Professional race car driver Matt Alhadeff likes to go fast, on land and water. Powered by two ILMOR V-10 engines, his Spectre 32CS powerboat comfortably hits the triple digits and packs a roar loud enough to drown out a regular audio system. This necessitated a high-performance system and, luckily for Alhadeff, his teammate Bill Auberlen has built a few of them. So it could be heard from a distance, the two racers wanted the sound to project outward. Auberlen came up with a plan, leaving the fabrication and installation to the guys that rig the audio systems in Spectre boats: Al Patel, Ed Chambers and Ozzie Lopez.
Alhadeff says this is a work in progress. He might add bigger motors since the audio system added some weight. A custom paint job also triggers his fancy. But, since the system took almost two and half months to complete, Alhadeff wants to enjoy it before it's out of commission again. The system's loud, but in Alhadeff's opinion it could use a little more-a true racer mentality!
With the intended 4,000-plus watt system, the first thing to do was to make sure that the power supply could handle the task. Four Optima BlueTop batteries in a custom billet aluminum bracket were paired with a Cascade 75-amp power supply hooked up to a very quiet Honda mini generator. Mainly 1/0-gauge and 2-gauge Stinger wires connect the batteries and amps. Stinger fuse blocks with volt/amps meters display voltage at a glance and two Lightning Audio 50-farad capacitors give a little boost to the system. Even the main battery switches were upgraded to BEP Marine's high-current switches (these handle up to 2,500 amps, compared to the standard 300).
Chosen for its high preamp output, the Eclipse CD7000 sits flush in a custom trim panel with the AudioControl EPIC-160. The EPIC-160 not only boosts sub performance, but also displays battery voltage and SPL reading from a built-in microphone in the face of the unit. An Eclipse iPC-106 interface adapter connects the system to an iPod while an extra long RCA cable links Auberlen's and Alhadeff's boats together for extra boom. The hub of the system, a Zapco SX-SLII preamp/EQ, is installed in a custom angled panel in front of the throttle. A controller for the Zapco C2K 9.0x powering the subs was mounted next to the gauges.
There were two holes from the previous system for 10" subwoofers in the front. Patel decided to make them into cupholders, leaving the dirty work of fabrication to Chambers. He custom carved the forms from a piece of hard foam and fiberglassed resin to get the shape of the bowl. Got to have a place for your drink while driving since the side panels were going to be used for speakers.
The only spot for the Zapco C2K 9.0x amplifier (for the subs), Zapco C2K 6.0x (for the midbasses), Zapco C2K 4.0x (for the horns) and Lightning Audio caps was in the storage area near the batteries. Instead of using wood panels with fiberglass resin, Lopez mounted them in a metal frame rack to save weight, be very rigid and provide room for heat to dissipate. To allow adjustment from the top, all amps were lined up with power connections at the bottom and signal and speaker wires at top. With over 4,000 watts of power, heat would be an issue. A custom cover houses fans and a switch that turns the rear deck speakers on and off. Five cross-flow fans at the bottom blow air upward and a large oval opening covered with metal perforated screens tops it off.
The next challenge was installing two of the B&C Speakers 18" woofers (yes, 18" woofers). This pro-sound woofer weighs 28 pounds, is about 10" deep and handles about 2,000 watts. Since Auberlen and Alhadeff did not want to place the subs in the front of the boat since it affects balance and speed, they had to go in the side panels. Lopez built a wood frame box with a fiberglass back that would mold the box to the inside walls of the boat. Tuned at 43Hz, the box's port was fluted on both ends to minimize port noise and has a +3dB boost in the low end. To ensure this enclosure was not going to fall apart from the vibrations, it was braced internally. The woofer was mounted using machined screws with Loctite that were fed into T-nuts secured in the mounting baffle.
Patel decided to place an array similar to the ones in the side panels under the rear storage compartment cover. With the cover open, Alhadeff can turn on the dedicated amp and blast the sound out like a big boom box. The enclosure was fiberglassed in as if it were part of the deck lid. The equipment includes four Image Dynamics CX64's, a pair of Image Dynamics CD1PRO horns, a pair of Selenium tweeters and a Zapco Competition C2K 4.0x amp. Custom gas stainless steel shocks keep the lid up when opened.
Since the boat has curvy lines and the side panels need to keep the flow, mounting the custom array of two Image Dynamics CX64 6.5" midbasses with one Image Dynamics CD1PRO mini horn and a Selenium super tweeter (per side) was not easy. Patel and Chambers chose this array because it would provide great midbass with the wide dispersion of the horns, and since the horns have a natural roll-off, the super tweeters would give the system a boost at about 10kHz on up. A custom grille covered with grille cloth hides the mouth of the horn. Some of the speakers were angled to help the dispersion out of the boat. Courtney from Turin Model in Irvine, CA, upholstered the side panels around the speakers.
Auto Extras in Placentia, CA, painted the panels metallic silver to accent the seats. The white rear deck matches the inside panels. The panels were also heat treated after being fiberglassed so that they would not warp or shrink. The trio of installers fired up the system and within five minutes Chambers and Lopez jumped off the boat leaving Patel and Auberlen going deaf trying to adjust the limits of the system. The work was done at Precision Offshore, a custom speed shop specializing in hot- rodding boats.