First Sound Off 2011, Milton Keynes

Well done to the lads and lasses of EMMA UK, especially to Andrew Ackerly, who has some real firebrand enthusiasm burning brightly for the UK competition scene. What’s really brilliant is that the passion for good car audio, be it pure quality or the more bonkers SPL scene, is still out there.
There are fifteen new entrants in the lanes this season, folks who have never competed before, which is a record I think. They go into the Rookie class but there are a good few different classes, divided up by how much the kit costs like up to a maximum of 2,000 Euros (well, that’d be the ‘˜European’ part of ‘˜European Mobile Media Association’) or else by the level of expertise and number of channels. It sounds a bit complex ‘˜cos it is! But all you need do is talk to the Ackerley San and he’ll help you out with advice. He’s often on the EMMA forum board on the Talk Audio community.

I was asked to go along and compere, so they got nagged and I even got asked some advice about old Van Gogh amplifiers, as one chap had had some offered to him on the cheap! It was cool to see the likes of Gemma, a total noob rookie, getting a gong for second place. The competitor’s flame is well and truly lit there.
Here’s a video of Jeremy Owen, proprietor of Highdown car Audio and Cap’n of the Team Highdown operation, showing us some of the cars that went:


The event was held at the Milton Keynes showroom of ice dot com express and was under the wing of mad basshead Pav Kapoor. He has some simply bonkers bass products in stock, so we had to make a video and show you. Triple two-Ohm coil eighteen inch DLS SQ woofer anyone? Or how about an iPipe subwoofer driver from Audiopipe for putting in a Perspex box, as it is crusted with blingy crystals and sparkly bits? Or an Earthquake Holee-S 10 that looks like BoomZilla’s fist, deeper than it is wide?

Or even the never-seen-the-like Passive Bass Radiator made from a central weighted disc, suspended with a doubled-inverted roll surround from a fifteen, a twelve and a ten and an eight! He even stocks enclosures where you need to buy woofers in threes to fill them! As you can hear in the video, I accuse him of being an overgrown bass nutter boy and he doesn’t deny it.


The weather was a bit grim at first, after a glorious Saturday the day before, so we were happy when the sun did come out and I had a bit of a nag with a few entrants in the sound off all of them nervous to a man.


And of course, after talking to the ‘˜SQ fairies’ I simply had to go and talk to the bass heads. Ed Elson really is a bit of an Iceman Protégé and his saloon car can now do hair tricks with his Earthquake woofers. Although the quad-array of Audiopipe bullet-horn tweeters in each door is pure hearing damage.

If you get too close to this car with the doors open, remember there is no shame in sticking your fingers in your ears, any more than there is shame in pulling your finger out of a candle flame


These events simply cannot happen without the support of the voluntary judges and the other really cool thing about this season opener is that after a serious bit of judge training, there were EIGHT folks at the grindstone, with golden trained ears and a sharp eye for install. All of which added up to a better experience for all the entrants as they get done good and early in the day, yet get the chance to really get some thinking time from the judges and tips for improvement for the next round.
A really crucial thing that added to the events’ success was the stalwart efforts of Pav’s mum Rita and his Aunty Pat, who converted an office into an ad-hoc kitchen and fed everyone admirably on hot dogs and chicken and rice and chips and lots of choice of drinks as well as the water machine and wellit was brilliant!
But a big vote of thanks to the judges and a huge BIG UP to two generations of cool dude Ackerlys, as Andrew’s dad is a major force in the out-of-sight promoters’ technical department. But most of all, to Andrew himself for a fun day out, a new lease of life for sound offs, with all the new judges and entrants happening after the work all over Talk Audio and their own EMMA website link over the off-season and here’s to the rest of the events all year.
One thing I can tell you, is that by my being the M/C booked all season, you are guaranteed of a bigger slice of fame this year as I will report from and video the LOT!
Judges’ Roll Call Of Honour!
Nigel Skingly Sound
Steve Hanson Sound & Install
Mark Turner Sound & Install
Kevin Hall Sound
Dave Legg Sound & Install
Andy Blanch Install
Dilip Hirani Install
Alan Balchin Install
Vicky Haran EMMA Racing
Horst Starke EMMA Racing