tech today
STEALTH SOUND QUALITY WORDS BY ERIN HARDISON FOREWORD BY JOEY KNAPP
In the past, Tech Today build logs have been presented by fabricators or facility owners. This month will be a little different. We will still be looking at an incredible audio system build, but through the eyes of the consumer. I have known of Erin Hardison for many years. His product reviews on DIYMA were legendary. His engineering background helped keep them focused more on the objective, and not the subjective aspects of the product he was reviewing. I recently purchased a 2018 Honda Civic Si, so when I saw Erin’s build online, I paid close attention. Erin very carefully chose his gear and then enlisted the help of a retailer to facilitate the installation. After reaching out to Erin, he volunteered to share details of his build and some of the reasons behind his choices. I think the unique perspective of a build through the client’s viewpoint will help us to see things in a slightly different light.
This month, we take a closer look at an audio system masterpiece through the eyes of the client.
While my lab on wheels permitted me the opportunity to sharpen my understanding of acoustics and speaker performance, I also learned one key aspect about myself: I am a terrible fabricator. I’d start off okay, but at the 80 percent completion mark, I would rush to finish the job and it would turn out pretty terrible. I’d live with it for a few months and then re-install again. I can’t bash myself too hard because without those re-installs (AKA, excuses to do something else), I wouldn’t have been able to get as much from the hobby as I have. Still, I knew that once it was time for me to get a new car, I wouldn’t do any of the fabrication myself. Enter my new car and install—a 2019 Honda Civic Hatchback Sport.
Always Experimenting with a “Lab on Wheels” For the last thirteen years, I’ve been driving a 2006 Honda Civic LX Sedan. It was my “lab on wheels,” and where I spent a lot of time playing with various install ideas— swapping gear, installing and re-installing things in different ways in order to extract the best sound quality experience possible. I learned a lot over the years. Eventually I began to test and provide raw speaker drive-unit measurement data (i.e., frequency response on and off-axis, harmonic distortion, Thiele-Small Parameters) to the audio community on different forums and my now-defunct website (medleysmusings.com).
48 Mobile Electronics December 2019
Figure 1. 2019 Honda Civic Hatchback Sport My previous car’s system had 5.25-inch pro-audio coaxials in the pillars, 10-inch midbass in the kicks and 15-inch infinite baffle subwoofers in the trunk. It was the antithesis of “stock,” to say the least. Having been around the competition realm of this hobby for a number of years, I’ve had the pleasure of listening