For People Who Love Music On The Move - Four Masters

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Founding Partner of UK car audio equipment distributor FOUR and the brains behind the FOUR MASTERS network, Brian Parton, is driven by a passion for music. This along with his love of cars brought him into the car audio industry where he has carved an enviable reputation while making his living, these last twenty years. His drive and determination to bring good quality sound reproduction to as many drivers as possible has delivered much-earned success but has not diminished his ambition to further promote good quality sound in cars. Sound Founda B rian’s daily driver is a BMW 5-series Touring with many features previously thought of as “bells and whistles”, which have now become standard on vehicles in the executive saloon sector. As cars evolved to current levels of comfort and sophistication, many new obstacles were placed in the way of those wanting to upgrade their car audio. Brian wanted to use his car to demonstrate how a car like his could be massively upgraded with the addition of an Audio Heaven system at reasonable cost, without intruding on luggage space nor compromising dashboard design or the functionality of BMW’s iDrive system. The first thing that strikes you when looking over Brian’s car is the complete lack of any visible indication that any work has been carried out at all! It takes an expert eye to discover what is going on. However, you don’t need to be an expert to hear what has happened. Many owners 20 Driving Sounds consider the factory equipment on this vehicle to be fine and in fact some would demonstrate it to friends as sounding great, however, sitting behind the wheel of this car as it is now and playing your favourite CD, you soon realise that car audio as you knew it is far from great! The system reproduces music in its purest form, with clear distortion-free high frequencies supported by warm mids and sumptuous bass which can also be felt in your chest when required. So, how did Brian achieve such a revelatory improvement in sound? Brian explained; “There are basic overriding principles behind achieving good sound in a car. When you understand what they are, it amazes me that car manufacturers can’t or won’t take them on board at design stage. This would make life far easier for them and deliver great rather than adequate sound to their customers. On the other hand, their refusal to do so, makes my www.drivingsounds.co.uk business viable, so I am also grateful!” The main issues are obvious. If you were to propose to a manufacturer of high quality domestic hi-fi speakers that they build speaker cabinets from pressed steel sheet with no anti resonance or damping treatment at all and mount cheap drive units directly on to a cardboard baffle on the front they would quite rightly laugh at you or, if they thought you were serious, call for a psycho analyst. However, this is in essence what car manufacturers have done for many years – OK more recently, speakers are mounted on hard plastic mounts suspended from the structure of the doors but the number of ways in which sound from the speakers they install is compromised by the environment in which they are used are many. The first thing a FOUR MASTER will do is strip down the car’s doors and treat them with specially formulated sound deadening material which will not only reduce outside noise Tel: 0800 652 5125
tions There are basic overriding principles behind achieving good sound in a car. When you understand what they are, it amazes me that car manufacturers can’t or won’t take them on board at design stage but more importantly add rigidity to the panels. This helps to prevent the vibrations that the amplifier and speaker work so hard to produce, from dissipating and cancelling out at the rear of the speaker. The addition of a diffuser system designed to further reduce the effects of reflected sound cancelling the output of the speakers is then added, as well as an open-cell foam which acts as a barrier against water ingress to the speaker terminals caused by leaks or condensation. This work all happens behind the trim panels and is therefore unseen, although the result can be felt by tapping the door from the outside and comparing with an untreated door. The treated door should deliver a dull inert ‘thud’ when tapped with a knuckle. Other parts of the vehicle can be treated in the same way and it is not unknown for customers to have their roof, floor and boot and engine fire walls treated too, in search of the perfect listening environment. But, this will add significant labour cost to the install so I Tel: 0800 652 5125 www.drivingsounds.co.uk stuck with simply treating the front doors in this instance. Next, Audison VOCE AV-3.0 mids and AV-1.1 tweeters were installed on custom speaker rings, which help to beef up the stiffness of the mounting and allow more positioning flexibility. The mid-range speakers and tweeters were mounted in the standard positions behind existing grilles with no visible modification. VOCE speakers are the latest offering from Italian manufacturer Audison and contain many groundbreaking speaker technologies which help them to cope with the cramped confines of a car, particularly when it comes to sound dispersion and creating a noticeable stereo image and sound stage – something car manufacturers rarely manage to achieve at the factory! The BMW comes with 6.5in woofers mounted under the front seats and these were simply replaced with VOCE AV-6.5 and suitable sound treatment. Sub bass Driving Sounds 21 CAR FEATURE
Page 1 and 2: Issue Two £3.00 For people who lov
Page 3: CONTENTS Car Features We show you s
Page 6 and 7: I n this article, we explain where
Page 8 and 9: Masterful Mercedes A chieving a won
Page 10 and 11: One of the main differences between
Page 12 and 13: Natural Beauty CS 260.30 The Audio
Page 14 and 15: apart from the incredible sound is
Page 16 and 17: F or nineteen years, Source Sounds
Page 18 and 19: With Wave Diffuser Without
Page 22 and 23: is produced by a Hertz EBX-F20 flat
Page 24 and 25: Why a FOUR MASTER? FOUR MASTERS are
Page 26 and 27: John Kleis Towers - Definitely Not
Page 28 and 29: Digital Radio (DAB) in ANY Car EZi-
Page 30 and 31: voids behind the mounting positions
Page 32 and 33: A n audio system in a car will draw
Page 34 and 35: Heavenly Catering f D eborah Grech-
Page 36 and 37: Distributed in the UK by www.fourca
Page 38 and 39: Established in 1991 by Jeff Lunn in
Page 40 and 41: Now You See It, Now You Hear It! C
Page 42 and 43: eproduction in the vehicle. The DA1
Page 44 and 45: SPOTLIGHT ON FOUR MASTERS Highdown
Page 46 and 47: The Music Lover’s Guide to Car Au
Page 48: Love music on the move? You don’t

For People Who Love Music On The Move - Four Masters

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