EISA AWARDS SEASON – JL & Morel Honoured!

I was beyond heartsick to learn that I missed the passing of the bloke I loved the most in all car audio. Bernie Morris, dad of the impossibly laid back Greg, of Auto Audio died some months before I found out. He was lovely to me, when I was a rep and knew me for many years before I ever became a journalist a very long time ago. The old business was under a railway arch near BBC TV centre, and had a Rolls Royce parked out front, deliberately, to show the passers-by that serious cars were fettled there.

It worked and these days, the Auto Audio operation, as well as Flagship Distribution, all happens from a very posh premises near the Central Middlesex Hospital in London. The place is known for being able to cope with and cherish the most expensive and treasured cars in the world. People take Ferrari Enzos and brand new Rollers there for expert work. Rolls Royce don’t do dark window tints and their dealerships don’t know how, but Auto Audio do.

And their big thing in distribution, is that they are the UK folks for the awesome Morel brand of car audio. I do clearly recall getting a set of Morel NANO speakers from Bernie and him saying that they were the most game-changing and exciting step change in speaker design that he had seen in forty years. And the specialist EISA folks just agreed. EISA stands for the Expert Imaging and Sound Association, an association of small niche magazines, getting together to create a meaningful awards system, since 1982. I was asked once for Car Audio category but it was a bit too ‘Euro’ and cost too much for little old us at the time.

I reviewed them here.   I gave them every award I had to give at the time!

nn

The JL Audio brand also swiped a deeply important award for their VX800/8i amplifier. EISA said:

“When it comes to US-designed DSP amplifiers, JL Audio takes some beating. With its direct digital signal routing, from input to output, the VX800/8i is capable of pumping out astonishing sound. A full-range Class D eight-channel amplifier, it boasts integrated DSP for a wide range of installation-specific settings. High-speed, second-generation NexD2 switching technology is on hand to deliver crystal-clear audio via its RCA analogue and digital pre-outs (these at up to 96kHz/24-bit), while the high efficiency/cool-running amps fire out a rated 75W/4ohm per channel. Finally, the VXi-BTC Bluetooth communicator and VXi-HUB network hub are available for fine-tuning and connection, offering control of up to five VXi amplifiers at once.”

That is a bit of a beast… learn more here: http://www.jlaudio.co.uk/vx800-8i-car-audio-vxi-amplifiers-98633