What a great experience!!!
I'm up from the States for a job in Vancouver. On about Day 4 of the mandatory 14-day CV19 quarantine, I kinda lost my mind. In my delirium, I decided to buy a classic car and drive to my next job in Toronto. I love an epic road trip and I simply cannot risk even the remotest possibility of another quarantine.
Step one, find a cheap, classic car, that will make the 4277km trip.
After weeks of searching, I found a 1980 Mercedes-Benz 300CD that fit the bill.
Step two, bring the sound system into the 21st century so that I don't lose my mind again on the 4277km trip. I'm not looking for crazy volume, I just want clean sound with decent imaging. I also want to respect the sanctity of the classic Mercedes, so we have to stick to stock speaker locations in the dash, no cutting and no tweeters on the A-pillars. Super challenging, since the factory cutouts won't hold more than about 3.5 inches and the grilles won't fit over coax speakers with protruding tweeters, which almost every modern speaker has. The head unit was not original, so I didn't really care what replaced it.
By the way, I have to leave for Toronto in 6 days and 3-4 of those days, the car is going to be in the shop getting road-ready. I want something good and I need it fast!
I scoured Yelp and asked around and came up with a couple of places I wanted to check out on the Saturday morning before my departure. The first place was super-fancy. The guy was very cool, but he specialized in extremely high-end builds that take several days/weeks and could not fit me in. Probably for the best, because I really didn't want to spend more on the system than I spent on the car.
The second place I visited really couldn't be bothered with my old junker. The guy wanted me to come back in a week so he could install some janky system that I could have easily gotten at Best Buy for half the price. Pass
The third place was Ralph's. I walked in at about 2:00 and was greeted by Julius. While he was looking at my car, I told him that I was hoping for speakers that would fit in the dash and a small powered sub under the passenger seat. He offered up a couple of modestly-priced options that would likely have met my expectations. Not wanting to settle for mediocrity, I asked Julius if he had any other ideas. He got an odd little smile on his face and rushed into the back storeroom. He came out holding a pair of 80mm wideband speakers from Bonneville Labs & Acoustic Measures. BLAM is a relatively new company from the guy whole developed the Focal speaker brand. Julius raved about the speakers and I had read good things, so I was game. He matched them with a JL sub. Although it wouldn't fit fully under the seat, it was stealthy enough. To stay in my budget, we went with a Kenwood head unit and Kenwood amp for the sub. It wasn't until about 2:30 that I told him I couldn't get the car to him until Thursday and I needed it Friday. Undaunted, Julius ran into the back and came out with his lead installer, Sak. They scurried past me to look at the car. After a couple of minutes of some serious-looking conversation, they came back in and asked if I could leave the car and come back at 5:15. Three hours from closing time on a Saturday, these guys were willing to drop everything and dive into my installation! I left with a smile on my face, but a sense of dread that I'd get a call in a couple of hours telling me they wouldn't be able to finish. Well, that call never came. I showed up at 5:15 and my car was sitting out front!
Julius helped me pair my phone and then...
...THE ANGELS SANG!!!
I could not believe the sound I was getting from this system. So far beyond any expectations that I had. Those beautiful little speakers were absolutely amazing! Julius stayed late to familiarize me with the receiver. He told me to listen to the system as much as possible and then swing by on my way out of town for any micro-tweaking that might be needed.
I spent the next three hours just driving and listening and smiling.
Life is good!
Julius and his team at Ralph's were truly fantastic! Thank you, Julius and please thank Sak, Jake and Parker for making it happen! read more