Even if you're landlocked and have never been to a river or ocean, if you watch NBC's successful program Fear Factor, you've probably seen an Ultra boat. John West, owner of the company, has been supplying the TV show's producers with his sleek creations for years so that competitors can jump off them, leap onto them and slam their bodies onto their sides at relatively high speeds. Now West has his own show premiering at the end of October on cable network OLN (the title of the show has not yet been determined). But it's not just about boats. Prior to the TV deal, West had already been contemplating setting up a high-end audio shop that could cater to his affluent, leisure-loving clients' desires for custom audio on sea and land. Makes sense--if a guy has 80 grand to spend for a boat he'll use, let's say, 30 weekends out of the year, usually another few thousand isn't a problem. With that kind of luxury loot, he probably can afford quite a few nice cars and trucks in need of customization. Not to take away any credit from West, but starting up Ultra Custom Sounds had to be an easy call.
A good idea though is nothing more than an abstraction--the world is full of bright businessmen with brilliant ideas that never went anywhere. West knew that the key would be to bring in the right installers, people who had years of craftsmanship behind them and plenty of experience running a shop. But where to find a couple of worthy installers? Enter Select Products' Installer Challenge (IC). Cabe Sipes and Jason Ewing participated on a special IC that took place in Los Angeles, CA, not far from Ultra Boats' company headquarters. Ultra had agreed to donate a boat to be customized and then auctioned off on eBay, with the money going to charity. Sipes, Ewing and the rest of the installer team also agreed to forgo the usual IC prize money . Turns out the payoff was in the relationship that formed between West, Sipes and Ewing.
In the short time that the new company has been in business, they've already had more "high-end" customers than some shops get all year. In fact, business is so good that they have to sell things they don't want to part with, including the boat featured in this story. West intended this 2005 23' Shadow to be a demo boat to show clients they can have great audio without sacrificing any functionality or space. However, as soon as a customer saw the Shadow with its spectacular paint scheme and complementary audio setup, he made an offer on it that West found difficult to refuse.
Sound on the Water
Equipped with a Mercruiser 496 Magnum, this Shadow is certainly fast enough on water, but the real attraction isn't the performance, but rather the sound. How to get the audio gear in there provided a bit of a challenge; after all, on a boat, you can't put anything on the floor unless it's encased and waterproofed. Moreover, party-happy passengers are reluctant to give up any lounging area. With the exception of some speaker pods, everything is tucked away and quite discreet.
Speaker Setup
The speaker array is made up of Arc Audio's Kar line. A pair of 5 1/4" Kar 5022's rests in the front end of the bow section. They were mounted in a custom-built interior produced by Ultra's in-house upholstery shop. In the rear section of the bow area are two sets of the Kar 6 1/2" component set. Custom-built pods were made of MDF and fiberglass and then wrapped in matching vinyl. Near the middle of the boat you see the 5 1/4" coaxials in front of the driver and passenger seats. In the rear there are two more sets of the 6 1/2" speakers in MDF and fiberglass pods that were gel-coated to match the outside of the boat. The pods were mounted into the side panels of the interior. The speaker placement was done for the rear facing seats behind the driver and passenger seat areas. Another set of Kar components in the pod faces the most rear part of the boat.
The subwoofers, Arc Audio's Kar Series 12.2's, are located on both the driver and passenger side bulkheads in 1.53ft3 sealed enclosures. The enclosures are made of fiberglass using MDF baffles. They are flush-mounted and gel-coated to match the exterior. Sipes says that the goal was high-output bass response to keep up with the midrange and tweeters. On a boat, in the open air, it's all about high output.
Powerboat
To supply the necessary power, Sipes utilized three Arc Audio amps to run the multiple speakers. One is located in the front of the bow, under acrylic; and two are flush-mounted in the mid-section under the bulkheads, also covered by acrylic. The 4-channel Kar Series 600.4 runs the four pairs of component sets while the two D900.1 monoblocks feed the subwoofers. Total system wattage is 2,200 at 2 ohms. To make sure the system is never dry, so to speak, two Optima Blue Top marine batteries beef up the deep-cycle power.
Signal to Shore
The signal source for it all is a Clarion CMD4. The manufacturer is well known for its marine line, in particular the waterproof head units.
Splashes of water, or beer, never get beyond the case of the CMD4. Sipes simply cut a hole in the co-pilot's dash and custom-mounted the Clarion there. And carrying the signal, Tsunami wiring makes the connection between all the aforementioned audio products.