As you struggle to haul yourself up into Lou Paolino III's Dodge, silently cursing its massive aftermarket wheels and 5 1/2" lift, you'll notice a rather sedate dash through the window. Nothing's too flashy. Nothing screams, "I'm custom!" Then you note the aftermarket head unit, the tweeters set into the suede-wrapped pillars and that surround sound giveaway - the center channel. "This system was designed from the very beginning to fully exploit 5.1, Dolby Digital, DTS and Dolby Pro-Logic II surround sound," Paolino reveals. It's hard to believe that not long ago he regarded surround sound with skepticism. Of course, this was before Eric Holdaway of Speaker Works in Orange, CA, came into the equation.
In addition to lending us his ears for test reports, Holdaway and his shop are known for meticulous installs where sound comes first. "Eric Holdaway likes to tell me the story of Jim Fosgate (founder of Rockford/Fosgate, Oscar winner for his contributions to surround sound and creator of the term 'surround sound') and how Fosgate talked him into giving surround a real try," Paolino relates. "Fosgate convinced Eric to go surround sound and now Eric has convinced me to go for it." Go for it he certainly did. While others may want to simply incorporate surround sound into their systems, Paolino wanted the entire truck devoted to 5.1 channels of immersive audio.
First Steps
The Dodge's story begins in Las Vegas, NV, where Paolino dropped it at its first stop: American Custom + Performance. To accommodate the upgraded 24" rims and hunks of rubber wrapped around them, the shop trimmed the wheels wells and fenders. They also lifted it almost half a foot with a FabTec suspension and smoothed the door handles, mirrors and front bumper trim. With everything painted and ready, Paolino then hauled the Dodge over to SoCal, where the Speaker Works crew stripped it in order to lay down Cascade Audio Engineering sound dampening. VB-4 and VB-3 sound barrier material blankets the floor and firewall while VB-2HD covers the roof, door panels and rear panel.
Surround Maestro
With the listening environment prepped, the Speaker Works installers could plug in the most important aspect of a surround sound system: the source and processing to relay 5.1 channels to the speakers. "The vehicle came with the top-of-the-line navigation radio and system," Paolino explains, "but it sounded so bad and I wanted all Alpine." Out went the sub-par factory gear and in came the Alpine IVA-D310. In addition to a mix of interfaces and a CD changer, the head unit links to the Alpine PXA-H701 processor. This super-unit provides EQ, crossovers and decoding for all of the surround formats Paolino desired.
The Front Players
For improved imaging and sound quality, Holdaway and Co. scratched their heads and jostled their noggins to come up with the perfect placement for the front stage speakers. They decided to tuck the USD Audio BC-300 WaveGuides behind custom grilles under the dash so that they face listeners. Backing them up with some punch, two pairs of USD Audio 7pros were fitted into the doors. "We built an internal mounting system to fill the original 6x9 factory hole and to provide a rigid and flat mounting surface for the dual drivers," Holdaway states. More VB-2HD outside and inside the door skins provides damping as well as a vapor barrier. Holdaway notes that the dual drivers increase power-handling capability and improve sound quality.
In addition to the horns and midbasses, the system called for high-frequency backup. The installers carved a place for CDT Audio UP-219 StageFront imaging tweeters in the A-pillars. Also up front lurks a prominent piece of a surround sound system: the center channel. The Mega Cab sailed out of the factory with a center channel speaker, but as Paolino stated earlier, that just wouldn't cut it. No matter what the OEMs come up with, there's always room for customization. The crew modified the existing center channel spot to fit the combination of a 4" midrange and 1" tweeter, both topped off with a CDT grille.