One of the craziest things car audio veteran Todd Zier has heard from consumers is: "I don't care what it sounds like, I just want it to look cool." He's heard this so many times that he finally said enough is enough.
"It seems this is what car audio has come to," Zier said. "You can't take the science out of car audio and have it still work." With that in mind, Zier and fellow sound quality enthusiast Carlos Santiago decided to focus squarely on audio - fiberglass and other bling be damned. Zier set out to create the ultimate Sound Q vehicle, sticking strictly to the competitor's rulebook. And he decided to do it in a Ford Ranger. Is he crazy? No, just dedicated.
Wired
"One of the most neglected areas of a car audio installation is the wiring category," asserts Zier. "The wiring is the most critical and valuable, pointswise, in a car audio competition - affecting multiple categories." With this in mind, Zier and Santiago went to work stripping the truck down to its bare metal by removing wheels, doors, dash - everything. A single, non-conductive, watertight conduit system was developed, with each conduit plumbed directly from the outside of the vehicle into its designated area. This mammoth undertaking ensured that not only was each type of wiring isolated from the other, it was also kept out of the interior of the truck so it wouldn't be stepped on or otherwise damaged.
Nothing ruins sound quality like annoying rattles and vibration, so Zier and Santiago left no panel untouched when applying sound dampening material. The truck bed was sprayed with two coats of bed liner material, and the front doors were sprayed with Cascade sound deadening. The inner door skins were then lined with Dynamat - as were the cab, floor, roof and side pillars. Lastly, approximately 70 pounds of clay were hand molded and rolled out into the entire floor area.
Dashed and Seated
Zier isn't down with rebuilding the entire dash - maintaining it isn't necessary for good sound quality. The dash was kept as-is - with the exception of modifying the radio opening to accept the flush mounting of a Sony Mobile ES CDX-C90 head unit and replacing the OEM ashtray with a flush-mounted Audio Control THREE.1 equalizer.
"The small cabin area of the Ranger was very acoustically challenging," remembers Zier. "The listening area is so small and is probably one of the worst vehicles to work with to recreate a live soundstage." To help achieve optimal sound, the original bench seat was reworked into two bucket seats - each moved towards center and back approximately 6". Head unit controls are connected to the driver's side seat to add finger-tip control via a Sony Rotary Commander joystick controller. The joystick is mounted on a fabricated steel shaft that moves with the driver's seat.
For the front stage, a set of MB Quart QSD 213's were used. The 1" tweeters were flush-mounted in reconstructed A-pillars and finished out in the factory color and texture. The 5 1/4" midranges were fitted in custom-fabricated kick panels. To allow space, the parking brake had to be moved approximately 5" from its factory location. Kicking out some of the lower frequencies, two Dynaudio 8" midbass drivers were housed into the front doors, each with its own enclosure.
Bedded and Fired
Another myth that Zier refused to support is that sound quality vehicles cannot have large subwoofers. We'll let the three 18" Treo CSX subs mounted in the Ranger bust that myth wide open. And the enclosure? "It may look conventional from the outside, finished out in gray vinyl," said Zier, "but the next time you have the opportunity to measure the bed width of a Ford Ranger, you'll realize that three 18" subs do not fit across." To solve this conundrum Zier and Santiago built the enclosure from 1" MDF with over 65 individual pieces inside. The design includes an adjustable motorized port-tuning system which can even seal the enclosure, should the need arise. To make sure the inside of the enclosure was acoustically dampened, Zier and Santiago layered its entire interior with carpet.
Mounted on top of the enclosure is a band shell/horn chamber constructed from 1" MDF and reinforced with steel tubing - enabling it to withstand the pounding of the three subs. The horn loads up the bass wave, creating a near-field development and masking the direction of the bass. Mounted on each side of this horn structure are the passive crossover networks for the MB Quart QSD 213, illuminated by green neon. Two MB Quart PSD 213s are also mounted on each side in the rear of the chamber. Suspended from the roof of the horn structure, 1/3-octave Image Dynamics equalizers make for easy tuning as they are adjustable from the front seat.
Amped
The system is powered by four Hifonics XI Zeus amplifiers, which are mounted on two floating shelves. Because Hifonics does not offer endcaps or center-links, the amplifier endcaps and center-links were custom fabricated. Directly under the amplifiers are three Optima Red Top batteries. The aux battery bank has an extensive battery gas expulsion system ("Required by the rules but often overlooked," reminds Zier) with multiple ventilation chambers. A fabricated, polished stainless steel bus bar connects all three batteries together.
Zier and Santiago thought of everything. On the passenger side of the auxiliary battery bank is a halon fire extinguishing system featuring a color-matched 5-pound bottle. The halon gas can be discharged automatically via fire temp probes or via a manual hot button. The system even has an independent battery backup. To make sure the fire extinguisher is never needed, an independent R-134 refrigerant air-conditioning system was set up just for the amplifiers. This system was created from scratch with all the parts custom built and fabricated by Zier and Santiago. Lastly, all the rear chambers, aux battery bank, halon system, charging-cooling system and 1/3-octave equalizers are protected with clear acrylic - complete with detailed lettering and cut-out symbols.
When asked to tally up the total cost of his Ranger, Zier figures it's priceless. "Let's just say that I've beaten a couple of cars worth $80,000." We don't doubt it at all.