood working, fiberglassing, shaping, and upholstering) Parts Used: * (Two) Orion C2.{{{62}}} Separate Speakers MSRP $559.98 * (Two) Orion C63 Coaxial Speakers MSRP $178.00 * (Two) Orion HP12D2 12-Inch Subwoofers MSRP $599.98 * (Two) Orion HP-4800 4-Channel Amplifiers MSRP $759.98 * (Two) Orion HCCA-D1200 Mono Amplifiers MSRP $999.98 Total Cost: $3,097.92
