Oxford Car Audio Post Grad Dons of ICE

There are some names I revere in car audio. Some because they give such totally cool whole-lives to the passion, even letting the scene usurp their very identity, like Iceman. Some because they have genius and turn it to designing awesome reference amplifiers for OUR world of circuitry, like Gordon Taylor, who is universally known to be a diamond bloke. And some because they are genius master craftsmen, who sculpt in audio equipment, leather, vinyl, MDF and steel and chrome. In fact any damn material they touch becomes beautiful and desirable. Their systems reach into your soul via your ears and do things to your id as you drive. Squeezing your adrenal glands, making your follicles erect as she starts to sing and break your bloody heart with yer pain OH Adele, I would have loved you for ever Oh sorry, I typed that bit out loud Anyway, the fact is that in car audio, there are makers of the stuff, installers of the stuff and worshippers of the stuff.
And for us worshippers, (and even those for whom it is a mere hobby rather than a slice of their soul) the cathedrals we revere are well-organised workshops where high priests of ice practice their ministry. Happily beavering away, mostly upside down with the blood rushing to their head and arse in the air like a scuba diver under a rock as they fit something under a dashboard.

To us, they are heroes and we desperately need them. And bizarrely in times that have never been tougher for the car audio aftermarket, there are more of them about now than ever before. Oop North and you’ll need Enjoy the Drive in the Ant & Dec zone. Ray Smiths in proper Scottish areas are legends and do stuff for oilmen. In Skipton, we find some of the most golden ears in UK ice, as well as astonishing success in sound off contests at Car Radio Skipton. Out far West and you find Sonic Frontiers, who took a CAR to the National HiFi show and shamed nearly all of the room exhibitors. Far off to the East and Peter Doidge will do wondrous stuff. Dahn sarf, we are wealthy, with aristocracy in our midst in the shape of Huets. (Big Ice Nite coming soon, by the way! Fat Bloke as compere) As well as the crazed sound off team out of Highdown. (And an old dinosaur about to reawaken in the shape of Brad Coole’s ‘Brad’s’. So some serious competitors, there!) And in Londinium, we have the folks who do Enzos and royalty alike, (shhh that’s ‘˜Home Office Jobs’) and do boats as well
But, out along the M40, lies the genteel university city of Oxford. There, a shop called Marston Auto Parts was started up, some 33 years ago and in 1986, Colin Organ (long since proprietor of Car Audio Direct) joined them and opened up the world of car audio to them as a speciality. It became Oxford Car Audio in 1989-ish. Just over a year ago it was bought by the partners of the new Oxford Car Audio and they have worked hard, transforming the shop into a better layout and looking really impressive.

Their JL Audio demo Beetle is incredible, (full feature promised) and my chum Big Mick came along to hear it and hang with fellow man of girth (although he’s losing weight, git!) and declared it very fine. He reckons Lem and the OCA lads understand sound design, acoustics and audio physics. Which made Lem coo as he said so, as it really is a big notch up from most boom cars. It’s true SQL (sound quality, LOUD!) and it is no surprise at all to learn that Alpine Electronics engaged them install their new demo car system in the famous R32.


Here’s a walk through of the premises on the day I was there to sort out Sabrina’s son Ethan’s car. Bless her, she wanted to look glam, so took off the pink North Face jacket and pretended, in full ‘˜moddle’ style, that it was balmy and warm!
http://youtu.be/HX0e6b4dyyA
Oxford Car Audio are stalwart Celsus ICE lads and stock an astonishing array of all the weird wiring gadgets, gidgets and left-handed-fnaars, needed to add an aftermarket head unit into a car. That means the panels to replace the OEM ones and all sorts of looms.

As well as that, Oxford Car Audio have a really good heap of JL from the improbable weeny bass boxes up to monster double driver passive slot ported beasts. And of course, if you want to wall a Mercedes Sprinter and win an SQ contest as well, then Oxford Car Audio are definitely the guys to see! But ‘˜normal’ stuff like parking sensors and iPod addition is the bread and butter. They just happen to be a true centre of excellence and Atsuhiro Takeda of Alpine is a very meticulous and involved bloke. It was he in fact that told me I really should pay more attention to what was goin’ on in Oxon.
‘Oxford is the most dangerous place to which a young man can be sent’ Anthony Trollope
Especially if he wants to win a sound off.
Steve ‘˜Lem’ Le Masurier and a happy customer:

Oxford Car Audio link or call 01865 769 911 and let it ring long enough for them to get the right way up and answer!